Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition

Nashua, NH – Semaphore, a CSE-Global company, has introduced a firmware update that allows its T-BOX line of RTU products to communicate with a network of Coronis Systems wireless sensor products. The T-BOX RTU line is the first IP-based telemetry solution that enables complete integration of SCADA, control, and communications functionality in one rugged package and the addition of a driver for one of the world’s leading wireless sensors gives users even greater flexibility in implementing cost-effective SCADA system solutions.

The driver brings the benefits of T-BOX technology to SCADA system applications such as automated meter reading (AMR), industrial monitoring, and infrastructure management. The T-BOX RTU can serve information including alarms, live status, machine health, trends, and historical reports to multiple recipients via the Internet, Intranets, e-mail, or SMS text messaging. The T-BOX RTU further provides programmable control functionality.

Coronis Systems sensor products provide a reliable solution for monitoring and recording process data wirelessly in energy, food & beverage, industrial, and water supply applications. Based on Wavenis ultra low power (ULP) wireless technology, the Coronis Systems sensor products benefit from extremely long battery life and make wireless solutions possible even in the most hard-to-reach places.

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ICONICS, an award-winning Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and provider of Web-enabled, OPC-based, HMI/SCADA Visualization and Manufacturing Intelligence software for Microsoft Windows® operating systems, announced an agreement with Kepware Technologies, a leader in OPC device communications for automation.

ICONICS and Kepware have signed a partnership agreement to create the world’s first total end-to-end OPC-UA solution. The “ICONICS OPC-UA KEPServer” integrates HMI/SCADA and visualization with a rich library of device connectivity from Kepware. This OPC-UA, 64-bit solution handles several different I/O devices and is certified for Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The solution is truly OPC-UA-To-The-Core™ and uses Web Services technology, making it simple to integrate plant floor visualization with Manufacturing Intelligence and Enterprise solutions.

“ICONICS and Kepware have been working together for more than 10 years and have recently signed a partnership agreement to provide the first end-to-end OPC-UA solution,” said Russ Agrusa, President and CEO of ICONICS. “Both our companies were instrumental in helping create the OPC-UA standard and we are excited to be delivering products based on OPC-UA.”

“We see ICONICS as a leader in OPC technology,” said Roy Kok, VP of Marketing and Sales for Kepware Technologies. “ICONICS is an early adaptor of OPC-UA and we are happy to have them as a partner, proving that OPC-UA technology is now ready. ICONICS is the first HMI/SCADA partner to deliver KEPServerEX with OPC-UA.”

“ICONICS and Kepware are both leading developers of OPC Unified Architecture solutions,” said Tom Burke, President of the OPC Foundation. “Both companies are pioneers in bringing OPC-UA from the theoretical into the physical and practical. This partnership agreement now makes OPC-UA a reality.”

According to Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group, “OPC-UA is intended to expand the framework for moving information between applications in the enterprise space by taking the existing OPC specifications and integrating them all together, leveraging Web Services as the key technology enabler in the new architecture for deploying applications such as asset management and true resource modeling that can utilize the OPC-UA specifications to move data and information. This is why it is critical to manufacturers that any OPC-UA solution being implemented is sourced from partners who have extensive experience in deploying existing OPC solutions, which is certainly the case for both ICONICS and Kepware.”

ICONICS solutions are well known in the industrial automation software marketplace and are used in a wide variety of applications worldwide. ICONICS’ GENESIS64, GENESIS32 and BizViz products are recognized for their visualization capabilities and seamless integration with all Microsoft operating systems and applications, bridging information from “the shop floor to the top floor.”

ICONICS has provided award-winning industrial automation and Manufacturing Intelligence software for over 21 years, successfully deploying more than 225,000 solutions worldwide.

