Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.’s ethylene plant in Kashima, Japan, has been named 2009 HART Plant of the Year by the HART Communication Foundation. The plant, an Emerson Process Management customer, was recognized for innovative use of the advanced capabilities of HART Communication in real-time applications to improve operations, lower costs, and increase availability. The plant’s achievements included reducing maintenance costs by 10% and detecting device failures that might otherwise have led to unplanned shutdowns costing as much as USD 3 million in lost production. Takayuki Aoyama, instrumentation group team leader at the Kashima plant, presented examples of these capabilities at the 2009 Emerson Global Users Exchange conference in Orlando, Florida, describing how his team used advanced diagnostics to solve problems ranging from plugged impulse lines to entrained air in a pump intake. Other HART-enabled products in use at the award-winning plant include Emerson’s Rosemount radar level and vortex flow instruments, Micro Motion® Coriolis meters, Fisher® digital valve controllers, and AMS™ Suite predictive maintenance software.
