2007-04-27 - With the launch of the Navigator 600 Silica analyzer, ABB has vastly improved the ease of use and substantially cut the cost of silica monitoring. The Navigator 600 Silica substantially reduces the amount of reagents and maintenance generally associated with silica analysis while providing accurate and reliable silica monitoring.
The first in the new Navigator 600 series of chemical analyzers from ABB, the Navigator 600 Silica uses one quarter the reagents consumed by units from other manufacturers, greatly reducing annual costs. In addition to reduced reagent consumption, the cost of operation has been further reduced by reducing annual maintenance requirements with a carefully designed wet section as well as adding remote management, automatic calibration and cleaning. Combined, these features allow three months unattended operation.
Aimed at the power generation industry and other large-scale steam and water dependent industrial applications, the Navigator 600 Silica provides accurate monitoring of a wide range of silica concentrations (0 and 5000ppb) in a single device. The analyzer is available in single or multi-stream configurations, enabling up to 6 streams to be monitored sequentially providing current loop, ethernet and optional Profibus DP V1 outputs.
The Navigator 600 Silica analyzer provides user programmable continuous or sampled measurements, allowing a further reduction in reagent consumption in applications where silica concentrations are relatively constant.
Unscheduled downtime is greatly reduced by comprehensive on-board diagnostics and predictive maintenance functions. The Navigator 600 Silica features twice as many diagnostic messages as other units, making it much easier to identify potential problems. Reagent bottle sensors alert operators to low reagent levels and an automatic cleaning function, which can be set to clean the whole wet section periodically, prevents problems with drift due to fouled tubes, chemical and optical systems. Together, these features allow the Navigator 600 Silica to operate for three months or more without manual intervention.
ABB has designed the Navigator 600 Silica so that required annual maintenance to the pump tubing and capstan can be done in just two to three minutes, compared to 45 minutes required on some units.
A key benefit of the Navigator 600 Silica is its ease of operation. Front-mounted pushbuttons allow easy device interaction in a familiar Windows™ environment. Operation and commissioning is straightforward, with menus presenting options for setting and fine-tuning parameters. Added support is provided by an extensive context sensitive on-line help feature. Standard software is also available for easy upgrading in the field from 1 to 2, 4 or 6 streams.
Based on the same platform as ABB’s ScreenMaster data recorders, the operator interface also provides a choice of data display formats, including chart, bar graph and digital indicator views. Historical logs provide operators with access to alarm, totalizer and audit trail data. Process data and historical logs are securely archived to a removable SD card with capacity of up to 2 GB.
The Navigator 600 Silica also includes a built in ethernet communications link with an onboard web and ftp servers, enabling remote monitoring, configuration selection, data and log file access to the analyzer from a web browser.
Together, these features make the Navigator 600 Silica an accurate, reliable, easy to use and cost effective silica monitoring solution.