Changes made in electrical and automation systems of industrial plants and properties have an immediate effect on many other aspects at the site’s buildings, equipment or processes. Nevertheless, in many companies, electrical and automation data are still being managed using personal hard drives or network drives, in separate Excel files and CAD images.
With the help of FieldALMA, the user can create a virtual plant environment; this way, data related to the plant can be stored and are under the control of the plant’s owner. If electrical and automation design is based on a database and a virtual model of the plant and not on individual image files, the data remain up-to-date and the number of human errors is reduced.
– With FieldALMA, the user can model the entire field – in other words, the devices, circuits, boards, cabinets, enclosures, buses, and systems, plus all the cabling. FieldALMA also contains connection data on wire and connector level, as well as an overview of the connections all the way to the automation system. Owing to this, traditional CAD images and various reports can always be generated based on up-to-date data, says Risto Korpi, FieldALMA’s Product Manager responsible for product development.
When all electrical and automation design has been modelled into a single database, changes need to be made in one place and one time only.
– Different hierarchy views can also be modelled in FieldALMA, which means that you can have a physical overview of the entire plant with all the buildings, production facilities and premises. In addition to this, a process view or ATEX area can also be made available to the users that includes the same equipment from the perspective of the process. Meaning that the devices in a database are the same, but the user can change the perspective, Korpi explains.
The most significant benefit for FieldALMA users is elimination of design errors. If design work takes place directly on pictures, avoiding mistakes is next to impossible, for example, because of the natural reason that the pictures are copied and copying results in data loss or distortion. FieldALMA helps to eliminate, for example, the connection errors generally associated with electrical and automation design, as well as errors related to ID management.
– As the design takes place in a virtual environment, connection errors can be detected or prevented. For example, if the designer should accidentally connect a cable in a casing to the wrong connectors, this error will be detected at the latest when connecting the right cable to it later on. I/O and bus connections also have similar checks and duplicates are not allowed, Korpi explains proceeding from a practical example, and continues.
– ID management prevents the use of duplicate IDs on certain items, such as boards, enclosures, cabinets, circuits, devices, and cables. In addition, when using IDs, the designer can utilise reservation numbers, and their calculation can be automated.
Furthermore, FieldALMA improves maintenance and service efficiency when faults are detected. In many cases, the installer only has a static, possibly outdated image. Before the installer can consider possible measurements or repairs, he or she needs to check on-site whether the document in its entirety is up to date.
– If data are stored in a database, faults can be found and corrected faster, because the data are more reliable. The corrections made can also be registered directly in the database. If documentation is messed up, searching for data and updating and correcting errors require significantly more time, Korpi points out.
