Digitalisation & IIoT Concepts for Process Industry
Published on : Thursday 08-12-2022
Suresh Jan elaborates on the concept of NOA and how it brings modern technologies around Industry 4.0 to older process plants.
The NAMUR Open Architecture (NOA) aims to make production data easily and securely usable for plant and asset monitoring as well as optimisation.
Idea of NOA
NOA stands for NAMUR Open Architecture, and it is a concept to bring modern technologies around Industry 4.0 into older process plants.
The NAMUR is a user organisation of mainly German chemical companies like BASF or Bayer. It was founded after the Second World War. Meanwhile they have over 140 members and became worldwide important. In over 40 workgroups, technical recommendations for the process and chemical industry are elaborated. The NAMUR publishes periodically ‘NEs’ which stand for NAMUR Empfehlung (NAMUR Recommendation). An example is one of the first NEs, which recommended using a 4…20mA instead of 0…20mA to detect sensor failures.
It is a fact that process plants have a long lifetime compared to a car production plant, for example. This makes it harder to bring new technologies like the Profinet Fieldbus into the plant. The NAMUR searched for ideas to bring new technologies into the older plants and founded the NOA concept.
Another fact is that a lot of unused data is in a process plant. The sensors became more and more complex and they have a lot of information inside which is not transferred to the control system because the connection is still a 4…20mA signal. This additional data could help to improve the plant by doing asset management, predictive maintenance or artificial intelligence.
A typical architecture of a plant in general is the ‘Automation Pyramid’ with an ERP system in the top and a sensor/actor layer in the bottom, in between control system layers.
A main requirement of almost all plant operators is not to change the main control system.
This brings up the idea of a ‘Side Channel’ to place smaller additional controllers for new additional functionalities. Another main requirement of the plant operators was that these new plant components must be safe against unauthorised access from outside, which adds the topic that this side channel has to be OPEN and SECURE.
The NOA concept is mainly for older plants where new technologies are not integrated and with the help of new technology components it can be done.
Newer process plants, which already have HART interfaces on each input module or with integrated predictive maintenance functionalities, for example, are not in focus of this concept!
Architecture/technology scheme
The target of this NOA concept is to place additional devices in the NOA side channel, which allows collecting data from the plant without touching the existing control system. These devices must be secure from the ‘IT’ view.
Examples:
1. A controller must have a protected user interface with user and password. Other (Data) Interfaces must have a protection as well like OPC UA has.
2. The security on the sensor lever can be: HART communication with Read Only functionality, a signal splitter on 4…20mA or current transducer for energy measurement or an additional sensor which is not connected to the main control system.
3. To use existing fieldbuses requires careful planning and a security concept for the specific fieldbus.
4. The collected data has to be transferred to a target (e.g., Internal Cloud, Internet Cloud or DCS System) in a safe and protected way. This can be made with a VPN tunnel by an mGuard Security Router.
Whether the new NOA concept or a traditional data collector in a plant, Phoenix Contact has a good and very large portfolio for this task; beginning with 4…20mA signal splitter of the MCR/MACX family, the modular HART Gateway or the Motor Manager modules for energy measurement and many more. A conversation with the customer helps to find the right devices fitting to the customers’ needs and requirements.
Key device of this solution is the PLCnext controller. It has…
1. Security functionalities (Restricted access with user + password, HTTPS…)
2. OPC UA Interface fora protected communication with higher systems
3. Open Source Platform for High Language Data Applications and Cloud connections
4. Docker® Functionality, which makes it easy to install applications like IIoT server
5. Access to almost all Fieldbuses by using the Axioline Family
6. Complete IO Module Portfolio
7. ATEX Zone 2 Approbation, and
8. Attractive Price.
Digital twin
By using the HART GW, the AXC F 2152 with an 8GB PLCnext SD Card and an IIoT server of the company, we can offer a smart solution for collecting all unused HART data of connected sensors.
The IIoT server has a pool of 1800 description files of HART sensors (eDD, FDI) integrated, which allows the access of all HART parameters of the connected sensors instead of the standard commands of a solution without this IIoT server. The factor is 3…10 times more data from each sensor, depending on the complexity of the sensor.
During the installation an internet connection is necessary. After the setup and download of the data package the internet connection can be disconnected. The requirement of most customers is, the interface to the customer is OPC UA.
One controller OPC UA integrated can handle up to five full extended HART Gateways with 40 connected sensors = 200 sensors in sum.
1. This solution needs no application programming. The IIoT server will be installed by using the Docker functionality. For the installation an application engineer is necessary.
2. A field engineer has to install the physical HARTconnections. Several terminals are usable.
3. In most cases a loop check is necessary after the installation.
Suresh Jan, Head – Process Industry, Phoenix Contact India Pvt Ltd, is a Graduate Engineer with 27 years experience. He started his career with sales & marketing of factory automation and process automation products for the process industry and has worked with various process automation organisations in different positions and regions in India. Currently Suresh heads the Process Industry Vertical at Phoenix Contact India, and is responsible for domestic and international projects. He may be reached on maail at [email protected]
