Offshore staff
NEWNAN, Georgia -- Yokogawa Electric Corporation has released an enhanced version of the Stardom network-based control system's FCN-RTU low power autonomous controller.
The functional enhancements include the addition of support for the Foundation fieldbus and HART digital communication protocols. This makes it possible to acquire maintenance information from various types of devices used at oil and gas wells and other production facilities that are distributed over a wide geographic area, thereby improving the efficiency of device management and reducing production maintenance costs, the company says.
Key benefits of the new version include reduced wiring costs, enhanced accuracy, and the ability to carry out highly efficient device inspection and predictive maintenance.
Support for Foundation fieldbus gives the controller the ability to receive multi-variable data (temperature, pressure, etc.) from a multi-sensing transmitter over a single cable, and also allows multi-drop connections with field devices. This reduces wiring installation and maintenance costs, the company says.
The controller's support of digital communications with field devices lessens the need for digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital data conversion, which improves the accuracy of production volume calculation by reducing conversion error, the company says.
By using this FCN-RTU together with Plant Resource Manager (PRM -
Yokogawa's integrated device management software package), various types of information from field devices that support the FOUNDATION fieldbus and HART communication protocols can be centrally managed. This information can be used to schedule inspections, thereby improving maintenance efficiency.
PRM's diagnostic functions such as differential pressure transmitter impulse line blocking diagnosis allow maintenance engineers to determine when maintenance should be performed. With predictive maintenance, a device is maintained before it fails; this is particularly useful with devices installed in remote locations, where a quick response is difficult, the company says.
"Applying proven digital technology to oil and gas wellhead control and monitoring revolutionizes field management,” says Masatoshi Nakahara, GM of the Industrial Automation Systems Business Center at Yokogawa's Industrial Automation Business Headquarters. “The integrated diagnostics information delivered via FOUNDATION fieldbus enables predictive maintenance of sensors and actuators, thus improving device availability.”
07/16/2009
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