Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya ABB Instrumentation Bangalore, India, sabyasachi.bhattacharyya@in.abb.com; Ayyanar Kavithasan Measurement & Analytics Bangalore, India, ayyanar.kavithasan@in.abb.com
Field devices are the unsung heroes of the industrial world. Without field devices working away in the background – measuring, monitoring and controlling – virtually every industry and process would grind to a halt →01. Because they are indispensable to so many industries, the number of field devices installed worldwide is colossal – and growing daily.
For example, it is estimated that the flow meter market alone will be worth over $10 billion by 2026, driven mainly by increasing global uptake of water and wastewater treatment, water consumption metering and focus on leakage reduction [1]. The market for level meters is expected to reach $3.5 billion by 2025 – a growth attributed to a rising demand for level transmitters in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage sectors [2]. By 2025 the temperature sensor market will likely exceed $7.8 billion, up from $5 billion in 2018 [3].
When other common field devices – pressure sensors, valve positioners, etc. – are added in, it becomes clear that the global installed base of field devices is indeed enormous. ABB is a major supplier to this multibillion dollar market.
Accuracy, compliance, status reporting and failure handling are just some critical aspects of a field device’s performance. To manage these aspects effectively in a large installed base and allow customers to focus on their core business operations, what is needed is a comprehensive asset performance management platform.
ABB’s asset performance management platform for field devices is ABB Ability Smart Master.
ABB Ability Smart Master
The health of a measurement device is characterized by:
• Accuracy of the measurement.
• Compliance with industry regulatory guidelines.
• Legitimate operation limits.
• Valid installation.
• Effective diagnosis of existing device failures and prediction of potential future failures.
If a customer has access to comprehensive information regarding these characteristics, they can make an informed decision about when to service a device; know when a regulatory check is due; and have a good idea of when or how a future failure may occur. The customer can then plan their operations and maintenance much more effectively.
ABB Ability Smart Master makes this improved approach to service possible over the vast installed base of ABB measurement devices. Remote connectivity and remote monitoring are also facilitated – capabilities that are useful when remedial action or expert service analysis has to be rapid or when plant access is made difficult by, for example, geographical remoteness or travel restrictions.
Collecting data from the measurement devices, Smart Master provides a dashboard summary of connected devices and their health status, as well as insights into this status →02. This knowledge enables ABB service-assisted clients and self-service customers to plan service operations, spare part orders and device replacements. Data collection and analysis can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly depending on the regulatory and operational sensitivity of the installation in which the devices are deployed.
Because operations and service personnel can forecast the need for spare parts and services much earlier, factory downtime can be reduced or even eliminated. If there is a pattern of device failures, a calendar view analysis and an analytical report provide a further understanding of the failure scenarios →03-04. For many problems, Smart Master can assist with fault tracing and remediation without the user resorting to leafing through manuals.
Regulatory compliance
To ensure that measurement quality or final product integrity is not compromised, devices must adhere to industry-specific regulatory compliance requirements. Such adherence involves significant costs. ABB Ability Smart Master helps mitigate these costs by enabling remote precompliance activities, thus reducing calibration or certification effort later in the delivery and commissioning schedule.
Multi-tier solution
ABB Ability™ Smart Master provides a three-tier solution to monitor the health of installed devices:
• On-premise: Remote monitoring support with collected data managed within the customer network.
• Dedicated cloud: A dedicated link to each customer for monitoring. Collected data is managed securely in ABB’s infrastructure devoted to the particular customer.
• Shared cloud: A global link to all customers for monitoring. Collected data is managed securely in ABB’s common cloud infrastructure for all customers.
Connectivity
In many cases, measurement devices are deployed in an isolated location – for example, in a water distribution network – that lacks physical network connectivity. Devices can also be hidden deep under layers of the distributed control system (DCS). Reaching such isolated devices effectively with minimal wiring and little auxiliary hardware is essential if they are to be successfully included in the ongoing digital transformation of industry – a development that can ill afford a complete re-engineering of traditional networks.
In such cases, field device integration (FDI) technology can be used to integrate devices with Smart Master without additional wiring or disturbing current operations →05. Smart Master can also connect via 3G/4G and NB-IoT →06. In countries where there are restrictions on directly sending data to the cloud, data is transmitted through the telecom provider.
ABB Ability™ Smart Master can also integrate with devices through a smart human-machine interface (HMI), which is a technology that retains the instrument’s connection to the control system as such but enables a parallel Bluetooth communication for digital solutions →07.
Better service decisions
With such a massive installed base of field devices, Smart Master provides a comprehensive asset performance management platform that enables ABB customers to make better service decisions regarding their ABB measurement devices.
With clear and concise interfaces, Smart Master surveys all connected field devices to deliver a complete overview of status, health and maintenance needs. Whether processed on-premise or in the cloud, the data collected and analyzed by Smart Master allows the customer to get on with their daily business, confident in the knowledge that the management of their field device service is in safe hands.
References
[1] Markets and Markets, “Flow Meters Market by Type.” Available: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/flow-meters-market-1191.html. [Accessed September 19, 2022.]
[2] Markets and Markets, “Level Transmitter Market by Technology.” Available: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/level-transmitter-market-23472700.html. [Accessed September 19, 2022.]
[3] Fortune Business Insights, “Temperature Sensor Market.” https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/temperature-sensor-market-102434. [Accessed September 19, 2022.]
