PlantPAx 5.0 release from Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation has just released its PlantPAx® 5.0 distributed control system (DCS). This latest DCS version from the company is stated to “Help industrial producers positively impact the lifecycle of their plant operations with plant-wide and scalable systems to drive digital transformation and operational excellence”.  The new system is said to offer capabilities that help digitally transform operations by introducing process functionality which is native to the controller, improving the availability of system assets that are driving compliance in regulated industries. Rockwell says that it also enables the adoption of analytics at all levels. Intuitive workflows and the use of leading cybersecurity standards will help teams design, deploy and support a DCS infrastructure which reduces time-to-market and helps plants realise profit at a faster rate.

Rockwell says that process end users want a system that offers the benefits of a modern experience but without the burdens that come with a traditional DCS. It claims that its new 5.0 release “Innovates the modern DCS” in the following areas:

Reduced Footprint

This release introduces new process controllers and extends the Logix family with more processing power and the capacity to reduce the complexity of PlantPAx architectures. The footprint reduction is claimed to reduce the total cost of ownership of the system throughout the lifecycle.

Project Consistency

With native process instructions embedded in the controller firmware, project teams can adopt approaches to control strategies that drive consistency for individual projects or multi-site deployments. This consistency, says Rockwell, simplifies the lifecycle management of deployed systems as teams modernise their automation infrastructure, and that consistency lowers total cost of ownership.

Streamlined workflows

PlantPAx 5.0 is said to provide improved design and operational user experiences. Rockwell  states that development teams will realise savings in the configuration of instrumentation, alarms and diagnostic system elements. Further, operators will have the extended ability to view underlying control logic in a safe and secured manner. Maintenance will have controlled view access for troubleshooting.

TÜV -Certified for cybersecurity

To operate at peak performance and minimise cybersecurity threats, Rockwell’s PlantPAx 5.0 system architectures are TÜV certified to the international standard ISA-99/IEC 62443-3-3 which provides guidance on the implementation of an electronically secured system.  

Analytics enabled

The PlantPAx 5.0 release has purpose-built frameworks that the company says easily connect live and historical data from the DCS into reporting and analytical tools. It enables extended experiences, such as Augmented Reality, using workflows aligned with process strategies controlling plant operations. Further, it allows extensible scalable analytic packages leveraging predictive and prescriptive models for process applications such as soft sensors, anomaly detection, or model predictive control.

Rockwell offers the observation that as producers continue their digital transformation journey, the advances from this system release will help them unlock value and reduce overall costs at all phases of the plant lifecycle.