Principles of Ultrasonic Flow in Industrial Clamp On Flow Meters

The video below demonstrate the principles applied to industrial clamp on flow meters using the SITRANS FS as an example.

The ultrasonic technology of the SITRANS clamp on flow meter provides highly accurate measurement of liquids and gases. With no pressure drop or energy loss, a wide turn-down ratio and no need to cut the pipe or stop the flow, installation is easy and maintenance is minimal.

For more information about ultrasonic flow meters, contact Ives Equipment at 877-768-1600 or visit http://www.ivesequipment.com.

Automation Federation, Oil & Gas and DHS Work Together for Cybersecurity

The Oil & Gas industry explore, extract, and deliver vital energy via a finely-tuned network of worldwide control systems. These systems used to be isolated proprietary systems, but they're now connected to the Internet just like so many other of our critical infrastructures, and are now susceptible to the same vulnerabilities that we see reported on a daily basis.

Since 2006 the Automation Federation has been the Host Organization for LOGIIC (Linking Oil and Gas Industry to Improve Cybersecurity.) This has been a successful collaboration between the Automation Federation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the members of LOGIIC.

Over the past decade, the LOGIIC consortium has designed tools and techniques to protect critical systems on a global scale, from research & development through practical implementation. LOGIIC is a visionary project. It was one of the first of its kind including partners that would normally compete against each other. LOGIC is about collaborating in cyber security.

Check out the new video about the success of LOGIIC here!

The Cyber Security Division of the DHS Science & Technology Directorate leads an ongoing consortium that began with a single partner in 2004 and now includes five major oil & gas companies and the Automation Federation, supported by world-class vendors and research organizations. It's a global engagement with global impact on cyber security. LOGIIC is one team. It's important to be international because a threat does not come from one country or from another one country.

Since its inception, LOGIIC has successfully completed eight major projects, with plans for many more.  Upon completion of selected projects, LOGIIC delivers public reports to help elevate best practices across the entire industry. Both the member companies and the government are putting funds towards these projects which benefits not only the private sector, but also the public interest. Companies are applying these learnings within their organizations, because it helps bridge the gap between information technology and the industrial-environment sides of the organization.

The lessons learned through the LOGIIC projects allows the roll out of higher level cyber security and protection across all the industries. DHS is a key contributor to LOGIIC and to the success of the projects year after year. In addition to providing that technical expertise and environments such as labs and research institutes, they’re able to conduct substantial testing, and act as a conduit to make it all happen. LOGIIC started as a new model and a vision. Members came to the table, bought into the vision, and now LOGIIC is delivering real results to protect the modern industrial infrastructure.

To recognize the success of LOGIIC, DHS has released a video that features the efforts of LOGIIC. You can see the video here on the Ives Equipment Community Page.

Prevent Downtime: Make Sure Your Process Measurement Device Is Protected

You're a process measurement and control engineer. Everybody is looking to you to make things work smoothly. When things fail, chances are someone is going to point a finger at you and ask why you didn't think of that bizarre confluence of events that managed to take things down. Let's look at a piece of your universe where some careful consideration will help keep disaster at bay.

Industrial Process Flow Meters
Courtesy Siemens Industry, Inc.

Industrial processes require measurement to produce predictable, consistent, and desirable outcomes. It follows that there will be numerous data gathering points throughout the physical extent of the process, each staffed by a transmitter designed to measure temperature, pressure, flow, or some other process variable used to assure conformance of the operating process with its specifications. Each process measurement device must be carefully selected for accuracy, stability, and a number of other technical elements that make it well suited to measure the dynamic activity of your industrial process. Proper technical selection of the measurement hardware is certainly a key function that leads to a successful project. What other factors may play a role in delivering a well functioning, long lasting process measurement system?

The technical aspects of a process measurement and control device are but one consideration in product specification and installation. They come into play only when the device is working. Look at the event or condition possibilities, even those with very low perceived probability, that might take the measurement device out of action. Your research and good judgement, along with input from experienced application engineers will help you decide which to incorporate into your design and specifications.

Industrial Temperature Transmitters
Courtesy Siemens Industry, Inc.

