Electricity and Control September 2021

CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION : PRODUCTS + SERVICES

Digital transformation in plant operations

From oil refineries to food and beverage plants, process engineers are being asked tomanage increasingly complex systems – and to do more with less. This is a challenge that Blair Wilson, PlantPAx Marketing Manager for Rockwell Automation, is ready to take up: “The good news is that the latest distributed control system (DCS) platforms have kept pace with technological developments. And more DCS users are now considering upgrading and modernising their systems for optimal performance.” How can a DCS modernisation help manage system complexity and improve productivity? Wilson explains that producers are adept at navigating the complexities and challenges of staying competitive. “This is true in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods, and food and beverages to mining and chemicals. This is why it’s important to implement the latest technological advances to continue the evolving digital transformation journey.” System features positively impact plant operations by

designed to meet plant-wide applications, and more, as well as to help reduce the overhead required for automation infrastructure while delivering improved diagnostics and analytics. This latest iteration of the popular DCS has a reduced footprint. New process con- trollers extend the Logix

Blair Wilson, PlantPAx Marketing Manager for Rockwell Automation.

family capabilities with cutting-edge processing power and capacity to reduce the complexity of PlantPAx archi- tectures. This footprint reduction also reduces total cost of ownership of the system throughout the lifecycle. In addition, it drives consistency. With native process instructions embedded in the controllers, project teams can adopt approaches to control strategies that drive consistency for individual projects or multi-site deployments. With its streamlined workflows, development teams can realise savings in the configuration of instrumentation, alarms, and diagnostic system elements. Operators have the extended ability to view underlying control logic in a safe and secured way. Further, to help mitigate risk, the PlantPAx 5.0 system architectures are TÜV certified to the international standard ISA-99/IEC 62443-3-3, which provides guidance on the implementation of an electronically secured system. The provides a unified multidisciplinary design environment for production systems engineering. NX Automation Designer and NX Industrial Electrical Design provide new functions for efficient electrical and automation design of industrial equipment. Electrical en- gineers can complete their work faster making use of the enhancements to connection handling and reporting, new OOTB symbols for IEC, ANSI and fluidics and 2D cabi- net dimensioning. Automation engineers benefit from the extended software generation capabilities for sequences and safety programs. The latest release enables customers to move into the world of functional design by starting their electrical and automation design work without Teamcenter. Customers not looking for a complete PLM system can benefit from the electrical and automation design capabilities. By boosting engineering productivity with a new level of multi- disciplinary collaboration, NX Automation Designer lowers IT costs and addresses manufacturers’ need to meet grow- ing demand for product variety from consumers. Karl Stieler, owner of STiMA GmbH & Co. says, “Today, in order to maintain profitability we have to realise more projects with the same number of employees. Furthermore, we

The PlantPAx 5.0 DCS is designed to meet plant-wide applications, help reduce automation infrastructure overheads, and more.

ensuring that plant-wide and scal- able systems drive productivity, improve profitability, and reduce overall risks. The newest release of PlantPAx offers new valuable techni- cal features. The next generation DCS PlantPAx 5.0, the next generation DCS from Rockwell Automation, is

Facilitating electrical and automation design

The NX™ Automation Designer software and NX™ Industrial Electrical Design software recently released by Siemens Digital Industries Software, introduce a new suite of solutions that provide a central design application for industrial electrical and automation design. The new tools can help manufacturers of production systems to manage design complexity, shorten development lifecycles and increase the quality of their designs. Direct integration with Teamcenter ® software for product lifecycle management (PLM) and the entire NX design software portfolio

The NX Automation and Electrical Design software suite enables quicker design development and improved quality in production systems engineering.

8 Electricity + Control SEPTEMBER 2021