Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release of CENTUM VP R5.04, an enhanced version of the company’s flagship integrated production control system. This new CENTUM release features enhanced alarm and batch functions.
The development of CENTUM VP R5.04 is the outcome of a steady effort to improve this system, which is the cornerstone of Yokogawa’s IA business’s VigilantPlant® vision. R5.04’s enhanced alarm function improves operational safety, and the enhanced batch function meets specific requirements of industries, such as specialty chemical, which is being targeted under Yokogawa’s Evolution 2015 mid-term business plan.
Enhancements
1. Visual and audible indicators
With the CENTUM system, a prominently colored tag mark is displayed on the HMI screen next to any measurement reading that falls outside the normal range. With CENTUM VP R5.04, these colored tag marks now come in a variety of easily recognizable shapes that indicate the importance of a measurement item and the severity of an anomaly (critical, high risk, medium risk, low risk, etc.).
New audible alarms have also been added to provide information on the severity and equipment location of an anomaly. Through the use of color, shape, and sound, operators can quickly and intuitively recognize the significance of a specific alarm, thereby allowing for improved operational safety.
2. Highly efficient batch process engineering
With batch process*1 manufacturing, a recipe*2 must be defined for each product. A recipe consists of a procedure and a formula: the procedure is a description of particular processes such as feed and temperature control that will be employed, while the formula specifies feed quantity, temperature, and the like. While procedures and formulas are usually defined separately, it is advantageous in certain batch applications if both can be defined together on the same screen. The CENTUM VP R5.04 batch function has been enhanced by adding this capability, and this allows end users to efficiently perform the engineering required for each definition method.
Major Target Markets
Manufacturers in process industries such as oil and natural gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, electric power, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, food, iron and steel, and water supply and wastewater treatment
Applications
Monitoring and automatic control of plant operations
*1 A widely used process in the chemical pharmaceutical, and other industries by which fixed quantities of a product are produced through the injection of feedstocks in a predetermined order and the mixing of these materials to produce a desired reaction (such as polymerization). Equipment settings and procedures are defined for each product.
*2 This defines the manufacturing process for a specific product, specifying the requirements for items such as equipment, formulas, and procedures.
Future Development
With CENTUM as its core platform, Yokogawa continues to improve all of its production control systems. Currently, Yokogawa is developing the next-generation CENTUM VP based on the following four concepts: hyper-intuitive operation for safe and highly productive plant operations, total automation management for efficient engineering of all instrumentation, an intelligent plant conductor that optimizes the operation of an entire plant at minimum cost, and a sustainable plant that maintains high efficiency throughout its lifecycle.
Yokogawa will work hard to develop and offer products and solutions for achieving the ideal plant for customers.
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