Innovation

PILOT PRO

 

Pilot Pro is a new process sample conditioning system communications interface designed to provide a link between plant process control operations and analyzer maintenance networks, no matter where the two are located.  A sensor and solenoid administration module, Pilot Pro is designed to acquire, transmit, and manage real-time sample system information via an electronic interface, facilitating critical process control decision-making.

 

The flexible communication capability on Pilot Pro allows analyzer engineers and technicians to receive critical sample system data (pressure, temperature, and flow) to promote proactive maintenance activities and reduce system downtimes.  Able to support a variety of communication protocols, including Ethernet, Modbus,Profibus, and others, Pilot Pro provides a complete communications solution for process analytical applications, making “smart” systems a reality for both modular and conventional sample handling systems.

 

According to Mike Cost, Applications and Innovation Engineer for Parker IPD, Pilot Pro’s ability to support a variety of communication protocols meets a growing, industry-wide need to do process analysis remotely.  “Real-time, locally obtained sample data is critical to accurate assessment by process analyzer engineers and technicians who may be located remotely from a sample site,” Cost said.  “With downsizing, there are now far fewer people in the field to collect data at the analyzer or sample system. Pilot Pro bridges this gap, gathering local data and translating it into any one of a number of common protocols for customers to access and act upon.  Consequently, Pilot Pro offers far greater versatility for a wider range of customer applications than other competitive systems.”

 

In addition to supporting multiple communication protocols, Pilot Pro offers other unique features as well.  Pilot Pro offers both custom pneumatic, and electric feedthroughs for the end user. This provides reliable separation of hazardous zones while allowing real-time troubleshooting of electrical components. Pilot Pro features hazardous area certified, off-the-shelf hardware for reduced order and delivery times, guaranteed reliable performance, and ongoing product support.  Plus, Pilot Pro can be utilized with Parker CTC HMI (Human Machine Interface) hardware and software for data trending of information from multiple Pilot Pro units and analyzer systems.

 

In discussing Parker Pilot Pro differentiators , Cost pointed out the critical nature of obtaining accurate sample data.  “Right now, greater than 75% of process analyzer failures in the areas of chemical, petrochemical and power generation can be related to inaccuracies in sample handling systems.  Many plant operators have recurring problems with poor analyzer performance.  As a result, they remove the analyzer from control schemes, or incur significant costs for analyzer technician call-outs,” said Cost.  “Maintenance can be time-consuming and ineffective without key sample parameter information.  Parker Pilot Pro eliminates these issues while minimizingthe need for costly communication infrastructure upgrades.”

 

All hardware is rated for FM Class I Div. IIor ATEX Zone 2operation.  The system enclosure is Nema 4X rated with options including solenoid valves manifold-mounted in 4, 6, or 8 valve configurations with manual locking override and LED indication (blanking plates may be used to isolate unused valve positions).  A variety of PLC systems or simple I/O chassis hardware may be used for transmission of data to local area analyzer networks or to the plant DCS.  Hazardous zones are separated by a compression barrier that allows the removal or the addition of transducer/analyzer hardware from the sample system.  Multiple pneumatic and electrical interfacing options are available to meet customer mounting preferences.

 

MPI TUBE FITTINGS

 

Parker Instrumentation provides a breakthrough family of rapid-assembly, compression tube fittings for pressures up to 15,000PSI. New half-inch sizes provide an ideal solution for handling the high tensile, duplex and super-duplex tubing often favored for running down high pressure, deepwater wells.

 

MPI tube fittings are based on the familiar, industry-standard compression assembly technique. This allows a fitting to be installed in seconds by simply tightening a nut, eliminating the time-consuming 'coning and threading' practices that usually need to be performed in the field when applying traditional medium-to-high pressure fittings. Using MPI fittings, instrumentation engineers working in deepwater exploration and production areas can now assemble tubing systems in a tiny fraction of the time previously required. They also avoid the need for specialized training in installing traditional high pressure fittings, and the close attention to quality control procedures typically required during assembly.

