Rockwell Automation Updates Studio 5000 Logix Designer and Releases PlantPAx 5.0

Author photo: Craig Resnick
ByCraig Resnick
Category:
Company and Product News

Latest Studio 5000 Logix Designer Software Release Helps to Enhance Productivity and Save Time

Rockwell Automation has released its updated Studio 5000 Logix Designer software, designed to help controls engineers design machines and process applications faster with productivity enhancements and new capabilities that can speed up projects for process applications.

Productivity enhancements in version 33 of the Studio 5000 Logix Designer software include:

  • Auto-generated diagnostics for supported devices that help to reduce programming time and give users access to more detailed, contextualized diagnostic information.
  • Preservation of online controller tag values when making offline changes and conducting sequential downloads, helping to eliminate the need to re-establish tag values.
  • Extended tag properties that allow engineers to leverage contextual data to create more descriptive and functional HMI elements, while helping to reduce programming time.

When paired with the new Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and CompactLogix process controllers from Rockwell Automation, the latest version of Studio 5000 Logix Designer can also help to accelerate process projects in the following ways:

  • Embedded process instructions can help to save engineers time and reduce compliance work.
  • HART integration allows engineers to connect HART devices in a similar fashion to EtherNet/IP devices, helping to enable smoother integration with fewer software tools.
  • Prebuilt task models to help reduce the amount of time spent on project creation and layout and can help to improve consistency across projects.

Additionally, version 33 of Studio 5000 Logix Designer can now be used in projects that require an Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 5580 with redundant capability.  The software also can be used with the new iTRAK 5730 small-frame system for projects, such as primary packaging in food and beverage.

 

Release of PlantPAx 5.0 Helps to Improve Productivity, Drive Profitability and Reduce Risk Across Plant Operations

Rockwell Automation released its PlantPAx 5.0 distributed control system (DCS).  This latest DCS version from Rockwell Automation is designed to help industrial producers better optimize the lifecycle of their plant operations with plant-wide and scalable systems to drive digital transformation and operational excellence.

New system capabilities help to digitally transform operations by introducing process functionality native to the controller, helping to improve the availability of system assets driving compliance in regulated industries, while further enabling the adoption of analytics at various levels of the enterprise.  Intuitive workflows and the use of industry-required cybersecurity standards will help teams to design, deploy, and support a DCS infrastructure which can reduce time-to-market and better enable plants to realize profit at a faster rate.

The new 5.0 release helps to innovate a modern DCS in the following areas:

  • Reduced Footprint
    • This release introduces new process controllers and extends the Logix family with increased processing power and capacity to help reduce the complexity of PlantPAx architectures. This action helps to reduce total cost of ownership of the system throughout the lifecycle.
  • Project Consistency
    • With native process instructions embedded in the controller firmware, project teams can better adopt approaches to control strategies that drive greater consistency for individual projects or multi-site deployments. Consistency helps to simplify the lifecycle management of deployed systems as teams further modernize their automation infrastructure. Consistency can help to lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
  • Streamlined Workflows
    • PlantPAx 5.0 provides improved design and operational user experiences. Development teams can better realize savings in the configuration of instrumentation, alarms and diagnostic system elements. Operators will have the extended ability to view underlying control logic in a more safe and secured manner. Maintenance will have controlled view access for troubleshooting.
  • TÜV -Certified for Cybersecurity
    • To operate at higher performance and help to minimize cybersecurity threats, PlantPAx 5.0 system architectures are TÜV certified to the international standard ISA-99/IEC 62443-3-3 which provides guidance on the implementation of an electronically secured system.
  • Analytics Enabled
    • Process end users recognize the value of deploying analytics as an important solution to increase the profits of their process operations. The PlantPAx 5.0 release has purpose-built frameworks that more easily connects live and historical data from the DCS into reporting and analytical tools.
    • Helps to enable extended experiences, such as Augmented Reality, using workflows aligned with process strategies controlling plant operations.
    • Allows for using extensible scalable analytic packages leveraging predictive and prescriptive models for process applications, such as soft sensors, anomaly detection, or model predictive control.

As producers continue their digital transformation journey, the new features from this system release will help these companies to further find value and reduce overall costs at all phases of the plant lifecycle.

 

 

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