Wickliffe, Ohio - ABB Inc. this week unveiled what it says are the most significant enhancements to its Industrial IT Extended Automation System 800xA since the introduction of the process control architecture last year, adding an integrated safety instrumented system (SIS), sophisticated manufacturing management and real-time analysis capabilities.
At a press conference here, the company also disclosed new software partnerships that extend asset management in its 800xA platform, as well as a major customer wins.
ABB has sold at least 600 800xA systems worldwide since its introduction last year, said Mark Taft, ABB's vice president of worldwide systems marketing. The most recent orders include a $79 million deal (for 800xA and other ABB technologies and services) from Petroleos Mexicanos, known as PEMEX, for an offshore oil production field in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another soon-to-be-announced order from Petro-Canada is valued at $4.7 million. The Petro-Canada project is one of the first orders of ABB's safety system, called System 800xA High Integrity.
The first user of the system, however, was Dow Chemical Company, which spent the last four years helping ABB define the criteria and capabilities around the combined safety and control architecture. The SIS solution complies with IEC 61508 and 61511, EN 954, as well as NFPA 85 and 72 standards. It covers the entire safety loop from field instruments, controller, I/O modules and actuators.
"It's a reliable platform that allows physical integration with logical separation of safety control," said Larry O'Brien, research director at ARC Advisory Group in an interview.
Platforms such as the System 800xA enable long-divided groups that handle plant safety and process control via separate systems and different policies to work more closely together, O'Brien explained. Uniting the safety and control environments is an industry goal that ABB, as well as Emerson and Siemens, are actively addressing with new technology, he added.
According to Edward Sederlund, process automation product manager at Dow Chemical, the common programming language in ABB's offering can decrease project design time and cut support costs in half. Training on one system instead of two, as well as synchronized communication between controllers, "lowers the cost of ownership," said Sederlund in his press conference presentation.
In addition, a new module called Manufacturing Management for inventory, quality, operations and weigh and dispense management can be combined with System 800xA's existing batch and information management capabilities. It includes real-time tracking of materials throughout the warehouse, laboratories and production and provides intelligent forms that sequence steps to guide operator workflow.
A separate module, the System 800xA Real-Time Production Intelligence, is a software application designed for plant engineers and production managers to determine overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) in real-time. "It takes the data and makes it more meaningful," said Bob Hausler, vice president of ABB's Industrial IT Systems marketing. "Customers told us they are losing 40 percent of their theoretical capability in the production facility. Why? Because a lot of systems are not really connected. This allows real-time measurement to show where the bottlenecks are."
Other news included the certification of Matrikon Inc.'s ProcessGuard alarm management software to work with System 800xA, as well as certified integrations with SAP AG , IFS AB and MRO Software Inc.'s maintenance management systems and Meriam Technologies device management systems.
Most importantly, all of the technology ABB announced is available immediately. "We wanted to make sure were not announcing a concept," said Hausler.