Unveiling the Technology and Advantages of Yokogawa's DTSX Distributed Fiber Optic Temperature Sensor

In industrial monitoring and control, the emergence of Distributed Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors (DTSX) marks a significant technological leap, and Yokogawa stands at the forefront of this innovation. The DTSX system harnesses the power of Raman scattering, a principle rooted in the interaction of light and matter, to offer precise temperature measurements across vast distances. 

At the core of Yokogawa's DTSX technology lies the sophisticated use of fiber optics as a medium for temperature sensing. Unlike traditional sensors that measure temperature at specific points, the DTSX system transforms the entire length of an optical fiber into a continuous temperature sensor. This transformation occurs through the exploitation of the Raman scatter principle. When a laser pulse travels through the optical fiber, it interacts with the fiber molecules, causing light scattering. This scattered light, consisting of both Stokes and anti-Stokes components, carries critical information about the temperature along the fiber's path.

Yokogawa's engineers have mastered the art of decoding this information. By analyzing the intensity ratio of the Raman scatter components, the DTSX system accurately determines temperature changes with remarkable precision. This capability allows for real-time monitoring over lengths of up to 50 kilometers, a feat unattainable by conventional sensors.

The DTSX's design integrates seamlessly with existing fiber optic infrastructure, making it a cost-effective solution for wide-scale temperature monitoring. This compatibility reduces installation costs and minimizes the need for extensive cabling, a common hurdle in large-scale industrial setups.

One of the standout features of the DTSX system is its spatial resolution. The ability to pinpoint temperature variations within a meter offers unparalleled accuracy in detecting hotspots or potential faults. This precision proves invaluable in industries such as power transmission, where early detection of overheating can prevent catastrophic failures and ensure uninterrupted power supply.

Moreover, the DTSX system boasts an impressive response time. In situations where rapid temperature changes can have dire consequences, such as in chemical processing plants, the DTSX's swift detection and reporting capabilities allow for timely interventions, thus averting potential hazards.

The versatility of the DTSX system extends to its application in diverse environments. Whether monitoring pipeline integrity in the harsh conditions of oil and gas fields or ensuring optimal conditions in delicate greenhouse operations, the DTSX adapts effortlessly. Its robust design withstands extreme temperatures and environmental conditions, ensuring reliable performance in even the most challenging scenarios.

In addition to its technical prowess, the DTSX system offers significant environmental benefits. By enabling efficient monitoring and control, it aids in reducing energy consumption and minimizing waste, contributing to more sustainable industrial practices.

Yokogawa's DTSX Distributed Fiber Optic Temperature Sensor stands as a testament to the power of innovation in industrial monitoring. Combining the principles of Raman scattering with advanced fiber optic technology provides a precise, reliable, versatile, and environmentally friendly solution. As industries continue to evolve towards more innovative and efficient operations, the DTSX is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of temperature monitoring.

To learn more about the Yokogawa's DTSX, contact Classic Controls Corp. Call +1 863-644-3642.

Asset Condition Monitoring for Major Equipment

Asset and equipment monitoring promotes the maximizing
of productivity by reducing downtime.

Minimizing machine or system downtime, for whatever cause, is a common productivity and financial goal of industrial processing of all types. Lost production time can never be recouped, and unplanned equipment outages can cost millions. There is real benefit to be had from monitoring operational aspects of machinery and systems in real time.

Asset condition monitoring, as the name implies, is the process of continually monitoring a machine or piece of equipment with the intent to alert operators to anomalies in machine function. Data gathered can also be used to define a normal operating envelope and show trends that may indicate a need for service. The goal, ultimately, is to repair, adjust or maintain prior to and avoiding outright failure. Key indicators of failing equipment can be changing values in vibration, noise or temperature measurements. Monitoring these and other variables, some derived at very localized and specific points, provides key indicators of the condition of the machine. By evaluating trends in the data, intelligent systems can provide health information about the equipment and assist in the early detection of possible faults or failures.

