Managing Automation - February 2008 - (Page 40) [FEBRUARY 2008] Transformation Integration TechWatch Industries [ INDUSTRIES ] DRILLING into WIRELESS While oil and gas companies see a gusher of potential money-saving applications for wireless sensor networks, many are proceeding cautiously with the technology until standards arrive. BY MARTY WEIL f any manufacturing sector could be expected to eagerly embrace the new breed of industrial wireless networking devices now coming to market, it would be oil and gas producers and manufacturers. After all, these companies must monitor and maintain equipment in remote, often hazardous locations. Using wireless technology — specifically wireless sensor networks (WSNs) — would seem to be a perfect alternative to the cost of running wires or monitoring equipment manually. Yet, although applications abound where WSNs could help the industry lower costs and improve productivity, oil and gas manufacturers have been surprisingly slow to deploy the new generation of wireless technology, experts say. That reluctance is expected to abate over time, but not before vendors can prove the reliability of the new wireless networking technologies and finalize WSN technology standards. “As of today, wireless technology does not really have a market in the oil and gas industry,” says Stefan Bakenhus, oil and gas product line leader for GE Energy’s Bently Nevada Asset Condition Monitoring product line. “There is a guarded attitude among oil and gas companies toward wireless network technology. We are talking about applying this technology in very dangerous, hazardous environments. While oil and gas companies are wary about adopting wireless-enabled technology, everyone understands that it has huge potential.” ma February 40 2008 Photo: Comstock Images
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