Workstations, process control

Products in Group 3 seem to us to represent the future of practical batch process control. In such systems, modern workstations perform the single-user functions (e.g control system design, set-up, and maintenance operator interface data collection historical reporting) for which they were designed, while powerful multitasking controllers perform actual control. As computer hardware and software standards continue to evolve toward distributed networks of processors optimized for specific kinds of tasks, such systems will, we feel, proliferate rapidly. 

The HVAC controls for critical (validated) areas should be grouped in specified field panels. One may want to label these panels Critical Process Controls Please Follow Change Control Procedures or something similar. This will prevent the necessity of having to validate noncritical controls. Electrical supplies and other utilities must also be evaluated. One may need a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) for critical field panels and PC workstations to continuously moifitor critical equipment such as refrigerators, incubators, and particle counters with the BMS. 

Hence, computers allow the ready automation of laboratory processes such as data acquisition and treatment, result delivery and process control. This great potential is further Increased by the possibility of linking computers to one another (intelligent instruments) and by the use of workstations, expert systems and data banks, ail of which are commented on In some detail below. 

Also an onboard electrical power supply, e.g., by photovoltaic cells or thermogenerators coimected to a lab-frame irradiation source, would introduce additional, frequency-independent degrees of freedom, enabling a multi-force manipulation of the processed liquids. Another extension of present centrifugal systems is the (wireless) data communication with the lab-frame workstation for an improved process control and analysis. 

The smooth operation flow of materials and products are further enhanced by Lean Sigma methodology where the variances within processes and between workstations are minimized by the statistical techniques of Statistical Process Control (see Basu, 2004, pp. 151-157). 

The Chem Master Workstation is a gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data-processing system that speeds the flow of data through the laboratory and provides essential quality-assurance and quality-control review. It is a PC-based integrated hardware/ software system that converts gas chromatographic and gas chromatography-mass spectrometric data into reliable analytical reports. 

Automation at its basic level can be expressed simply with the statement that analyses that were traditionally manually performed are now performed mechanically through computer-controlled robotics or workstations. Designers typically have a strong desire to exactly reproduce the manual process. In reality, minor changes to the manual approach must be made in order to make the automated process reliable and efficient. 

Workstations. Workstations are the most powerful computers in the system, capable of performing functions not normally available in other units. A workstation acts both as an arbitrator unit to route internodal communications and as the database server. An operator interface is supported, and various peripheral devices are coordinated through the workstations. Computationally intensive tasks, such as real-time optimization or model predictive control, are implemented in a workstation. Operators supervise and control processes from these workstations. Operator stations may be connected directly to printers for alarm logging, printing reports, or process graphics. 

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