Marine redundant control systems at Seawork
The Bourbon Mistral platform supply vessel was the first to Ulstein’ s X-Bow design and won the Ship of the Year Award at the SMM 2006. The Mistral has been on duty for Bourbon’ s offshore operations since September 2006.
The vessel was the first to install the Ulstein Integrated Automation System (IAS) which utilises automation systems provided by Seawork exhibitor Phoenix Contact. Phoenix Contact is a global market leader in connection, signal conversion and interface, surge voltage protection and industrial automation technology. Within the marine industry, their automation products are used to provide redundant control systems for high dependence marine systems.
From the initial IAS concept Ulstein was looking for a system consisting of commercially off the shelf products which had marine approvals such as DNV, GL and LR, and offered the ability to build up a true redundant modular automation structure. An integrated automation system (IAS) is the brain of a ship’s functions and vital to good operability of the vessel, especially one in the demanding role of a platform supply vessel.
The IAS system has the ability to deal with all applications on board including cargo, ballast, energy management, alarming, monitoring, pump, winch controls and comfort such as air treatment, light, water and heating.
From the I/O level through the control level to the network level, the plant on board is controlled via the redundant control system using Profinet and Ethernet technology. Signals are transmitted via fibre optic or copper cables as required, with Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP) and Fast Ring Detection (FRD) ensuring fast reconfiguration times (<500 ms) in the event of a failure in the network. Even the failure of a control system does not pose a danger, as a backup control system will take control of the process. Quick and easy replacement of devices is ensured by the LLDP protocol, which does not require any specific previous knowledge of the system, and the embedded controllers can be programmed according to IEC 61131.
Phoenix Contact’s products were chosen due to their provision of off the shelf components with marine approvals, true redundancy media and PLC, the availability of Profinet, flexible and easy to interface products and systems, open and modular design, efficient system maintenance, standard software platform for all applications, standard hardware based on off the shelf components, easy diagnostics, easy to operate and one stop shopping.
For further information visit the Phoenix Contacts stand at Seawork 2008.
