Endress+Hauser, in conjunction with the SAI&C graphic design team, have come up with some lovely innovation for this month’s cover concept. To promote the latest advances in its extensive range of flow measurement solutions, E+H decided the way to spice things up was through an interactive reader competition – there is an iPad 2 up for grabs this issue. You will get all the details on the reverse side of the detachable card that forms part of the outside front cover; complete your entry by logging on to the url supplied there.
It all supports the company’s latest technology breakthroughs described in this month’s cover story. First there is the new 4-tube high accuracy Coriolis mass flowmeter designed for custody transfer applications in large diameter pipes. In this kind of heavy-duty application, flow rates of up to 4100 metric tons per hour are typical. This equates to around 720 000 barrels per day and an error of 1% represents 300 barrels of crude per hour. With accuracies up to 0,05% available, the new Promax X series offers a reliable low maintenance solution to a problem fraught with age-old disputes.
Next is the Prosonic Flow B 200 that has been developed specifically for biogas applications and offers the operators of biogas plants many advantages compared to traditional measurement methods. Thanks to modern and innovative sensor technology, wet and dirty gases can be measured with high accuracy even under greatly fluctuating process conditions. The measurement is independent of the gas composition and even possible at very low gas pressures – a benefit Endress+Hauser says is unmatched by other flowmeters thus far.
Last, but not least, is an ingenious method for prolonging the battery life in the Promag 800 designed for flow measuring applications in remote locations. This battery operated unit uses a SMART sampling method for flow measurement. Instead of using a constant sampling rate, the battery mag varies this. The default sampling rate is set at every 5 seconds for every one measuring point if constant. If the flow profile changes, then the sampling rates increases to 0,1 second. By using this varied sampling method, battery lifetime is maximised – ideal for water distribution networks in outlying areas without power.
OPC as a transformational technology
Any article that addresses the problems of convergence, arisen out of the drive to unify plant and enterprise, is bound to stand out in a magazine like SA Instrumentation and Control. This month, ARC Advisory Group’s Craig Resnick examines initiatives from the OPC Foundation to help address some of these communication and connectivity issues.
The Foundation recognised the opportunity to provide platform interoperability by developing new specifications through participation by a new category of enterprise and embedded suppliers in OPC Foundation activities. The new specification – OPC unified architecture (OPC UA) – has been demonstrated to improve secure interoperability between plant equipment and systems as well as between the plant and enterprise, helping to eliminate isolated islands of information.
Resnick’s article is based on the session ‘Transforming manufacturing with OPC UA: From embedded to the enterprise’, hosted at this year’s ARC World Industry Forum in Florida. It addresses questions like: Is OPC UA real? Have suppliers begun to incorporate it within their solutions? And, if so, how are users taking advantage of these solutions? More in ‘OPC as a transformational technology’.
Michael Brown rounds this issue off nicely with a practical example of correctly tuning a positive lead integrator and some other ‘party tricks’ for the control engineer. I trust they find you well.
Steven Meyer
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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