Product category:
Valve positioners and actuators
News Release from: Tyco Flow Controls | Subject: Intelligent actuators
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 November 2004
Asset management for valves and
actuators
Interrogation of intelligent valve actuators enables the plant operator to determine any potential failures before they occur, and to plan for maintenance, which can be scheduled in normal down time
With the proliferation of micro chip technology and the use of this technology now being employed in field instrumentation, the requirements for these devices to provide diagnostic capabilities for the plant operators can be more easily achieved Asset Management, which can include many different requirements and terminologies, is being utilised to ensure plants run more efficiently and for longer periods between maintenance intervals
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 24 Oct 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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In the past there was a plant shutdown planned for a certain period and time, irrespective of whether the field devices required replacing or overhauling, this pre-requisite is now not necessarily required.
Nowadays, with the use of intelligent instrumentation these shutdowns can be a thing of the past, the plant operators can interrogate these devices to ascertain certain critical information, depending on the device being interrogated.
The information available could possibly include, tag number, date of installation, date of last service, number of operations, cycle count, cycle time, seat wear, torque, historical performance, travel time, breakaway time, amongst others.
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This information enables the plant operator to determine potential failures before they occur and to plan for maintenance schedules, which can then be discussed with plant management to optimise the down time of the plant, thereby ensuring greater efficiencies.
This information can also ensure longer periods between these down times, again providing increased efficiency and higher returns.
Generally these intelligent field devices are communicating on some of the many network protocols currently available, including HART, ProfiBus and Fieldbus Foundation.
These network protocols ensure the plethora of information available to the plant operator can be communicated quickly and efficiently back to the control room.
These intelligent field devices are delivering the advanced functionality, either locally at the device, or in the field, or remotely at the control room, either way the information is available in real time.
Tyco Valves and Controls have long recognised the importance of intelligent field devices and the use of network protocols.
Generally most intelligent field devices for valves are of the pneumatic type, however as Tyco Valves and Controls manufacture both pneumatic and electric actuators, for valves, they have developed intelligent interfaces for both types.
At present Tyco Valves and Controls can communicate on the following protocols, HART, ProfiBus, Fieldbus Foundation, AS Interface, DeviceNet, Modbus and Lonworks and are integral members of these protocol groups, contributing to the discussions on all aspects of network advancement.
The intelligence within the devices manufactured by Tyco provides the optimum performance of the device once installed.
State of the art electronics are utilised to ensure the most up to date diagnostic capabilities are presented to the end user in a simple and easily recognisable format.
The required data concerning the information that the plant engineer wishes to interrogate is presented on easy to follow displays of the valve data.
From these displays the engineer can immediately observe the type of device, the basic parameter settings, diagnostic fields, and if there are any current alerts.
On initial installation, set up and calibration the engineer can "run" a hysterisis check, which provides a "footprint", or valve signature, of the installed device and a record of its initial optimum performance.
Any time during the life span of the device the engineer can then "run" a further hysterisis check and compare the latest valve signature with the initial valve signature, thereby providing information as to the current performance of the device.
This would provide an implicit message to the engineer as to whether the performance of the device is acceptable or has deteriorated to the point that the device requires maintenance.
Another option for actuated valves is to measure the breakaway time from the seat and also the total time from open to close.
At the same time the engineer would be able to set defined parameters so that if there was a significant change in the time of these two measurements then an alert would be raised.
These settings can be initially downloaded to the device, as above, and then again, at any time during the life span of the device these parameters can be interrogated further.
If for example the breakaway time from the seat has decreased, this potentially could indicate that there is some seat wear, the valve now "comes out" of the seat faster.
On the other hand, if the breakaway time has increased, this could indicate that the actuator has a leak or that the air pressure to the actuator has decreased or even that the valve seat has been damaged.
This information can also be analysed in conjunction with the total time information to ascertain the overall performance of the valve.
In either scenario the engineer has the information immediately to hand in order to undertake any remedial action that is necessary and to ensure the plant down time is optimised.
All of the information from these devices can be provided either by text or in a graphical format, depending on the display requirements and is then saved within the associated software.
This audit trail can then be utilised by engineers to determine the optimum device for their process and provide invaluable information as to how different processes can impact on different devices.
This information will enable plant operators and manufacturers, alike, to understand better the intricacies of process conditions ensuring on going developments for products and processes.
The intelligence provided by these Tyco devices ensures that whatever the decision of the end user as to his choice of network, the benefits provided by these devices can be assured, irrespective of his choice or the process conditions.
The complete Tyco range of intelligent devices can be included with the pneumatic or in the electric actuators, which can then control any type of valve, whether this is ball, butterfly, rotary process, plug, gate or globe.
This also ensures that any type of industry, whether this be oil and gas, petrochemical, food, beverage, chemical or water has access to a complete intelligent actuated valve package for their process from a single source.
This last feature provides a large benefit to the end user as they have complete piece of mind as to the performance of the package, as it is truly manufactured and supplied from the same company.
Tyco Valves and Controls is continually striving to provide the optimum performance of its products for the end user and is constantly searching and discussing new methods to provide this performance.
With the advent of FDT/DTM (Field Device Tool/Device Type Manager) technology, providing intelligent asset management and integration for fieldbus devices, this makes the implementation of intelligent field devices faster, easier and more efficient.
Tyco has recognized the benefits of this technology and is a member of the FDT-JIG (Joint Interest Group) with the vision of providing certified DTMs for all of its network and intelligent field devices, thereby ensuring a single engineering tool for open engineering and asset management.
Within the next few weeks Tyco will have a fully certified DTM for their AVID intelligent SmartCal positioner, thereby providing to the end user a product that can be utilised with many other intelligent field devices using a single engineering tool.
This information will also be available in all the main European languages, the language of the engineers choice can be obtained during initial set up of the software.
Tyco has already had requests for this type of solution from major steel and gas manufacturers, who have already recognised the benefits of this type of engineering solution.
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