ICONICS Background Information

Founded in 1986, ICONICS is a leader in the development of Web-enabled industrial automation and manufacturing intelligence software for Microsoft Windows operating systems. Offering the industry’s only suite of fully integrated OPC-based components and products, GENESIS32™ Enterprise Edition is available for Windows XP, XP Professional x64, Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 x64. GENESIS64™ takes advantage of 64-bit processors running 64-bit optimized Microsoft Windows operating systems including Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Pocket GENESIS™ for Windows CE and Pocket PC was built from the ground up based on ICONICS’ OPC-To-The-Core™ framework. BizViz™ is a suite of manufacturing and business intelligence products, which bridge the gap between manufacturing and corporate business information systems. BizViz is designed around Microsoft .NET technology and Microsoft SharePoint Services. ICONICS also offers a complete set of Plug and Play automation components, including best-in-class OPC ActiveX® Controls, OPC Toolkit, Human Machine Interface (HMI), Microsoft SQL Server-based data logging, Multimedia Alarming, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) products. ICONICS is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner represented in over 60 countries, and has more than 225,000 product installations worldwide.

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WonderWare is supplier of industrial automation and information software solutions. According to the company’s website [1]: “one third of the world’s plants run Wonderware software solutions. Having sold more than 500,000 software licenses in over 100,000 plants worldwide, Wonderware has customers in virtually every global industry – including Oil & Gas, Food & Beverage, Utilities, Pharmaceuticals, Electronics, Metals, Automotive and more”.

WonderWare offers software solutions in the areas of Production and Performance Management, and Geographical SCADA and Supervisory HMI (Human-Machine Interface). Several of these solutions running on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems use a common software component, the SuiteLink Service, to implement communications between components using a proprietary protocol over TCP/IP networks.

A vulnerability was found in Wonderware SuiteLink Service (slssvc.exe) that could allow an un-authenticated remote attacker with the ability to connect to the SuiteLink service TCP port to shutdown the service abnormally by sending a malformed packet. Exploitation of the vulnerability for remote code execution has not been proven, but it has not been eliminated as a potential scenario.

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Fossil fuel prices are up. Not to mention the environmental impact that exists from using them. At least four percent of the Nation’s power grid is consumed by water and wastewater treatment facilities to power the processes that make water suitable for human consumption, or for releasing back into the environment.

These factors are challenging facilities to increase their operational efficiency. Not only are fuel prices rising, but new environmental standards are evolving as global warming and air quality become more prevalent.

Many actions can be taken by a treatment facility to reduce the amount of electric energy that it consumes. Some of these are costly changes, such as generation equipment. Some efficiencies can be achieved simply by understanding better the systems that many plants already have in place, such as power meters and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA).

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Control Microsystems SCADAPack 350E and SCADAPack 357E respond to the growing demand for interoperability and reliable communications by featuring native DNP3 and IEC 60870-5 and multi-vendor connectivity. AGA12-2 encryption ensures data integrity for billable applications or critical operations. Both products share the same hardware platform as the field proven and cost-effective SCADAPack 300 series.

The IEC 61131-3 programming environment provides support for two logic applications running simultaneously on the same E-Series controller. Integrators can load their own password-protected application offering “core” functionality for the market industry, while leaving the second application for the end-user to add custom control if needed.

E-Series controllers support a full-featured FAT32 (PC compatible) file system and command line. The command line provides direct access to the file system and configuration commands that would otherwise be sent via the E-Series Configurator software, and it is accessible over FTP, Telnet, DNP3 or local serial port.

All SCADAPack E-Series controllers come with an industry leading 3-year warranty.

Pricing for the SCADAPack E-Series will be the same as that used for the standard SCADAPack models.

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Semaphore introduced its T-BOX LT-100 compact remote monitoring and control SCADA system. The new advanced IP telemetry system extends the T-BOX product family to small, decentralized applications where its push and Web technologies enable high performance, economical implementation and operation.

The T-BOX product family is the first IP-based telemetry solution that enables complete integration of SCADA, control, and communications functionality in one rugged package. The LT-100 model is cost effective for installations, which require up to 8 DI/DO points and 2 counter inputs.

Like all members of the T-BOX family, T-BOX LT-100 incorporates full Web server technology with SMS reporting and remote control to provide real-time access anytime, anywhere through a standard Web browser. Operators can receive alarms and communicate with their sites remotely using a mobile device such as a cell phone, laptop or PDA. Automatic alarm escalation allows key maintenance personnel to receive any unacknowledged alarms.

Semaphore’s connectivity and SCADA system products are ideal for a broad range of communications, monitoring and control applications in the broadcast / telecom, infrastructure management, oil & gas, power, transportation and water / wastewater industries.

