Setting the tone for what is expected to be a busy week for attendees of Rockwell Automation’s annual user conference, the company announced a new version of its process control architecture today. The latest upgrade adds device scalability, design modularity, and extended data analysis capabilities that will increase plant floor operational efficiency, the company said.
The PlantPAx System, positioned as an alternative to traditional distributed control systems (DCS), was first unveiled two years ago at Rockwell’s Automation Fair in Nashville. At its core, PlantPAx is turnkey system including manufacturing intelligence, advanced process control, and safety systems, all tightly integrated with the company’s Logix control platform and its FactoryTalk production management suite.
Now, version 2.0, to be delivered in the first quarter of 2011, adds several new capabilities including:
- High availability via Ethernet/IP network support for redundant systems and device-level ring network topology, as well as redundant I/O capabilities and diagnostics and error checking to help maintenance personnel identify and resolve the root cause of problems before they disrupt production.
- Expanded integration and asset management of intelligent motor control devices, variable frequency drives, and condition monitoring and power control components.
- Reusable engineering and template objects that allow users to more quickly design configuration workflows.
- New batch server software that adds intelligent recipes, improved runtime user control, expanded data collection and reporting, and enhanced material management. The new Logix Batch and Sequence Manager is an S-88-compliant engine that simplifies configuration and execution, and minimizes costly and risky designs associated with custom code, the company said.
- A new three-tiered approach to operations management. At the basic level, a Rockwell historian collects key process data from the controller. Data is fed into a decision support portal for analysis, and then the portal correlates system information with the appropriate user role. The third tier, PlantPAx 2.0, adds advanced control techniques and predictive modeling for a line, or even across the entire plant.
In addition to the new functions, Rockwell introduced a focused program, including pre-defined system integration architectures, to help process OEM partners and skid builders reduce engineering time.