Yokogawa Technical Report / Vol.62 No.1 (2019)

At this site technical articles published at the YOKOGAWA technical report are introduced.

SDGs ‒P&W Business, Analyzer Business‒

“The Sustainable Development Agenda” and Yokogawa

Chika Furukawa^*1

^*1Head of Sustainability Promotion Department, Corporate Management Center, Corporate Administration Headquarters

Yokogawa’s Transformation to Achieve its “Three goals”

Shigeyoshi Uehara^*1

^*1IA Systems & Service Business Headquarters

Yokogawa released the statement on its aspiration for sustainability and established “Three goals” for the year 2050, contributing to help make the world a better place for future generations. Yokogawa has been gaining widespread acceptance for its social contributions to sustainability through its existing businesses in line with the idea of sustainable development, based on its founding principles and corporate philosophy: “As a company, our goal is to contribute to society through broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control, and information. Individually, we aim to combine good citizenship with the courage to innovate.” However, Yokogawa needs to fundamentally transform itself in order to achieve the Three Goals.
This paper explains the transformation that Yokogawa is striving to achieve under the mid-term business plans over six years and outlines the vision of how the Company will achieve the Three Goals.

WEBFREX3ES Dedicated Coat Weight Measurement System for Battery Electrode Sheets

Takaaki Kishino^*1
Yoshihiko Hagiwara^*1
Takeo Haraguchi^*1

^*1P & W Solution Department, Analyzer Center, IA Products & Service Business Headquarters

Recent global environmental policies, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are accelerating the transition from conventional gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles. To meet the high-capacity and high-quality requirements for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, quality control on battery electrode manufacturing has become increasingly strict in recent years.
The WEBFREX3ES is an online measurement and control system for the coat weight of battery electrode sheets. Using linear servo drive technology which enables high-speed scanning and high synchronization accuracy, with rollerless and beltless mechanisms to be used in a clean environment, the WEBFREX3ES is easier to maintain. It also has a wide range of sensors, including materials for positive and negative electrodes, and meets the demand for higher resolution in the cross-machine direction, thus improving uniformity of coating weight and quality control of battery performance according to customer requirements. This paper describes the features and functions of the WEBFREX3ES system including the lithium-ion battery market and industry trends.

Solutions for Manufacturing and Utilizing Lithium-ion Batteries

Akifumi Inomata^*1
Eiji Taya^*2
Yasushi Omori^*3
Keisuke Shinpuku^*1
Masahiro Kazumi^*4

^*1Industrial Solution Center 4, Solution Business Division, Yokogawa Solution Service Corporation
^*2Industrial Solution Center, Solution Business Division, Yokogawa Solution Service Corporation
^*3Plant Information Business Development Department, System Business Center, IA System & Service Business Headquarters
^*4Incubation Department, Innovation Center, Marketing Headquarters

In recent years, the development and diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) has accelerated. California in the US, China, Europe and other countries have enacted regulations on gasoline vehicles to curb air pollution. Lithium-ion batteries are used as a clean power source for EVs, and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After serving as a power source of EVs, automotive lithium-ion batteries are expected to be reused as rechargeable batteries, thus helping to build a recycling-oriented society which Japan is aiming for. This paper introduces a solution for the production of lithium-ion batteries, for which it is considered to be difficult to provide high-performance specifications in terms of both manufacturing and utilization, and solutions to assist the reuse of rechargeable batteries.

Cooperative Process Optimization Using Plant Big Data

Ken-ichiro Wada^*1
Hiroyuki Miyamoto^*1
Takashi Sasaki^*1

^*1P & W Solution Management Department, Analyzer Center, IA Products & Service Business Headquarters

Customers wish to improve control efficiency to increase the operating efficiency of their plants. However, such efforts typically do not extend beyond optimizing individual processes. This paper introduces our approach to improving the control efficiency of a plant composed of multiple processes by optimizing the entire process, and outlines our technologies for analyzing huge amounts of data and computing optimal control parameters, which cannot be obtained from the expertise of field operators. The paper also introduces some examples of applying the approach to paper mills and chemical plants.

