Unipetrol RPA

Unipetrol is a major refining and petrochemical company in the Czech Republic. One of the company's largest assets is its industrial estate. Chempark Záluží, which is the largest chemical production plant in the country. The site is currently home to dozens of major chemical and service companies and is the daily workplace for 6,500 employees from 180 companies. The part of the plant where ethylene is produced is particularly important because it is widely used as a component of many other products manufactured at the plant. Stopping ethylene production would have huge economic consequences as it would affect the overall production of ethylene. Production. A complete new power control and distribution backbone as well as an upgraded emergency backbone would be constructed. the Westermo switches were built to support emergency shutdown applications at the ethylene unit.

The ethylene unit is a new power control and distribution network.

The communication infrastructure and systems were built and implemented by Czech company Inelsev, which provides services for inCustomer and industrial automation and energy systems. The decision to use Westermo equipment was based on a strong working relationship between Inelsev and Westermo's Czech distributor.

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This is a plant where reliability is paramount. The systems are designed to be extremely robust to guarantee uninterrupted operation and protect the plant and the people who work there. In our previous network solution, we were using switches from another brand that we had to replace. The main reason for this was the renewal time of the network ring. Whenever the network had to recover, it took so long that the connected devices (OPC servers) could not boot and connect properly. Westermo's WeOS-powered product including the FRNT ring network protocol with a recovery time of 20 ms was the ideal choice. Extremely fast, robust and easy to use," said Pavel Yesina, R&D manager at Inelsev, which designed and implemented both networks. Both networks were built in 2011.

The emergency shutdown system was an upgrade project where old switches of a different brand were replaced with Westermo Lynx switches in a two-circuit network topology. The purpose of this network is to shut down the plant in an emergency situation. The control and distribution network was built as a completely new system and connects 30 substations throughout the plant to a central control room. The network consists of 270 communication devices, more than 500 process screens and panels, 13,000 input/output connections and more than 300,000 alarms. The network consists primarily of Lynx L210-F2G devices and the RedFox line of industrial switches. The many port combinations and the ability to combine copper and fiber optic media were other important factors in the selection of Westermo products. "Inside the building we can use regular copper Ethernet cables, but the cables connecting the different buildings have to be fibre optic due to safety regulations," explained Paul. "The many models and port combinations in the Red-Fox Industrial range allowed us to select the ideal product at each site and prepare for network expansion in the future." Another positive result of using Westermo equipment is that configuration and maintenance is very simple. All Westermo managed devices are powered by the same WeOS operating system. This means that you will get an identical experience whether you are configuring Lynx, RedFox or any other Westermo managed device regardless of model. It also means that any new features added to any new version of WeOS will be backwards compatible and available on any previously installed WeOS device. The site operating system is designed to be as robust as the hardware. It is designed to be easy to use and configure, and thoroughly tested in Westermo facilities. Software Test Lab. "I've worked with many different brands of switches and routers, and compared to many others, the Westermo switch configuration is like kindergarten," said Paul. To make configuration and maintenance even easier, Westermo also provides WeConfig, a "Made Easy" network configuration management tool designed to simplify both initial configuration and commissioning, which can be done much faster than before and save hundreds of man-hours over the life of the network. "I use the WeConfig tool to update my Westermo devices when a new firmware update is available. The tool makes updating simple and hassle-free, and I can access all the units from one central location. one location and automatic updates are performed quickly and securely. I look forward to experimenting more with WeConfig as we expand our network," said Paul.

"We have created a simple, robust and reliable network solution. This is exactly what we needed and the Westermo units have been working flawlessly since their installation. The products are easy to use and I wouldn't hesitate to choose them. Westermo for the next application where the same type of requirements are needed," concludes Pavel.