Implementation of asset condition monitoring is benefiting manufacturing plants and process industries such as chemical, petrochemical, pulp and paper, power generation, wind turbine, and oil and gas. Not only can it save money from protecting against unplanned outages, but condition monitoring also improves productivity, quality and profitability.

GE's Bently Nevada 3500 Monitoring System provides continuous, online monitoring suitable for machinery protection and asset condition monitoring applications. It is the company's most capable and flexible system, with a traditional rack-based design. The useful features of the system are numerous, and it delivers advantages not provided in other systems. Share your major asset monitoring challenges and plans with a systems specialist, and leverage your own knowledge and experience with their product application expertise to implement an effective solution.

Industrial Machinery and Asset Condition Monitoring from Classic Controls, Inc.

Process Instrumentation Selection Tool

Yokogawa's Process Instrumentation Selection
Tool saves time when searching for the right
process measurement instrument.
Image courtesy Yokogawa

Yokogawa Corporation of America, an industry recognized source for innovative process measurement and control products, has made available an easy to use product selection tool for those navigating through the company's extensive product offering. The Product Finder is a great time saver that enables a user to quickly locate product and technical information on Yokogawa products that meet the user's selected criteria.

Let's step through a quick example. You will see how this quick and easy to use tool saves time by navigating quickly to the website pages detailing products meeting your requirements.

The Product Finder is accessible through a number of links throughout Yokogawa's network of Reps. Clicking the link lands you on the start page of the Product Finder. For this example, I am going to search for a flow meter with the following characteristics:

• Mass flow measurement 
• Non-conductive liquid
• Accuracy of 1%
• Flow measurement device must have an integral transmitter
• Tri-clamp connections

Above, I declared my location as United States. The next step, shown below, is to select "Flow" as the measurement parameter. You will see in the drop down menu that there are many measurement elements that can be selected, with Yokogawa products for each.

My selection of "Flow" returns a list of all the company's flow measurement devices, of which there are many (this cropped screenshot, shown below, only shows four, but there were many more) . This is where the selector really helps you. Instead of examining several or many different models, the user can focus the search by adding more product characteristics. You can see the list of prompting questions on the left side of the page. Answering these will narrow the search results to the show only the products meeting all the criteria specified by the user.

The next image (below) shows selections of all my sample product attributes entered on the left column. Note that there is now only a single product that matches all of my sample criteria. The whole process took less than two minutes. By clicking on the "View More Details" button below the product image, I gain access to all of the available technical, support, and product data for my selected flow measurement device.

The process instrumentation experts at Classic Controls are available to provide additional help in meeting your process measurement challenges in Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Combine their product knowledge and expertise with your process know-how for the best solutions.

Match Temperature Sensor Configuration to the Application for Best Results

Special construction features can better adapt a temperature
sensor to measuring process conditions.
Image courtesy Pyromation

There are more temperature controlled operations than any of us could count in a lifetime, each with a set of signature performance requirements and design challenges. Matching the means of temperature measurement, the control loop characteristics, and heat delivery method to the application are essential to achieving successful operation.

Step one is to measure the process temperature. This sounds simple until you start researching products and technologies for measuring temperature. Like the temperature controlled operations mentioned previously, they are numerous. To filter the possible candidates for temperature sensing devices, consider these aspects of your application and how well a particular sensor may fulfill your requirement.

• Response Time - How rapidly the sensor will detect a change in process temperature is a function of how the sensor is constructed and how it is installed. Most temperature sensors are enclosed or encapsulated to provide protection for the somewhat vulnerable sensing element. Greater mass surrounding the sensing element, or a shape that inhibits heat transfer from the process to the sensor, will slow sensor response. Whether the slower response time will adversely impact process operation needs to be considered. More consideration is due to the manner in which the temperature sensor assembly is installed. Not all applications involve a fluid in which the sensor assembly can be conveniently immersed, and even these applications benefit from careful sensor placement.
• Accuracy - Know what your process needs to be effective. Greater levels of accuracy will generally cost more, possibly require more care and attention to assure the accuracy is maintained. Accuracy is mostly related to the type of sensor, be it RTD, thermocouple, or another type.
• Sensitivity - Related to the construction, installation, and type of sensor, think of sensitivity as the smallest step change in process temperature that the sensor will reliably report. The needs of the process should dictate the level of sensitivity specified for the temperature sensor assembly.

