Improve Process Safety Compliance With Safety Transmitters

Oil Refinery

Industrial processes often are characterized by substantial hazard through their operation. As operators, engineers, and designers, we are responsible for keeping those actual and potential hazardous conditions and occurrences in check. I recently wrote about safety transmitters that can be used to enhance safe industrial process operation and provide compliance with applicable standards.

I located a single sheet document that summarizes the features, benefits, cost savings, and compliance ratings for the safety transmitters from United Electric. You can get more detailed information on these devices and how to properly apply them in your process control scheme by contacting a product specialist. Combining you process expertise with their product application knowledge will generate a solid solution.

United Electric One Series Safety Transmitter from Miller Energy, Inc.

Safety Transmitter for Temperature and Pressure in Industrial Processes

One Series Safety Transmitters
Courtesy United Electric Controls

United Electric Controls has developed a safety transmitter that combines transmitter, safety switch, and display gauge in a single, easily deployed device. The One Series Safety Transmitter includes the manufacturer's patented self diagnostics, along with diverse and redundant signal processing that feed algorithms to detect and respond to internal faults and process abnormalities.

The safety transmitter provides a local switch that can be used for rapid emergency shutdown at the point of measurement or detection, eliminating the need to communicate with other safety controllers and await a response. The safety relay output is programmable and can handle high voltages and currents associated with shutting down control valves, compressors, and other industrial equipment.

In addition to the safety relay output, the One Series Safety Transmitter provides logic outputs that can be employed in voting logic schemes often used to produce warnings prior to a shutdown. For reliability, the unit employs no moving parts and includes self diagnostics with a local display of device status.

There is a whole lot more to learn about these "Safety right out of the box" industrial pressure and temperature transmitters. The product brochure is provided below, but you can get the latest and most detailed product and application information from a specialist in industrial process measurement and control.

United Electric One Series Safety Transmitter from Miller Energy, Inc.

Thermal Mass Flow Controller - Product Enhancement

Newly Enhanced Thermal Mass Flow Meters
And Electronic Pressure Controllers
Courtesy Brooks Instrument

Brooks Instrument, world recognized leader in thermal mass flow controllers and mass flow meters, has improved upon its premier family of smart digital thermal mass flow controllers and meters. The newly enhanced SLA Series features:

Enhanced temperature stability
Upgraded electronics
Improved accuracy
Zero-drift diagnostics
High turndown ratio

Multiple communication protocol support, and more.

The video included below will show you all the latest improvements on this product line that has thousands of units in its installed base throughout many industries and applications.

Application assistance and detailed information is available from product specialists. Combine their product and application knowledge with your own process expertise to generate a positive outcome.

Industrial Process Application of Tunable Diode Laser Gas Analyzer

Yokogawa TDLS200 Tunable Diode Laser Gas Analyzer
Photo courtesy Yokogawa Corp.

Yokogawa continues to innovate in the industrial process measurement and control field with their TDLS200 Gas Analyzer. Based on tunable diode laser spectroscopy, these industrial instruments offer calibration stability and fast in situ measurement. They can also be applied in a manner that avoids interference from other gases present in the sample. In the company's own words...

The new Yokogawa TruePeak Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy (TDLS200) Analyzer is one of the most robust process analyzers available designed to make fast, accurate measurements on near-infrared absorbing gases in harsh process environments, where conditions are of high temperature or pressure, it can be used under difficult conditions including environments involving corrosive, aggressive and high particulate content materials. 

The TruePeak Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy (TDLS200) Analyzer is ideally suited to in-situ analysis, particularly for measurements in environments involving changing pressure or temperature. It can operate with process pressures up to 20 bar absolute and process temperature up to 1500°C, has a fast response (from 2 to 20 seconds), and is interference-free for most applications. 

It can measure Carbon monoxide (CO), from low ppm detection limits to percentage levels at process temperatures of up to 1500°C. The analyzer can also be used for measuring parts per million moisture content in corrosive and aggressive process streams including chlorine and hydrocarbons.

The industrial applications for this technology, integrated into an intuitive and user-friendly equipment package, are extensive. Included below is a white paper authored by the company that explains the operating principles, installation and configuration, and capabilities of the unit. Contact a product specialist about your gas measurement and analysis requirements. See how the capabilities of the TDLS200 can improve your process performance.

Yokogawa tunable diode laser gas analyzer and its application to industrial process measurement and control from Miller Energy, Inc.

High Speed, High Performance Control for Weighing Operations

Industrial Batch Process Tanks

Industrial process control implies the presence of industrial process measurement. Throughout our operations, we seek to measure "how much" of something is present. In the case of many materials, weight is the preferred measurement.


