At INGEMATION, we use instrumentation engineering platforms as one of the key tools in the development of industrial projects.
People often tend to think of these types of environments simply as instrument databases, but when working on real projects, their role goes far beyond that. In practice, they end up becoming the hub where much of the technical information related to a plant’s control system converges.
From this engineering environment, virtually everything related to instrumentation and control is managed: field instruments, analog and digital signals, DCS and SIS I/O cards, marshalling, field boxes, FTAs, relays, internal and field wiring, alarms, signal configurations, and technical documentation. But what’s truly interesting isn’t the amount of information, but how it all fits together.
Each signal is linked to its instrument, its loop, its wiring, its card, its control logic, and even to process documentation and piping. And that is where the engineering model ceases to be merely a documentation tool and becomes a fairly accurate representation of how the facility actually operates.
In large-scale projects, such as those we are currently developing at Ingemation, involving systems that integrate between 5,000 and 12,000 signals, with various disciplines working simultaneously, this traceability is essential. Maintaining consistency between process, control, instrumentation and documentation not only reduces errors, but also facilitates reviews, commissioning and future maintenance tasks.
Furthermore, there is a very interesting aspect to working with safety signals or complex architectures: these kinds of tools, in a way, force you to understand how the system actually works. It is not just a matter of ‘filling in data’, but of correctly modelling the control philosophy, signal types, power supplies, cabling and the interaction between systems.
That is why, at INGEMATION, we see these kinds of platforms as much more than just a database. They are a structural component of the project, a sort of backbone on which much of the instrumentation and control engineering relies.
