HUG: Next generation technology

Safety and security are two vital areas of coverage that can help manufacturers sustain operations at their plants heading into the future.

By Greg Hale, ISSSource.com June 27, 2012

Safety and security are two vital areas of coverage that can help manufacturers sustain operations at their plants heading into the future.

Technology advances will help companies achieve goals even though they will have fewer resources moving forward. That was just one of the points made at the Honeywell Users Group 2012 in Phoenix, Ariz. by new Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) President Darius Adamczyk and Jason Urso, vice president of technology.

Just five weeks into his reign at HPS, Adamczyk said he is learning the automation environment, but he said he is looking to build upon two areas: Innovation and Services.

“I am a strong believer in having large investments in R+D,” Adamczyk said. “I believe it is the only way to sustain a business. I love the services business; we will continue to up our ballgame and grow or basic services.”

Part of growing the business is the enable users to push the envelope in productivity.

“You are expected to do more with less,” Adamczyk said. “We want to bring (users) innovations to be able to you squeeze more out of your operations. We want to be there for every phase of your business lifecycle.”

While Adamczyk gave his introductory overview, Urso talked about the nuts and bolts of Honeywell’s new technology offerings.

He introduced the next generation of Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) called Experion PKS Orion that includes universal channel technology to remotely configure process and safety systems without the need for additional hardware and also adds virtualization.

The new systems just gained ISA Secure certification as what Urso said was the first distributed control system (DCS) to gain ISA99 certification.

“Universal Channel Technology simplifies engineering and configuration during the design stage of a project. It can lead to significant reductions in the total cost of ownership,” Urso said.

One of the advantages is the user can do away with the massive amount of wiring that continuously goes on throughout a plant. It can also allow for last minute changes in plan.

“It can adapt to wiring changes at the last minute,” he said. “Late changes can result on costly project delays.”

One of the other enhancements with Orion is a new Universal Safety Logic Solver, which is able to execute the safety application independently in a remote module, perfectly suited to geographically distributed installations.