MechChem Africa February 2017

Metering with Heartbeat: rethinking instrument health

Originally developed back in 2012, Endress+Hauser’s Heartbeat™ Technology simplifies instrument diagnostics, verification and condition monitoring, leads to better predictability and uptime and lowers costs. Peter Middleton talks to Endress+Hauser product managers Jan Gerritsen and Frans van den Berg.

“ J ust as every person’s health can be monitored by his or her heartbeat, Endress+Hauser’s Heartbeat™ Technology strives to track the health of critical plant instruments, such as level and flowmeters,” begins Van den Berg, ProductManagerforFlowatEndress+Hauser South Africa. “Whenwehumans feel aheadache coming on, we take two tablets. In the sameway, when aninstrumentdetectsaproblem,itisnowable to communicate that information so that an interventioncanbeplanned toquickly restore the instrument to full health. This is important for safety on our customers’ plants, to ensure that flooding or spills are always avoided, for example,” he continues. The technology equips instruments with comprehensive diagnostics, verification and conditionmonitoring/predictivemaintenance capabilities, “for maximum safety and the highest possible availability”. Heartbeat diagnostics is the first level of instrumenthealthmanagement.“Instruments in safety critical applications, such as flow- meters, must meet the highest requirements in terms of reliability. With Heartbeat™ Technology, our newProlineflowmeters offer unprecedented degrees of diagnostic cover- age, from the measuring tube to the outlet,” Van den Berg tells MechChem Africa . Embedded ineachHeartbeat-enabledme-

ter is an instrument-specific set of test procedures, which are performed continuously, with all the results being in- ternally logged. “In the event

the verification procedure and verification results are documented in an unambiguous manner. Heartbeat’s automatically generated verification protocol supports the evidence commonly required by the majority of regu- lations, laws or plant standards. Heartbeat™ verification can also be used to perform safety integrity level (SIL) tests, which are routinely embedded in plant safety manuals and documentation. “Every measuring point is verified and documented in-situ without any interruption to the process plant. Safety integrity level tests, such as SIL 3, for example, are done online. This is important because one doesn’t have to stop the plant to interrogate a device that might be perfectly healthy. “Also, Heartbeat verification is under- written by TUV, which means that 3 rd party verification is no longer necessary,” Van den Berg adds. Does verification reduce calibration re- quirements? “Our instruments are generally manufactured using electronic sub-systems and the electrical performances – ohms, mA, voltage drop, frequency response, etc – each factory-tested before being put into service.

of any failure, alerts can be sent and flags raised so that operators can react in the fast- est possible time,” he explains. “Also, to get health insurance, a person might need to go to a doctor for a medical examination. The doctor will give him or her the certificate that the medical aid requires before contracts can be signed.” In the same way, any ISO 9001 com- pany needs be able to produce evidence of the healthy condition of its equipment. “Companies typically have to get a third party to do an audit of their procedures and certificates are required to prove that all instruments and equipment are operating to specifications. “Heartbeat™ Technology offers built-in proof testing or verification that meets these certification requirements,” Van den Berg assures. “An on-demand report can be made available, based on the ongoing diag- nostic data that has been accumulated by the Heartbeat™ system, which serves as a direct substitute for extensive manual verification testing,” he adds. Simple, predefined procedures guide the designated responsible person through

Heartbeat™ Technology from Endress+Hauser strives for increased plant availability, improved safety, reduced verification and calibration effort and optimised plant maintenance and performance.

4 ¦ MechChem Africa • February 2017