Integrating packaged equipment

摘要

Integrating controls from an equipment supplier successfully within a plant supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system or distributed control system (DCS) requires communication on multiple levels. These include the process of design, mechanical fit up, and installation, as well as coordination to get the equipment to work in concert with the plant's other control systems. Simply looking after mechanical and electrical details is not enough. To be successful, the plant's system integrator and the equipment supplier's programmable logic controller (PLC) programmer must work with each other throughout the entire project's development. From the perspective of an equipment supplier, several things can help streamline the process of integrating packaged equipment into a plant. First and foremost is planning. Both parties--the plant designer and the equipment supplier--need to understand and appreciate what the equipment is supposed to be doing--and how it will do it--in the context of the entire plant. This includes both the process design and the controls design.