14 June 2007

Honeywell user group not just wireless

While it may seem like Honeywell focuses on wireless, it does have other product lines. However, if you look at some of the top products launched at the packed Honeywell Users Group Symposium User Group meeting in Phoenix this week, wireless is top of mind.

In addition, they said their wireless products would be ready for the market in July.

One of those lines is OneWireless, Honeywell’s wireless mesh network solution. OneWireless is a scalable wireless infrastructure that supports wireless-enabled devices in locations throughout a facility. The universal network supports multiple industrial protocols and applications simultaneously, providing a single wireless network.

“Wireless gives us the ability to look at anything in the plant,” said Jack Bolick, president of Honeywell Process Solutions, during a press conference Monday. “Wireless is going to be an inflection point because it lowers the cost of things you look at.”

The new system, Bolick said, is scalable to 30,000 devices.

In addition to the OneWireless product line, Honeywell also launched their starter kit, which will cost $7,500.

Honeywell also talked about one of its test trials at Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa Inc. in Alabama where its system uses wireless temperature and pressure sensors measuring steel-manufacturing processes.

While the company talked about it at last year’s user group meeting, this year they came around with a name and more details for its Honeywell Instant Location System (HILS). The product locates plant personnel to ensure safety, improve security, and manage assets within a manufacturer’s facility. HILS uses identification and location technologies like Ultra-Wideband, Global Positioning Systems, Wi-Fi, and active radio-frequency identification.

Installed throughout a facility, receivers can pinpoint the location of an employee or piece of equipment and send the information to the HILS server, which directly feeds the information to the operator’s workstation.

As mentioned, Honeywell has introduced other new products. They unveiled a new line of flowmeters. The Honeywell VersaFlow line has electromagnetic, Coriolis, ultrasonic, and vortex flowmeters. Krohne will manufacture the flowmeters. These flowmeters will go through Honeywell’s distribution channel.

The flowmeter line is Honeywell’s initial foray into the flowmeter market. The flowmeters are:

• The VersaFlow Electromagnetic Flow Meter, a general-purpose transducer
• The VersaFlow Ultrasonic Flow Meter for liquid applications
• The VersaFlow Vortex Flow Meter, which integrates pressure and temperature compensation in two-wire technology
• The VersaFlow Coriolis Mass Flow Meter, which can measure mass flow, density, volume flow, temperature, mass, or volume concentration

—Gregory Hale

For related information, go to www.isa.org/productivity.