Not enough time in the day?

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Especially when it comes to new technology – for machine builders every second counts, and that means there’s little or no time to figure out what’s available and how it might fit into the development cycle.

It’s like upgrading your cell phone. You know you should. But you don’t have the time to sit down and figure out all of the new plan’s features – and how to use them. So you keep what you’ve got – old technology, old habits. And if you do upgrade, do you have the time to figure it all out? I hate the thought of potential left untapped for weeks or even for the life of the phone because I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I call this a disincentive to using new technology. It happens with personal electronics, and it happens with machines. So here’s what makes me a better technology user – and I’m guessing it might be the same for you:

1. Auto fill feature. For example, a bill of materials that puts the right components in place based on some original, simple selections. If I put in a drive, the right circuit breaker is added, making it easy to adjust and match the horsepower I picked for my drive. Add in a list of standard accessories, complementary products and useful add-ons and an edit button I can use to make adjustments and quickly see the results, and I’ve just saved significant time learning what’s available and how it can all fit together.
2. .DWG files and not just PDFs. Blank slates are efficiency killers when it comes to the design process. If I can get started with the schematics in my CAD software file format, ready to be customized, then I have jumped past the need to parse through the manuals to find and review the example wiring diagrams and the terminal number tables before even starting the base schematics for the new components.
3. Preset programming files for logic and HMI. Preconfigured screens (with diagnostics and machine-specific text) and standard communication routines will put the right data and the right commands in the right place. That means less time spent learning a specific ‘language’ and more time applying skills and creativity to the task at hand.

These three features can save, and have saved, weeks of engineering time. And they make it easier to add your special genius – the differentiators that separate you from your competition. If you have faced the same problems – too much time spent searching for information, cutting and pasting into separate fields, drawing and redrawing – then take a look at the Connected Components Accelerator Toolkit features designed to make your design time more productive.

quote from: Randy Holterman Programme Manager, Rockwell Automation

Do we need Big Data, or just enough data?

There’s a lot of talk about Big Data – how much data to collect, and what to do with it once you have it.

Indecision – or lack of clarity – at the start of the process can leave decision-makers with lots of granular information but no real solutions.

One problem is that people assume more data is better data – when actually, you can let lot of value from a little or just the right amount of data. And you don’t need to spend millions of dollars to get it; rather, just enough to gain value.

That’s because the Big Data advantage lies within your analytics capability – your ability to draw conclusions and identify patterns. To get those analytics, you can crunch more information, less information, or somewhere between.

To apply Big Data principles to your own operations, first consider what assets are most critical to your operations: "Start with the end in mind and ask yourself questions like, 'What do we want to get out of this data?' and 'What could data tell us if we had it?'"

Use the acronym STAR to help determine what data you want to collect:

1. Simple: The basics will allow people to make quick, informed decisions by providing clear visuals.
2. Timely: In today’s connected enterprise, it is essential to make data available when it’s most needed. Timely availability of data is key to success.
3. Accuracy: This is important, especially for trust and improving a culture of decision making.
4. Relevant: Data should be relevant to whatever the decision-maker is being measured on. If you are being measured on profit, have metrics that help you; if it’s more about uptime, have a KPI (key performance indicator) trained on that.

And remember: the value of Big Data is not in the numbers or statistics or reports; the value is what you learn from the analysis of the information. That means more data is not necessarily better. Some data is better than none, but getting the right data to the right people to make the right decision is the ideal scenario.

Heat Transfer (boiler to energy plant)

State functions for water/steam calculations:
IAPWS Industrial Formulation 1997 (IAPWS-IF97)

ENERGY BALANCE OF THE SYSTEM
============================
DEFINITION OF TOTAL ENERGY

1. Def. 1: Enthalpy minus enthalpy by environmental
   conditions (water as LIQUID) plus HIGHER heating value
   
2. Def. 2: Enthalpy minus enthalpy by environmental
   conditions (water as VAPOUR) plus LOWER heating value
   

PLC Migration Strategy and Implementation

Many small power plants have an outdated Programmable Logic Control (PLC) currently in place. As a PLC reaches the end of its useful life, an upgrade to a new automation system is required.

Once the decision has been made to upgrade, the upgrade strategy must be defined. In most cases, it’s necessary to perform the upgrade with as little downtime and risk as possible, and these requirements determine much of the upgrade strategy.

There are four main strategic decisions that must be made before an upgrade can take place.

First, it must be decided if the new automation system will just replicate the operation of the existing PLC—or improve upon the existing PLC in terms of throughput, quality and other factors. Replication is cheaper up front, but usually much more expensive over the entire life cycle of the new automation system, as many of the benefits of a modern automation system are forfeited.

Second, it must be determined if the upgrade will be vertical or horizontal. In a vertical upgrade, one particular process area is upgraded at a time. In a horizontal upgrade, all similar process units are upgraded simultaneously, generally across multiple process areas. For example, if a plant had 2(two) or more boilers, all would be upgraded at once in a horizontal upgrade, as opposed to upgrading only the boiler(s) in the vertical process unit.

Third, it must be determined if the upgrade will be done by replacing all automation system components simultaneously, or with a phased approach. With a phased approach, the Man Machine Interface (MMI) components are replaced first, followed by the controllers, and finally by the I/O. Replacing the automation system in phases takes longer, but will require less downtime and entail less risk.

The fourth and final strategic decision that must be made is hot versus cold cutover. With hot cutover, the old PLC and the new automation system operate simultaneously, with one control loop at a time migrated from the old PLC to the new automation system at the I/O level. With cold cutover, the old PLC is replaced by the new automation system, with the entire process being restarted at once.

The hot cutover option is more expensive in terms of upgrade costs, but with an overall lower cost in most cases when downtime is taken into account. Risk is also lower with hot cutover as only one loop is converted at a time, with the old PLC still available in case of any unforeseen difficulties with the new automation system.

The faithfuls uphold their faith because they are in a constant search for a meaning for their existence.

I believe that the search should be based on pure knowledge. That is why I have ventured on this journey, the result of which is presented on this site. It is a journey that follows the progress of the human thought in connection with the concepts of divine order, superior beings, the afterlife, paradise, hell, judgment day etc. This journey has nothing to do with the fundamental question: Is there something beyond this world? But it has everything to do with what the human beings thought of themselves and the 'existence' in general.

In this blog, I think about the most complex and unbelievable invention of the human mind. You may call it faith or belief or conviction or persuasion. (The choice is yours). Faith necessitates a belief in a realm full of abstract beings, all of them are superior to mankind, and they all have a control on what man does or what happens to him. They are not of this world that we live in. They don't exist in the physical environment which has become a daily experience for mankind. They are not on the Earth, because man has thought that the Earth was created and reserved for the lowly creatures, amongst whom mankind has a special place. Therefore no one should expect the creator and his entourage to reside amid the lowly creatures.

Thus mankind has established the sky and the celestial spheres as a befitting realm for them because that realm was thought to be an elevated region. It is somewhere up there but no one knows where precisely. No one in those days was knowledgeable enough to realize that when the Universe is in question there is no up or down. The divine realm is visualized as a place where the supreme creator, the council of divine beings, fairies, demons, angels, satan etc. reside.