A Match for Even the Harshest Weather Conditions

Wind, waves and salt water: The prevailing conditions at sea are rough for humans and machines alike. This is why the marine industry has special requirements for the technical equipment aboard vessels. The equipment must be covered by a marine approval, as well as explosion-proof certification, to ensure it can survive such use – like WAGO’s I/O System can.
Communication solutions, such as fieldbus connections, I/O modules and boards, must have marine approval, as well as an Ex-proof certification, to ensure that they can be used to control hydraulic valves. And this is where the problem starts: In the past, the worldwide market offered products that only fulfilled one of the two requirements. The WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM was the first to combine two approvals in one system. However, this is not the only reason PG Flow Solutions AS relies on WAGO.

WAGO got the contract because it had made significant progress with the development of a prototype that transmits the voltage in addition to the signal transmission. Pedersen continues: “The WAGO solution met PG Flow Solutions AS’s requirements to a high degree.” Therefore, WAGO was the obvious choice. PG recognized that prototype development required time, but in the end there were no unexpected delays, despite the fact that the customer wanted some changes. “Actually, we got the impression that WAGO would improve the product,” says Pedersen, especially
with respect to the firmware for the boards.

In addition to the requirements that must be fulfilled regarding Ex-proofness and marine approval, it was critical for PG to develop solutions that would be modular – and this applies to the drawing phase as well as the installation! WAGO has its own programs for the configuration of I/O modules and other products. PG has a comprehensive machine manufacturing operation and typically uses an open drawing and configuration system. PG also used this tool for the configuration of the WAGO products. In this case, the configuration of the I/O modules encountered no problems, says Pedersen. “Our experience with WAGO was very good,” he says in summary. “We had excellent follow-up support whenever we needed help. And for the Norwegian organization and its parent company, this was important if significant technical help was required.”

The combination of robust WAGO equipment and sophisticated installation by PG results in control cabinets that exceed the qualifications required for the rough conditions aboard a supply ship. The DNV-GL certification for Class D certifies that the equipment can also withstand vibrations, which occur onboard a ship traversing the North Sea under the challenging conditions normally found there.

Author: Benjamin Böhm