Eaton announced that it has been supporting Yokogawa in the development of its next generation integrated production control system, CENTUM VP R6.01. Yokogawa wanted to design a new system with an intrinsically safe universal input/output (I/O) module for greater efficiency in system configuration and engineering and approached MTL, part of Eaton's Crouse-Hinds business, for its expertise in intrinsic safety devices for hazardous area and general process control applications.
"We have a long standing relationship with Yokogawa, having worked together globally for more than 20 years on various projects, so we were delighted once again to partner with them on the CENTUM VP R6.01," said Riccardo Codega, MTL marketing director, Eaton's Crouse-Hinds Division. "We worked closely with them to understand their requirements for a universal I/O module and recommended our MTL4500 intrinsic safety isolators, which have been adapted to work in a universal environment. The backplane mounting series is designed with systems vendors in mind and is perfect for DCS applications such as this."
Yokogawa, a leading manufacturer of process control instrumentation, distributed control systems (DCS) and test and measurement instruments, launched its first version of CENTUM in 1975, and the company has continued to improve the platform by applying the latest technologies.
Recognising the challenges faced by today's manufacturing plants for increased flexibility as well as improved process efficiencies, with the need to maintain safe operations, Yokogawa wanted to develop an intrinsically safe universal I/O module that would allow its customers to reduce the time required for installing and configuring a control system.
"We chose to work with Eaton MTL for its credibility and expertise in intrinsic safety," said Nobuaki Konishi, Vice President of Yokogawa Industrial Automation Platform Business. "The company is recognised in the industry as being a key supplier and we were confident we could rely on them to provide a high quality and safe solution."
