Industrial Automation Magazine India

Ethernet-APL lives up to its reputation

Published on : Saturday 13-05-2023

New technology has proved successful during load tests.

May 2023 – Quick and efficient transfer of high data volumes, no barriers, and reliability in hazardous areas. The process industry has pinned extremely high expectations on the new physical layer of Ethernet communications. And rightly so, since two load tests conducted by measuring technology manufacturer Endress+Hauser have now delivered impressive results.

It was important to demonstrate that components from different manufacturers can be combined easily and reliably using Ethernet-APL. To ensure realistic test conditions, the specifications were defined by chemical company BASF from a customer perspective, and by Endress+Hauser, Pepperl+Fuchs, Honeywell, and ABB on the side of the hardware suppliers. And were pleased to say that the news is good: The tests were able to confirm that all components work together optimally.

The Test Setup in Detail

The first test involved around 240 measuring instruments from Endress+Hauser, including throughflow, pressure, temperature, and level sensors. They were integrated into a single infrastructure with Pepperl+Fuchs field switches and a Honeywell control system using Ethernet-APL and PROFINET. For the second test, the control and asset management systems from ABB were tested together with the measuring instruments and the Pepperl+Fuchs field switches.

All test runs were carried out with a maximum network size, and scalability and fault tolerance were successfully verified. All relevant requirements, such as overall network load and redundancy changeover times, were met or even exceeded during the tests. The test results were therefore clear: Ethernet-APL can be used under realistic conditions.

Consistently Positive Results

Gerd Niedermayer, Senior E+I Engineering Manager at BASF SE, is therefore also optimistic: After five years of working closely with our PROFINET partners on APL, these successful tests demonstrate an important step toward using this technology in our new chemical plants in the future. I would like to thank all those who made this possible.

Andreas Hennecke, Head of Product Marketing Management in the Process Automation division at Pepperl+Fuchs, is equally enthusiastic: Development teams have been conducting long-term tests on our FieldConnex field switches for years, so we were confident that the setup would cope with these challenges. Seeing how everything works so well in a realistic setup has the potential to convince everyone to follow the digitalization approach for process plants. We would like to thank all the team members and our partners and congratulate them on this successful Ethernet-APL load test.

In summary, Ethernet-APL has lived up to its reputation as a game changer, bringing communication in process automation to a new level of efficiency.

Ethernet-APL load test with 238 Endress+Hauser instruments, Pepperl+Fuchs infrastructure combined with Honeywell and ABB control systems.

A FieldConnex Ethernet-APL field switch was used to connect each of the 24 devices. The cabling connected to the control system incorporated ring redundancy and also withstood load and IP electrical tests.