Today’s instrumentation in the process and industrial sectors indicates, and often determines, the way in which a process or activity operates. Processes must operate within specified parameters, such as temperature, pressure, air quality etc. For example, it may be necessary to heat a product at a specific temperature and pressure to effect sterilisation, to cook it or to achieve a chemical reaction. If the temperature deviates by a few degrees or the pressure by a few millibars, then the process objective will not be achieved. Consequently, it is vital that we measure and indicate these specified parameters.
However, it is equally important that we can be confident in the measurements taken by the instruments and this involves regular calibration of a plant or factory’s instrumentation. Such calibration is normally carried out as a part of maintenance procedures, although both activities can also be carried out in isolation.
However, for maximum effect, they should be integrated to ensure that the results of calibration are incorporated into maintenance procedures. Software has long been available for managing calibrations. Software packages are now available to combine calibration and overall maintenance management.
Calibration software
Calibration management software has been with us for a few years. Laboratory pressure calibration equipment such as the PACE platform from GE, has been designed to communicate with such software, specifically developed to provide support for both laboratory and field calibrations. This provides easy control in a fully integrated pressure loop, giving 100 per cent automated calibration of pressure transducers and transmitters. The software has full documenting facilities to prepare reports and provide calibration certificates from its database, utilising readout data from connected calibration equipment and test devices.
Portable calibration instruments for on-site application have now advanced considerably. Formerly, these relied on PC-based software, where the instrument database and history was held on a PC and the instrument technician downloaded the information relevant to his workload, carried out the required calibrations and then up-loaded his results and data so that reports could be produced and records maintained.
Recent developments have created portable calibrators, allowing comprehensive management of a plant’s instrumentation inventory from a portable device in the field. This allows the field engineer, without reference to a remote PC, ready access to information such as device details, calibration history, trend analysis and calibration procedures, as well as all supporting documentation, including datasheets, drawings, loop diagrams, photographs, safety notes and written procedures. It also allows new device records and procedures to be created in the field while giving access to all historical data. Calibration and documentation are automated, saving time, costs and reducing human error.
Regulatory compliance is improved by scheduling work procedures and documenting calibrations and actions. Calibration certificates and custom reports can be created, reviewed and electronically signed-off on the instrument, ensuring that plant is always audit-ready. If required, data can be transferred to a PC for printing and archiving.
Software integration
The latest software development combines calibration and maintenance management and provides a comprehensive solution for streamlining maintenance workflow by improving data integrity, scheduling work activity, automating calibration and maintenance and correcting deviations.
It offers a paperless system with e-signatures for regulatory compliance. At the same time 4Sight Calibration and Maintenance Software from GE, which can interface with existing enterprise business platforms, provides audit ready data in compliance with the most stringent quality systems including FDA and GAMP with full, 360° management reporting tools. It is also a web-based solution, which offers further significant benefits.
Currently, most software has to be installed on a PC, even when it is a server-based installation. From a maintenance point of view, this means that the server database and the PC applications have to be installed and then periodically updated by the IT teams, while ensuring that everybody has the same version.
The latest web-based technology allows the software to be installed on the company’s server and accessed through a PC and web browser. Alternatively, the software can be hosted by a third party as a service on an external server, so that there is no need for software installation and IT support at the company itself. In either case, the software, database, upgrades, etc are all handled externally and the company has no IT overheads.
Resource management and efficiency improvement tools are also features of the new software. Interval Analysis allows calibration managers tasked with reducing costs by extending calibration intervals, to come to a researched and informed decision, providing reporting and analysis in minutes, without the risk of miscalculation or transcription errors. Key performance indicators (KPIs) update in real time to allow performance of the installed base and resources to be analysed and compared across the whole business or at different levels, such as by site, plant, process, team, etc. 4Sight deviation management ensures that calibration failure notifications are sent in a timely and controlled way e.g., by email, so that users can record the cause of deviations, investigate the reason and work to a resolution.
| New instrument calibration and maintenance software from GE |
| Comprehensive, Scalable Solution Facilitating Regulatory Compliance, Improved Safety and Operational Efficiency
The new, easy-to-use, 4Sight calibration and maintenance software from the Sensing business of GE Energy’s Measurement & Control Solutions is a scalable solution for single user or multi-site businesses. It can streamline maintenance workflow by improving data integrity, optimizing work schedules, automating calibration and maintenance and correcting instrument deviations. Using web-based technology, the new software will help to achieve regulatory compliance and safety and can provide 25 to 40 per cent reductions in maintenance costs in the industrial, petrochemical, chemical, process, oil and gas and pharmaceutical sectors. As Mike Shelton, Product Manager, 4Sight, explains, “Most software has to be installed on a user PC, even for server-based installations. This means that the server database and PC applications have to be installed and periodically up-graded and synchronised by IT teams at significant expense and inconvenience. With this new, web-based technology, an end user can browse the internet to access the software and all maintenance and support is provided by GE. Even with a single user installation, maintenance and upgrading is greatly simplified.” 4Sight software can help companies meet regulatory compliance by providing continuous availability of records and data for audit to recognised quality systems. It can also interface with high-end computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) to provide a seamless, automated workflow from the initial issue of a work order to the final notification on completion of the job, providing all the data for audit review and the tools for resource management and efficiency improvement. These tools include: Interval Analysis, which enables users to report quickly on device performance by scientifically analyzing historical data and drift to allow informed and qualified calibration interval recommendations to be made; Performance Management, providing key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time; and Visual Deviation Management to ensure that calibration failure notifications are sent in a timely and controlled manner so that deviations are investigated and resolved as quickly as possible. The new software complements GE’s mobile and laboratory calibration and maintenance solutions. When operated with GE’s DPI620 multi-functional, portable calibrator/communicator, 4Sight offers mobile, paperless maintenance with a calibrator of class-leading accuracy and advanced features such as integral HART communication, a full plant database and Windows CE providing PDA capability. The DPI620 gives total independence to field engineers and WiFi connectivity allows global mobility without compromising data exchange. The software’s comprehensive filtering and assigned user rights allow a single system to be used over multiple sites, where supervisors and technicians see only information relating to their site. Senior managers can view and compare performance over all sites from a centralised database. 4Sight calibration and maintenance software is available as a single user basic package and a multi-site, server-based platform, with add-on modules such as E-signatures and audit trail to comply with specific FDA regulations. GE can also provide services for installation, training and support, database migration and integration with higher level CMMS. |
Conclusion
Lord Kelvin was once famously reported as saying that there is nothing new to be discovered in physics; all that remains is more and more precise measurement. I doubt whether the people working on the Large Hadron Collider would agree with those sentiments but the statement is very relevant to the instrumentation sector. Just as more and more precise measurement should be our aim, so it becomes even more important that calibration technology and techniques keep pace with sensor and instrumentation advances. In this digital age, this also means ensuring that we have the software as well as the hardware to meet new calibration and maintenance challenges.