• Know the very extremes of weather conditions that may occur at the physical location of the device.
  Weather data for almost anywhere in the world, and certainly every major industrialized country, is readily available. Your device should be able to withstand the onslaught of any documented local condition on record, with some headroom included. Even if the process is planned to be shut down in unusual weather conditions, the temperature transmitter or other device you specified needs to be able to survive and immediately return to service when the process is restarted. Find local weather data and make it part of your process measurement device specification and selection process.
• Know the process generated extremes that can impact device functionality.
  Of course, you will select a pressure transmitter or other measurement device to accommodate the generally expected conditions associated with the process. Consider, though, what other conditions might be produced coincidental to the process. There may be machinery, valves, or other physical events not contemplated here that might, on occasion, produce a local condition that can damage your transmitter. Look for potential sources of vibration, shock, temperature, or other elements that might have potential to take your measurement device out of service.
• Know the security exposure of the device.
  Something rarely considered in the past, an assessment of who might want to commit malicious acts against the process stakeholders or the process itself, and how they might do it, should now be a part of all project designs at some level. Additionally, the ability for anyone to impact process operation, directly or indirectly, through its measuring devices should be well understood.
• Know the physical contact hazards.
  Measurement devices need to be accessible for calibration, maintenance, even real-time observation in some cases. They also need to be protected from impact resulting from human activity related to operation, maintenance, and repair of nearby items. Often, flow meters or other process variable transmitters are located adjacent to traffic areas of the facility. This eases access for maintenance and repair, but also exposes the devices to damage from other activity along those traffic lanes. Consider the physical location and protection of installed devices to thwart the effects of unplanned contact with dollies, carts, boxes, dropped tools, and a host of other unpredictable happenings.
• Know moisture.
  The vast array of modern industrial measurement devices employ electronics in their function. These electronics, along with possibly other parts of the device, must be protected from the harmful effects of moisture. Specify the proper enclosure and connection devices, as well as the manner in which they need to be installed in order to assure proper protection. The entrance of moisture into a device enclosure can be very slow, almost undetectable in the short term. Assure that barriers to moisture entry are adequate, as well as, in appropriate cases, a way for accumulated moisture to easily exit the enclosure.

Invest your time and effort to produce a solid installation with a trouble free life cycle. Then sleep well. Consult with an experienced engineering sales team for help with your application.

Going International With Your Design - Solenoid Operated Valves

This is where your customers are now.

It's no secret to you, Engineer, that the world is densely populated with standards and approvals. No matter where you live or work, the process equipment designs that flow from your workstation, your team, your company, are more likely than ever to end up on foreign shores.

Solenoid Valve

Solenoid operated valves are ubiquitous, even a little mundane in their apparent simplicity, but still require expertise for proper specification and application. The jurisdictional requirements for a valve assembly applied in the same manner can vary from one country to another. This can be especially important when designing equipment or processes that may be installed in different parts of the world, such as United States and European Union production plants of a single company.

Fortunately, many manufacturers now provide valves with multiple approvals from around the world to facilitate the use of a single component across a wide geographic and jurisdictional range. Even with this accommodation, it is still the specifying engineer’s responsibility to select the correct valve, not only for the application, but for a regulatory environment that is populated with standards and approvals that can be difficult to coordinate with confidence. One prominent valve manufacturer has authored a white paper that provides some insight into navigating this challenge, outlining an array of international approval agencies and providing a clear explanation of how T-codes (temperature codes) vary between US and EU agencies. The white paper is available on request and is a must-read for any engineer specifying or servicing solenoid valves.

Put A Process Control Sales Engineer On Your Team For Improved Outcome and Efficiency

When it comes to specifying engineered products
a technical sales rep may be your best source.

Projects and tasks are best completed and accomplished through the proper application of the right resources. There exists an access point to high level technical knowledge and assistance that can be easily tapped and brought to bear on your successful task or project completion.  
Local distributors and representatives for process equipment and control manufacturers provide services that may help you save time and cost, while also achieving a better outcome for the entire project. Consider a few elements the technical sale rep brings to your project…

Product Knowledge: Sales engineers will be current on product offerings, proper application, and capabilities. They also have information regarding what products may be obsolete in the near future. This is an information source at a level not generally accessible to the public via the Internet.

Experience: As a project engineer, you may be treading on fresh ground regarding some aspects of your current assignment. There can be real benefit in connecting to a source with past exposure to your current issue. 

Access: Through a technical sales engineer, you may be able to establish a connection to “behind the scenes” manufacturer contacts with essential information not publicly available. The rep knows people, makes it his/her business to know the people that can provide answers to your  application questions.

Certainly, any solutions proposed are likely to be based upon the products sold by the representative. That is where considering and evaluating the benefits of any proposed solutions become part of achieving the best project outcome.

Develop a professional, mutually beneficial relationship with a technical sales team. Their success is tied to your success and they are eager to help you. 

Welcome to the Ives Equipment Blog

Thanks for visiting! In the upcoming weeks, months and years we hope to fill this site with interesting and useful information on a wide variety of process control topics. From pressure, temperature, level, flow, and analytical instrumentation, to control valves and valve automation, this blog will provide its visitors insight to how things work in industrial automation and process engineering.