Yokogawa Electric Corporation and CiDRA Corporate Services Inc. announce that they have entered into a distributor agreement. Yokogawa will sell CiDRA's SONARtrac® range of flowmeters in the Southeast Asian markets of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia; the Middle Eastern markets of Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE; and the Republic of Korea. Yokogawa Australia, Yokogawa New Zealand, and CiDRA have been successfully working together since 2014, so this agreement will now extend coverage to include Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Korea.

CiDRA's line of SONARtrac flowmeters provides accurate and reliable flow and entrained air measurements for mining applications, as well as most other industrial applications. Due to their non-contact design, SONARtrac flowmeters do not have any moving or process-wetted parts that are subject to wear. They also do not have inherent drift mechanisms, and can be installed on the outside of any type of pipeline. This non-contact design translates into long life, no maintenance, improved safety, and enhanced operational and process efficiency for the monitoring of mining flow processes.

Kersi Aspar, a Yokogawa vice president and head of the Global Sales Center at the company's IA Platform Business Headquarters: "Yokogawa has an extensive flowmeter lineup that includes vortex, magnetic, clamp-on ultrasonic, and Coriolis flowmeters. Based on our two years' experience selling SONARtrac in Australia and New Zealand, we believe that its unique sonar-based non-contact flow and entrained air measurement systems nicely complement our flowmeter lineup, and enhance the portfolio of industry leading products and solutions that we provide to the Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Korean markets. This will enable us to expand into the mining, chemical, refining, coal processing, power, and other markets."

Manufacturers and industrial operators can now access more detailed sensor diagnostics in harsh operating environments using the IP67-rated, Allen-Bradley ArmorBlock IO-Link master from Rockwell Automation. The device builds on the company’s IO-Link portfolio with event and process timestamping capabilities for on-machine applications.

The new IO-Link master stores up to 40 timestamps of sensor events on each channel. This event history can help users track changes and more easily diagnose issues. Input timestamps of all sensor data also can be sent to the controller upon a change of state. These and other diagnostics available through the device can reduce issue-resolution time by as much as 90 percent, improve preventive maintenance and optimize overall system performance.

“The ArmorBlock IO-Link master with IO-Link-enabled sensors can aid end users in creating smarter operations without a complete overhaul,” said Kevin Gagliostro, product manager, Rockwell Automation. “They can deploy the technology to monitor temperature, and margin-indication or proximity parameters in critical processes. They can also target problem areas where better diagnostics are needed to remedy issues.”

While the new ArmorBlock IO-Link master is ruggedized for use in harsh applications, the Rockwell Automation portfolio also includes an in-cabinet solution for light applications. The on-machine option requires only a single cable from the cabinet, reducing the number and length of cable runs and potential failure points.

The ArmorBlock IO-Link master includes connectivity for up to eight IO-Link sensors. The master and sensors share an IP address, helping end users reduce the cost and time to commission equipment.

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Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it has significantly enhanced its FieldMate® device management software, and is releasing this as FieldMate R3.02 on August 10. FieldMate is a versatile software program used to configure, adjust, and manage a wide variety of field devices used in factories and other production sites. This latest version of FieldMate includes new functions that reduce maintenance workload by simplifying a number of field maintenance tasks.

Digital communications standards are playing an increasingly important role in communications between plant central control systems and field devices. With a number of digital communication standards in use today, plants often have devices from multiple vendors that use different standards. Software tools are thus required that have the versatility to configure, adjust, and manage these devices.

With its support of a variety of digital communication standards and its ability to configure, adjust, and manage a variety of devices from different manufacturers, FieldMate is up to this challenge. With this latest update, FieldMate has become even easier to use and improves the efficiency of field maintenance operations.

Previous FieldMate versions could run on Windows® 7 PCs and tablets. With release 3.02, FieldMate can now be used on PCs and tablets that run Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 10. This is particularly significant because Windows 7 and 10 tablets are increasingly being used in the field by maintenance personnel.
Additional key new features of FieldMate R3.02 are as follows:

1. One-click (touch) operation for complex procedures
2. Easy comparison with past settings
3. FieldMate Validator

Designed for use in the oil and gas industries, the Rotork ELB is a robust, self-contained instrument that combines pipeline pressure monitoring with intelligent valve control. The ELB can also collect detailed operational data for optimising performance and enhancing pipeline safety.

The ELB continuously monitors upstream and downstream pipeline pressure dynamics to provide early detection of pipeline breaks and initiate automatic valve actuator movement to an emergency position, based on user-defined parameters. Valve actuator control - selectable as fail close, fail open or stay put - is based on rate-of-drop (RoD) and rate-of-rise (RoR) as well as high and low pressure limits. A remote process shut down (PSD) input with the option to override all functions is also available to drive the valve to the fail position.

The ELB also provides an array of programmable alarm and alert indications and has an extensive range of features that can be configured to meet end users’ specific requirements. These include up to six remote inputs and four configurable solenoid outputs, partial stroke testing (PST) and Modbus® network connectivity.

The ELB is housed in a compact, environmentally sealed and explosionproof housing that can be mounted on the actuator or remotely. Setting menus displayed on the large HMI window are the focus for non-intrusive programming and commissioning using Rotork IQ intelligent electric actuation technology. In normal mode the LCD display indicates valve position. The same window also displays visual indication of status, alarms, event, trend and operation logs and diagnostic data. Padlockable pushbuttons for local actuator operation are provided on the ELB enclosure and a vandalproof cover is available for increased security.