Off-the-shelf Scada has large plants covered

Large scale manufacturing plants in process industries now have access to a distributed Scada package that offers redundant, multiple-server functionality off the shelf.

Large scale manufacturing plants in process industries such as brewing, paper, pulp and water treatment now have access to a distributed Scada package that offers redundant, multiple-server functionality off the shelf.

Rockwell Software RSView Supervisory Edition (RSView SE) from Rockwell Automation provides a multi-user architecture able to support up to 10 servers and 50 thick or thin clients as standard.

A major benefit of the new architecture is increased reliability.

This is mainly due to its built-in redundancy that allows the primary server to automatically switch to a secondary in the event of failure.

The system switches back to the primary server when it becomes available again, without user intervention and with no interruption in the control and visualisation of the production process.

Because alarm states are constantly synchronised between primary and secondary servers, no alarm data are lost during switchovers.

RSView SE's advanced architecture allows up to five servers on one PC, increasing the options for redundancy and allowing a reduction in hardware costs.

Part of Rockwell Software's ViewAnyWare enterprise-wide visualisation strategy, RSView SE uses the same development environment - RSView Studio - as the stand-alone machine level HMI package RSView Machine Edition.

System developers and users can share application software and control data seamlessly across a wide range of HMI platforms from Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus operator terminals to Windows XP or 2000-based PCs.

This reduces development time and cost and enables a number of areas of a large-scale production facility to be viewed or operated from a single terminal, providing maximum operational flexibility and speeding diagnosis of problems in remote parts of the plant.

RSView SE has also been designed specifically to enable drug manufacturers to easily and cost effectively comply with the US Food and Drug Administration's Title 21 - Code of Federal Regulations - Part 11 (21CFR11).

RSView SE offers all the functions of a 21CFR11 compliant system - security of data, an audit trail showing who has accessed production files and the changes made and the ability to report the information required to demonstrate compliance - as standard.

Data security is ensured by integrating access to RSView SE with the standard Windows username and password login to identify users and their rights to access and amend files.

Users can log in and out of the RSView SE client stations without affecting the software components of the RSView SE servers - even if server components are run on the same computer as a client station - thus preventing unauthorised access to the master files.

For some critical operations, such as changing set points or downloading recipes, RSView SE requires operators to re-enter their user name and password, and can also require a second authorising "signature" before the changes take effect.

Changes made are saved to the FactoryTalk Diagnostics log along with all relevant information required for an FDA 21CFR11-compliant system.

Although RSView SE is hardware-independent and works well with any PLC platform, it offers greatly enhanced functionality when used with other FactoryTalk-enabled members of the Rockwell Automation family.

FactoryTalk is a common language used in Rockwell Automation hardware and software.

This enables information to be shared, saving time and cost in reproducing settings and values in different parts of the automation system.

When RSView SE is used with Allen-Bradley ControlLogix or ProcessLogix controllers, the FactoryTalk Directory function provides access to both user-defined tags stored in an RSView SE tag database and directly referenced tags stored in the controller.

This allows tags created or modified in the logic program to be automatically reused in RSView SE without the need to recreate them manually.

Changes to tag values and properties are also updated automatically throughout the system.

Rockwell Software RSView32 will continue to be available and remains the optimum solution for single-server multiple-client applications.

However, for users looking to expand their HMI from single to multiple servers, RSView SE includes an option allowing the core functions of an existing RSView32 application to be migrated to RSView SE.

RSView SE provides unparalleled performance, security and reliability for the largest distributed HMI applications and greatly reduces the programming required to create redundant, multiple-server systems.

Back to top