The technology evening for July was presented by Frederik Langenhoven from Pepperl+Fuchs on the topic ‘Keeping up with the demand for high-speed communication in modern process plants’.
Johan Maritz thanks Frederik Langenhoven after the presentation.
There are two types of process control architecture:
• NAMUR open architecture (NOA) which is a European standard.
• Open Process Automation (OPA) which is an American standard.
The concept of NOA is to keep the existing process infrastructure and systems as is and to run a monitoring and optimisation system in parallel with the existing infrastructure. It is a separate system. This approach is more focused on brownfield projects. The concept of OPA is to replace the existing system with smart devices/Internet-ready devices and implement cloud based control. This approach is more common on greenfield projects.
Members enjoy the technology evening.
The focus in this day and age should be on brownfield projects and therefore the NAMUR approach seems more economical and practical. This approach strives for continuous monitoring to implement a predictive maintenance strategy. This eliminates the time spent on fault finding and therefore reduces the down time of plant and equipment.
An important aspect of this approach is that it is cloud based, which brings up the question of cybersecurity and how willing the industry will be to adopt such a solution.
The branch thanks Frederik for this informative presentation.
All instrumentation and control related mechanicians, technicians and engineers are welcome to attend the monthly technology events. The planned dates for the rest of the year are as follows: 6 September, 11 October and 1 November 2018.
All presentations earn CPD points for ECSA registered persons and any enquiries can be directed to the branch chairman Johan Maritz at [email protected] or +27 82 856 3865.
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