Smar Innovations at ISA 2001

The ISA Show proved again a great opportunity for Smar to display its latest innovations. The booth space was designed to highlight the recent additions in our product line.

The DT301 - Density and Concentration Digital Transmitter - was one focus of the Smar new products booth. It was presented in a pilot plant that permitted the demonstration of all the possible applications of this equipment. The main development demonstrated was the measurement of interface level, which is an application that other density meters, using different measurement principles, are not capable to offer. This application is very common in oil industries, is used in separating tanks of oil/water, and consists of measurement and control of the interface level between two unmixable fluids. The measurement of density and concentration of liquids in diverse engineering units was also demonstrated. The ease of remote configuration of the DT301 using the HPC 401 - HART Pocket Configurator significantly impressed the Smar booth visitors.

Another innovative product shown was the PX300 - Wireless On-Line Pasteurization Unit Analyzer. It has been designed by Smar as a solution for the difficult monitoring of the pasteurization process in the beer industry. The unit is loaded together with the bottles in the pasteurization tunnel and a temperature sensor is placed inside a filled bottle that measures the beer temperature. This information is transmitted in real time by radio to a remote unit that calculates and shows the Pasteurization Unit. The information obtained can be stored and used by a supervisory system of the Plant. The PX300 is wireless and is self-powered by rechargeable batteries.

With reference to Fieldbus, the DC302 - Foundation Fieldbus Remote I/O - made its debut as the first device to make available the FOUNDATION Flexible Function Blocks, which are intended to support batch, discrete, and hybrid control applications. Before DC302, the Foundation Fieldbus devices available from the market could not accept conventional discrete I/Os. From now on, DC302 delivers easy and cost effective integration between Fieldbus and conventional I/Os. Discrete hardware such as pressure switches, buttons, On/Off valves, pumps and conveyors are now connected to an H1 channel and then to the control system through DC302, which can be used with SYSTEM302 or any other FOUNDATION approved control system.

An additional advancement includes redundant DFI302 with IPAQ wireless HMI integrated to System302 and represents another step ahead the competition. World first Foundation Fieldbus HSE (High Speed Ethernet) approved Linking Device DFI302 was presented under a trial demonstration showing its full redundancy capabilities in a never-before-seen application with a wireless IPAQ Hand Held HMI.

SMAR AT FOUNDATION, HART AND PROFIBUS BOOTHS

SMAR participated in the Fieldbus Foundation Booth showing a redundant DFI302 with two channels. The first channel included only SMAR devices and the second channel was displayed with devices from several manufacturers, such as SMAR, Emerson, Yamatake, ABB and Foxboro, emphasizing the interoperability. The HMI used in the system was the new SMAR Process View, which allows wireless supervision by I-PAQ (Pocket Terminal running Windows CE).

At the PROFIBUS booth Smar showed the LD303, the FY303, the SB312 and the BT302. This equipment was integrated in the system Siemens Simatic Step 7, emphasizing the interoperability between some manufacturers. The booth had the participation of 30 members of the PTO (PROFIBUS Trade Organization). During the show edition 23 of PROFINews (The PROFIBUS International Official Newsletter) was launched, where Smar appears prominently in the "Achievements" session with the article BRAZIL/Iron Ore. This article describes the commissioning of the Cauê plant, of the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, located in Minas Gerais.

At the Hart booth SMAR revealed the HI331 e PC Windows Hart Pocket Configurator and the DT301- Density and Concentration Digital Transmitter. The HI331 e PC Windows was showcased to include the software update download capability directly from the Internet, as well as the speed and ease of use of our handheld device. The fact that our handheld is reasonably priced and less expensive than any of the competitors, enabled our visitors to see our products as a sound investment. The DT301 also proved to be an exciting display for our visitors. It was set up to measure the interface of oil over water using density. Since the DT301 measurement principle system is hydrostatic pressure, the visitors were able to see first hand the accuracy of our product.