Take a simple application as an illustration. Heat tracing of piping systems is a common function throughout commercial and industrial settings experiencing periods of cold weather. Electric heat trace installations benefit from having some sort of control over the energy input. This control prevents excessive heating of the piping or applying heat when none is required, a substantial energy saving effort. A temperature sensor can be installed beneath the piping's insulation layer, strapped to the pipe outer surface. A specially designed sensor assembly can improve the performance of the sensor and the entire heat trace control system by enhancing the response time of the temperature sensor. A right angled sheath permits insertion of the sensor beneath the piping insulation while orienting the connection head upright. A surface pad at the tip of the sheath increases the surface contact with the pipe to provide faster sensor response. The surface pad is a metal fixture welded to the sensing end of the temperature sensor assembly. It can be flat, for surface temperature measurements, or angled for installation on a curved surface, like a pipe. The increased surface contact achieved with the surface pad promotes the conduction of heat to the sensor element from the heated pipe in our illustration. This serves to reduce and improve the response time of the sensor. Adding some thermally conductive paste between the pad and the pipe surface can further enhance the performance. While the illustration is simple, the concepts apply across a broad range of potential applications that do not allow immersion of the temperature assembly in a fluid.

A simple modification or addition of an option to a standard sensor assembly can deliver substantially improved measurement results in many cases. Share your temperature measurement requirements and challenges with a process measurement specialist. Leverage your own process knowledge and experience with their product application expertise.

Achieving Close Control of Process Temperature

Process Temperature Controller
Courtesy Yokogawa

Temperature control is a common operation in the industrial arena. Its application can range across solids, liquids, and gases. The dynamics of a particular operation will influence the selection of instruments and equipment to meet the project requirements. In addition to general performance requirements, safety should always be a consideration in the design of a temperature control system involving enough energy to damage the system or create a hazardous condition.

Let's narrow the application range to non-flammable flowing fluids that require elevated temperatures. In the interest of clarity, this illustration is presented without any complicating factors that may be encountered in actual practice. Much of what is presented here, however, will apply universally to other scenarios.

What are the considerations for specifying the right equipment?

KNOW YOUR FLOW

First and foremost, you must have complete understanding of process fluid properties.

• Specific Heat - The amount of heat input required to increase the temperature of a mass unit of the media by one degree.
• Minimum Inlet Temperature - The lowest media temperature entering the process and requiring heating to a setpoint. Use the worst (coldest) case anticipated.
• Mass Flow Rate - An element in the calculation for total heat requirement. If the flow rate will vary, use the maximum anticipated flow.
• Maximum Required Outlet Temperature - Used with minimum inlet temperature in the calculation of the maximum heat input required.

