Mixing Technology for High Performance Polymer Compounds

Posted on 02 February, 2010 | Tags: Plastics Processing

Knowledge towards replacing conventional plastics with biodegradable plastics is getting impetus. The key to produce good quality bio-plastics involves integration of technology within the process to ensure total homogeneity of compounding resin for desired results.

  Plastics have become an important part of the modern life and are used in different sectors of applications like packaging, building materials etc.  Though plastics are most often used as carry bags, but disposal of these plastics poses serious threats to the environment. This problem is very acute in developing countries where the economic growth as well as urbanization is taking place at a rapid pace, such as India.  Right from the disposal, conventional plastics create major problems for the environment when littered around e g careless disposal of plastic bags results in clogging of drains, blockage in the porosity of soil and problems for ground water recharge. Presence of plastics in soil disturbs microbial activity.  When dropped in water, plastics float on the surface and block the way of oxygen into water. This leads to decrease in volume of dissolved oxygen in water, which can result in endangering marine life. Dioxins are highly toxic products obtained while the plastics are manufactured. When plastics are burned, Polychlorinated Byphenyls (PCB) is emitted, which are extremely hazardous in nature. Plastics always creat setbacks for environment. The alternative ways of manufacturing plastics using environment friendly products are imminent to curb the harmful

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Trends in the Lifecycle Management of Automation Assets

Posted on 02 February, 2010 | Tags: Asset Management

Asset lifecycle management is a critical concept in present scenario. It is a discipline that influences the capacity of an existing automation investment while simplifying the integration of new technology. It has become a new pathway to the industry to have better productivity in smaller investment

Where repairing of various assets of an automation system is concerned, the manufacturer replaces all the parts even if the system is well designed.  An industry research firm named Australian  Research Council (ARC) has estimated that USD65 billion in automation assets are approaching the end of a useful lifecycle and has identified following   matters  that need to be taken care of while upgrading or replacing assets Avoid unscheduled downtime Take advantage of a new or emerging business opportunity Avoid the rising cost of supporting an aging system Implement the new benefits that technology brings Replace  a system that a vendor no longer supports or has phased out of production Meet new business needs not supported by the current system. Some manufacturers take up a 'just leave it alone' method to fight with the challenges or in other words they just want to solve the asset's problem temporarily in a eco-friendly way.  But, this can result in short-lived cost savings or can   become an increase in return on existing investments with great risk. If there is an unexpected outage, the cost of downtime, rush charges and replacement purchases can be controlled. Many companies have a tendency to replace only existing functionality

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Asset Monitoring for a Low Voltage Integrated Motor Control System

Posted on 01 February, 2010 | Tags: Case Study

Keeping the health of plant equipment in check is fast becoming the key to avoid surprises during plant operations and thus the secret to a company's success. Substantial cost savings and productivity gains can be made by adopting condition-based,  predictive and proactive approach. Successful implementation of ABB's MNS iS system with asset monitoring technology helped improve its maintenance practices and achieve cost savings. -Rajesh Tiwari, Jouni Seppala OMG Kokkola in Finland is the world's leading producer of cobalt-based specialty chemicals used primarily in batteries and hard metal cutting tools. Because of these extremely sensitive applications, the company's cobalt powders must meet very high-quality standards. Imagine the resulting disaster if a laptop battery exploded in an airplane!To keep its systems current, OMG upgraded the automation system for its cobalt chemical line in 2006. One important part of this upgrade was the modernization of its low-voltage Motor Control Center (MCC). To enable full exploration of the maintenance improvement possibilities, the company chose ABB's MNS iS, an Integrated Motor Control System (IMCS) Equipped with smart sensor measurement, MNS iS can measure current, voltage and temperature and provides a wealth of information. Most significantly, it enables the use of information for comprehensive condition-based maintenance

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Pneumatic Advantage in Water Treatment

Posted on 01 February, 2010 | Tags: Pneumatic Technologies

Pneumatics presents a valuable and extremely reliable alternative to electrical automation systems, especially when it comes to meeting the requirements of water and wastewater treatment. Many system planners favour pneumatic drives for opening and closing gate for process valves because of their durability, long service life and safety under overload conditions.

- Armin MullerWater is a precious commodity all over the world, one which humanity needs to be even more careful in using as consumption levels rise. Industrial automation of potable water and wastewater treatment plants ensures customers have access to this high quality resource, whenever it is needed.Pneumatics presents a valuable and extremely reliable alternative to electrical automation systems, especially when it comes to meeting the requirements of water and wastewater treatment. Pneumatics, one of the indispensable core technologies for automation, has the additional advantages of robustness and cost- effective system solutions. Automation In Water Treatment PlantsA pneumatic automation system reduces the costs of investment, installation and operation compared with conventional electrical installations. Many system planners favour pneumatic drives for opening and closing gate process valves because of their durability, long service life and safety under overload conditions.Compressed air provides a high degree of safety, since it performs opening and closing movements without any need for electrical power. This means that in practice the system is easy to operate and not prone to failure, resulting in excellent system availability. If one or more process valves are required for dosing a flow of material into the system, the pneumatic actuators are

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Third Generation SIS Approaches for Optimizing Safety Integrity and Operational Availability

Posted on 01 February, 2010 | Tags: Beyond Fault Tolerance

By any name traditional TMR safety systems tend to be expensive to purchase implement and maintain. Traditional SIS's also add an additional degree of complexity which many of today's downsized process plants cannot afford to handle. Third generation fault tolerant SIS's deliver unmatched safety integrity and operational availability with reduced lifecycle costs that today's process manufacturers demand

When introduced in the 80's  the Triple Modular Redundant(TMR) emergency safety shutdown(ESD) systems made a landmark by providing high level of safety integrity while reducing the maintenance charges. Latter on these types of systems became well-known as Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). The traditional TMR safety systems are expensive to purchase, implement and maintain and also add an additional degree of complexity which  is impossible to handle by many of today's downsized process plants.In the recent years, many new SIS approaches have been launched. These include new integrates systems that use a common platform for both SIS and Distributed Control System (DCS) functionality. Some of the new integrated systems depart from the redundant  module approach and use logic solver processors mounted within a common module. When designed and implemented correctly, these systems can help to reduce lifecycle costs while providing the needed Safety Integrity   Levels (SIL). However, without modular redundancy, integrated systems are not nearly as fault-tolerant as traditional TMR systems and cannot be repaired of upgraded online.Currently, a third option is also available. These are known as, third-generation, fault-tolerant SIS's that combine well-proven redundancy approaches with more flexibly and modern system architectures. In this process, the new systems deliver unmatched

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