Avenor Brings Industry's First Fieldbus Control Online at Gatineau
Patrice Cayoutte, mill manager, explains that Avenor decided to implement fieldbus control because it allows the mill to get a head start with the technology, and to demonstrate and measure the benefits of fieldbus on the mill operating floor. He cites reduction of unscheduled downtime, using F-R's advanced valve diagnostics through fieldbus, as an example of benefits they hope to achieve.
Some benefits the mill is already realizing include reduced wiring costs and extremely fast instrument checkout, according to David St-Onge, Avenor's corporate manager of technology development for process automation. Preliminary estimates indicate a 90% reduction in commissioning time. The mill reports that level, temperature, and pressure transmitters were commissioned and communicating on two different fieldbus segments--including device-based control-- in a matter of minutes. The switch-over was done without any production upsets or downtime.
The PlantWeb architecture at Gatineau, according to a Business Wire report, includes Rosemount transmitters, Fisher Controls Fieldvue digital valve controllers, and a Fisher-Rosemount DeltaV scalable process automation system with integrated asset management capabilities, as well as conventional I/O for existing transmitters. One fieldbus segment includes white water header pressure control executing in a pressure transmitter; a second segment includes kraft pulper level control executing in a digital valve controller. Other control functions, including consistency control on the pulper and storage tank, are provided using a combination of conventional and fieldbus I/O in the DeltaV system.
- Fieldbus Certification: The Fieldbus Foundation (Austin, TX) uses a comprehensive interoperability test system that assures end users of the ability to choose the best device for a specific measurement or control function, regardless of the manufacturer.
F-R provided project and engineering services, including system integration as well as installation and startup support. Local Fisher-Rosemount representative Laurentide Controls provided configuration and commissioning support. A considerable amount of the work was done in-house by Avenor. N/A is a major North American producer of post-consumer recycled-content newsprint, a significant exporter of market pulp, and one of the largest suppliers of uncoated freesheet to the Canadian market. The Gatineau newsprint mill produces approximately 430,000 metric tons of newsprint (up to 40% recycled content) annually. Its primary pulp furnish is groundwood (750 metric tpd capacity) and deinked newsprint (500 metric tpd average) produced on-site. It also has the capacity to produce 550 metric tpd of sulfonated semichemical mechanical pulp (SCMP). The kraft pulp component is purchased.
Fisher-Rosemount, part of the Emerson Electric Co., is a leading paper industry supplier of control valves, regulators, transmitters, analyzers, systems, software, and services. PlantWeb field-based architecture combines intelligent field devices, standards and scalable platforms, and modular software to provide not only process control, but also asset management and integration with other plant and business systems.
Rosemount, a member of the Fisher-Rosemount family, recently received Fieldbus Foundation certification for its Model 3051 pressure transmitter and the Model 3244MV temperature transmitter. The company's intelligent field devices are now authorized to bear the Foundation's registration checkmark and to use Foundation terminology.
For more information, contact: Peter Dossing, <%=company%>, 512-832-3162.
Edited By Ken L. Patrick