United Electric Controls Announces WirelessHART Gas Detector with Five-Year Battery Life

WATERTOWN, MASS. — February 14, 2017 — United Electric Controls, a leading producer of safety, alarm and shutdown technology, has announced the availability of a WirelessHART gas detector that can monitor presence of harmful gases for more than five years without a battery replacement. The new Vanguard WirelessHART gas detector reduces monitoring costs and increases safety by eliminating the need for costly and fixed wiring.

“The cost of adding just one new gas measurement point, including obtaining ‘hot’ work permits, running conduits for wires, burying them, and so on, can be in the neighborhood of $10,000 for land-based systems and as much as five times that for offshore applications. Wireless technology can reduce the cost of adding a monitoring point by up to 90 percent,” said Wil Chin, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, United Electric Controls.

United Electric developed the Vanguard detector in response to the market need for a cost-effective way to add multiple gas measurement points. Vanguard field-interchangeable gas sensor modules detect and record hydrogen sulfide (H2S) or methane (CH4) gas in parts per million (PPM) or percent of lower explosive limits (LELs) respectively, along with network and battery status.

WirelessHART 7.2 technology carries signals to local 128 x 64 pixel digital displays or other IEC 62591 compatible connections — all of which integrate seamlessly with existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or asset management (AMS) systems. The Vanguard detector has been designed and tested to interoperate with Emerson Smart Wireless Gateway 1410 and 1420.

Easy operation

The Vanguard detector can be mounted anywhere and dropped easily into any WirelessHART network by inputting the network I.D. and join key. The unit automatically senses the detector type and configures it automatically. Seamless, plug-and-play interoperability saves additional setup time and effort. Class 1, Div. 1&2 certification and an explosion-proof and intrinsically safe design help ensure trouble-free operation in hazardous environments. The unit also has ATEX and IECEx approvals.

Potential applications

Once on a wireless network, the Vanguard detector can serve many gas monitoring functions, including the following:

• Wireless remote and local gas detection, such as tank farms, oil and gas production facilities, refineries, pipelines, abandoned wells and waste treatment plants.
• Temporary situations in which the cost of setting up a wired solution is completely unfeasible, such as a maintenance turnaround, natural disaster, security breach or plant expansion.
• Asset management initiatives, where trending of emissions over time through the deployment of multiple wireless sensors can initiate the necessary predictive and preventive maintenance, or pollution control monitoring.

For information about wireless gas detection technology and applications, please download our white paper, Wireless Gas Monitoring ¬- The emerging solution for improving plant safety at: https://www.ueonline.com/vanguard

Availability

The Vanguard WirelessHART Gas Monitor will begin shipping in March 1st of 2017.

This News Release has been picked up by the following publications:

Plant Engineering, Plant Services, Control Engineering, Chemical Processing, Control, Automation, Consulting Specifying Engineer Magazine, and Process Industry Informer.

About United Electric Controls

United Electric Controls (UE,) a privately held corporation founded in 1931 and headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA, is a global supplier of electronic transmitter-switches, pressure and temperature switches, transmitters, sensors and controls for the process, discrete, semiconductor, aerospace and defense industries. Focused on protecting equipment, processes, personnel and the environment, our products are critical for safety, alarm and shutdown functions with uncompromising quality produced from innovative design and superior lean manufacturing. Visit the UE website at ueonline.com.

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Notes to Editors:

Press contact: John Nero at Tiziani Whitmyre, 781-793-9380, jnero@tizinc.com