A well-known figure at fieldbus seminars around the Asian circuit, Volker Schulz has been the Technical Marketing Manager–PROFIBUS at Siemens Pte. Ltd. Since 2004. He is also Vice President of the ISA Chapter in Singapore. He shares is experience and in-depth knowledge about fieldbuses with CE Asia.
CE Asia: Tell us more about the proliferation of digital fieldbus technology?Schulz: The idea of networking field instruments over a digital bus – thus forming a fieldbus, has been a topic of high interest in the automation community from the day of conception in the early 80s. Although many committees and consortiums were formed, disbanded or merged over the years to develop standards for fieldbus technologies, they shared a common and consistent belief that a fieldbus would be a key technology enabling communication possibilities in and around control systems that were otherwise unattainable.The continuous demand for higher efficiency, improved product quality and tighter integration of manufacturing operations with corporate planning systems can only be achieved by close links between the individual processes along the value added chain. A fieldbus-based system opens up the possibility for “information integration” that helps to realize these common goals of every operating company.Over the years, user demands in specific industry sectors as well as automation suppliers with strategic presence in these sectors have led to the development of several different fieldbus technology solutions, each with its own characteristics and application limits. In spite of the differences in these fieldbus technologies, the IEC has standardized ten of the most popular types in IEC 61158 and IEC 61784-1.CE Asia: Are there any applications sectors of the industry that particularly benefit from PROFIBUS?Schulz: The universal appeal of PROFIBUS is particularly evident in the “hybrid” production plants that are common in the process industry. In addition to the main continuous or batch manufacturing process, other ancillary inbound and outbound logistics processes are almost always present and need automation. Examples of typical inbound logistics processes are supply, raw materials warehousing or proportioning systems while outbound logistics processes are product weighing systems and packaging machines. In numbers, these discrete applications are often in the majority. In addition, it is also necessary to consider hazardous areas with a demand for intrinsic safety as well as safety-relevant applications. And the variety of devices used includes everything from a simple switch or conventional 4-to-20mA device to complex process devices such as drives and frequency converters to safety equipment such as light arrays or scanners.CE Asia: What about maintenance and asset management?Schulz: In industrial plants with fieldbus communication, the information obtainable from intelligent field devices about their own operational status and that of their immediate process environment is of significant practical potential (diagnostics), particularly for plant maintenance and thus for an important aspect of asset management. In its communication mechanism as well as in the PA Devices application profile for the process devices, PROFIBUS provides functionalities which enable detailed diagnostics, including specific sorting rules for analyzing and displaying the information obtained in the control system. The diagnostic information makes it possible to identify deviations between setpoints (efficiency, availability) and the actual plant status, and enable the user, among other things, to optimize his maintenance concept.CE Asia: Can you give us the latest insight into the adoption rate of fieldbus technology worldwide?Schulz: The latest ARC study confirms the real fieldbus priorities. This new process industry end user fieldbus study from Boston-based market analysts ARC is set to reveal fresh insights into long established ‘fieldbus’ beliefs. The study reveals that the most desirable feature of a fieldbus is the closely-coupled nature of process and discrete automation. It compares today’s beliefs with a similar survey carried out in 2003. Then, the fieldbus ‘vision’ for most process users was still in its infancy. With more experience behind them, process users now feel that simple and close integration of mainstream processes with upstream and downstream segments is their biggest need.The survey returned 227 questionnaires. Only answers from end users, system integrators and OEMs were considered. In contrast to the last survey, where the results were very much shaped by North America, just under 40 percent came from the USA, with contributions from Latin America up from 2 to 8 percent. Europe accounted for 34 percent. The chemicals industry had the largest participation rate at 17 percent followed by the food & beverages industry, oil and gas industry, pharmaceuticals industry and pulp & paper industry and power generation. The cross-section from the process industry was therefore much more represented this time.In 2003, only a very small share of the participants would have confidently used field bus systems for “Mission Critical Applications”. The latest results reveal, however, that the acceptance level in the process industry has already risen to 27 percent. A convincing 61 percent aims to use new field bus systems for new installations. Some 26 percent plan to do so within the next three years and only 9 percent have not yet drawn up any plans.
