MechChem Africa February 2017

MechChem Africa

•

February 2017

“

ust as every person’s health can be

monitored by his or her heartbeat,

Endress+Hauser’s Heartbeat™

Technology strives to track the

health of critical plant instruments, such as

level and flowmeters,” begins Van den Berg,

ProductManagerforFlowatEndress+Hauser

South Africa.

“Whenwehumans feel aheadache coming

on, we take two tablets. In the sameway, when

aninstrumentdetectsaproblem,itisnowable

to communicate that information so that an

interventioncanbeplanned toquickly restore

the instrument to full health. This is important

for safety on our customers’ plants, to ensure

that flooding or spills are always avoided, for

example,” he continues.

The technology equips instruments with

comprehensive diagnostics, verification and

conditionmonitoring/predictivemaintenance

capabilities, “for maximum safety and the

highest possible availability”.

Heartbeat diagnostics is the first level of

instrumenthealthmanagement.“Instruments

in safety critical applications, such as flow-

meters, must meet the highest requirements

in terms of reliability. With Heartbeat™

Technology, our newProlineflowmeters offer

unprecedented degrees of diagnostic cover-

age, from the measuring tube to the outlet,”

Van den Berg tells

MechChem Africa

Embedded ineachHeartbeat-enabledme-

ter is an instrument-specific

set of test procedures, which

are performed continuously,

with all the results being in-

ternally logged. “In the event

of any failure, alerts can be sent and flags

raised so that operators can react in the fast-

est possible time,” he explains.

“Also, to get health insurance, a person

might need to go to a doctor for a medical

examination. The doctor will give him or her

the certificate that the medical aid requires

before contracts can be signed.”

In the same way, any ISO 9001 com-

pany needs be able to produce evidence

of the healthy condition of its equipment.

“Companies typically have to get a third

party to do an audit of their procedures and

certificates are required to prove that all

instruments and equipment are operating to

specifications.

“Heartbeat™ Technology offers built-in

proof testing or verification that meets

these certification requirements,” Van den

Berg assures. “An on-demand report can be

made available, based on the ongoing diag-

nostic data that has been accumulated by the

Heartbeat™ system, which serves as a direct

substitute for extensive manual verification

testing,” he adds.

Simple, predefined procedures guide

the designated responsible person through

Metering with Heartbeat:

rethinking instrument health

Heartbeat™ Technology from Endress+Hauser strives for increased plant availability, improved safety, reduced verification and calibration effort and optimised

plant maintenance and performance.

Originally developed back in 2012, Endress+Hauser’s Heartbeat™

Technology simplifies instrument diagnostics, verification and

condition monitoring, leads to better predictability and uptime and

lowers costs.

Peter Middleton

talks to Endress+Hauser product

managers Jan Gerritsen and Frans van den Berg.

the verification procedure and verification

results are documented in an unambiguous

manner. Heartbeat’s automatically generated

verification protocol supports the evidence

commonly required by the majority of regu-

lations, laws or plant standards. Heartbeat™

verification can also be used to perform

safety integrity level (SIL) tests, which are

routinely embedded in plant safety manuals

and documentation.

“Every measuring point is verified and

documented

in-situ

without any interruption

to the process plant. Safety integrity level

tests, such as SIL 3, for example, are done

online. This is important because one doesn’t

have to stop the plant to interrogate a device

that might be perfectly healthy.

“Also, Heartbeat verification is under-

written by TUV, which means that 3

party

verification is no longer necessary,” Van den

Berg adds.

Does verification reduce calibration re-

quirements? “Our instruments are generally

manufactured using electronic sub-systems

and the electrical performances – ohms, mA,

voltage drop, frequency response, etc – each

factory-tested before being put into service.