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At the Leeds, U.K. brewing & bottling plant of Danish brewing group Carlsberg, an asynchronous fail-over and replication solution from Double-Take Software is keeping production going when server failures take critical systems off-line.

Brewing three million hectoliters of beer each year—including the company’s popular British brand, Tetley’s—and operating 24 hours a day, server failure used to hit production hard.

Over the last five years, explains Senior Systems Engineer Graeme Walker, server failure has knocked out the brewery’s SCADA system twice. On each occasion, he relates, it has taken IT engineers between two and four hours to replace the hardware and reinstate the system. And with its SCADA systems inactive, brewing operations would grind to a halt—with a four-hour interruption to brewing the equivalent of a loss in production of approximately 190,000 liters of beer.

In mid-2007, explains Walker, the decision was made to upgrade the plant’s Intellution SCADA to a more current version—now sold and supported under the GE Proficy banner. But while this contained an improved fail-over capability, the extent of the data replication wasn’t total. Recognizing that the upgrade would require new servers, Carlsberg began to explore other options.

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Longwatch released version 4.0 of its Surveillance System. Release 4.0 greatly expands the Longwatch family of products by providing customers with more flexible and cost-effective options essential to fast deployment of video within any SCADA or distributed control system, from local installations to the most remote and demanding locations.

With the expanded offering, industrial manufacturing, process, transportation and utility sector clients can now monitor their most extreme remote or centralized locations using existing communication networks eliminating significant installation and networking costs of traditional approaches. Longwatch’s distributed architecture combined “recording at the edge” and HMI integration to make video a new “sensed variable” for process and manufacturing operations.

The benefits delivered include faster and more effective response to plant events, better decision-making and improved leverage of manpower and assets. The Longwatch system also provides traditional security surveillance and access control capabilities to meet the growing need for safety, security and liability protection.

“The Version 4 release delivers the most-wanted capabilities for operational and security video for process control and manufacturing operations. The networking flexibility, distributed architecture, eventbased video editing and alarming – along with HMI integration raise the standard of value for these applications,” stated Steve Rubin, CEO of Longwatch.

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Combining excellent performance with versatility, the SCADAWave MR40 is a compact, affordable and easy-to-use remote digital data radio.

The MR40’s straightforward RS232 interface and 9600bps over-air data transfer rate perfectly situates the product as the radio of choice in small to medium-sized SCADA systems requiring reasonable functionality and return on investment.

The MR40 offers an on board memory buffer allowing user interface speeds of up to 19,200kbps, full CRC error-checked data and an optional analog interface that is ideal for migrating legacy SCADA systems from analog to digital technology.

SCADAWave M-Series

* 395-520MHz band operation
* Up to 9600bps true over-air data rates
* Synthesized digital data radio design
* High frequency stability
* Compact, low cost, remote data radio unit
* Compatible with E-Series Base/Repeater and Hot Standby Base stations
* Class 1, Div 2, Groups A, B, C & D Hazardous Approval
* 3-Year Warranty (parts and labor)

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Users and specifiers of process, plant and utility automation equipment, software and services gather here April 29-May 1 to discuss successes, business challenges, and technologies with ABB representatives and others at the ABB Automation World 2008 Users’ Conference and Exhibition. SCADA, wireless, flow, and analyzer technologies are among recent ABB product introductions. (See photos below.)

In separate developments, ABB provided good news about its financial performance: ABB net income up 87% on energy efficiency and infrastructure demand.

Don’t call this a flowmeter: G4 series, this new, fourth generation of ABB Totalflow XSeries flow computers (XFCG4) and remote controllers (XRCG4) is designed to monitor, measure, and control oil and natural gas facilities significantly faster and more efficiently than its predecessor, the G3 series.

Brent Barry ABB market & product planning manager shows off the new ABB Totalflow XSeries flow computers (XFCG4) earlier this month in Houston.

The XFCG4 series consists of low-power, microprocessor-based units that can meet a wide range of measurement, automation, monitor, control and alarming applications for a variety of remote oil and gas systems. Compatible XRCG4 series of remote controllers enables customers in the oil and gas industry to monitor, measure and control their facilities from anywhere and at any time with the aid of sophisticated, proprietary software and wireless technology.

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