Safekick and Siemens Form Strategic Alliance to Develop Sophisticated Well Control System for Oil and Gas

Siemens Industry and Houston, Texas-based oil and gas specialist Safekick Americas have joined forces to develop a new well control system that will automatically control the choke manifold of an oil/gas well by measuring the flow and pressure of the fluid on strategic points and for influx and loss detection. “Oil well control events can go seriously wrong so it’s imperative that sophisticated safety systems are deployed to regain control of the well immediately,” says... Read More

Realizing the Potential of Automation Integration

Integrating control systems used to be an ongoing exercise in jury-rigging bridges between islands of automation. Different processes would have disparate controllers, often with disparate control logic packages leading to a near endless state of troubleshooting and massaging systems so they would get along. Every time you added a new system or piece of equipment you would have to revisit your integration efforts to make sure you hadn’t compromised something. “Even today,... Read More

Building a Cyber Secure Plant

Despite what many automation professionals believe, the Stuxnet malware attacks on Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA and PCS7 DCS systems that came to light this past July were not the first time industrial control systems have been targeted by hackers. A quick scan through the RISI database (Repository of Industrial Security Incidents) turns up several such attacks that have not garnered the same kind of attention earned by Stuxnet. For example, with Venezuela devastated by a politically... Read More

Reliable Protection of 24 VDC Load Circuits

When overloads and short circuits occur, there’s always a tradeoff between the power supply shutting down the entire 24 VDC supply and keeping load circuits that aren’t impacted by the failure continuing to run. The new SITOP PSE200U electronic diagnostic module from Siemens Industry Automation Division constantly monitors up to four 24 VDC load circuits for overloads and short circuits.“Today’s switched-mode power supplies provide advanced functionality, by protecting... Read More

New Equipment Regulations Loom

One thing that’s certain about regulations: they’re bound to change. Europe is making significant alterations to one of the primary ruling documents for production equipment, adding requirement that should improve safety while putting more focus on risk assessment. The European Union’s Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) goes into effect Dec. 29, replacing the longstanding Machinery Directive (98/37/EC). “This is a major rewrite, the last one that was this broad was more... Read More

Reduce Arc Flash Accidents Using Totally Integrated Automation

Several years ago Henry was the maintenance manager at a large manufacturing facility. He was married, had a very upbeat personality, a good position at the company, and was pleasant to be around. One day, Henry was trying to track down a low voltage problem and was conducting voltage measurements on a 4,160V to 480V dry type transformer on an upper level mezzanine. He took off the transformer cover, knelt down in front of it with a meter to test the 480V side and got the 4,160V... Read More

Busting the Silos Around Safety

“In business and government everyone exists in silos,” says Michael Taubitz. “Production, Safety, Administration, Quality, and all the others. They have their own industry groups, their own issues, etc. But when you are designing you have to do that as a well integrated whole. You have to bust the damned silos.”Taubitz, now retired, who spent 43 years at General Motors, most of it working as the company’s top safety standards executive, says that this is especially... Read More

OSHA Cracks Down on Machine Safety: End Users Beware!

Over the past couple years, safety regulations in the U.S. have undergone a dramatic shift. National Consensus Standards, such as ANSI, are putting more emphasis on risk assessment for equipment manufacturers, equipment modifiers and in some cases, the end user. It is expected that future revisions of such standards will require more and more risk assessments be performed by end users. According to some current standards the end users may also be considered equipment modifiers.“This... Read More

Integrated Safety Simplifies Installations, Upgrades

Safety has undergone a major change since the start of the decade. Integrated safety has become the new watchword following a change to U.S. safety standards that eliminated the requirement for dedicated, hardwired safety architectures.In 2002, the standards that dictate industrial safety in the U.S. were revised, allowing safety to be designed into controllers. That change from dedicated, hardwired safety systems marked a huge change in system design. This allowed for harmonizing... Read More

Controllers Now Handle Safety and Machine Functions

Making equipment safe for operators has always been a difficult task, but it’s becoming much easier. PC-based controllers can now be used to program safety features and functions, eliminating much of the complexity associated with segregated safety systems and buses. Siemens has unveiled what it says is the first PC-based software controller, the SIMATIC WinAC RTX F. Expanding the SIMATIC line to include safety simplifies the task of engineers who want to meet the most demanding... Read More