Legacy alarm replacement specialist, Omniflex has supported a major oil and gas company in Qatar by upgrading the obsolete MPAS 90 alarm systems at one of its major plants in the country. The Omni16R rack-based alarm annunciator provided by Omniflex meets the highest safety standards, such as safety integrity level (SIL) 1 certification and IEC61508 compliance, and served as a direct retrofit of the old system to minimise plant disruption during installation and testing.
While they were the gold standard of rack-based alarms in the 1970s and 80s, MPAS 90 systems do not meet current safety standards and are no longer supported as the OEM, Highland Electronics, is no longer in business. This meant that when the client sought to upgrade the safety critical alarms at one of its plants, it had to look elsewhere for help.
Omniflex stepped in, alongside its Qatar-based partner Epsilon Technology and Controls, to provide a solution in the form of the Omni16R – a multi-channel rack-based alarm annunciator. The installation team directly retrofitted the Omni16R into the existing panel space and used the existing wiring configurations, minimising any operational disruption during installation and testing. All system testing and configuration could be done offsite prior to delivery and installation, further simplifying the upgrade process.
“The limitations of alarm systems first installed decades ago are becoming increasingly apparent year-on-year,” explained Stuart McIntosh, business manager at Omniflex. “After decades of service, system failure is occurring more frequently because of aging components like CPUs and PSUs. CPU failure is a particular problem for aging rack-based systems as a single CPU controls the whole rack, and if it fails, you lose every alarm on the rack. “To combat the key challenges of increasing compliance requirements and obsolescence management, most plant managers of facilities still using older systems are looking to upgrade. However, they generally worry that this will involve excessive costs and cause extensive downtime during system installation and validation. Fortunately, we can help customers easily avoid these issues,” concluded McIntosh.
To provide customers with peace of mind and to safeguard against future obsolescence challenges, Omniflex guarantees lifetime technical and service support for all its products that remain in service. In the Middle East, which saw a boom in industrialisation in the 1970s, many facilities are still fitted with the equipment that was installed during the original plant commissioning. This means the region has a particular need when it comes to critical alarm upgrades if it wants to keep up with the latest standards.
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