ABB Advant Controller 400 series

Advant Controller 400 series

StepUp is program of ABB's for upgrading
older process control equipment to the
latest Advant OCS solutions at particularly
favorable terms. The theme of the program
varies from time to time; this time the turn
has come to users of MasterPiece 200⁄1
controllers to upgrade to the latest Advant
Controller 400 series process controllers, at
substantially reduced prices.
You gain performance; Count on three to
five times the speed of your current
machine(s) (vs. Advant Controller 450) and
multiple amounts of more memory.
Higher processing speed and more
memory means more work done faster, as
well as more space for trend data storage.
You gain functionality; Advant Controller
400 series offers a number of important
functional improvements, e.g.:
• Support for a number of new, popular
communication protocols, e.g. Advant
Fieldbus 100, Profibus DP, LONWorks
and Allen-Bradley's DF1.
These make your new controllers able
to use ABB's new S800 I⁄O system and
easily able to communicate, with other
external controllers, with ABB's variable
speed motor drives and with smart
motor-control centers.
• More backup redundancy available,
e.g.:
- Smarter solution to CPU redundancy,
eliminating critical, common, components,
- Full dual redundancy, covering,
media and communication in interfaces,
for S100 I/O and Advant
Fieldbus 100.
• A self-tuning, adaptive process controller
(AC 450) that makes short work out
of setting up control loops accurately
and responsively, even in difficult
applications.
• Fuzzy logic control, a control method
based on degrees of truths as opposed

to conventional binary logic that only
recognizes two states: true or false.
A control strategy that is often able to
untangle elegantly control problems
that are difficult to solve in other ways.
• Windows NT-based engineering tool,
You save money; StepUp includes:
• attractive prices on controller cabinets
with all the hardware and software
required.
• further savings on future software
upgrades by subscription to the ABB
Software Advancement Program (described
further on).

Upgrading: as easy as ABC
Advant Controller 400 series machines are
19" rack-based like its predecessors. They
are also compatible with existing S100
local I/O and S400 remote I/O. And finally,
they run AMPL programs just like their
forerunners do, only better.
Consequently, the stage is set for the
smoothest possible change-over. Simply,
disconnect your existing controller from
the surrounding world, remove the controller
rack from the cabinet it is installed
in, install the new controller, put all cables
back on, upload your existing application
software and switch on. From then on you
are ready to start taking advantage of the
additional functionality and processing
power that Advant Controller 400 series
offers.
So far, hundreds of step-ups to the AC 400
series have already been made, confirming
this simplicity. Says Hans Nilsson, instru-mentation and control manager at the
LKAB Malmberget mining company in
Northern Sweden in confirmation:
“Thanks to good planning we were able to
complete the entire upgrade during our
regular summer shutdown. In a single day,
we were able to replace three controllers,
including replacing controller cabinets and
verifying the application software.”

StepUp, the easy way to get ahead
Exploring the StepUp offer in greater detail
is easy; simply call your nearest ABB
representative and let him/her know what
your existing system looks like. Then allow
a few days for a detailed offer. If you
accept (which we are all but certain you
will), then new control equipment will be
ordered for you. When it arrives you have
60 days in which to phase it in and the
existing controllers out. Then, and only
then, are you obliged to return the old
equipment.
Everything that can be done ahead of time
to smoothen the transition will be done,
but should you still want assistance during
the switch for safety’s sake, ABB will be
there to give you a hand.
But don’t mull on it for too long; the offer
won’t stand for ever!