Emerson wireless in Europe
23 Jan 2007
In a move billed as one of the most significant events for the process industry in the last 30 years, Emerson Process Management has launched 2.4GHz Smart Wireless systems for in-plant manufacturing processes in Europe. The move followed the company's rollout of a 900 MHz version of the wireless network for the North American market late last year.
Smart Wireless comprises a network of wireless-enabled Rosemount measurement transmitters — scaleable from 5 to 100,000 devices — that offer many data communication paths to gateways into the control room. This "self-organising" network, said Emerson, provides redundancy that enables over 99% of network messages to reach their destination, irrespective of the quantities of metal that make up today's manufacturing facilities.
Network security features include encryption, authentication, verification and anti-jamming technology, the company said.
According to Emerson officials, field trials with North American and European customers over the last three years have confirmed network reliability, while installation costs have worked out as much as 90% lower than a wired equivalent.
Smart Wireless is designed to support SP100 control and monitoring application classes 1 to 5 on the same network. This is supported by Emerson's SmartPower technology, which enables a battery life of 5-15 years depending on application.
Smart Wireless systems can typically be deployed in refining, oil & gas, chemicals, pulp & paper, and water and wastewater plants.
Emerson's initial offering comprises a set of wireless-enabled temperature, pressure, flow and level monitoring devices and gateway cards that collect the signals and make them available to the control system. Interfaces engineered into the gateway device so far include OPC, Modbus and Ethernet.
But, said Mark Schumacher, vice president for Pressure and Complete Point Solutions at Emerson's Rosemount division: "We think wireless will really help our customers to unleash the capability of their plants. To do that they will need more than pressure and temperature devices. So you will see a continuous stream of introductions over the next several years."
Emerson is working on a suite of wireless devices including smart valves, vibration and corrosion monitoring units and technology to free up diagnostics in HART devices, said Schumacher. Also in the works are "software packages that enable customers to take greater advantage of the rich data coming from the wireless devices," he stated.
(See also special report p18)
Smart Wireless comprises a network of wireless-enabled Rosemount measurement transmitters — scaleable from 5 to 100,000 devices — that offer many data communication paths to gateways into the control room. This "self-organising" network, said Emerson, provides redundancy that enables over 99% of network messages to reach their destination, irrespective of the quantities of metal that make up today's manufacturing facilities.
Network security features include encryption, authentication, verification and anti-jamming technology, the company said.
According to Emerson officials, field trials with North American and European customers over the last three years have confirmed network reliability, while installation costs have worked out as much as 90% lower than a wired equivalent.
Smart Wireless is designed to support SP100 control and monitoring application classes 1 to 5 on the same network. This is supported by Emerson's SmartPower technology, which enables a battery life of 5-15 years depending on application.
Smart Wireless systems can typically be deployed in refining, oil & gas, chemicals, pulp & paper, and water and wastewater plants.
Emerson's initial offering comprises a set of wireless-enabled temperature, pressure, flow and level monitoring devices and gateway cards that collect the signals and make them available to the control system. Interfaces engineered into the gateway device so far include OPC, Modbus and Ethernet.
But, said Mark Schumacher, vice president for Pressure and Complete Point Solutions at Emerson's Rosemount division: "We think wireless will really help our customers to unleash the capability of their plants. To do that they will need more than pressure and temperature devices. So you will see a continuous stream of introductions over the next several years."
Emerson is working on a suite of wireless devices including smart valves, vibration and corrosion monitoring units and technology to free up diagnostics in HART devices, said Schumacher. Also in the works are "software packages that enable customers to take greater advantage of the rich data coming from the wireless devices," he stated.
(See also special report p18)
