Fault-tolerant fieldbus system!

MooreHawke, a division of Moore Industries, has released a new video highlighting its TRUNKSAFE Fault-Tolerant Fieldbus System. Available for viewing at the Moore Industries Interface Solution Video Library, the video shows how the system avoids costly shutdowns related to faulty FOUNDATION Fieldbus or PROFIBUS PA segments.

A shutdown at an oil refinery caused by a fieldbus segment going down can cost up to $500,000 (ca €390,000) an hour. Until the introduction of TRUNKSAFE, the only way for engineers at oil refineries, natural gas sites and other locations to ensure a fault-tolerant, redundant fieldbus solution was to duplicate each piece of the segment including H1 cards, power conditioners, device couplers and field devices. Along with being cost-prohibitive, this method requires special software and complex programming.

The new video shows how TRUNKSAFE uses two physical trunk cable “legs” to ensure that no single point of failure will shut down an entire network. The system’s Power Conditioners immediately detect, report and isolate a faulty fieldbus leg while allowing system communications to continue on the healthy leg. Simultaneously, the TRUNKSAFE Device Coupler detects the absence of DC power on the faulty leg and activates its Automatic Segment Terminator. This allows for normal fieldbus communications to continue while internal blocking circuitry prevents a short-circuit on one leg from affect the other leg.

This video uses a demonstration panel and animation to spotlight exactly how TRUNKSAFE works. It is one in a series of videos produced by Moore Industries and available at the Interface Solution Video Library highlighting the features and practical applications of its diverse product line.