For fieldbus reliability, prevention is better than a cure

摘要

A planned monitoring regime to diagnose problems before they cause failure can keep productivity up and costs down. Foundation Fieldbus (FF) has had major success across the world as a digital, two-way communications system. Part of this success is based on its renowned reliability - a critical requirement for any process plant that has to run constantly. But even FF is not infallible. The most common source of problems is at the physical layer. These components include the cable, wiring components, power supplies, conditioners and terminators. Planned monitoring is one way of detecting problems before they result in failure and loss of production. However, implementing the best planned monitoring scheme is not easy, and even when it is in place, interpreting the data in order to track down the actual fault is difficult and time-consuming.