MATCH SYSTEM COMPONENT PERFORMANCE WITH APPLICATION

• Heat Source - If temperature control with little deviation from a setpoint is your goal, electric heat will likely be your heating source of choice. It responds quickly to changes in a control signal and the output can be adjusted in very small increments to achieve a close balance between process heat requirement and actual heat input.
• Sensor - Sensor selection is critical to attaining close temperature control. There are many factors to consider, well beyond the scope of this article, but the ability of the sensor to rapidly detect small changes in media temperature is a key element of a successful project. Attention should be given to the sensor containment, or sheath, the mass of the materials surrounding the sensor that are part of the assembly, along with the accuracy of the sensor.
• Sensor Location - The location of the temperature sensor will be a key factor in control system performance. The sensing element should be placed where it will be exposed to the genuine process condition, avoiding effects of recently heated fluid that may have not completely mixed with the balance of the media. Locate too close to the heater and there may be anomalies caused by the heater. A sensor installed too distant from the heater may respond too slowly. Remember that the heating assembly, in whatever form it may take, is a source of disturbance to the process. It is important to detect the impact of the disturbance as early and accurately as possible.
• Controller - The controller should provide an output that is compatible with the heater power controller and have the capability to provide a continuously varying signal or one that can be very rapidly cycled. There are many other features that can be incorporated into the controller for alarms, display, and other useful functions. These have little bearing on the actual control of the process, but can provide useful information to the opeartor.
• Power Controller - A great advantage of electric heaters is their compatibility with very rapid cycling or other adjustments to their input power. A power controller that varies the total power to the heater in very small increments will allow for fine tuning the heat input to the process.
• Performance Monitoring - Depending upon the critical nature of the heating activity to overall process performance, it may be useful to monitor not only the media temperature, but aspects of heater or controller performance that indicate the devices are working. Knowing something is not working sooner, rather than later, is generally beneficial. Controllers usually have some sort of sensor failure notification built in. Heater operation can be monitored my measurement of the circuit current.

SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

Any industrial heater assembly is capable of producing surface temperatures hot enough to cause trouble. Monitoring process and heater performance and operation, providing backup safety controls, is necessary to reduce the probability of damage or catastrophe.

• High Fluid Temperature - An independent sensor can monitor process fluid temperature, with instrumentation providing an alert and limit controllers taking action if unexpected limits are reached.
• Heater Temperature - Monitoring the heater sheath temperature can provide warning of a number of failure conditions, such as low fluid flow, no fluid present, or power controller failure. A proper response activity should be automatically executed when unsafe or unanticipated conditions occur.
• Media Present - There are a number of ways to directly or indirectly determine whether media is present. The media, whether gaseous or liquid, is necessary to maintain an operational connection between the heater assembly and the sensor.
• Flow Present - Whether gaseous or liquid media, flow is necessary to keep most industrial heaters from burning out. Understand the limitations and operating requirements of the heating assembly employed and make sure those conditions are maintained.
• Heater Immersion - Heaters intended for immersion in liquid may have watt density ratings that will produce excessive or damaging element temperatures if operated in air. Strategic location of a temperature sensor may be sufficient to detect whether a portion of the heater assembly is operating in air. An automatic protective response should be provided in the control scheme for this condition.

Each of the items mentioned above is due careful consideration for an industrial fluid heating application. Your particular process will present its own set of specific temperature sensing challenges with respect to performance and safety. Share your requirements with temperature measurement and control experts, combining your process knowledge with their expertise to develop safe and effective solutions.

New Website For Classic Controls

Home page on Classic Controls new website

Classic Controls, distributor of industrial process measurement and control equipment and instruments throughout Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, has a new website that is live now. The new site provides simple and rapid access to Classic Controls' represented lines and products, as well as the company's social media outlets, all organized in an intuitive and useful fashion to save users time in their search for solutions.

Visit the new site and see the products and capabilities of Classic Controls.

Selecting and Using the Right Temperature Sensor

Temperature measurement is an ubiquitous primary element of almost every fluid process control operation, as well as a host of other industrial applications. Selecting and properly applying a temperature sensing technology is key to effective process measurement. Of the two common technologies, RTD and thermocouple, each has advantages under a certain set of operating conditions, and it is useful to be familiar with the basics of how they work and how they should be applied.

Pyromation, a long standing manufacturer of temperature measurement devices for industrial and scientific applications, provides us with a useful white paper detailing thermocouple and RTD operation, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each in application.

Read the white paper. Share your process temperature measurement challenges with a product specialist. Combining your knowledge of the application with their knowledge of the products will produce the best solution.

Selecting and Using the Right Temperature Sensor from Classic Controls, Inc.