Invensys Boosts Triconex Safety Offerings with TUV Certification, OPC UA

Invensys
02/11/2013

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Invensys Operations Management has enhanced its Triconex critical control and safety offerings for industrial operations. According to the company, the new Triconex Safety View solution is the world's first software for effective alarm and bypass management certified by TÜV Rheinland to IEC61508 Systematic Capability 3 for use in applications up to SIL-3. The company's Triconex Trident and Triconex General Purpose safety instrumented systems also now support OPC Universal Architecture for greater communications connectivity.

 "Changing market dynamics and emerging technologies require a fundamental rethinking of how companies will manage their operations today and in the future," said Gary Freburger, president of the company's Systems business. "To address these new and ever-more complicated challenges, companies need to become more agile without jeopardizing plant safety. Our new Triconex products provide this agility by reducing risks when bypassing safety systems during start-up and shutdown, as well as the risks associated with integrating safety systems across different vendor platforms. In addition, they provide a pathway for modernizing existing plant operations, one that links business processes with production processes; removes traditional barriers to collaboration; and empowers our customers' most valuable resource, their people."

Triconex Safety View provides the highest levels of safety integrity for critical alarm management applications. The world’s first TÜV-certified software solution for alarm and bypass management for use in applications up to SIL3, Safety View improves situational awareness and broadens visibility into the risks that come with system start-ups, shutdowns and other critical process transitions that must be managed by plant personnel. It is built on the company's industry-leading ArchestrA System Platform and Wonderware InTouch HMI software, which have been adapted specifically for use in safety applications.

"End users realize that they need new solutions to help them remain agile, particularly as they react to changing business variables and process conditions," said Barry Young, principal analyst, ARC Advisory Group. "By clearly indicating level-1 alarms to operators, maintenance engineers and shift supervisors, and then showing them all the safety-critical devices that have been placed in bypass, the Triconex Safety View solution reduces the likelihood of unscheduled downtime and subsequent loss of production. And because it provides contextual information in real time, it helps operators and other plant personnel make better decisions."

Invensys has also embedded OPC UA communications with its Triconex Trident and Triconex General Purpose safety instrumented systems. OPC UA maximizes interoperability between systems and streamlines connectivity through open platform architecture and future-proof design. The new communications interface module contains an embedded OPC UA server that supports up to 10 concurrent clients, delivering high performance and secure, reliable communication of real-time data, alarms and historical events.

OPC UA provides a single communications solution from the device level to the enterprise level, maintaining platform independence without sacrificing performance. It provides better interoperability (complete with certification); reliability by design; access via firewalls and across the Internet; and reduced configuration time with built-in information and security models.

"Over the past several years, safety has become even more critical for our customers," Freburger said. "These two products are an example of how our Triconex offerings are helping clients modernize their plants so that they are no longer just talking about safety. Instead, they are actively taking specific measures to increase the safety of the process and continuously improve their real-time performance."