Yokogawa periodically publishes the Yokogawa Technical Report, which contains articles that take a detailed look at the technologies employed in Yokogawa's products. At this site you will find links to all of the reports that have been published since 1997 as well as links to PDF files containing the full text of selected articles from each issue.
Field Wireless
A History of Wireless Communication and Yokogawa's Approach
- Chiaki Itoh*1
*1 : Business Planning Division,Industrial Automation Marketing Headquarters
The Wireless Technology to Open the Field Digital Innovation
- Toshi Hasegawa*1
*1 : Business Planning Division,Industrial Automation Marketing Headquarters
Yokogawa advocates a field digital solution that improves productivity and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) in customer plants by maximizing the availability of their equipment and facilities. "Field wireless" is a new approach to field digital solutions. Yokogawa has been actively involved in standardization from the beginning and now offers ISA100.11a-based industrial wireless products. This paper introduces the ISA100.11a standard, a core technology of our field wireless solution, and then describes the features of the field digital innovation that provide new value-added solutions that make wireless technologies work together with existing wired instrumentation and IT technologies.
New Plant-wide Field Wireless System
- Yoshio Yoshida*1
- Masayuki Fukasawa*1
- Naoyuki Fujimoto*1
- Masahito Endo*1
- Rongcai Hu*2
- Hao Li*2
*1 : Business Planning Division,Industrial Automation Marketing Headquarters
*2 : Development & Engineering Dept.,Yokogawa China Co., Ltd.
Yokogawa has developed a large-scale, highly reliable, next-generation, plant-wide field wireless system that conforms to the ISA100.11a wireless communication standard for industrial automation. By separating the access point function from the system manager and gateway functions, this system has achieved a more flexible system configuration. It can manage up to 500 field wireless devices and achieves the world's first full systemwide redundancy as well as high reliability. This paper introduces the products and their technologies.
The Control System Integrated with Field Wireless Devices
- Yasuyuki Nakamoto*1
- Hiroyuki Saito*1
- Koji Nagatomi*1
*1 : PA system technology Dept., System Business Division,Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters
In recent years, expectations for control systems with wireless communications are increasing in the process control market. There is also an urgent need for the development of new field wireless devices and field wireless system devices to activate the growing field wireless market and promote the use of field wireless systems in large areas. Yokogawa has developed the CENTUM VP R5.02 distributed control system (DCS) and the OPC server for field wireless devices, both of which integrate field wireless devices. This paper introduces the functions and characteristics of the communication interface of host systems, focusing on the CENTUM VP.
Reliability and Stability of Field Wireless
- Masaaki Matsuzaki*1
*1 : Field Digital Promotion Department,Industrial Automation Marketing Headquarters
As a result of the long-term evaluation of many industrial field wireless technologies and standards, Yokogawa has concluded that the reliability of the radio physical layer is crucial to achieving stability of the whole wireless system, and holds this conclusion as a design policy. Yokogawa calls this "Reliable Radio", and has evaluated its effects in laboratories and in the field. This paper presents the technological background behind it and the evaluation results.
RF Technology for EJX/YTA Series Wireless Transmitters in Hazardous Areas
- Satoshi Mochizuki*1
*1 : Business Planning Division,Industrial Automation Marketing Headquarters
Recently, demand for field wireless devices that can be used in hazardous areas is increasing. Detachable antennas and extension cables are desirable to ensure good communication conditions if numerous metallic pipes, which can interrupt wireless communications, are present in the area. To monitor wellheads, high-gain antennas are required for long-distance communication because such areas are remotely distributed. To satisfy these demands, Yokogawa has developed a key component by combining highfrequency and explosion proof technologies. This enables antennas and their extension cables to be replaced in hazardous areas. This paper outlines this key component.
YTMX580 Multi-input Temperature Transmitter
- Shuichi Matsuda*1
- Yoshinori Sugawara*1
- Masayuki Fujiwara*2
*1 : Development & Engineering Dept.,Network Solutions Business Division,Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters
*2 : Development & Engineering Dept.,Foundation Technology Development Center,Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters
Yokogawa developed the YTMX580 multi-input temperature transmitter with eightchannel inputs and wireless communication functions conforming to the ISA100.11a standard. YTMX580 can accurately monitor temperatures at multi-points in hazardous areas to obtain the temperature distribution in the process industry, which reduces the number of transmitters and wires to be installed and curbs the total cost. This paper describes YTMX580's high performance in multipoint measurement, electric characteristics that enable long-term operation with batteries, and the enclosure which satisfies the requirements of being intrinsically safe, dust-proof, and waterproof.
Support of ISA100.11a Devices by FieldMate
- Hideyuki Fujii*1
- Ryouhei Furihata*1
- Hirotsugu Gotou*1
- Kazutoshi Kodama*1
*1 : Development & Engineering Dept.,Foundation Technology Development Center,Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters
The FieldMate versatile device management wizard is PC software mainly used for configuring and adjusting field devices. Under the concept of "one tool for all," Yokogawa has been enhancing this software to support a wide range of field instruments and field communication protocols. In line with the advance of wireless technologies, its latest version, FieldMate R2.05, covers the lifecycle of wireless devices (startup, maintenance, and replacement). This paper introduces the functions of FieldMate and underlying ISA100.11a technologies.
PRM to Manage Field Wireless Devices
- Hafeezur Rahman*1
- Ng Kim Fatt*1
- Hideyuki Sakamoto*1
*1 : YEI Singapore Development Centre R&D 1
In July 2010, Yokogawa became the first vendor to offer Field Wireless solutions based on the ISA100.11a standard, by releasing the YFGW710 field wireless integrated gateway, and the wireless pressure and temperature transmitters. In 2012, as field wireless becomes more popular, a high performance gateway that can support a large number of devices was required. Therefore in July this year, Yokogawa expanded the wireless solution lineup with the enhanced YFGW410 Field Wireless Management Station and its supporting devices. On the other hand, as the usage of field wireless solutions for plant control and monitoring grows, there is a pressing need for the plant asset management software-Plant Resource Manager (PRM)- and the device configuration system-FieldMate- to support the management and maintenance of field wireless devices. This paper describes the new functions that have been added to PRM to fulfill this requirement.
An Excellent Method to Lay Out ISA100.11a Field Wireless Devices
- Kiyoshi Takai*1
- Kiyotaka Aikawa*1
- Mai Hagimoto*1
- Kouji Watanabe*1
*1 : Business Planning Division,Industrial Automation Marketing Headquarters
We have identified an excellent method to lay out ISA100.11a field wireless devices, which is applicable to any field. With this method, optimal wireless communication can be achieved. We call this simple method, the "Sky Mesh" method. This paper explains how to arrange field wireless devices in accordance with the Sky Mesh method and describes the result of an actual installation in a plant.
DTSX200 Distributed Temperature Sensor for Oil and Gas Production
- Toru Fukuzawa*1
*1 : Fiber Sensing Dept., Foundation Technology Development Center,Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters
Recently, the development of unconventional resources, such as heavy oil, oil sands, and shale gas, has been progressing in line with the increase in global energy demand. Yokogawa developed the DTSX200 distributed temperature sensor (DTS) to facilitate the efficient recovery of unconventional resources by monitoring temperature distribution underground. Implementing Yokogawa's optical measuring technology, the DTSX200 is able to withstand the harsh environment, a factor required of oil and gas mining sites, and can operate with limited power such as with solar batteries. In addition, this DTS has strengthened the relationship with customer's networks by providing an interface with the production control system using a secure protocol, and by using data formats that are the standard in the oil and gas industry. These factors all improve the efficiency of natural resource production.