I recently had the opportunity to attend the first International Field Networking Conference which was held in Boksburg. This event was very well attended and organised. At the end of the two days the consensus of the delegates was that it was worthwhile being at the conference and that it would benefit them in the application of field networking in their industrial applications.
The keynote speaker was Jim Pinto, a technology commentator, poet and futurist. Jim made some valid comments, and his expectation is that wireless communication will be the norm in a few years time. His opinion is that no fieldbus system is the best, they are all good for the purpose for which they were designed. The difficulty is the lack of interoperability of equipment from different manufacturers. He neatly summarised this as follows:
Open Saysame, Closed Saysayou
The basic cause of the fuss
The users want an Open Bus
They push and threaten, beg and plead
Interoperable is what they need
The widgets made by Vendor A
With Vendor B must plug and play
The Vendors swear they all agree
But just can’t bear to make it free
An open door will throw away
Their value-core and make it grey
Propriety will be gone
To hordes of hungry hangers-on
In other words, this is a political and marketing issue among the manufacturers. Jim’s advice was to decide which system suits your needs and then stick with it.
Savings
The reason for adopting this technology should not be for savings in cable and cable trays but for the added value it offers through diagnostics. A major benefit of this is that it allows a facility to be run without unnecessary maintenance or emergency shutdowns. Another advantage is the ability to use multifunction sensors.
The key requirement for success
Speakers extolled the virtues of their individual systems, aiming to increase the understanding of the delegates so that they would be able to determine the most suitable system for their needs. The topic of good training as the key to success was highlighted. Steffen Ochsenreither in his presentation ‘Field Network Engineering – Best Practices’ showed a graph detailing the advantages of going digital and the savings in time and money that can be achieved. The main requirement is that all persons involved in the project, from inception to the end of its life, are adequately trained.
Conclusion
This event was well worth the expenditure in time and money. In particular it reiterated the age old theme that practitioners in the process control industry need training. This is even more important now that systems are more sophisticated. It is not sufficient to just obtain an academic education; specific technical and practical skills need to be gained. This opinion coincides with what the SAIMC has been saying for many years.
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