New England Controls, Inc. United States
Achieving major time savings with Beamex’s portable calibrators

New England Controls, Inc. (NEC) is one of 31 local Emerson Process Management business partners in North America. The company offers 24-hour service, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. NEC has two service locations, one in Mansfield, Massachusetts and one in Bangor, Maine. The company has been in business for 40 years.

Hakon Dybwad is a Field Service Engineer at NEC and he is responsible for implementing industrial control and automation solutions on behalf of their customers. This task involves assisting clients to improve their work processes in addition to trouble-shooting and resolving control problems, which the customers may have.

The situation
Calibration is one of several services offered to NEC’s customers, on behalf of Emerson Process Management, in support of their products. Calibration activities include normal, routine maintenance and/or troubleshooting. NEC extensively utilizes Beamex’s MC5 Multifunction Calibrator for calibrating devices for the company’s customers during semi-annual or annual maintenance outages at various manufacturing or utility facilities. “In several instances such tasks entailed calibration of 200 to 350 field devices during a two-week period, utilizing two to three field service engineers”, Hakon describes. The MC5 is a documenting multifunction calibrator, which means that it communicates with calibration management software. New England Controls uses their MC5 calibrators together with Emerson Process Management’s AMS SUITE software, which performs calibration management and is also capable of performing diagnostics if set up as a live system, wherein device alerts are monitored. New England Controls has been very satisfied with the results of this particular setup.

“Calibration activities are extremely important to NEC’s customers. We assist our clients in keeping their facilities up and running reliably, thereby reducing the customer’s operation costs. At the same time, we help in improving production and assist in maintaining the quality control of products made or services rendered,” Hakon states. “Furthermore, such services help us to ensure the protection of personnel as well as machinery and assets,” Hakon continues.

The instruments calibrated by New England Controls include switches (differential pressure, pressure and temperature), control valve positioners, transmitters (differential pressure, gage pressure, valve, absolute pressure, temperature, frequency, electro- magnetic), just to name a few.

The solution and main benefits
Hakon explains the process by stating that “whenever our field service engineers are contracted for calibration services, we create a database of both conventional and HART® devices. We make a schedule, in accordance with the customer’s needs, for when such tasks will take place and we define the crucial field control devices. Crucial devices are normally handled more frequently than non-crucial field control devices.”

The main benefits of using Beamex’s MC5 calibrators have been the reduced time required in calibrating devices for NEC’s customers, as well as accurate and improved electronic documentation that supports the calibrations performed. “The time required to calibrate field control devices, and to produce test results, has been reduced by between half or two-thirds compared to older, more conventional methods,” Hakon explains. “The MC5 checks in the devices calibrated on a daily basis at a speed of 150 devices in just a few seconds, whereas the calibrator of a different manufacturer took half an hour to complete the check-in,” Hakon compares.

The main requirements for calibration equipment at NEC are reliability, robustness, and it must be easy to use. Furthermore, the documenting process calibrator must not hinder the field service engineer’s skills and expertise. “We went for the MC5 based on my having seen the calibrator demonstrated at an INTERPHEX show”, Hakon remembers. NEC’s MC5s are flexible in regards to their capabilities for calibrating pressure, temperature, electrical and frequency calibrations. They are also able to generate and measure pulses.

Overall, New England Controls has been satisfied with the excellent and outstanding co-operation received from Beamex to date. “The ease of firmware upgrades to Beamex’s documenting calibrators such as the MC5 without the need to purchase additional equipment. Beamex is dedicated to supporting their customers; they possess demonstrated willingness in finding solutions and making improvements with minimum delay on the basis of technical feedback from their customers,” Hakon summarizes the reasons for choosing Beamex.