Emerson targets complexity, cost and workload with new automation platform

The Hague, The Netherlands - Emerson Process Management has applied human-centered design (HCD) techniques in developing its new Delta V S-series platform. The ease-of-use concept features across a range of promising new technologies in the release, including “I/O on Demand’ and ”Electronic Marshalling’, which are designed to reduce customer project complexity, eliminate needless work, and speed system commissioning. 

According to Emerson, I/O on Demand enables users to decide what type of I/O they want – Wireless, Foundation fieldbus, HART, AI, AO, DI, DO, DP, T/C, or RTD. They can also choose when they want the I/O, whether for late project changes, during start-up, during operation, or temporary installations; and where they want the I/O, whether in a rack room, remote locations, hazardous areas, safety systems, or harsh environments.

Electronic Marshalling, meanwhile, employs a new technology – single channel CHARacterisation ModuleS (CHARMS), to eliminate two-thirds of the wiring and connections needed by today’s conventional marshalling cabinets. CHARMS relay I/O information to any DeltaV controller via Ethernet backbone: eliminating the need to wire I/O to specific controller I/O cards to provide single-channel integrity and flexibility down to the channel (not I/O card) level.

Moreover,  while traditional project engineering requires major time and cost in changing rack-room I/O wiring and terminations, as process design is refined during project execution and construction, the DeltaV S-series hardware with Electronic Marshalling makes changes easy and eliminates re-wiring. Users can simply terminate the field wires, insert the CHARM unit and electronically marshal the signals and so shorten project schedules, accommodate late project changes, and simplify the I/O and marshalling design process.

The new DeltaV S-series also features fully redundant communications, which together with the mesh wireless networks, provide the highest uptime possible so that users can apply wireless technology to more monitoring and control applications than ever before.

The S-series includes a new Foundation fieldbus I/O card that includes an integrated power supply. This new approach, says Emerson, can eliminate the cost and expense of purchasing, engineering, mounting and maintaining separate bulk power supplies and fieldbus power conditioning modules.

Emerson has also introduced new dashboards that provide an at-a-glance view of everything that users need to evaluate, diagnose, and configure a field device, with guidance to streamline the key tasks performed by plant operations, engineering, and maintenance personnel. Powered by enhanced Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and function independent of protocol, including HART, WirelessHART, Foundation fieldbus, or Profibus, they are said too be easy for both experienced and inexperienced workers.