At the beginning of the year, the Ex i modules for the WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM 750 received the American Ex certification (AEx). They fulfill the growing safety requirements in the USA and Canada, and thus satisfy another international standard.

Things, or better facts, exist that have a high durability even today. Explosion protection is such a subject, because it is based on unchangeable physical laws for the origination of an explosion.

Whether encased in ice, surrounded by desert, or on the high seas, components at pump stations for oil and gas production must endure the harshest conditions for decades at a time. WAGO designed the I/O-SYSTEM 750 XTR specifically for these environments.

With DIMA (Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Applications), WAGO has developed a concept to increase efficiency in process engineering – and it has already been tested, and proven, on land. But can this method be adapted to maritime transport? And if so, how?

Modular concepts ensure great flexibility, reusability, and finally also lower costs in software development and the automobile industry. In the process industry, there is also a trend towards dividing systems into so-called “package units.” As a consequence, the individual units also require largely autonomous automation technology, which exchanges information with a central control system. Here manufacturers of automation technology are required to fulfill the high requirements of the process industry with their components and systems.

A central process control system is not sufficiently flexible or too expensive for many companies. The engineering office for process automation/ control, pac GmbH here relies on control units by WAGO. In a project for biotechnology at Novartis, a remote system had to prove itself as a control unit for process systems in conjunction with a central monitoring system.

Systems in the processing industry are often operated for decades, which means constant renovations, expansions, and modernizations. Aspirations to make processes more efficient are as old as the sector itself. The digital transformation of the economy is creating new possibilities for more advantageous configurations in processing through numerous innovative approaches and technologies. Consensus has been reached that machines must communicate with each other in order to function with maximum efficiency. The Internet of Things is the new reality – even if it continues to be interpreted and implemented in different ways. Data are provided, collected, evaluated, and used at different levels… Yet how do companies in the processing industry actually profit from big data?

At the NAMUR China Conference 2015 in Shanghai, WAGO will present modular solutions for the process industry that will provide system operators with greater flexibility and reduce their automation costs.

Filling above-level, sub-level or below bunghole – this is what you hear when experts talk about drum filling technology. Feige FILLING GmbH – headquartered in Bad Oldesloe, Germany – is an international leader of filling machines for liquid and pasty products. The manufacturer, located in the Northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, develops Ex-proof solutions for ATEX Category 1 because their filling machines mainly operate in hazardous areas. To meet these requirements, Feige FILLING relies on the universal WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM 750 at the I/O level.

The future of the process industry belongs to both modular systems and increasingly decentralized automation. In many cases, decentralized designs are better suited because continuous processes, which are often be better controlled and scaled, can be built from batch processes by using modularization and miniaturization. Intrinsically safe I/O modules, such as those found in the WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM 750, are the foundation for modular automation in the process industry.

At the 77th general meeting of NAMUR in 2014, WAGO presented DIMA (Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Applications). DIMA is a pioneering solution for the decentralized, modular automation of process systems. Now, six months later, Ulrich Hempen, WAGO’s Head of Market Management Industry & Process, talks about the strategies that WAGO will pursue in the process industry and the role DIMA will have.

In the Oil and Gas industry, the process of spooling, unspooling and straightening coiled tubing (CT strings) is fraught with uncertainty and risk. For the team at Baker Hughes GE, the risk of equipment failure and costly tubing damage due to high-pressure, deep wells pushing operational limits, and especially human error was simply too high. Unsatisfied by the high probability of failure, they sought to create a smart way of reducing human interaction. The result was the Intelligent Injector Control (IIC) system.

When Jelec, a systems integrator and engineering company for the oil & gas industry, designed new land rigs for use inside and outside the United States, simplicity would be the most important factor in selecting the connection systems. After careful deliberation, they decided on terminal blocks with lever actuation.

KBC exists to help its customers in the Energy and Chemical industry realize value through achieving excellence. Digitalization is one of the key strategies a plant can adopt in pursuit of operational excellence. We define Digitalization as: "The scalable application of the digital technologies, and alignment of the organizational capabilities that we believe an energy or chemical process operation should have and master, with digital information at the core, in order to achieve excellence."

WAGO, together with leading companies in the German chemical industry, applied for funding from the German government – and successfully gained it! By working together, we can make more progress in developing modular automation for process systems.

At Patterson-UTI, engineers needed the various systems of their land-based drilling rigs to communicate with one another, while also keeping them isolated. This created quite a challenge when the control system and the data collecting hub, needed to be on separate networks, but because of this, could then no longer communicate directly with each other. However, it was this communication that was essential to Patterson-UTI’s operational plan.

Providing, collecting, evaluating and using data: In addition to the PFC100 and PFC200 IoT Controllers, WAGO is expanding its digital performance portfolio with the new WAGO Cloud Data Control capability – a forward-looking method for enabling equipment and systems in a chemical facility to function more efficiently.