 

The new product extends the MPI sizes Parker offers for small instrumentation tubing applications, adding the ¾ and 1 inch options to the existing choices of 1/4, 3/8 and 9/16 inches. The fittings are available in a variety of shapes and flow arrangements including straight connections, elbow and tee joints, bulkhead unions, reducers and adapting interfaces.

 

"It can take 30 minutes or more to create the cone and thread required for high pressure fittings", says Parker. "MPI can cut assembly time to seconds, delivering major savings in installation costs, and allowing a common style of tube fittings to be applied across a complete offshore platform."

 

INTRAFLOW SYSTEMS

Parker Instrumentation shows space- and cost-saving solutions for process analysis

Parker Instrumentation will highlight its growing range of innovative modules that bring new efficiencies to process analysis system builders. State of the art products include the company's SP76-compliant surface-mounting substrate and components for industrial analyzers, a modular valve system for automated stream switching in gas and liquid analysis applications, and a turnkey solution for venting samples from process analyzers into a plant's flare disposal or return system.

Parker Instrumentation will also launch a radical new type of instrument manifold system, one that is expected to set a new standard for connecting instruments to process lines. Developed over more than two years, and with considerable input from large-scale users, Parker believes it is the most significant development in instrumentation manifolds for many years.

Parker Instrumentation's modular SP76-compliant substrate - IntraFlow - delivers a leap forward for process analytical and laboratory instrumentation flow control systems.  At various trade shows, Parker will highlight the new ability to provide users with complete assembled solutions including instruments and heaters from a single purchase order - as a result of teaming agreements with Honeywell and Intertec. IntraFlow surface-mounting fittings dramatically reduce the amount of space required, minimizing the volume of sample flow paths, and speeding construction and reducing cost of ownership.  Substrate fittings plug together in seconds using novel slip-fit connectors.  No welding is required to build a system.  The 1.5 inch (38.1 mm) footprint modules simply screw onto a 'pegboard' backplane that provides the connection force and rigidity for the finished flow control assembly, and may be disassembled rapidly for maintenance or re-use.  Finished systems occupy typically around 25% of the space of a conventionally plumbed flow control system. A major advantage of Parker's new substrate is its intrinsic support for three-way flow paths.  Unlike the linear substrates in common use for semiconductor 'gas stick' delivery systems, IntraFlow maintains flow paths on a single plane - regardless of direction.  No manifolds on additional substrate layers are needed to implement the more sophisticated functionality required by sample systems.  This approach allows flow control substrates to be constructed with extremely low profiles of less than 3/4 inch (20 mm) - including the pegboard.

 

RMAX STREAM SWITCHING SYSTEM

 

Modular stream switching system redefines performance of automated sampling systems

 

Parker Instrumentation provides innovative valve systems for automated stream switching in gas and liquid analysis applications. The product - R-max - uses surface-mounting techniques to dramatically reduce the size of control systems for process analyzers and gas chromatographs, and to provide modularity for assembling compact switches for any quantity of fluid streams.

 

Purpose-designed for automated applications, the pneumatically-operated R-max brings completely new levels of reliability and integrity to this application, through the use of true three-way double-block-and-bleed valve modules that eliminate any possibility of cross contamination of fluid streams, combined with needle valves offering operating lifetimes in excess of one million cycles.

 

R-max operates over a vacuum to 500 PSIG/34 bar pressure range, and may be actuated using a low air pressure supply of 40 PSIG/3 bar. Systems are based on three basic components: valve modules, substrates housing the stream switching channels, and a venting unit. These interconnect using just two screws, allowing the number of streams to be extended without breaking the connections throughout the entire substrate.

 

The surface mounting approach means that stream switches are much smaller than systems built using standard valves and tubing - by up to as much as 90%. A complete three-stream switch system for example, can be constructed in an area of around 7 x 7 x 20 cm for example. This has considerable follow-on benefits for users, allowing end users and analyzer OEMs to build highly compact systems, which have extremely small dead volumes for faster and more economic purging, and which require much simpler heating arrangements.

 

Parker also offers compatible filter modules, which bolt onto the side of the stream switching substrate without any intermediate tubing and compression connections.

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