Weight is a measurement of force. We can use it as a statement of "how much" because gravity is considered constant across the planet surface. The force I measure for a batch of material in the US will, for commercial purposes, be the same force measured for that material after I ship it to somewhere else. Measurement of weight can be used for establishing proper mixing ratios of components to be combined in a particular manner. The level of material in a tank or other container can be ascertained through a measurement of weight.

In our processes, higher throughput and accuracy are always in demand.

The Vishay Precision Group's BLH/Nobel Weighing Systems operating unit manufactures a high speed, high performance control for industrial weight/force measurement applications. Their G4 line of controllers provides the user a wide range of configurable options, from multiple input channels to analog and digital outputs. The clean user interface provides access to all functions and channels and the unit is available as a freestanding desktop, DIN rail mount, or panel mount unit. There is also a model configured for harsh environments.

The video below provides a good overview of the unit and its potential applications. Contact a product specialist to receive more details, or to discuss how the G4 might be helpful to your process operation.

New Product From United Electric - Hybrid Transmitter for Industrial Use

Series One HART Transmitter
Courtesy United Electric

By mid November, United Electric will begin shipping its new One Series hybrid transmitter-switch models that include HART® Communications Protocol. The newly designed product offering includes a transmitter-only model, as well as another model providing a transmitter plus two solid-state relays. Monitoring pressure or temperature in harsh, hazardous and heavy industrial process measurement and control settings is the target application for these loop-powered transmitters. Models will include UL and ATEX approvals for Divisions 1 & 2 (Zones 1 and 2). With the introduction of the One Series, UE is declaring a number of older models obsolete. You can get a listing of the newly obsolete models from your local UE distributor.

The new combination transmitter and switch model provides a HART® 7 loop-powered transmitter, and includes two programmable solid-state relays, an improved backlit LCD display, and a separate IAWTM health status discrete output.The transmitter-only model is a HART® 7 loop-powered transmitter and also features an improved backlit LCD display.

Some operational benefits, quoted directly from United Electric's product announcement documentation:

• With HART® 7 capability, all of the functions available with the two-button keypad are also available via the HART® Communications Protocol. Using a HART®-compatible hand held communicator or a PC with a HART® modem and appropriate asset management software, users have the ability to quickly configure the One Series, including the switching parameters, and save the configuration in their library for cloning additional controls with the same parameters. We believe this is the only Division 1 electronic switch on the market with HART compatibility!
• If the units are connected to a control system with HART® IO allowing bi-directional communication, configuration can be performed remotely, without the need to remove the enclosure cover in a Division 1 (Zone 1) area.
• Using a HART® capable asset management system, the comprehensive diagnostic functions of the One Series can determine the health status 24x7, saving time and money while allowing operators to focus on other critical issues.
• For cybersecurity purposes, the HART® communications can be set to read-only mode that prohibits parameter changes from unauthorized users and creating a potentially dangerous condition.

You can explore these new products in more detail with your United Electric distributor, taking advantage of their freshly acquired new product knowledge. Find out how the advanced new features of the One Series transmitters can enhance the operation and management of your industrial process.

Recording, Data Logging, and Process Control - Consolidated or Separate Devices?

Integrated  Controller and Data Acquisition Device
Courtesy Yokogawa

Are you a designer or builder of process control systems? Selecting hardware and componentry to provide the functionality, accuracy, and accessibility required to meet process or equipment performance demands can pose some very distinct challenges. When faced with a scope of work that includes multiple PID control loops, data recording, and networking, do you tend to favor using a collection of separate devices for each function, or a consolidated unit that integrates all of the needed functions?

I have designed many control systems throughout my career, and tended toward using separate devices initially. As I gained experience and the feedback that comes from having units in the field for a number of years, my thinking changed and my preference for integrated "single box" solutions began to predominate.

Some reasons to use a consolidated device:

• Likely to take up less panel space than a combination of individual devices.
• Substantially reduced wiring, cabling.
• No tasks associated with getting individual devices to work together, if that is needed. The integrated unit comes out of the box with all of that already accomplished.
• Reduced parts count.
• Simplified panel wiring plan.
• A single HMI encompassing all the provided functions.
• Anyone, end users, service techs, trainers, quality control, that needs to learn about the operation of the system has a single instruction manual to review or learn. Since the functions all come in one unit, there is often some streamlining to the learning process.
• OEMs may be able to use a single component to provide the necessary functions for numerous product versions, bringing measurable time savings throughout the product design, fabrication, and support functions of their organization.
• If spares are required, there is only one.

I have enjoyed good results employing devices that combine numerous functions into a single package. There is a data sheet below, so you can see more about an industrial control, recording, networking device that packs a useful range of functions into a compact unit. 

On your next process control project, consider whether going consolidated or discrete is better for your needs. Talk to a process controls expert and get some additional input. Good solutions are out there.

Yokogawa CX 2000 DAQ Station from Miller Energy, Inc.