Chemical Engineering April 2012 - 25

Emerson Process Management
Newsfront
Taking a HolisTic
approacH To
Wireless
Wireless technology is not just for
instrumentation anymore. Smart processors rely
on a blend of technology as they move toward
plant-wide installations
W
hile some initially worried
that the lack of a single
wireless instrumentation
standard - currently WirelessHart
and ISA 100 both exist -
would deter end users from embracing
any wireless technology, it seems
that's not the case. " The benefits of
wireless technology are too great to
ignore, " says Hesh Kagan, senior consultant
with Invensys Portfolio Group
(Foxboro, Mass.). " The cost of wireless
instruments and implementing a
wireless solution are not that big, but
the benefits of these solutions can be
huge and often provide an ROI [return
on investment] in four or five months
in many applications. " For this reason,
many chemical processors started
slowly employing wireless in applications
that could give a leg up to their
processes, such as temperature measurements
or tank level. " They simply
are not using the lack of a single
standard as an excuse or barrier to
acceptance for fear that if they don't
take advantage of this low cost form of
measurement, their competitors will. "
Plant-wide wireless network
As a matter of fact, wireless instruments
and technologies, and the related
benefits, have gone over so well
and proven to be reliable, robust and
secure enough that many processors
who started with point-by-point wireless
trials are methodically working
toward large-scale adoption.
" Many chemical processors are
interested in employing full wireless
coverage across an entire site
because it allows them to add devices
wherever and whenever they
need to without having to create a
new infrastructure for each point
they want to measure or monitor, "
explains Lara Kauchak, director
of wireless sales and marketing
with Emerson Process Management
(Austin, Tex.).
Steven Toteda, vice president
Figure 1. The CSI 9420 Wireless
Vibration Transmitter connects
economically to any machine. It delivers vibration
information over a highly reliable, selforganizing
wireless network for use by operations
and maintenance personnel
Phoenix Contact
and general manager for the
wireless business unit with Cooper
Bussmann (St. Louis, Mo.)
agrees. " What began as setting
up a device with an antenna on
it that shot a signal across the air to
another device with an antenna on it,
quickly developed into wireless mesh
networking, " he explains. Via wireless
mesh-networking technology, the
sensors themselves can send signals
from where the reading is taken along
to the next sensor and then the next
across the plant until it reaches its
destination. He says this capability
has created a digital overlay of the
plant, which allows processors to drop
a sensor anywhere and have it connect
into the network, creating an overall
deployment of wireless.
Ray Rogowski, director of marketFigure
2. WirelessHart makes the HART
protocol more usable, flexible and cost-effective.
The WirelessHart gateway (left) can connect
up to 250 WirelessHart field devices and
convert HART data to Modbus TCP for easy
integration into a host system. A WirelessHart
adapter (foreground right) connects an existing
wired HART device into a WirelessHart
network for more flexible field connections
ing for Honeywell's (Morristown, N.J.)
HPS wireless programs says having an
existing wireless network in place and
dropping in devices as needed provides
a significant cost savings over adding
point-by-point applications each time
a need arises. " A big advantage here
is that once the infrastructure exists,
there are minimal incremental costs
to expand when compared to continually
adding applications on a point
basis, " he says. " If you just put in one
sensor network, you will eventually
want or need to put in another one
someplace. Eventually you will want
Wi-Fi or wireless security and then
ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com april 2012 25
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Chemical Engineering April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2012
