Plant Services - October 2007 - (Page 16)

UP AND RUNNING Networking dominates Emerson Exchange President says you are ready to use higher-performance wireless By Ken Schnepf, Managing Editor T he market is now ready to deploy higher-performance wireless plant networks and the applications that run them, says John Berra, president, Emerson Process Management, one of the keynote speakers at the Emerson Global Users Exchange held September 10-14 in Grapevine, Texas. “I’m sensing a big change here,” says Berra. “I’m sensing the companies you work for see automation as a huge value.” Berra says we are at the brink of another era of automation. The newly approved wireless HART standards are an important step to making wireless more useful to everyone. “This standard works,” he says. It’s a wireless open standard designed to meet the needs of the process control industry. Approximately 20 million HART devices are installed throughout the world, Berra estimates. However, most users can’t access the diagnostics within those devices. “Now we can unlock those diagnostics and free them in your plant. This isn’t Emerson’s standard, it’s the industry’s standard.” Berra provided examples of wireless being used to solve real plant problems: • PPG Lake Charles, La., uses a smart wireless network coexisting with other wireless systems. The network was applied to temperature profiling of plant steam headers, redundant level measurement on caustic tanks, and vibration monitoring of brine centrifuges. • Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel improved productivity by as much as 10% and virtually eliminated downtime by monitoring and diagnosing troublesome secondary systems. Wireless was applied to monitor cooling water flow and grease system health in a hot strip mill, and cooling water flow to work rolls in a roughing mill. • A North American pulp and paper mill placed wireless temperature transmitters 180° apart at the mid-zone of a kiln to get the insight needed to solve a mill bottleneck. “These are real. They’re all up and running and they all have happened in the past year,” says Berra. “I am so excited about it and you should be too.” Later during the conference, Emerson Process Manage- Wireless is ready to solve problems and add capabilities for both in-plant and field network applications. ment announced a partnership with Cisco to offer openstandard solutions for wireless process and plant management applications that install easily and operate reliably in the challenging process manufacturing environment. Emerson’s process automation and Cisco’s IT networking expertise will target a complete solution that improves productivity, safety and operational efficiency for manufacturing customers. Emerson’s wireless process applications use self-organizing field networks for increased monitoring of plant data for control and asset optimization; they also offer mobile operator and maintenance worker applications. Cisco wireless plant networks offer applications including those for worker mobility, voice-over-IP communications, tracking of personnel and assets, and video applications. “Since introducing Smart Wireless field networks a year ago, we’ve been excited at the high customer interest and their quickly realized business results,” says Berra, president of Emerson Process Management. “Networks and mobility are dramatically transforming our customers businesses and in-plant processes,” says Maciej Kranz, Cisco vice president of product marketing for its Wireless Business Unit. “By delivering a combined wireless architecture from Emerson and Cisco, we’re enabling our manufacturing process customers to deploy flexible, scalable 16 www.PLANTSERVICES.com October 2007 http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - October 2007

Plant Services - October 2007 Contents Monetize It Letters Step into the Blogosphere What it Takes to be a Leader Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works From the Summit Treat Them Right Access Control Out of the Woods Show Me, Don't Guess Condition Assessment Made Easy The Air Above the Floor Power to the Prime Movers In the Trenches Illuminating Maintenance

Plant Services - October 2007

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