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ASK THE EXPERT: The next generation of process control


TODAY industry strives for maximum efficiency—whether of production, assets, or resources—one area being targeted for improvement by many companies is that of control and information architecture. Great strides have been made in recent years towards multidisciplinary systems, where control functions such as logic, safety, process and motion can be delivered by a single integrated platform.

While many companies have embraced these sophisticated multi-functional control platforms to achieve improvements in efficiency and bottom line, there has remained resistance in some industries to the notion of exchanging the traditional distributed control system (DCS) for its modern equivalent. However, the latest advances in technology are challenging this.

The new generation of DCS Process Automation Controllers (PACs) platforms offer built-in DCS and PLC functionality, and are therefore optimised for use in both process automation and discrete control applications. The solution adopted by the industry–PlantPAx.

Here, the focus is on tight integration between component modules, which are either embedded as standard, or available as optional add-ons, depending on the application. This scalable suite of process control solutions has a centrally engineered core system that simplifies configuration and facilitates modularity.

By incorporating seamlessly integrated information and visualisation systems, optimum efficiency of information exchange is achieved, providing real-time access, analysis, and actionability of both process and discrete information.

In utilising a single platform for both process automation and discrete control functionality, companies can not only minimise infrastructure and total cost of ownership, but can also maximise production efficiency. The scalability and flexibility of PlantPAx makes it ideal for unified plant process control.

Andrew Sia
Business Development Manager, Process Solutions
Rockwell Automation