Insights into the black box

摘要

Once all settings are customised, electric actuators take up their day-to-day duty behind the scenes. Fit & forget, the sought after turnkey solution for operators. Modern plant concepts however claim a more thorough glance at device parameters and operational data. Data presentation should be straight forward. During the last two decades, technological progress in fieldbus devices has triggered new developments. First mention is due to the introduction of micro controllers and the fieldbus technology. Just like for any comparable situation, creativity knows no limits and this also applies to the use of the new features. Furthermore, device manufacturers had to cope with the challenge of creating new electronics and software departments including quality management combining the new technology with established product ranges. Time was needed until the trend finally grows.