Yokogawa releases new DXAdvanced R3 data-acquisition and display station for networks

The new products feature a new customising function for the display and a recording function by facility or batch to provide excellent operability and easy data management for even more efficient monitoring of production lines.

Development background
In recent years, paperless recorders which can record measurement data to electronic media have become the main method of recording data in industrial processes or on production lines. Compared with traditional paper-based recorders, they offer improved efficiency, reduced maintenance requirements, and the ability to process and analyse stored data. In addition, there is a growing emphasis on monitoring operational data and stored historical data in the production environment. For these reasons, an important criterion when purchasing a recorder is whether the necessary data can be easily viewed.

Factory automation often involves batch production, and operational data needs to be acquired and monitored on the same basis. For processes involving multiple devices, a recorder must be connected to each device and data acquired accordingly, even though the use of multi-channel recorders is increasing. As a result, to manage data for the entire production line, data must be acquired from each recorder: a laborious and time-consuming process.

Yokogawa has enhanced the functionality of the DXAdvanced data acquisition and display station to address these challenges and improve the efficiency of the monitoring process in the production environment.

Enhanced features
The DXAdvanced is a paperless recorder with built-in panel, and offers integrated display, recording, and communication functions. Two models are available: one with a 5.5-inch LCD panel and up to 12 input channels, and the other with a 10.4-inch LCD panel and up to 48 input channels.

With the new display customising function, various screens such as trend display and bar charts can be placed to suit the user's requirements. Displaying the data on virtual plant diagrams makes it easier to grasp the data intuitively.

With the new multi-batch function, data are acquired independently from each process, and data acquisition can be started and stopped on each channel. This allows users to acquire data independently for each process on a single DXAdvanced by allocating the channels to the particular processes to be managed.

The products are designed for an open system environment, and conform to the PROFIBUS-DP1 and EtherNet/IP2 standards for industrial communication protocols. This facilitates the development of multi-vendor systems using these protocols as a common interface when connecting to devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or temperature controllers.

Major target markets and applications
Major target markets for the new products are production sites in industries such as electric power, petrochemical, chemical, iron and steel, pulp and paper, food, pharmaceutical, and water and wastewater, as well as OEMs and equipment manufacturers.

Applications include the recording and monitoring of parameters such as temperature, pressure, flow or chemical composition in manufacturing processes.