Actuation & Fieldbus

Special

Emerson ProcessManagement –

Automating any valve… anywhere!

Cover Story

www.valve-world.net

ACTUATION & FIELDBUS

SIPOS meets challenges of world’s

largest lignite plant p 25

Foundation Fieldbus for China p 39

Valve Position Detection in Modern

Process Installations p 69

PROCUREMENT

Finding better supplier in China p 50

RETROSPECT

PCVEXPO – Success in Russia p 31

MANUFACTURING

Behind the scenes:

Cryogenic testing at Orton, Italy p 63

Volume 14, Issue 10, December 2009

www.valve-world.net18 December 2009

Emerson ProcessManagement –Automating any valve… anywhere!

Emerson’s last cover story waspublished exactly three years ago.In December 2006, Valve Worldand Emerson sat down to talkabout Emerson’s growth and recentacquisitions. High time therefore forValve World to request the pleasureof an interview with Mr Dan Button,President, Mr David Plum, Vice-President, and Ms Sue Ooi, GlobalMarketing Communication Director,from Emerson ProcessManagement. Topics up fordiscussion included the strengths ofthe company, the changes that havetaken place over the past years, thedevelopment of new technology,and of course Emerson’s plan forthe way ahead.

By Christian Borrmann

Three years is a long time in thevalve and actuator industry. A lotof changes have taken place and

of course the economic situation thatstar ted in autumn 2008 has had amajor impact as well. The crisis hasaffected the best of companies andEmerson Process Management is noexception. Fortunately, however, thecompany’s strategy over the years hascreated a solid position helpingEmerson to better ride out the storm.This was made clear by Mr Plum’sopening remarks: “Some companiesonly focus on a specific industry in thevalve market. We serve all majormarkets from oil & gas, subsea,chemicals, and on to nuclear. This is thebiggest strength for Emerson.” Ms Ooiadds: “Emerson Process ManagementValve Automation is made from apowerful amalgamation of severalcompanies that have been acquiredover the past years. This has given thecompany brand names that have strongleadership positions in the market

space. All these acquisitions and ourdevelopment & launch of the FieldQproduct enable us to offer a wideportfolio of actuation technology toour existing customers and of coursealso to future ones.”“The biggest change that Emersonunderwent since 2006 is that we nowreally offer a full portfolio of actuator andcontrol products,” explains Mr Button. Hecontinues, “The portfolio is becomingmore complete toward our division’svision which is ‘One Force Driving allValves...Everywhere’. Over the past fiveyears, we doubled the size of ourbusiness amongst others by uniting fivebrand names under the flag of Emerson,namely Bettis, Dantorque, El-O-Matic,Shafer, and Hytork. Emerson alsoacquired Damcos, a valve automationproduct for the marine industry, andTopWorx, a leader in valve controls. Ofcourse, we have had some obstacles toovercome along the way, but the recentacquisition of EIM Controls demonstratesour willingness to invest to continue and

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www.valve-world.net December 2009 19

offer our customers the best technologyto suit their application andrequirements.”

New technologiesEmerson has of course long been knownas a leading supplier in the high and lowpressure pneumatic and hydraulicactuation segments. However, it was onlyperceived to be a minor player in electricactuators.That position has now changedwith the acquisition of EIM Controls,which was ‘a logical step for Emerson’according to Mr Plum. “The general trendis that electronic controls are becomingmore and more important, and areincreasingly incorporated into pneumaticand electric actuators.With EIM onboard, we can now offer our clientssolutions for all valve applications on aproject.”Mr Plum is keen to stress an importantpoint behind the EIM acquisition.This wasdone not only to expand the Emersonportfolio, but was seen as an importantroute to enhancing the scope of

Emerson’s overall technology capabilities.Mr Plum: “We not only sell the productbut we work with customers on theapplications technology that goes with it.This means the customer can come to usand look for a solution instead of only acomponent to operate a valve.”Asked what role Emerson plays when itcomes to valve operating systems, MrPlum smiles: “This is a very interestingquestion considering the history aboutthese systems. If you look back in theindustry you find very few people whospent much thought on the operatingsystem for valves, because most valveshad to be handled manually and only afew were automated.Then, as theindustry matured and differentcompanies came up with varyingtechniques, people started asking for justan actuator, something to move thevalves. And now, as we end the firstdecade in the 21st century, we seecustomer requirements for bus, SIS, safety,reliability, diagnostics, non-intrusivecalibration, and partial stroke all merginginto what we refer to as the valveoperating system. At Emerson, our focushas always been development of thecomplete valve operating system. Ourfoundation is controls andinstrumentation. So we have alwaysbelieved and understood that when acustomer buys a product to operate avalve, they are really buying a very critical

device within the process network thathas strong implications on theperformance of the plant.This is whatmakes it a really exciting time forEmerson right now. Including technologyfor control and diagnostics for the on/offvalve is extremely beneficial for ourcustomers.”Mr Button adds: “Let’s face it, customersdo not really want valves or actuators,they want solutions. And those solutionshave to be safe and reliable when itcomes to the performance of their plant.They should not worry that a valve isnot working, they should not even thinkof the valve or the actuator at all.Thiswould be the best sign for us that theoperator systems are properlyfunctioning.”New product development is a key focusarea within Emerson ProcessManagement. One of the biggestdevelopments within the company issurrounding Smart Wireless solutionswhich extend Plantweb’s predictiveintelligence into areas that werepreviously out of physical or economicreach, opening the door for newpossibilities in process improvement.Says Ms Ooi: “All our developments, be itimprovements to existing technology or acompletely new technology are all leadby the voice of the customers.Thefeedback will provide us with moreinsight of what customers are looking for,

At ValveWorld Asia 2009, Emerson presented the latest Smart Wireless solutions which extend Plantweb’spredictive intelligence into areas that were previously out of physical or economic reach.

