Controller maintains process temperatures

A novel advanced multicircuit electronic trace-heating control and monitoring unit can reduce wiring costs in industrial process temperature maintenance and frost protection applications.

The MoniTrace 200N, from Tyco Thermal Controls, is an advanced multicircuit electronic trace-heating control and monitoring unit that can reduce wiring costs in industrial process temperature maintenance and frost protection applications.

It is designed for integration with Tyco Thermal Controls' proprietary heating cable systems, which are marketed under the Raychem, Pyrotenax and Isopad brands, and supported by Tracer, the company's engineering arm.

Each MoniTrace unit can control up to 130 trace-heating circuits and monitor up to 130 temperature inputs and offers localised and series-communication to minimise wiring costs and complexity.

Heating cable circuits are operated using remote module controls (RMCs), typically located in trace-heating distribution panels.

Each RMC unit can be configured for up to 32 relay outputs, which are wired directly to heating cable power contactors.

Control modes include surface sensing, ambient sensing and also the company's proprietary proportional ambient sensing control (PASC), which can be used to control a group of trace-heating cables to the same pipe-temperature based solely on ambient temperature.

PASC offers the advantage of eliminating flow path considerations and minimising the circuits required - delivering additional savings by reducing the circuit breakers, panel space, wiring and controllers.

This provides a simpler and more reliable system.

MoniTrace 200N monitors a series of up to 16 remote monitoring modules (RMMs) that each has inputs for eight three-wire temperature sensors.

These are located close to temperature sensing locations in either normal or hazardous areas.

Instead of hard-wiring every temperature sensor all the way back to the control, sensors can be wired to local monitors and series-linked for communication back to the MoniTrace control unit through the same RS485 cable.

Because RMMs are local to the temperature sensors and RMCs are local to contactors in distribution panels, wiring cost and complexity can be reduced significantly.

The entire system can be monitored/managed remotely from a central PC using MoniTrace supervisory software.

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