Honeywell Process Solutions introduces the Experion Orion Console, an advanced display technology that combines ergonomic design and improved display to reduce operator fatigue and improve effectiveness in solving process issues. Representing the plant control room of the future, the Experion Orion Console meets the changing needs of the increasingly mobile plant operator.
The Experion Orion Console was unveiled at the 2014 Honeywell Users Group Symposium in San Antonio, Texas.
Building on Honeywell’s flagship Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) control platform, the Experion Orion Console simplifies control system management, reduces operator fatigue and improves situational awareness.
The Experion Orion Console owes its ergonomic design to considerable operator input gleaned from numerous visits to plant control rooms around the world and across industries, in both newer and older plants. The design and capabilities are the result of behaviour observations, as well as insights collected in multiple phases at plants, including process startups and during periods of abnormal operations.
Jason Urso, chief technology officer, Honeywell Process Solutions observes that the state of plant control today is similar to putting operators on a sleepless, 12-hour flight in economy-class seating and then asking them to make a critical decision that impacts their company’s production and employee safety. He explains that operators need more than just process data to make important decisions; they need an environment that helps keep them alert, allows them to move about more freely, and presents information more intuitively. The Experion Orion Console was designed with all of those factors in mind.
Key features of the Experion Orion Console include a large flexible, ultra-high definition display that provides clear status assessments of process operations in a single glance for better and more-informed management; customisable displays for context-specific process issues; advanced alarm management and pan and zoom capabilities; limits and targets directly integrated into overview displays, allowing operation of the process closer to the optimum; and touch panel displays providing the primary operating interface that better enables operators to quickly and accurately respond to changing conditions and prevent situations that could lead to plant incidents and emergencies.
Aside from the actual information, however, the console has a mobile tablet that also reduces operator fatigue by allowing personnel to move about the control room more freely than before. When paired with wireless-enabled mobile technologies, the system also allows operators to view the same displays on handheld devices in other areas of the plant.