August 1, 2005
The Air Products plant in Wichita, Kansas, has reduced material, labor and field installation costs by installing a SIMATIC PCS 7 control system from Siemens using PROFIBUS for field device integration.
Installed at the site’s North Plant in early 2004, this is Air Products’ largest implementation of fieldbus technology in the United States.
“We are pleased with the improvements and cost reductions,” said Dean Kerr, senior engineer at the Wichita Air Products plant. “The project was completed on schedule and below budget. PROFIBUS gives us the broadest choice of field devices from a large pool of name-brand suppliers and we can seamlessly integrate all of them on our network.”
The PROFIBUS devices continually monitor their own health, notifying operators when they sense degradation and enabling improved asset management and proactive maintenance. PROFIBUS devices from various suppliers are used, including Endress+Hauser, Micro Motion, Emerson, Mettler-Toledo and Siemens.