Latest changes to this page: 26/1/04

Emerson at the Tower!

In a unique calling together of international journalists since the Interkama tours of Ireland in 2001, a body of about almost 50 gathered in the impressive and misleadingly named New Armoury at the ancient Tower of London.

The size of this group and the auspicious location was a measure of inportance Emerson Process Management gave to the launch of their SIS (Safety Instrumented Systems).

Steve Brown, MD UK & Ireland, remarked that the venue, the New Armoury, in facted dated fron the 16th century whereas what they were introducing to us was very much 21st century technology.

Other speakers included Duncan Schleiss, VP marketing Process Systems who introduced Emerson's approach to plant safety, while Steffen Langner, Business Unit Director-Temperature and Norman Render, FieldVue product manager in Fisher Controls Dvn spoke on the part of sensors and final control elements in the system. Raoul Mercer talked about the system Logic Solver and Koen Leekens brought the three components together discussing the overall system.

This is a copy of the press release issued on the occasion:

Emerson Extends PlantWebÆ to Create the Industryís First Smart Safety Management Architecture

The PlantWeb Smart SIS architecture pioneers integrated use of digital intelligence to enable customer implementation of safer process plants

Emerson Process Management announces its new PlantWebÆ Smart SIS safety management architecture that extends the innovations of its proven digital process automation architecture to enable safer process plants and facilities.

First in the industry to employ digital intelligence and diagnostics from sensor-to-logic solver-to-final control, and to take an integrated complete safety loop approach, the PlantWeb Smart SIS safety management solution offers automated safety loop testing and other features that increase system availability, while reducing life-cycle costs and easing regulatory compliance.

The new Smart SIS solutions are built from proven PlantWeb technologies ñ including intelligent field devices, predictive diagnostics, and digital communications ñ that are already demonstrating their value in thousands of mainstream process automation projects around the world.  For safety applications, PlantWeb Smart SIS solutions provide assurance of a SIL3 approach that includes transmitters and valve controllers certified to IEC61508, and SIL-3 ratified safety systems.

Emerson professional safety personnel and services organisations help customers plan and implement Smart SIS solutions to comply with the new IEC 61511 safety standards.  Expert services include assisting the customer with process hazard analysis and risk assessment along with Smart SIS design, implementation, and commissioning.

The Speakers around a panel of "Logic Solvers" L to R: Stefan Langers (holding one of the sensors), Raoul Mercer, Koen Leekens, Duncan Schleiss and Norman Render.

Facilitated by PlantWeb technologies, the Smart SIS solutions are easily integrated with mainstream Basic Process Control Systems to enable facility-wide overview, while maintaining separation of safety-critical elements as required by IEC standards.

Safety data and alarms are presented on Emersonís DeltaVô operator interfaces, stored in its historians, and passed to the AMSô Suite: Intelligent Device Manager for integrated documentation and management. "The Smart SIS safety management solutions deliver the same ease of use and efficiencies for safety in process facilities as the proven PlantWeb architecture does for mainstream process automation," commented John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management.

"PlantWeb Smart SIS solutions use digital intelligence and automated proof testing, including partial valve stroking, to enable continuous and on-demand diagnosing of safety loop sensors, logic solvers and final control elements to ensure they perform on demand," continued Berra. "The resulting high reliability of safety systems reduces the risk of plant trips, which keeps our customers up and running. At the same time, the approach minimises costly and risky practices of ongoing manual proof tests."