Wireless instrumentation has been available for manufacturers for more than a decade. Sensors have expanded beyond traditional measurements such as pressure, temperature, level and flow to measurements such as acoustic, vibration, conductivity and more. These easily installed Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-based field devices make more than monitoring and control possible—they make real-time personnel safety, reliability, energy efficiency improvements possible to help deliver greater performance.
In a Control Engineering article, Bring IIoT capabilities to refineries and process plants, Emerson’s Dan Carlson highlights considerations for building a solid foundation with device-level networking best practices.
Dan opens highlighting the capital expenditure side benefits of wireless instrumentation:
WirelessHART deployments reduce instrumentation installation costs by eliminating expensive cabling. The cost of adding a wired instrument in a refinery can range anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000.
He describes the global IEC 62591 WirelessHART standard.
This wireless protocol is based on the traditional 4-20 mA wired HART protocol. It leverages existing instrumentation practices for deploying and maintaining instrumentation, but without the traditional cost of running signal wires and supporting infrastructure, including junction boxes, cable trays, marshalling cabinets, and others.
A key component in this network architecture is the gateway. It:
