Here in the Austin, Texas area, our Control System Modernization & Migration team recently opened a new Modernization Center. I caught up with Emerson’s Scott Ross about the numerous ways to modernize a system based on the business objectives of the facility. In the Modernization Center, the team shows the many ways to modernize a system in a stepwise fashion.
With some control systems being more than 30+ years old and still operating, most of them have been placed into end-of-life or retired-lifecycle status. This means no further factory support is available.
Manufacturers and producers face options whether to modernize to a newer family of distributed control system (DCS) or programmable logic controller (PLC)—or move the PLC I/O and logic to a DCS, such as the DeltaV system.
Also, for many users with both PLCs and DCSs, the ongoing challenge has been to maintain two databases, keep expertise and skills to manage the systems, and stock sets of spares for each system.
Migrating Legacy DCS/PLCs to DeltaV DCS
Scott highlighted the FlexConnect solutions which provide cost-saving benefits on the order of 30 to 50% of the overall cost of a migration project. These savings are possible since a FlexConnect solution:
- Enables quick cutover (600 I/O points in an 8-hour shift)
- Supports HART Pass-through for device diagnostics & commissioning
- Avoids lifting field wires
- Minimizes cabinet documentation changes
- Enables pre-wiring and testing before the legacy DCS/PLC is migrated to the DeltaV system.
The Modernization & Migration team developed a series of quick switchover solutions for the following platforms:
- Emerson Installed Base; PROVOX 10 & 20-Series I/O and RS3 FIC & FIM I/O
- ABB Bailey INFI 90, CONTRONIC-P and DCI System 6 I/O
- Honeywell IPC 620, TDC 2000 and 3000 I/O
- NovaTech GSE D/3 16000/32000 Series I/O
- Rockwell Automation, Allen Bradley, PLC-5 / 1771 I/O
- Schneider Foxboro I/A Series 100 and 200 I/O
- Schneider Modicon Quantum TSX 140 PLC I/O
- Siemens-Moore APACS+ / QUADLOG I/O
- Siemens SIMATIC S5 115/135 PLC I/O
- Valmet-Metso Damatic XD I/O
This modernization path also delivers a single DeltaV database to maintain by migrating the legacy DCS and PLC ladder logic to a system-wide function block language. There are many documentation and conversion tools available to assist in assessing and executing the project.
Contact your local sales office or Emerson Impact Partner for more on the capabilities and delivery times on these modernization solutions or visit the Modernization & Migration section on Emerson.com.
Read this article on things to consider in modernizing DCS and PLC with Electronic Marshalling. You can also connect and interact with other modernization and DeltaV experts in the Services group and DeltaV forum in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
