Hawke’s fieldbus system to help protect Amersham plant in Norway

Ashton-under-Lyne, U.K.—Hawke International recently won a contract to provide intrinsically safe, fieldbus-based power supplies for Amersham Health’s $61-million plant in Norway.

By Control Engineering Staff October 13, 2003

Ashton-under-Lyne, U.K.— Hawke International recently won a contract to provide intrinsically safe, fieldbus-based power supplies for Amersham Health’s $61-million plant in Norway. Amersham is a medical diagnostics and life sciences manufacturer. The new plant will provide batch production of diagnostic imaging reagents, which highlight organs, tissues and cells inside the human body for early detection, diagnosis and management of diseases. The plant in Lindesnes, Norway, is scheduled to begin operating in January 2005.

Amersham picked Emerson Process Management’s DeltaV control system with PlantWeb digital plant architecture and FOUNDATION fieldbus. Hawke’s Route-Master power supply system provides these fieldbus devices with intrinsically safe and redundant power.

‘We chose digital plant architecture with fieldbus after much discussion,’ says Roy Tråne, Amersham’s electronic automation manager for this project. ‘We expect a shorter and more effective start-up and the initial cost will be no higher than other approaches. We also anticipate benefits from the diagnostics available via fieldbus, which is well supported by the proven PlantWeb architecture that is designed from the bottom up to deliver the benefits of fieldbus and digital communications.’

John Berra, Emerson Process Management’s president, adds that, ‘This project brings together many of the strengths of our PlantWeb technology and project management services, which will enable Amersham to realize upfront project savings, followed by reduced maintenance costs over the life of the plant.

‘The provision of redundant and intrinsically-safe power for fieldbus devices is key to making fieldbus technology both safe and reliable, essential for the development of process industries in environmentally-sensitive areas, ‘ says Mike O’Neill, director of Hawke’s fieldbus division.

Hawke adds that that its Route-Master drives more than four times the conventional number of devices in hazardous areas, and this segment capacity increase was reportedly a major factor in Amersham’s selecting it. The other significant advantage from Hawke is the availability of device couplers, a complete and clever packaging of all wiring accessories necessary to implement fieldbus so that installation and commissioning is both fast and simple.

The PlantWeb architecture in the Amersham plant will include 21 DeltaV digital automation system operator stations, many on the plant floor, plus 11 processing stations and three engineering stations. Within the DeltaV system, Emerson AMS predictive maintenance software will be key to its FDA validation process.

Control Engineering Daily News DeskJim Montague, news editorjmontague@reedbusiness.com