根据行业估计，由4-20MA信号提供的大多数安装测量仪器都是“智能的”。但是，为了最大程度地利用您对智能测量设备的投资，更好地管理运营并降低运营成本，这些设备中的智能信息应适用于操作员和经理。因为如果没有更好地了解设备的诊断状况和状态，管理层采取行动的能力有限，可以对您的底线产生重大的积极影响。
Intelligent Device Information
Measuring devices, regardless of field protocol, can communicate many categories of information. In addition to multiple measurements (with newer devices reporting as many as eight process variables), devices can report important device diagnostics and process information. Think of the usefulness of the diagnostics in your automobile or your computer: The diagnostic system in your automobile performs hundreds of measurements and adjustments continuously to provide a quick indication of the status and potential availability (or lack thereof) of your car or your computer. Using FDT Technology, you can get the same type of diagnostic warnings or device status from your installed smart instrumentation.
Pending diagnostic warnings, however, are only helpful if a warning is investigated, and appropriate action is taken. Your smart measurement device has the ability to provide valuable diagnostics information — but it's valuable only if you're checking to see if there is a problem. An FDT-based Frame Application using DTMs (Device Tool Managers) is a cost-effective tool needed to review and analyze these potential problems and can help you avoid unplanned situations.
Move from Reactive to Proactive
With many updated control and asset management systems, intelligent device diagnostic information is accessible and available for immediate use. For those that don't, there are many different cost-effective products that make access to intelligent device information possible. This diagnostic information enables you to change your maintenance activities from reactive — work on what's broken — to more proactive or even predictive activities, such as fixing small problems before they turn into bigger problems.
Imagine the benefits of using real-time device diagnostics to reduce the number of trips to the field, prevent an unscheduled shutdown or reduce the length of a scheduled shutdown. Whether you are part of the reliability, maintenance, process improvement, management or other plant function, putting this valuable information to work can produce big results with relatively small investments and low risk.
Let's look at a some examples of the real bottom-line benefits that are being realized by users around the world…
Real Bottom-line Benefits
In 2002, the MOL Group's Danube Refinery in Százhalombatta, Hungary, set out to improve profitability using its installed smart technology in 2002, and only three years later, decided to overhaul its maintenance systems with a new, unified asset management system (AMS) strategy. The combination of the two technologies has changed the way MOL runs maintenance and the way it looks at diagnostic data.
该公司将工厂的许多智能设备（例如关键控制回路中使用的控制阀和仪器）连接到工厂的AMS。这导致了一个在线诊断系统，其中仪器信号直接连接到工厂维护和控制系统。
"On-line diagnostics provided by the these instruments does something more than preventive maintenance," says József Bartók, automation engineer at MOL Danube Refinery, adding that this "ensures the stable operation of the system and increases the precision of control." Beyond fixing what breaks or keeping the plant running, a reliable, stable operation contributes to bottom-line profitability.
For example, when the head pressure control was slow on one unit, it led to the assumption that a valve was stuck and in need of removal and repair. But technicians using on-line diagnostic tools used device diagnostic data to interrogate the valve and find current-to-pneumatic damage in the intelligent positioner — but not the whole valve. Operators put the valve in manual, and the fix took a half hour of instrumentation work. This repair saved the plant at least two days of unscheduled downtime, worth at least $834,400.
在使用设备诊断之前，在典型的工厂关闭中选择了约60％的对照阀进行维修。尽管所有故障阀门都可能得到纠正，但由于缺乏数据，可能已不必要地删除了其他故障。有了设备数据，公司估计平均节省每单位70,000美元，每次关闭；关闭期间不再需要拆卸和修复无故障控制阀。
在阀门性能方面更好地处理阀的性能还可以使MOL在周转时间拉更少的阀门，从而大大降低维护成本并缩短生产之前所需的时间。“十年前，我们拉了所有的阀门，” Bereznai说。“现在，我们拉了两打，而不是200次，节省了20,000美元至70,000美元。”
同样，在德克萨斯州迪尔公园的道琼斯工业公司的综合大楼中，智能设备诊断有助于将归因于工具和控制阀造成的工厂旅行在过去三年中削减70％，从而提供“数百万美元的储蓄”。Stephens，仪器可靠性工程师和仪器/电气技术领导者克里斯托弗·加西亚（Christopher Garcia）。
为了优先考虑他们的努力，史蒂芬斯和加西亚首先分析了停机的来源，发现五个反应堆占与仪器和阀相关的48％的中断。“我们需要看看有什么机会，以便我们可以证明管理层的必要资源是合理的。在哪里可以赚钱？”斯蒂芬斯说。
他们的首要任务是对工厂最关键的控制阀进行持续监控，这也是停机时间的最大贡献者。斯蒂芬斯说，该工厂现在使用资产管理软件不仅可以帮助减轻故障，还可以推出预防性维护间隔。“我们可以使用运营来解决问题而不会引起停机时间。”
"And as we get into more root-cause investigations, it definitely helps to have more data," Stephens continues. "Intelligent device information helps us understand what's happening and to mitigate potential problems." Up next for Dow Deer Park is dynamic analysis of flow measurement data to identify and rectify issues such as fouling and plugging. "That's the next tier for us," Stephens says.
结论
The intelligence in your installed measurement devices might be one of the under-utilized assets available in your plant today. By integrating the intelligent device diagnostics into an asset management or automation system, you begin the process of monitoring the device status, allowing the opportunity to improve your bottom line. Using FDT Technology-enabled solutions, which includes a Frame Application and device DTMs that are available from your device suppliers, you will be able to identify minor problems before they become critical, lowering maintenance and operating costs. FDT Technology-based products and solutions are supported by and available from most major device and systems suppliers.
因此，迈出第一步，实现智能设备信息集成的底线优势。有关更多信息，请查看有关的演示视频Proactive Maintenance Strategies with Bottom-Line Business Benefits on YouTube. Please also visitwww.fdtgroup.org.
