Emerson to automate USD61 million Amersham plant

Amersham, a leader in medical diagnostics and life sciences, selects Emerson PlantWeb architecture for fast start-up and maintenance savings on a new automation project in Norway

Leader in medical diagnostics and life sciences selects Emerson PlantWeb Architecture for fast start-up and maintenance savings.

Emerson Process Management has won a contract to automate and control a new plant in Norway for Amersham, a world leader in medical diagnostics and life sciences.

The USD61 million Amersham Health plant will provide batch production of diagnostic imaging reagents that highlight organs, tissues and cells inside the human body for the early detection, diagnosis and management of disease.

Emerson will apply its PlantWeb digital plant architecture to deliver fast start-up, and to realise project and maintenance savings, in part through predictive diagnostics supported by Foundation fieldbus communications technology.

Emerson Process Management will provide project management, configuration and start-up services.

The plant in Lindesnes, Norway is scheduled to begin operation in January 2005.

"We have chosen the digital plant architecture with a fieldbus approach after much discussion with Emerson," said Roy Trane, the Amersham Electronic Automation Manager for this project.

"We expect a shorter and more effective start-up and the initial cost will be no higher than other approaches.

We also anticipate benefits from the diagnostics available via fieldbus, which is well supported by the proven PlantWeb architecture that is designed from the bottom up to deliver the benefits of fieldbus and digital communications".

"This project brings together many of the strengths of our PlantWeb technology and project management services that will enable Amersham to realise up-front project savings, followed by reduced maintenance costs over the life of the plant," said John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management: "we are honoured to be chosen by Amersham for this very important project".

The PlantWeb architecture in the Amersham plant will include 21 DeltaV digital automation system operator stations, many on the plant floor, plus 11 processing stations and 3 engineering stations.

Within the DeltaV system, the Emerson AMS predictive maintenance software will be key in the FDA validation process.

AMS communicates to a network of intelligent field devices using the Foundation fieldbus protocol.

Diagnostics in the field devices deliver information about the health of the process and of the devices themselves, and PlantWeb distributes the accurate, real-time equipment information to Amersham plant personnel for more efficient, time-sensitive and cost-effective maintenance operations.

Emerson intelligent field devices to be supplied for Amersham include Fisher FieldVue digital valve controllers, Rosemount radar level gauges, and Rosemount 8742 magnetic flowmeters and 3051 pressure transmitters.

In addition, critical temperature measurements will be made using Rosemount 3244 transmitters, whereas for temperature monitoring at multiple points it is planned to use the Rosemount 848T transmitter, which collects data from up to eight RTD or thermocouple sensors and provides the Foundation fieldbus interface.

The DeltaV digital automation systems will also communicate with motor controllers in the plant using a Profibus DP network.

This openness of the PlantWeb architecture enables Amersham to bring all field assets into the one common digital plant architecture.

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