Roadmap - From stand-alone, industrial components to enterprise-wide integrated systems, Rockwell Automation offers customers proven solutions across a wide range of industries. The company recently announced its roadmap for process automation that includes bringing together its end-to-end suite with a new name - Rockwell Automation Plantpax systems and solutions. CHEManager Europe asked Norbert Nohr, Business Manager Process Automation, Rockwell Automation, about the significant investments the company has made in process automation.

CHEManager Europe: How have you extended your process technologies and solutions?

N. Nohr: When Rockwell Automation started the development of its Integrated Archtecture more than 15 years ago, the goal was a plant-wide, multi-discipline control and information architecture, capable of performing discrete, motion, drives, safety and process control.
Since the introduction of the Allen-Bradley Controllogix PAC in 1998, Rockwell has been consistently enhancing the process control, communication and engineering capabilities of the integrated architecture to match and exceed those of traditional process automation systems like DCS equipment.
The investments have been made in multiple areas, such as controller power and performance, network infrastructure, system availability, integration with information systems, alarm and historic information management, fieldbus integration and process safety.
Rockwell has also invested heavily in developing its Process Solution Channel (internal System & Solution Business, external System Integrator partners). The strategic partnership with Endress+Hauser offers complete control and instrumentation solutions to users in Process industries. Strategic acquisitions, including Pavilion Technologies for Advanced Process Control, Incuity for Decision Support solutions and ICS Triplex for Process Safety Systems and Solutions, have accelerated the development of a broad portfolio of process solutions.

What does Planpax encompass?

N. Nohr: Plantpax combines the process capabilities of Rockwell under one umbrella. It represents a scalable portfolio unifying the Rockwell investments that enhanced process technologies, solutions and services, a Process Control core based on the widely adopted Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture technologies for plant-wide control and a core system with defined performance, that is a "characterized" system. Furthermore, a set of tools and utilities that accelerates the implementation of a process automation system and a road map of planned new features, enhancements and expansion of system capacities.

How is it unique?

N. Nohr: Plantpax is unique in that it leverages the multi-discipline, highly scalable and information-enabled Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture, eliminating the traditional barriers between process automation systems and other automation and information systems in the plant, like programmable logic controllers, motor controllers, high-speed motion controllers in the packaging area, etc.
Plantpax and the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture allow, for the first time, to use a single set of tools, products, information and practices across all the areas of the plant.

What applications does it cover?

N. Nohr: The Plantpax system provides solutions for a wide range of applications from small and simple to large and quite complex. It completely serves the process markets from completely continuous operations to hybrid and even pure batch or sequential processes.
Thanks to its high scalability, Plantpax can be practically and economically used by equipment manufacturers in small process skids that can be immediately integrated into large plant-wide systems at the end user site.

How do you plan on expanding Planpax in the future?

N. Nohr: Rockwell has an ambitious development schedule to continue enhancing Plantpax. Developments are planned in multiple areas, including for example System Engineering with Process Library extensions, enhanced configuration management and synchronization with CAD design tools, pre-configured system servers and operator workstations. In process control we aim at more powerful controllers with faster processors and larger memory capacity In Critical Control & Safety we plan Logix redundancy extensions (Ethernet/IP I/O in redundant systems, Redundant I/O) and integration of ICS Triplex technology into Logix controllers. For Process Networks and Asset Management we will focus on higher density HART I/O options, redundant FF-H1 interface and change management support for smart device configuration. Regarding Batch Management and Control there will be new low-end systems (i.e. controller-based batch management) designed to start small and grow with user requirements, historical batch analysis as well as distributed batch management and control. And in terms of Information Management we will further develop enterprise manufacturing intelligence with distributed historian architecture.

How does Planpax improve a client's process optimization?

N. Nohr: The Plantpax system extends the scope of process optimization to include fuzzy logic, basic and advanced process loop tuning and at the high-end, model predictive control (MPC) suite from the acquisition of Pavilion. The MPC suite has added a new dimension to the company's process optimization portfolio, helping manufacturers achieve efficient economic performance from production assets. The MPC offering from Pavilion, while an integral element of the Plantpax system, will also continue to function as a stand-alone supervisory application with DCS and PLCs from other suppliers.
Plantpax also features FactoryTalk Vantage Point decision support solutions that provide users with a comprehensive view of the plant operations, ensuring easy access to the Key Performance Indicators that enable better business decisions.

What safety solutions does the Planpax system include?

N. Nohr: Plantpax further develops the Rockwell Automation process safety capabilities offering the broadest coverage of safety integrity levels (SIL) and fault-tolerance requirements. Off-the-shelf SIL2 and controller redundancy capabilities are available for the Allen-Bradley Controllogix Plantpax controllers while ICS Triplex - a leader in process safety and critical control - is integrated with the Plantpax system to help deliver the highest availability safety solutions worldwide. The integration over Ethernet/IP allows users of ICS Triplex SIL-3 SIS solutions the many advantages of the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture.