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Asset Management Solutions |
20-11-2005 |
Controlstar Systems – Reducing Engineering and Operational costs Controlstar Systems Ltd. business focus is the provision of Telemetry and SCADA for the asset management of remote facilities, such as wastewater, water and drainage. The foundation of the company’s products is in the remote operation of oil and gas platforms where clear and unambiguous operational and diagnostics information that is understandable by a range of personnel is central to reducing costs and maintaining output. Controlstar Systems Ltd flagship product is in fact known as Controlstar®, this is not a single device but a range of integrated hardware and software products that collectively provide a comprehensive control and monitoring system. The core of the system is the Controlstar® unit itself which combines a powerful PLC, logging, alarms, and event handling with a flexible telemetry/ communication interface. The Controlstar® can serve a SCADA directly from the unit; the user only requires a browser to access the full capability of the system. A suite of central office programs allows large systems to be created, handling scheduled connection etc. and acting as a server to multiple SCADA’s. A unique market approach of Controlstar Systems Ltd is the fact that the SCADA software is licence free allowing organisations with multiple users to benefit from the system without the attendant costs of adding further licences. A further key to the Controlstar® is the free ‘Fusion’ configuration tool which has been developed over three years to provided a system wide method of building an application without programming skills - opening system applications to engineers that understand what the system must do without becoming embroiled in computer and communication technology. The final major differentiator of the Controlstar® is the visual function block pick-and-place method of programming the controls which is understandable by non specialists; the availability online of these function block drawings, with the actual plant and logic status, provides first class design, commissioning and maintenance support. It was this capability alone that has achieved significant savings in engineering and maintenance costs in the North Sea. |