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Open Evolution

Until recently, integration has been a concept applied primarily to control valves. While control valves serve

more sophisticated ends and cost considerably more per unit, on-off valves represent the vast majority (more

than 90%) of the valves found in process environments. Reducing the ownership costs of on-off valve populations

through integration, both at the device and at the network level, will make a much bigger overall impact on

plant O&M budgets.

Reliable first generation integrated automation packages for on-off valve installed today will set the stage for

higher orders of integration later. During the early stages, it is important to consider both the immediate value of

the chosen solution as well as longer term benefits of linking with open system management tools in the near

future. The best choice will provide superior long and short-term paybacks.

For example, the Cintac Advanced Automation System with on-board diagnostics, currently under development,

will feature sensors in the unit that will detect the five most common problem sources and show them with LED

indicators. This solution will allow plants to equip critical on-off valves with diagnostics without having to invest

heavily in specialized asset management infrastructure.

Additional open products will be available to facilitate remotely monitoring and analyzing on-off valves and

other field devices to improve their availability and reduce maintenance costs. Plants that have already realized

savings by installing on-off valves with integrated automation will not find the incremental cost of these

network-based improvements to be prohibitive.

Selecting Advanced Automation Solutions forOn-Off Valves: Reduce Costs, Improve Reliabilityand Functionality

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aperBy: Eric Fillion, Marketing Manager, Metso Automation

Manufacturers of on-off valves and accessories have made significant advances in the realm of design, materials

selection and manufacturing techniques to reduce both the unit and total ownership costs of their products. To

further reduce costs and improve both reliability and functionality, manufacturers are now looking at integration

at the automated on-off valve network and component level.

At the network level, integration borrows extensively from lessons learned using control valves with bus

architecture. Bus networks can dramatically reduce the cost of hard-wiring automated on-off valves. What’s more,

smart on-off valve automation packages collect performance data captured at the on-off valve for analysis by a

remote computer for more effective asset management. While this sort of integration has a great deal of appeal

and merit for anticipated future applications, it is not a reality today for most processing plants.

At the component level, integration is all about taking the various pieces used to construct a valve automation

package, optimizing them for cost and reliability, and delivering them in a complete, seamless package. Users of

automated on-off valves can realize savings from this type of integration immediately. After they become

confident with the exceptional reliability of the integrated solution, users will benefit from additional cost

reductions as the result of the advantages that advanced networking and diagnostic capabilities offers.

Reliability is the Key to Valve Automation

When selecting advanced automation solutions for on-off valves, there are several things to consider, with

reliability being foremost. No feature of the device you are looking at to deliver advanced on-off valve automation

should detract from reliability and, ideally, it should improve reliability.

To determine if an integrated automation package passes the reliability hurdle, three areas should be evaluated:

• Determine to what extent the product you are considering relies on robust, field proven sub-components,

particularly communications electronics, positioner and actuator.

• Review test data, with emphasis on accelerated aging studies to see how the product stands up to testing

administered in a laboratory setting.

• Field test a small number and watch them closely. Most on-off valves today are expected to operate for hundreds

of thousands, even millions of cycles before they fail. Fortunately, most failures due to a manufacturing or design

flaw occur early in a product’s operating life.

If these three areas meet your objectives for cost savings, test data and operating results, you can feel confident

about installing more units.

Once it has been determined that integrated on-off valve automation has little if any downside for an application,

focus can shift to what advantages are associated with making the switch. These advantages will be derived from

the inherent benefits of integration as well as the design innovations manufacturers incorporate into their

version(s) of this new class of product.

Value Added by Integration

When upgrading to integrated automation packages, rather than individual components, – such as solenoids,

communications terminals, and actuators – a processing plant should expect to gain:

• Improved reliability – all subcomponents are factory-assembled and fully enclosed in a single unit and

subjected to rigorous quality assurance standards.

• Lower cost – due to package pricing and reduced inventories of components at the plant

• Faster installation – since all of the tubing and connections previously required are accommodated within

the integrated automation package.

In addition to the generic benefits of integration, the meticulous process of designing and engineering a new

valve automation package offers the manufacturer an opportunity to evaluate and implement new and unique

components to improve the reliability and usefulness of the product. Some of the features plant engineers will

encounter when they begin to evaluate this type of advanced valve automation system, especially when

compared to competitive integrated on-off valve automated packages, include:

• Swappable Parts. Parts that snap in and out for fast repairs in the field.

• Universal Power Input. Built-in rectifiers allow automation packages to be plugged into any voltage

source up to 120 V.

• Bus Network Capable. In addition to communicating via standard wiring, units may be supplied

with cards that make them "plug and play" with any commonly used bus network (e.g., ASI, DeviceNet,

ModBus and Foundation FieldBus).

• Push-Button Switch Setting. Calibration is a simple matter of pneumatically or manually moving

the valve to full open (as indicated by a sensor light), pushing a membrane button, then moving it to

full closed and pushing another. This simple procedure that takes seconds accurately sets the limits

of travel for the soft limit switches.

• Soft Limit Switches. Contact-free soft limit switches eliminate surface contact and mechanical switches

to substantially improve reliability of the device. Soft switches sense a magnetic field to determine

when limits stored in non-volatile EPROM flash memory have been reached.

• Magnetic Direction Sensing. Most contact-free limit switches depend on a magnetic field strength

sensor that will produce a distorted signal when there is axial thrust on the ball. An alternate approach is

to use a contact-free sensor that monitors rotational direction instead of magnetic field strength. This

type of sensing is not distorted by axial thrust.

• Internal corrosion protection. There is no external tubing on the integrated automation package.

Instead, air is transferred via the spool in and out of the actuator.

• Certifications. Standard products available with a wide range of NEMA and other certifications eliminate

the need to inventory a large number of special automation packages for difficult environments.