GE Power’s Automation & Controls business has unveiled the next generation of Industrial Internet connected control solutions at embedded world 2018 in Nuremberg, Germany. To expand the capabilities of GE’s Industrial Internet Control System (IICS), GE is introducing PACMotion VFD, the Mark VieS Safety System, and significant redundancy extensions to the PACSystems RX3i CPL400 and PACedge CPL400 IIoT products. This updated roster of controls solutions provides customers with greater flexibility, seamless integration with existing platforms as well as a boost in productivity, efficiency and safety.  

Transcending traditional control systems, these new solutions enable Outcome Optimized Controls technology to enhance real-time deterministic control side by side with analytic and optimization algorithms on the same physical platform. By leveraging the total IICS architecture, customers can take advantage of continuous data-driven feedback to optimize industrial processes and connect their controls to the business objectives.  

Below is an overview of GE’s next generation of Industrial Internet connected controllers: 

• PACMotion VFD: A part of the PACMotion product line enhancing GE’s IICS for process and discrete applications, the PacMotion VFD is the first fully integrated VFD product in the family. Delivering increased flexibility and speed to meet customer needs, PACMotion VFD is an integrated, rugged, and modular variable frequency drive designed for a range of applications, including water, metro, automotive, packaging, and oil and gas. With a compact footprint, the PACMotion VFD provides considerable energy savings to help minimize the lifetime operational cost of electric motors. Built to perform in harsh environments, the PACMotion VFD is designed to resist moisture and chemical contaminants to ensure cost saving performance. Through the newly announced partnership with SEW-EURODRIVE, GE is enhancing its motion capabilities by combining its controls portfolio with SEW’s drive automation products to deliver a holistic solution for plant operations. 

• The Mark VieS Safety System: GE understands the complex undertaking of managing different control systems within the power plant environment. Offering improved plant performance, operability, and availability, the Mark VieS delivers a robust functional safety solution and reflects GE’s decades-long heritage of protection and control experience. A proven solution, the system is cost-effective, complete, flexible, and reliable with enhanced cybersecurity.  It is ideal for critical processes such as plant emergency shutdown, burner management, critical process control, and fire and gas detection applications. The Mark VieS Safety System is not only differentiated by its ability to configure to GE plant-wide control solutions, but also by its ability to deliver flexibility, scalability and standards-based operational interfaces designed to seamlessly integrate with existing process control systems. 

• PACSystems RX3i CPE400 and the new open IIoT and control platform PACedge CPL400: The PACSystems RX3i CPx400 series of controllers is the industry’s first outcome optimizing controller with dual redundancy capability. Augmenting real-time deterministic control with Edge technology, the high-performance controller activates a flexible and intelligent, highly-available system to ensure maximum uptime while reducing the total cost of ownership. Whether customers are looking to enable the system through a Predix-enabled Field Agent or PACEdge with Linux, an open implementation with compatible web server support, the CPx400 family is designed to perform in a range of applications including water, metro, industrial steam, and chemical. 

To learn more about GE Power’s Automation & Controls business, click here.

eletter-02-28-2018