Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA (2 August 2012)—The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced today that an ISA standard, ANSI/ISA-62382-2012 (IEC 62382 Modified), Automation Systems in the Process Industry—Electrical and Instrumentation Loop Check, has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is now available.

This standard defines procedures and specifications for loop checks, which comprise the activities between the completion of the loop construction (including installation and point-to-point checks) and the start-up of cold commissioning. It is applicable to the construction of new plants and to expansion/retrofits (i.e. revamping) of E&I (electrical & instrument) installations in existing plants (including PLC, DCS, panel-mounted and field instrumentation).

The standard is a US-modified adoption by the ISA105 standards committee of IEC 62382 Edition 1. While the content is largely the same as IEC 62382, this adoption includes such changes as:

• The addition of both the increasing and decreasing directions to tests in order to identify any hysteresis issues.
• The addition of a category of “standard loops” for completeness.
• The replacement of various input/output check forms with a single loop check form that can be used for all loops, including indicating and control. This significantly reduces the number of check forms needed and at the same time reinforces the “loop” concept in the loop check activity.
• Expanded examples of loop checks. Specific loop checks must be established by the user depending on the specific hardware/software to be verified on the project.

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (30 July 2012) – The International Society of Automation (ISA) announces that it has produced a new edition of its technical publication, Practical Thermocouple Thermometry, Second Edition, by Thomas W. Kerlin and Mitchell Johnson.

Practical Thermocouple Thermometry, Second Edition, focuses on practical aspects of how thermocouples work; how they go bad; how to access measurement accuracy; and how to select, install and operate them.

Dr. Kerlin, professor emeritus from the College of Engineering at The University of Tennessee, was joined by Johnson, president of JMS-Southeast, in preparing this second edition to include the latest in thermocouple technology. They called upon their 60 plus years of collective experience in theory, research, teaching, manufacturing and real-world applications to produce this edition. Updates include:

• real-world case studies demonstrating solutions of thermocouple problems
• properties and performance of all commonly used thermocouple types
• innovative applications of thermocouples
• expanded information on thermowell selection for required reliability
• and much more

Case Study by Beckhoff: PC-based Control as universal control solution for energy and process data acquisition according to DIN EN ISO 50001.

Energy costs are obviously becoming an increasingly important factor for companies. Intelligent Energy management systems (EnMS) are required in order to increase energy efficiency and lower manufacturing costs. As such, as an example, the government of Germany intends to decide soon whether the reimbursement of tax on electricity and energy for the manufacturing industries is to be coupled to the introduction of an EnMS.

Click 'Smart Grid meets PC-based Control' to read in detail.

Case Study: The Hsinta Power Plant is a large thermal power station located in the Yong-an township of Kaohsiung County. To take advantage of its geographical position in southern Taiwan, Hsinta has begun developing an expansive solar power facility with a 1 megawatt capacity as part of the government’s effort to tap into new renewable energy technologies.

For further reading click 'Control Solution for Solar Energy Monitoring System'