Your network is the most important part of your process and controls. That a network should be well-designed, installed, and commissioned goes without saying, but certifying your network is absolutely vital to its future reliability and performance. Network-related issues are notoriously troublesome and complex to diagnose, and if the crucial step of network certification is omitted, a multitude of costly and often show-stopping problems can arise.
Network segments should be pretested before connecting instruments to rule out trunk and backbone hardware issues should problems arise during device installation. The certification process can only commence after all devices have been installed, powered up and commissioned. Otherwise, readings will be inaccurate and will not reflect a true status of the health of the network.
Oftentimes, when Omni is called in to troubleshoot a network problem, it is immediately apparent that the network had never been certified, either because the client didn’t know to require it, or an installing contractor had purported to have certified the network but, in actuality, had not. Network certification should be a requirement on every project, and clients should receive all documentation to as proof of certification and to serve as a baseline if problems or faults occur in the future.
To find out more about network design, installation, and certification, please contact Omni at 908-412-7130.
About Omni
Omni Instrumentation Services, Inc. is a premier instrumentation and electrical contractor, providing superior total care solutions since 1986. Services include instrument installation, tubing installation, instrument calibration, control loop testing, startup and commissioning, power and lighting, process control wiring, BMS wiring, telecommunications and data wiring, fire alarm wiring, security wiring, process network wiring, and control panel fabrication. Omni Instrumentation Services, Inc. is certified in Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus, DeviceNet and ASI-Bus installation.