Version 16.3 of Valmet’s D3 Distributed Control System significantly improves the reliability and performance of the automation platform.
Using Valmet’s D3 Distributed Control System (DCS) automation platform, industrial processors can now integrate numerous reliability and performance enhancements in the first significant update following its acquisition from NovaTech Automation last year.
The latest D3 version 16.3 from Valmet, a worldwide provider of process technologies, automation, and services, showcases the company’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the widely used DCS in various industries including specialty chemicals, agriculture, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.
Serving customers since 1982 as D/3, the D3 DCS provides a comprehensive automation solution for process industries. According to Mike Davis, Senior Manager of Product Management for Valmet Automation Systems North America, this update includes a variety of improvements, bug fixes, security, and usability enhancements, and new features that increase the automation platform’s reliability and performance.
These include:
• Modernization – To maintain a secure and reliable automation environment, it is necessary to update to the newest server and desktop operating systems. D3 v16.3 is among the initial major DCS versions to support Windows Server 2022.
• Valmet D3’s core HMI system, the ProcessVision Console (PVC), has also been upgraded with additional features, further improving user-friendliness.
• Performance – integrating Valmet’s PID Loop Optimizer into D3 is one of the most significant value-added improvements. PID tuning parameters affect how a valve will behave, for example, whether it reacts aggressively or slowly to the changing process. Getting that tuning correct can impact the material, the process, how much energy is consumed, and how tightly it is controlled.
Unfortunately, in many plants, process engineers must essentially estimate PID tuning numbers. To resolve this issue, Valmet replaced a third-party software solution and integrated its own PID Loop Optimizer. The operator can call up the loop tuning software directly from their workstation, and it will analyze the performance of the loop and make recommendations for tuning.
• Reliability and Futureproofing – D3 v16.3 also supports the newest controller in its PCM4 line, the PCM4100A.
Valmet is a leading provider of process technologies, automation, and services with headquarters in Espoo, Finland, and has over 220 years of history in the industrial sector. It can provide almost all components of an automation system except for general instruments like pressure or temperature sensors. The company introduced its first digital automation systems in the late 1970s, and today the company’s Distributed Control System (DCS), Valmet DNA can be utilized for process control, machine controls, drive controls, quality controls, and condition monitoring across many industries.
For more information about Valmet’s process automation systems, please visit https://www.valmet.com/d3 or call 410-753-8300.