Enabling Digitalisation in Process Plants
Published on : Tuesday 05-11-2019
Dr Thampy Mathew feels Automation will witness more and more development activities concerning “Digitisation” in general and “Mobility” in particular, as more and more industries opt for digital transformation.
Today, the progress of digitisation is in full swing both in the home and at the workplace. "Smart Home", "Industrie 4.0" and "Internet of Things" are influential keywords and trends everybody is talking about. The digital transformation is bringing forth innovation and driving progress to many areas of society and industry. Powered by digital technologies and the Internet, the key aim is to gain safe, fast and flexible networks, which enable data transfer and communication at any place and at any time. Already 3.8 billion devices are connected to the Internet worldwide, which means they are no longer just a dream!
Pepperl+Fuchs knows how to deal with these new industrial requirements which enable new ways of communication and data-sharing and as a result majority of sensors are already developed to work as per “Industrie 4.0” specifications and already deployed in Factory Automation applications. As far as Process Automation is concerned, research is headway to consolidate the future “Field Switch” concept, which communicates through “HART”, “Foundation Fieldbus” or “Profibus” using FDI protocol direct into the HSE network.
The acquisition of ecom Instruments, pioneer in Hazardous Area mobile devices has provided the most required “Mobility” to enable digitalisation in Process Plants. The “Mobile Worker Concept”, developed by ecom and based on rugged, reliable and explosion-proof hardware and products, smart software and applications, ensures real-time integration of people, processes and systems to shape the industries of the future, enabling higher operational efficiencies besides improving safety, productivity and security in hazardous areas.
Furthermore, the technicians are much better protected on site by the permanent connection to the control room. Lone worker protection systems can warn the control room automatically when a worker has an accident or can notify and warn the worker of any hazards as they move into an area. The consistent connection to the control room leads to better on-site protection of mobile workers with the use of comprehensive tools like WLAN, WWAN, Bluetooth, GPS, and/or RFID technology.
With high-performance, product-related software solutions for data logging like the ecomCamScan Keyboard App, mobile users can avoid hardware like barcode scanners while increasing the quality of data logging. Offline, 1D/2D barcodes are recognised and processed with the integrated smartphone or tablet camera. This simplifies manual and automatic data analysis and reduces the incidence of incorrect entries or insufficient evaluation.
ecom mobile devices are designed and approved for industrial use and operation in Zone 1/21 and Division 1 explosion-hazardous areas. This also applies to real-time localisation based on the beacon technology that all mobile devices are equipped with.
In a nutshell, Automation will witness more and more development activities concerning “Digitisation” in general and “Mobility” in particular in the coming 5 years!!!
Dr Thampy Mathew is Managing Director, Pepperl + Fuchs (India) Pvt Ltd, a leading supplier of automation equipment for a wide range of industries and has been associated with safety in hazardous areas for decades. Pepperl+Fuchs is known by customers around the world as a pioneer and an innovator in electrical explosion protection and sensor technology. The main focus is always on individual requirements: With a passion for automation and groundbreaking technology, the company is committed to working in partnership with user industries.