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www.valve-world.net20 December 2009

One of Emerson’s most successful brands is Shafer, who provides gas-over-oil and hydraulic valveautomation and control all around the globe for rotary and linear valves.

Emerson's latest acquisistion: EIM Controls.This picture shows the TEC2000 actuator.

the features and benefits sets they lookfor in a product.With that understanding,we can then better translate customerrequirements and incorporate them intoour new product development process.This is in line with our THINKCUSTOMER philosophy.”“In the area of automated valves, wirelessis certainly one if the most interestingdevelopments over the past years,”confirms Mr Plum. He continues: “forexample, we just launched 3 newproducts for valve monitoring.Thisbreakthrough line enables users to take awireless module and attach it to anexisting HART® device in the field andallow it to communicate all of thestandard diagnostics that exist inside thatdevice, wirelessly.There is a companionproduct to this module which is aposition monitor.This is also a wirelessdevice which allows you to get positionfeedback from valves or actuators thatare too remote or expensive to wire.What makes these solutions beneficial forcustomers, is they can avoid costs as theyrethink and reprioritize there preventivemaintenance programs for routine valvestatus to focus time and resource onwhere the real problems may be.”

Products for different marketsEmerson’s products for its core marketssuch as nuclear, oil & gas, pipelines, and

subsea, continue to benefit from researchand development activities. In thesemarkets, Emerson tries to focus evenmore on the application specific additionsdue to the ever-increasingly challenges.Mr Plum: “for example, in the pipelineindustry the challenge is developingactuators with torque capability thatcorresponds with increasing valve sizefrom increasing pipe diameters orproviding detection methods for potentialline breaks or pressure spikes.We haveprogrammes underway that deal with

such environmental challenges all thetime.We must remain constantly up todate and I am very excited about whatwe will bring out in the next few years.”Another example of developments forthe core markets comes from the nuclearindustry, in which Emerson has alwaysbeen a major player as Mr Buttonindicates. “At the moment, we arequalifying our products to the currentgeneration to meet the latestrequirements of the nuclear industry”Asked if Emerson expects more deepseaapplications in the coming time, Mrs Ooigives a positive answer. “Yes, certainlysubsea will be getting more and moreattention in the coming years.We arebeginning to see increasing requirementsfor subsea products in the various worldareas.We have a complete portfolio ofactuation products and solution to suitthe various depths requirement.This isexactly what customers are looking forwhen they approach Emerson.We areproud to be that company that would beable to handle & address theirrequirements and needs in thisspecialised area &application”And Mr Plum adds: “The trend for someof the big oil and gas companies is tomove the equipment below water, asclose as possible to the well. And this, asyou can imagine, brings up some toughenvironmental, operating, andmaintenance challenges which we mustaddress. In some cases the customersreally want us to widen the envelope of

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www.valve-world.net December 2009 21

what is possible. For example, they wantan actuator that will work properly atgreat depths and yet still be easilymaintainable under various conditions.We have been working with ourDantorque brand on these deepseaapplications for quite some time and arenow transferring this technology successand experience to our other products aswell.This applies to use in shallow oreven medium water depths.This is anarea that will be very interesting tofollow over the coming periodconsidering the amount of investmentthat is planned for offshore oil & gas andsubsea.”

Getting ready and preparedNow that Emerson has rounded out theproduct range with these highlydistinctive and well-recognised brandnames, the company is looking to achievefurther geographical growth. Ms Ooicontinues the story: “we developed astrategic marketing plan on how toapproach the various world areas basedon the technology, knowledge, andproducts that we can offer to thecustomers as a possible solution for theirapplication. Our starting point is to assessthe market needs of a specific region andthen sit together with local customers tosee how we can help them in the bestpossible way. If we take pipelines as an

example, one of the things we want tofocus on strongly is the safety andreliability of the pipelines. And herecomes the strength of Emerson. Unlikeother companies which may be restrictedto a single type of actuator as a possiblesolution, we can offer a wide range oftechnology. And this choice makes it a loteasier for the customers to find preciselythe right product for their application.Says Mr Button: “To come back to what Iindicated in the beginning, our aim is toprovide actuator solutions for all valves allover the world.To facilitate this, we needto be present right around the globe andnot only with a sales representative. Ourgoal is to have sales and engineering staffin countries all over the world and whereappropriate we invest in complete

manufacturing facilities.This enables us toact locally with the strength of being aglobal company.”Mr Plum concurs: “That is exactly right!We are a global company with a localheart.We work with the localmanufacturers and end users as well aswith the global players. As Dan stated, wehave invested a lot to globalize ourinfrastructure over the past years and thismust continue. Particularly for theemerging markets in the Middle East,Africa, Latin America, several parts in Asiaand Central and Eastern Europe. Weexpect these areas to experience themajority of growth over the next years,probably more than the more developedmarkets. And as these markets grow,Emerson will be ready to serve them.”

Staff from Emerson discussing the advantage of a Bettis actuator. Actuation testing.

Facts & FiguresName: Emerson Process Management, Valve Automation Inc.,President: Dan G ButtonHeadquarters: St Louis, USANo of Employees: 1050 EmployeesKey Markets: Oil & gas, Pipeline, Refining, Chemical, Power

generation, Water & wastewaterBrands: 7 Industry leading product brands

Bettis, Shafer, Dantorque, EIM, Elomatic, Hytork, FieldQGlobal Presence: 7 Production Locations

7 Valve Automation Centers230 Distributors