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CE Asia: Tell us more about the proliferation of digital fieldbus technology?Schulz: The idea of networking field instruments over a digital bus – thus forming a fieldbus, has been a topic of high interest in the automation community from the day of conception in the early 80s. Although many committees and consortiums were formed, disbanded or merged over the years to develop standards for fieldbus technologies, they shared a common and consistent belief that a fieldbus would be a key technology enabling communication possibilities in and around control systems that were otherwise unattainable.The continuous demand for higher efficiency, improved product quality and tighter integration of manufacturing operations with corporate planning systems can only be achieved by close links between the individual processes along the value added chain. A fieldbus-based system opens up the possibility for “information integration” that helps to realize these common goals of every operating company.Over the years, user demands in specific industry sectors as well as automation suppliers with strategic presence in these sectors have led to the development of several different fieldbus technology solutions, each with its own characteristics and application limits. In spite of the differences in these fieldbus technologies, the IEC has standardized ten of the most popular types in IEC 61158 and IEC 61784-1.CE Asia: Are there any applications sectors of the industry that particularly benefit from PROFIBUS?Schulz: The universal appeal of PROFIBUS is particularly evident in the “hybrid” production plants that are common in the process industry. In addition to the main continuous or batch manufacturing process, other ancillary inbound and outbound logistics processes are almost always present and need automation. Examples of typical inbound logistics processes are supply, raw materials warehousing or proportioning systems while outbound logistics processes are product weighing systems and packaging machines. In numbers, these discrete applications are often in the majority. In addition, it is also necessary to consider hazardous areas with a demand for intrinsic safety as well as safety-relevant applications. And the variety of devices used includes everything from a simple switch or conventional 4-to-20mA device to complex process devices such as drives and frequency converters to safety equipment such as light arrays or scanners.CE Asia: What about maintenance and asset management?Schulz: In industrial plants with fieldbus communication, the information obtainable from intelligent field devices about their own operational status and that of their immediate process environment is of significant practical potential (diagnostics), particularly for plant maintenance and thus for an important aspect of asset management. In its communication mechanism as well as in the PA Devices application profile for the process devices, PROFIBUS provides functionalities which enable detailed diagnostics, including specific sorting rules for analyzing and displaying the information obtained in the control system. The diagnostic information makes it possible to identify deviations between setpoints (efficiency, availability) and the actual plant status, and enable the user, among other things, to optimize his maintenance concept.CE Asia: Can you give us the latest insight into the adoption rate of fieldbus technology worldwide?Schulz: The latest ARC study confirms the real fieldbus priorities. This new process industry end user fieldbus study from Boston-based market analysts ARC is set to reveal fresh insights into long established ‘fieldbus’ beliefs. The study reveals that the most desirable feature of a fieldbus is the closely-coupled nature of process and discrete automation. It compares today’s beliefs with a similar survey carried out in 2003. Then, the fieldbus ‘vision’ for most process users was still in its infancy. With more experience behind them, process users now feel that simple and close integration of mainstream processes with upstream and downstream segments is their biggest need.The survey returned 227 questionnaires. Only answers from end users, system integrators and OEMs were considered. In contrast to the last survey, where the results were very much shaped by North America, just under 40 percent came from the USA, with contributions from Latin America up from 2 to 8 percent. Europe accounted for 34 percent. The chemicals industry had the largest participation rate at 17 percent followed by the food & beverages industry, oil and gas industry, pharmaceuticals industry and pulp & paper industry and power generation. The cross-section from the process industry was therefore much more represented this time.In 2003, only a very small share of the participants would have confidently used field bus systems for “Mission Critical Applications”. The latest results reveal, however, that the acceptance level in the process industry has already risen to 27 percent. A convincing 61 percent aims to use new field bus systems for new installations. Some 26 percent plan to do so within the next three years and only 9 percent have not yet drawn up any plans.
