Japan's Yokogawa Electric Corporation has developed Centum VP R6.03, a new version of the company’s integrated production control system with enhanced functionality, and will release it on June 1.

In keeping with its VigilantPlant vision for the control business, Yokogawa has been continually making improvements to its flagship Centum VP integrated production control system, a statement said, adding that with the functional enhancements provided in R6.03, Centum CS, Centum CS 1000, and Centum CS 3000 systems can be smoothly upgraded to Yokogawa’s latest system offering, Centum VP.

Centum VP provides an optimum operation, monitoring, and engineering environment for every phase of the plant lifecycle, from initial design, engineering, installation of systems and equipment, and start-up to full operation and the ongoing performance of renovations and modifications until it is time to withdraw a facility from service.

Over the several decades that a plant will remain in use, upgrades will need to be performed to replace ageing control systems software and hardware, hold down maintenance costs, improve production capacity, and comply with new regulations. To minimize disruptions to production operations, such system upgrades should be quick and trouble-free.

Centum VP R6.03 was developed to ensure quick and smooth system upgrades. The features provided in R6.03 will make it possible for users of Centum CS (released in 1992), Centum CS 1000 (released in 1997), and Centum CS 3000 (released in 1998) systems to quickly and smoothly upgrade to Centum VP.

Masatoshi Nakahara, a Yokogawa director and executive vice president who heads the Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters, said: “Yokogawa has continually striven to improve its core Centum platform while maintaining backwards compatibility with previous system versions.”

Innovations such as advanced operation, smart engineering, system agility and sustainable plant have been emphasised in the development of Centum VP, he added. – TradeArabia News Service