Technology Summary

Written by Iryna Butler

Saturday, 31 May 2008 19:00

BlueLine Technology

The BlueLine control system is a modular and open architecture turbine control platform. The turbine controller can be offered in both simplex and redundant configurations and can be coupled with a state-of-the-art Human-Machine-Interface platform. The BlueLine control system was designed with the needs of today’s turbine operators in mind. With an aging fleet of turbines, and an obsolescent fleet of control systems, BlueLine is the ideal solution for turbine control retrofits. State-of-the-art controller technology and standardized system design make it the preferred choice for the control systems requirements of new equipment Turbine Projects.

The programmable processor utilizes a fast, 64bit calculation engine, paired with two more processors for very fast execution times. The system is built up in standard 19” rack mounted modules. The flexibility of the system makes BlueLine an ideal solution for upgrades where cabinet space and existing wiring limit the installation possibilities.

Redundancy is built into the system at the processor level. A standby processor runs the same logic and application code as the primary processor and is synchronized with the primary processor’s memory during operation using a high-speed dedicated link. This configuration allows for bump less transfer to the standby processor at any time in the case of a failure on the primary processor.

Programming of the processor and hardware configuration is accomplished through a software application called BlueLine Tools running on a Windows®-based computer. The programming language is developed in function block logic with a customized library and pre-configured complex functions for standard applications such a drive controller, sequencer heads and more. This flexible and user-friendly programming environment allows for online debugging, tuning of parameters, and processor source code editing.

BlueLine Rack

Reliability of the platform

The single most important design criteria for BlueLine is reliability. With that in mind, it is not surprising that, since initial deployment, not a single board has suffered from a failure. Further to this purpose, every board undergoes rigorous testing after fabrication and loading of the operational firmware. The table below documents the accumulated operating hours of all modules in the field, as of December 22, 2008:

Last Updated on Thursday, 11 February 2010 15:22