Rethink what you should expect from your distributed control system

Today, process industry professionals face difficult challenges. How can we adhere to increasingly tighter compliance requirements while competing for market share in today’s globalised economy? How can we meet the continuous demand for new sources of productivity and margin growth while using the same automation approach and control system strategy we have been using for decades?

A modern Distributed Control System (DCS) is designed to help you address these challenges.

Integration of the DCS with the automation systems used in the balance of plant is often costly and engineering intensive. 

Maintaining multiple disparate automation systems is straining operations and support resources, restricting flexibility and responsiveness.

What is needed is a modern approach--one that delivers all of the core capabilities of a DCS to address the requirements of process control, but is built on contemporary technology that easily integrates with other automation systems, operators’ activities, and critical business systems. A modern DCS is built using plant-wide control technologies. Today, process control, discrete control, power control and safety control no longer have to be a choice of separate technologies. Today, manufacturers can choose to implement a plant-wide control system.  

Read a new whitepaper from Rockwell Automation on this subject by clicking here.

For further information please contact us by email at info@routeco.nl or please visit our website www.routeco.nl

New Guardmaster 442G Multifunctional Access Box - a flexible, secure and easy to use safeguarding solution

Rockwell Automation introduces the Guardmaster® 442G Multifunctional Access Box, an integrated access control and guard locking device which provides a complete safeguarding solution for full body access applications.

A high holding force, wide tolerance to guard misalignment (+/-5 mm), and an escape release option make the 442G an ideal choice for safeguarding large guard doors typically used in applications where full body access to the safeguarded area is required.

Features include:

• High holding force 2000N (Fzh tested to ISO 14119) is suitable for a wide range of guarding applications
• Unique RFID coded bolt actuator achieves the highest level of tamper resistance
• Available in two models: Power-to-Release and Power-to-Lock
• Available with up to three controls and indicators including an E-stop push button (a fourth control is possible for future configurations)
• Optional escape release allows a person locked inside the safeguarded area to exit quickly and easily
• Four bright LEDs provide status and diagnostics
• Outputs for door position, bolt position, and lock status are available to the control system
• Two integrated hasps available to affix padlocks
• Can be operated as a standalone device or in series with other devices 

For further information please contact us by email at info@routeco.nl 

It's not a cable; it's an antenna!

Have you thought about using a radiating cable but dismissed it, wondering why you would want a cable that acts like an antenna?

Well, this whitepaper from ProSoft Technology helpfully explains and outlines the benefits of using Radiating Cable. Using a radiating cable as an antenna offers major benefits: you can easily communicate to equipment moving along a track, replace slip rings in rotating equipment and provide a clear RF (radio frequency) signal where obstructions or plant-floor layout prevent a clear ‘line of sight’ to transmit from a traditional antenna.

What is a radiating cable?

• Long flexible antenna with slots to radiate RF signals that can be installed around corners, along monorail systems and through tunnels to propagate wireless data signals in situations that are tough for traditional antenna

• A metallic shield wraps around the cable to isolate the signals, this helps to maintain a strong signal and prevents the signal from creating interference with nearby RF equipment.

Placing RF signals precisely in crowded plants

• Can be placed accurately

• The growing use of wireless communication equipment in factories can cause a problem with overcrowding radio waves – radiating cable solutions mean new machines can co-exist without adding to the overcrowding

• Especially beneficial in rotating machinery which traditionally used slip rings to conduct communication signals. Slip rings are expensive to install and require regular maintenance.

Flexibility

• Can follow almost any path to provide wireless signals in places wireless can’t reach.

For further information please contact us by email at info@routeco.nl