From Jerry Moon, this morning:
EMERSON DELIVERS 750,000TH FISHER® SMART DIGITAL VALVE CONTROLLERFIELDVUE® digital valve controller leadership confirmed by customers in thousands of worldwide applications MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA (February 13, 2008) - Emerson Process Management has announced its delivery of the 750,000th Fisher® FIELDVUE® digital valve controller, marking the continued leadership of Fisher technology in delivering tangible bottom line benefits to end users globally. "This milestone is very meaningful to us because it means our digital valve controllers and services are helping thousands of customers globally improve their plant performance," said Terry Buzbee, president of the Fisher division of Emerson Process Management. "We were first to introduce this loop powered digital valve controller technology, and it is great to see it give customers a competitive edge through better control and proactive, predictive maintenance."The digital valve controllers were introduced by Emerson in 1994 as part of on-going Fisher valve technology development and innovation. As final control elements, valves are crucial to control, while at the same time existing in the harsh process environments and in contact with diverse flowing media. Customers needed better solutions for monitoring and maintenance of the critical equipment. Emerson drew upon its valve and instrument expertise to develop the microprocessor-based FIELDVUE instrument that enables users to monitor valve performance on-line, to collect and trend performance data over time, and to better predict or plan valve maintenance. The innovative FIELDVUE instrument is a key component that powers Emerson"˜s PlantWeb® digital architecture to deliver savings of more than 30 percent of project costs and greater than 2 percent operations savings. Through its continuing innovation, Emerson complemented the controllers with FOUNDATIONâ„¢ fieldbus communications, advanced valve diagnostics, on-line performance diagnostics, and emergency shutdown digital valve controllers for Safety Instrumented System (SIS) applications. Emerson also expanded the use of digital valve controllers into the nuclear market by providing a nuclear certified version and a CSA approved DVC6000 instrument for use with natural gas."We are committed to delivering continued customer improvement through a combination of product quality, reliability, and award-winning solutions," said Buzbee. "Emerson engineers are advancing technology and application coverage with new products including a DVC6000f (fieldbus) for Safety Instrumented Systems applications and smart wireless technology solutions to harness stranded valve diagnostics."