Digital technology company ABB has previewed a new application at SPS IPC Drives fair, which it says will help customers achieve higher levels of productivity and improve economic return to meet their performance and quality objectives.

The Asset Management Application is a digital solution that enables process industries to manage and protect their assets through predictive and preventative maintenance to avoid costly failures, the company states. Cost-effective management becomes a reality through the optimisation of workflows and in-depth analysis of results, offering efficient asset-management strategies that enable smarter and more informed decisions.

 
Quad-screen support is now provided with Freelance 2019

ABB explained to visitors at SPS IPC Drives that the application offers real-time condition monitoring of equipment, connected devices and field devices to reduce unscheduled downtime. It helps prevent equipment failures and optimises operation and maintenance of the installed base. ABB enables predictive and preventative maintenance by diagnosing asset conditions and predicting looming equipment problems on premise and, for the first time, at an enterprise’s global level. ABB adds that the application enables the use of advanced analytical methods, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to analyse equipment problems and optimise performance.

As geographically dispersed production sites constantly grow, global connectivity, helped by advanced cloud technologies, is an important feature. It brings added benefits of wider collaboration across teams, management and operations.

ABB Ability Edge, the company says, ensures a secure connection between assets and the cloud, efficiently separating information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). Edge technology can also act as a platform for applications to give customers the option to operate solely on premise, due to security concerns and data breaches that can occur on the cloud.  


Dashboard view of Asset Health KPIs

In the case of a problem, users can make informed and quick decisions, based on clear recommendations. ABB says that actions range from immediate attention to scheduling maintenance in the near future and the identification of issues that can be resolved during its routine maintenance of equipment. By providing a precise cause of any equipment problems, the application also enables speedy identification and recovery, further reducing costs.

“The Asset Management App will give users the flexibility to quickly create their own asset models from the intelligence they gather,” says Neil Shah, global product manager for Device Management & Asset Optimisation at ABB. “Asset analysis, including root-cause analysis, is another key factor in helping customers to remain competitive in today’s industrial markets.”

The Asset Management Application will be launched in the second half of 2019. It sits within ABB Ability, ABB’s digital offering, which includes more than 210 Industrial Internet solutions and an Industrial Internet technology platform and cloud infrastructure.

In addition, with security a top priority in the age of Industry 4.0, industrial automation and robotics specialists ABB has launched Freelance 2019 during SPS IPC Drives – a three-day Nuremberg-based event, which opened its doors on 27 November.

The solution features enhanced security and is currently targeted at the process industries, but this could expand into the discrete manufacturing sector in 2019.

Originally launched in 1994, Freelance is ABB’s cost-effective distributed control system (DCS) solution. It combines the advantages of a DCS with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) and is characterised by ease of use, scalability, flexibility and reliability, the company states. Freelance 2019 is the latest version of the DCS.

The Freelance suite of solutions comprises Freelance Operations for use at operator level, a scalable process level option, and Freelance Engineering which is used to configure and commission the system including the operator interface. ABB is confident that users will discover that the new version provides significant improvements throughout the complete system.

Freelance 2019 provides a significant increase in efficiency and usability for its Operations and Engineering solution by adding advanced navigation, filter and sort functionalities. ABB also adds that the user experience has been improved with a new user interface (UI).

Meanwhile, a new controller – PM 904F – expands the Freelance AC 900F controller family in the upper range, supporting four communication interfaces. It also provides more application memory and enables the reservation of specific memory. As for all Freelance controllers, user applications are 100% runtime-compatible which also enables smooth upgrade opportunities.

ABB is also pleased with its solution’s increased connectivity; up to four monitors can now be connected to a single operator workplace. The available display types per monitor, as well as the arrangements of the monitors, are easily configured and fulfil the typical requirements for occupational safety and operator effectiveness.

Freelance provides an additional alternative to its user management capabilities known as Security Lock by a solution called Extended User Management. This new option makes use of Windows user accounts, supporting both local and domain accounts. As a result, typical requests for options such as central password management, rules for password complexity, or password aging, can be fulfilled. 

Freelance 2019 can also run on Windows 10 and Windows 7 in the same system architecture. This allows customers to do a step-wise upgrade to modern IT infrastructure, which helps in reducing maintenance costs, ABB says.

“Being user-friendly, cost-effective and robust has already made Freelance a popular choice for businesses of process industries in more than 100 countries worldwide,” says Ingo Mauritz, global product line manager for Freelance at ABB. “Its flexibility and extensive reach are demonstrated by the thousands of installations of the solution in industries.”

As in earlier versions of Freelance, customers have the option of staying automatically up-to-date by subscribing to the Automation Sentinel life-cycle program by, for example, providing automatic cyber-security patches.

Available in a wide range of languages, Freelance takes five minutes to install on any standard computer and can easily be self-learned, says ABB. The intuitive operator interface enables easy operation and diagnosis of the entire system and being just one file, it is easy to back up as the entire application fits on a small memory stick, the company concludes.