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The Value of FDI

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Abstract
In the process automation industry, commissioning tends to be a systematic, comprehensive
and well-planned process. It ensures that all instruments, controllers and asset management
systems in an industrial plant are configured as per the operational requirements for a specificapplication. Ideally, instruments and systems are configured prior to installation -- or offline.

EOVID

This article covers the existing challenges in offline configuration and benefits that FDI brings bystandardizing the offline configuration procedure driving; consistency across all systems, increasing
first-pass success rate, shortening the commissioning schedule, and reducing engineering hours.
The audience of this article includes commissioning engineers, plant owners, operators, maintenance engineers, hostsystem suppliers, device suppliers, business and technical leaders in the process industry.

End User Benefits
FDI streamlines device commissioning
At present, commissioning a device can be a tedious manual task that requires significant effort and time from plantengineers. FDI supports offline configuration and silent bulk download operation that reduces commissioning time andengineering cost.

FDI drives consistency in offline configuration
FDI standardizes the validation of offline configuration ensuring common behavior irrespective of the host systems
and device types, thus making the process more reliable for system suppliers, device suppliers and plant engineers.

FDI makes device replacement easy
Device replacement has always been an arduous and risky task. By standardizing the offline dataset and downloadmenu, FDI provides engineers with a common interface to perform download operations across all host systems. Thishelps maintenance engineer to use this common interface for commissioning the replaced device, thus makes device
replacement an easier and hassle-free operation.

Offline Configuration and Commissioning
Commissioning is a critical phase in the plant life cycle. In many instances, the commissioning phase, when done
correctly, can help a project get back on schedule after it has fallen behind. It is essential that the quality, integrity andfunctionality of the systems be verified at each stage as commissioning progresses. The typical commissioning
process executes the following functions:
1. Perform ’Offline Configuration’ to set parameters inside the device/system for specific conditions of the process
while the plant is not actively running.
2. Physical connection of devices to the process and network.
3. Perform a ‘Loop Check’ to test the physical connection to the device.
4. Perform a ‘Download’ operation to transfer the configured parameters to the device. In general, the download
operation is performed as an asynchronous batch operation.

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Offline Configuration
High Level Commissioning Work Flow
During the device procurement stage, devices will be ordered either with factory settings or pre-configured per acustom datasheet provided by the EPC. During the engineering stage, functional tasks of the device determined by theexpected process condition are finalized and stored to the project dataset. Later during the commissioning phase, thisdata set will be downloaded to the device.

FDI supports sophisticated offline conﬁguration
Today, offline configuration tasks are host dependent and prone to interoperability issues. FDI standardizes offline
configuration and provides the flexibility to check various conditions prior to committing a configuration to a device via
download. For example, alarm limits or range values can be compared against the specific sensor limits configured forthis device to be sure they are within operating limits.

The Value of FDI: Offline Conﬁguration2

Offline Configuration

FDI standardizes Offline Configuration
In the past, there was no standardized root menu available in the DD for offline configuration and no specific way todetermine the download parameters. Each host system had their own specific implementation to support the offlineconfiguration that lead to different behavior for the same device across host systems.
With standardization of the root menu for offline configuration in FDI, the device developer chooses the set of device
parameters and their download order to remove system dependencies.

“The download order of the variable is critical in handling inter-dependent parameter write issues. For
instance, while downloading flow cutoff and flow rate units, it is necessary to write the flow rate unit first
before the flow cutoff. If it is written in reverse order, the unit may not be accepted by the device if thecutoff value is out of range.

FDI supports download order adjustment based on device setting
FDI allows the user to check the device settings and offline configuration dataset to make any necessary adjustments to the download order. For instance, a temperature transmitter can have either an RTD
Sensor or Thermocouple. RTD supports multi-wire whereas thermocouple must be directly connected toa local 2-wire temperature transmitter. If the temperature transmitter is connected to thermocouple anddefault configuration is ‘multi-wire’, then the device will reject the value. With FDI, it is possible tocompare the device setting dataset and offline dataset, to make any adjustments necessary. Without
this check, it is not always possible to get the right download order.

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Offline Configuration
FDI supports offline configuration based on user input
In most of the scenarios, offline configuration depends on the Sensor Type or a set of critical parameters of the device.
For instance, a pressure transmitter would be an absolute or differential pressure yet offline configuration values
depend on the sensor type and different ranges are possible. In FDI, this has been supported by using‘EDDL COMPONENTs and TEMPLATEs’.
COMPONENT defines the list of critical parameters and values that describe the physical configuration of the device.
For instance, for differential Pressure transmitter, there can be multiple COMPONENTs based on the sensor
measurement type and supported pressure ranges. Like COMPONENT_1 supporting Absolute measurement type and
0 to 30 psia pressure range, COMPONENT_2 supporting Differential measure type and -25 to 25 inH20 pressure range
as shown in the figure below.

COMPONENT parameters will not be downloaded to the device.
During Engineering Phase, desired component is selected based on the device configuration like Sensor Type andsupported Pressure Ranges.
TEMPLATE defines the list of parameters and values that describe the functional task of the device. For example, LCD
display of the transmitter may have two templates. Template_1 will have the list of parameter and values which shows
only the PV value along with units in the LCD Display, whereas TEMPLATE_2 will have the configuration values for theparameters which allows the LCD Display to display the PV, SV, TV and QV value at frequency of 1 second. Hence,templates are usually selected based on the application. These template values are applied to the offline dataset during
engineering phase and later during commission phase, user can choose to download it to the device.
In Summary, COMPONENT and TEMPLATE support in FDI simplifies offline configuration for manufacturers andprovides flexibility for users to set the exact configuration of the device based on various sensor type and otherparameters.

FDI supports both Non-Interactive and Interactive Download
Non-Interactive Download
For efficient commissioning, it is advised to perform as much configuration work off-site during engineering phase as
possible and then bulk configure devices on site. At present, DDs are written in a way that requires continuous userinteraction during the download operation. FDI standardizes the download process to support silent bulk download
operation that requires no user interaction, potentially saving days or weeks in the commissioning process.

The Value of FDI: Offline Conﬁguration

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Interactive Download
During device replacement, or sometimes even during commissioning, it is required to know the specific configurationof unique application device types which may require close user interaction in order to avoid interrupting an active
process.
Interactive download informs the user about the current condition of the existing device, the download procedure
instructions, and possible impact on the device state after the download operation to the replacement device isperformed. This helps the user to make more informed decisions prior to the download operation.
FDI supports both non-interactive bulk download as well as interactive offline configuration with user interaction whenrequired.

Conclusion
Commissioning plays a crucial role in on-time startup and long-term performance of the plant. Efficient configuration
improves overall plant productivity and asset performance. FDI addresses the existing challenges in the commissioning process and eases offline configuration related to field device management. FDI saves time and improves reliability, which gets the plant up and running faster and with fewer problems. Standardization of offline configuration in FDI
will bring convenience and flexibility for plant engineers while improving the device replacement experience for fieldtechnicians.

FieldComm Group9430 Research Blvd., Ste 1-120
Austin, TX 78759 USA
info@fieldcommgroup.org+1 512.792.2300
www.fieldcommgroup.org

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