At the last Technology Evening, Clint Viviers, product specialist at Yokogawa, presented on ISA100.11a wireless technology.
ISA100.11a standard is an industrial wireless automation standard for process plants for wireless field devices in scalable plant-wide systems. It addresses most industrial plant field device applications. The ISA100 committee is part of ISA (International Society of Automation) and was formed in 2005 to establish standards and related information that will define procedures for implementing wireless systems in the automation and control environment, with a focus on the field level. ISA100.11a was approved as an IEC62734 standard in 2014.
Mike Banda (right) thanks Clint Viviers after the presentation.
A common question asked is: 'Why ISA100.11a?' This standard offers interoperability across different vendors and allows the end-user to select best in its class sensors across multiple suppliers. In essence, ISA100.11a is an open standard for anyone to implement and deploy as well as a standard that provides communications to legacy plant devices and applications, for example native ISA100, Foundation Fieldbus, DeviceNet and Profibus. The standard offers a robust, flexible, secure and scalable architecture to meet various plant needs. The protocol uses a single application layer providing both native and tunnelling capability for broad usability.
Other topics covered by Clint included:
• Reliable full redundant systems.
• Environmental durability.
• Network capability.
• Installation.
• Sky Mesh concept and robustness.
• Security measures.
• Battery life.
• Wireless adaptors.
• Different types of wireless detectors.
The benefits of wireless include a reduction in Capex due to the elimination of cable runs, easy to add measuring points in difficult to reach areas/rotating units, etc. By using multi-hop systems and the Sky Mesh concept, wireless can cover vast areas of a plant.
The presentation/demonstration included an interactive Q&A session and the branch thanks Clint for his informative material which was well received.
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