Integration is not limited to within one's own factory, but according to Festo, is increasingly supporting data transfer and data synchronisation with external systems. In the future, production sites, suppliers and customers will work increasingly closer with each other, predicts Festo. “To enable this, it is crucial to have standardised interfaces and data formats as well as high performance networks and connections”.
Increasing decentralised automation
Valve manufacturers are on the move. “In the past years, there has been a significant increase in decentralised automation of process valves, precisely in step with digital communication,” confirms Sebastian Kundel, Product Manager Automation Process Valves at Bürkert. The benefits that can be reaped in the design, planning and construction of plants are in the forefront. Decentralised Artificial Intelligence for the diagnosis and digital transfer of data have been relatively less implemented. In the meanwhile, technical possibilities and software features would become more self-evident. There is a critical shift of thinking in using status data beneficially, says Kundel. “A transparent view of plants, machines and production processes will be possible and enable new business models for operations, service and maintenance”.
Digitalization of control valves
According to Samson, to start with, sophisticated valves are fitted with position controllers. On the other hand, there are simple valves – for example On/Off valves – that are still equipped primarily with solenoid valves and/or limit switches. Their digitalization may not be that advanced, although Samson also offers solutions here too. “On the one hand the valves must pass on information to the entire system, and on the other hand they must be capable of receiving information from the system”. In case of Off/On valves, we are still a “long way” from reaching the high level of digitalization that we see in control valves.
Higher plant availability
Samson is absolutely convinced by digitalization too. It enables round the clock monitoring of valves. Directly ascertainable values like set point, actual value, control deviation and driving pressure can be recorded continuously and additional information can be added to these in the future.
The position controller notifies the user in advance of an error condition in and on the valve. Notifications like “internal leakage” or “actuator defect” require no further data interpretation by the user. Digitalization along with the valve diagnosis feature integrated within the position controller enables increased plant availability “as potential error conditions can be early detected and rectified”. According to Samson, the future goal is to completely avoid error conditions, which could be achieved with approaches like feed forward control and practical maintenance management.
Software equipped field devices
Significant drivers are the general rise in the automation level, plant availability and productivity along with high quality standards. In parallel, software equipped field devices have become the norm and many devices in the market now come with digitised operations. “The share of digitally automated process valves has strongly increased and has now reached a significant level”. With developments like the IO-link, a communication system used for connecting intelligent sensors and actuators to an automation system, the growth has not quite stopped. The definition of properties that are important for process technology in the specification, particularly with respect to functional safety, is still under way,” explains Sebastian Kundel.
Digitalization of control and switch-based valves, according to Bürkert, signifies decentralised plant design. The company is developing solutions. An example is the valves system with integrated position or process controllers and control heads in process valves. Only in this manner can process data, for example, on valve position and process dimensions and diagnosis data for functional safety and maintenance requirement, be made available continuously to the process through sensors and related analysis. And transferred in digital form from the field level to the master level.
Industry 4.0 as a philosophy
Digitalization and industry 4.0 surely influence customer products, in the sense that they must be ready for industry 4.0, but they also influence the internal processes of valve manufacturers. SMC illustrates this with the example of its paperless assembly operations. “Earlier we used to have printed drawings and instructions. But today our employees in assembly operations have a Tablet-PC from where they access the latest and up-to-date instructions and bills of materials. This reduces error rates and media breaks,” says Christian Ziegler, Digitalization Manager at SMC.
Ziegler thinks that Digitalization and industry 4.0 are neither about products or services, but a philosophy. An industry 4.0 solution for one customer looks completely different than that for another customer as their requirements are completely different. “Of course, there are a few fundamental trends that we all follow”. One of which is horizontal and vertical integration. We can derive more product requirements from such integration. Because integration needs appropriate interfaces. It is important that such interfaces are manufacturer-independent and work across manufacturers. According to Ziegler, such standards are emerging and taking shape in the market.
Product data management is essential
A basic element in the implementation of digitalization at Bürkert is Product Life Cycle Management (PLM). PLM is the holistic, companywide management and control of all product data and processes related to the complete life cycle across the extended supply chain – from design and production to sales right up to dismantling and recycling. “To do this we need organised data structures, that can ensure that the data is stored in such a manner that it can be accessed quickly when needed, for example product tables,” explains Sebastian Kundel, Product Manager Automation Process Valves. The key enabler for this is Product Data Management that stores data from product development and makes it available for the downstream phases in the product life cycle.
A quantum leap of possibilities
Digital switch-based and regulator-based valves represent a quantum leap in the possibilities they offer for process automation. The advantages are diverse, says Bürkert. The switch from analogue to digital signal transfer provides many benefits. Amongst them are enhanced resolution, signal reliability and reduced wiring effort and costs by bringing together several field devices. It simplifies plant construction. Other benefits are ease in project planning, time savings in wiring, mapping and commissioning. “If you look at the operational safety of the plant, users benefit from higher transparency, better machine availability through important information on preventive maintenance, faster and safer device exchange as well as device specific documentation,” explains Kundel. Organised and easy to access data structures of automation components up to process valves, play a key role in achieving this. “Process management itself becomes more transparent and helps focus on improving efficiency”.
Varying digital-standards
But how successful can implementation of the required technology be? Varying standards in digital communication are often the obstacles for data exchange from smart valves to process control. “On one side there are fieldbus standards such as PROFIBUS. and then we have rapid developments on the Industrial Ethernet front such as for example PROFINET, EtherNet IP, Modbus TCP and others,” says Kundel. The challenge lies in meaningfully dealing with diagnostic data, which means using and interpreting it correctly. Digitalization also implies new tasks and responsibilities for people working in plant planning, construction, installation, commissioning and operations.
Digitalization for highly automated processes
“Particularly important is digitalization of highly automated processes. Products with high quality standards demand validation of process operations,” explains Kundel. This can be particularly seen in the food, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. In this regard, it is important to avoid machine down time not just for reasons of cost, but also to ensure product quality and safety. “In sectors with lower levels of automation, the significance of digitalization is also lower”.
In spite of all the advantages, industry 4.0 has its risks. IT safety solutions are a must, according to Festo, not just for system reliability but also as protection against attacks from outside. “Requirements for data safety, protection of intellectual property and other statutory requirements must be adapted and further developed”.
No one size fits all solution
Bürkert is certain that digital valves – whether regulator or switch based – will be the norm in many application areas. Ease of use and functional reliability will be at the forefront for the user, but information volume “will be at a significantly higher level”.
But there will be no universal solution. “We must each think carefully on the possibilities of digitalization,” highlights Christian Ziegler of SMC. “Which aspects of digitalization can I use in my products, processes, tools and services? How can I use them? It is important to think about this. It cannot be done in passing. It is too important to be treated superfluously. Top Management must provide the freedom and space for this. It is only then that one can be creative”.
Destination unknown
In Ziegler's view “we are still at the beginning of our journey. No one knows, where the journey will end. The horizon we see as we begin a journey is not quite the same horizon, once we have been for two hours into the journey”. The only one thing we can wish for is a great journey!
Innovatations in the fields of valves and pumps will be presented at VALVE WORLD EXPO, No 1 fair for industrial valves, from December, 1 to 3, 2020 in halls 1, 3 and 4 at Düsseldorf Fairgrounds.
