HART foundation names two plants of the year

Austin, TX—The HART Communication Foundation (HCF) announced at ISA Expo 2004 that two plants, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, have been selected as recipients of its 2004 HART Plant of the Year Award.

By Control Engineering Staff October 12, 2004

Austin, TX— The HART Communication Foundation (HCF) announced at ISA Expo 2004 that two plants, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, have been selected as recipients of its 2004 HART Plant of the Year Award. The plants are the BP Cooper River plant in Wando, SC, and the Clariant Antioxidants plant in Gersthofen, Germany. The award is given annually to recognize success in the innovative use of HART communications in real-time process applications worldwide.

“We congratulate both BP and Clariant for utilizing the full potential of their HART-enabled instrumentation for real-time operational improvements,” says Ron Helson, HCF’s executive director. “Their success not only benefits their companies, but also serves as a powerful model for industry users worldwide about how to realize far greater benefits from HART than ever before.”

BP Cooper River uses HART communication in daily operations to obtain diagnostics on critical control valves, reduce maintenance costs by predicting failures, perform online tuning and trending and eliminate extra field devices and wiring.

Clariant Antioxidants uses HART in daily operations with Profibus and intrinsically safe remote I/O systems for real-time data access, preventive maintenance and troubleshooting of critical devices located in a hazardous area.

“Get control of the items that touch the product, including control valves and transmitters, and you can save some big money,” says A.J. Lambert, BP’s instrument and electrical reliability specialist. “We know of no other activity that can provide the kind of savings and plant availability that we’re achieving using HART diagnostic data. We are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in maintenance and production costs.”

Ludwig Wenninger, Clariant’s plant engineer, adds that, “The return on investment is very high when you use the HART technology that is already in your plant. Going to the device in the field took a lot of time. Now, we can access parameters from a central location in a safe area, which has reduced the duration of planned shutdowns by at least 60-70%.”

The foundation says its HART Plant of the Year is a unique award in the process automation industry. It is the only public award presented to end-user companies to recognize ingenuity in the application of HART technology. The award features end-user companies and their suppliers, who have demonstrated creativity in using the capabilities of HART technology.

“In today’s economy, the challenge is finding better ways to use what you have,” says Helson. “With this award, we recognize the innovators who are meeting that challenge.”

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jim Montague, news editor
jmontague@reedbusiness.com