WG51S2 Infrared Sensor

Yasushi Ichizawa^*1
Kazuki Setsuda^*1
Kazufumi Nishida^*1

^*1P & W Solution Department, Analyzer Center, IA Products & Service Business Headquarters

There are two methods for online film thickness measurement, the contact type and the non-contact type. Most measurement systems use the non-contact type to avoid damaging the product. The non-contact type includes the radiation type such as β-ray or X-ray, and the infrared type. Use of the infrared type has increased in recent years to prevent radiation exposure, and in line with this market trend Yokogawa has developed a non-contact-type film thickness sensor using infrared radiation.
Utilizing recent progress in thin films, Yokogawa has achieved high measurement accuracy and robustness equivalent to radiation-level quality based on Yokogawa’s specific optical system. This paper describes the new product and its technology which can handle various sheet materials such as paper, film, composite materials, and other materials.

FLXA402 and SA11 New Liquid Analyzer Contributing to the SDGs

Makoto Ishii^*1
Hideo Doi^*2
Kenichi Hino^*1

^*1Development Department, Analyzer Center, IA Product & Service Business Headquarters
^*2Product Marketing Department, Analyzer Center, IA Product & Service Business Headquarters

Yokogawa provides liquid analyzers such as pH analyzers, dissolved oxygen analyzers and conductivity analyzers. These are used for water quality management and waste water treatment, thus contributing to environmental preservation. Liquid analyzers must operate stably and continuously to prevent polluted water from being discharged into public water bodies, and to enable water and sewage to be treated efficiently. On the other hand, sensors must be exchanged and calibrated periodically due to deterioration and dirt. Managing the discharge of fresh and sewage water involves issues of both capital expense (CAPEX) and operating expense (OPEX) because multiple analyzers must be purchased and maintained.
To overcome these issues, Yokogawa has launched, as part of SENCOM platform 4.0, the new FLXA402 liquid analyzer, which improves maintenance efficiency with multiple sensor inputs, and the SA11 SENCOM smart adapter, which enables the replacement of only sensors. This paper describes the characteristics of the FLXA402 and SA11.

Improvement of Combustion Efficiency and Reduction of CO₂ by New Laser Gas Analyzer (Probe-type Laser Spectrometer)

Naoto Nakano^*1

^*1Business Planning Section, Product Analyzer Marketing Department, Analyzer Center, IA Product & Service Business Headquarters

   In order to improve the combustion efficiency of heating furnaces or boilers, it is necessary to measure the O₂ and CO in the exhaust gas and to control the operation of the furnaces. Conventionally, O₂ and CO are measured by using analyzers such as zirconia oxygen analyzer, infrared analyzer, and COe meter. However, there are problems of cost of consumables, maintenance, and responsiveness.
   In 2015 Yokogawa released the TDLS8000 tunable diode laser spectrometer that allows the laser to penetrate the furnace and measure O₂ and CO by the amount of laser absorbed, thus solving such problems. In practice, however, the mounting flange of the TDLS8000 must be installed on both sides of the furnace with high positional accuracy.
   To eliminate this work, we have developed the TDLS8100 probe-type tunable diode laser spectrometer, which needs to be installed on only one side, thus more than halving the installation cost due to less overhead wiring. This paper describes the features of the TDLS8100 and how it helped us to solve the problems.

WT5000 Precision Power Analyzer

Katsuya Tachibana^*1
Toshiaki Shioda^*1
Hiroyuki Suzuki^*1
Mitsuteru Shibata^*2
Masashi Kouno^*1

^*11st Engineering Department, Technology Development Division, Yokogawa Test & Measurement Corporation
^*2Common Technology Department, Technology Development Division, Yokogawa Test & Measurement Corporation

We have developed the WT5000 precision power analyzer featuring the world’s highest measurement accuracy of ±0.03% and a measurement bandwidth of 0.1 Hz to 5 MHz including DC signals. This model features 50 times the sampling rate and 4 times the resolution of the conventional model WT3000E. With the adoption of modular-type systems, the WT5000 offers improved convenience and expandability, and can be equipped with up to seven input elements. Also, the WT5000 can measure the efficiency of input-output power such as electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHV), the rotational speed of up to four motors, and the change of mechanical power with torque, all at the same time. In addition, the large screen and touch-screen display have greatly improved both visibility and usability. This paper describes the technologies that lie behind the world’s highest performance, and examples of applications.

New Products