Advanced enterprise control: Plug-in technology upgrades legacy DCS

By Control Engineering Staff March 15, 2007

I/A Series migration cards from Foxboro Automation help upgrade legacy APACS ACM and ACM+ control systems more easily.

A family of plug-in I/A Series migration cards from Foxboro Automation , a unit of Invensys Process Systems, is helping users of Moore APACS (Advanced Process Automation and Control Systems) more easily upgrade legacy APACS ACM and ACM+ control systems. Migrations to such advanced technology as the latest generation of I/A Series distributed control system (DCS) and Invensys’ InFusion enterprise control system (ECS) technologies are now easier.

The “plug in” migration approach accomplishes the DCS upgrade without having to replace existing field wiring, termination assemblies, system enclosures, or power supplies. The move replaces APACS input/output (I/O) modules with Foxboro I/A Series I/O modules designed to plug into existing system racks. With appropriate upfront planning, database conversion, and off-line testing, the system switchover can be accomplished in hours with minimal, if any, process downtime. Retaining the existing APACS per-channel configurable I/O approach reduces engineering costs and eliminates complicated I/O mapping.

Existing APACS ProcessSuite graphics can be re-used within the Invensys’ advanced InFusion View HMI. InFusion View can be seamlessly layered over the new I/A Series DCS components to achieve a familiar HMI and an initial building block toward implementing a complete InFusion ECS.

The new I/A Series migration modules support the latest Foxboro I/A Series system capabilities including:

Rugged, optionally redundant/fault-tolerant 200 Series I/O modules for nonstop analog, discrete, and HART digital field communications;

High-performance, optionally-redundant/fault-tolerant ZCP- and FCP-270 control processors;

I/A Series Field Device Manager to take advantage of both EDDL and FDT fieldbus technologies to reduce configuration, commissioning, and ongoing support costs for intelligent field devices; and

One GB Mesh Control Network that harnesses proven commercial networking technologies to help ensure unconstrained performance and nonstop communications over the process control network.

Invensys says it has used the plug in migration to help more than 400 customers thus far upgrade legacy Honeywell TDC2000 and TDC3000, Bailey NET 90 and INFI 90, Fisher Provox S10 and S20, Westinghouse WDPF, Siemens Moore APACS, and Foxboro Spectrum and Spec 200 systems to the Foxboro I/A Series technology.

—Edited by Jeanine Katzel , senior editor, Control Engineering