AMS Alarm Management Software For display, monitoring and analysis of your process alarms View current or historical alarms Filter by time, text or priority in seconds Export facility to Access database User configurable for text, colour and priority Import all alarm settings from Excel spreadsheet Archive all alarms/events to computer system View and record system errors, inhibited alarms and configuration changes Designed to work in conjunction with the RTK range of Alarm Annunciators and Alarm Systems the AMS is a powerful graphical Human Machine Interface (HMI). The AMS Software is designed to provide the user with the ability to view, store, print and export alarm and event data dynamically or for later analysis. The operator can see the occurrence of new alarms clearly showing the channel, priority/group, time/date and when the alarm has returned to normal. The standard package will suit most alarm monitoring applications and bespoke configurations can be created to suit particular site or industry requirements. Following the initial handling of an alarm situation the software can then be used to analyse the details of alarm events by looking at the history for certain alarms, priorities or the events between a certain time/date.
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AMSAlarm Management Software
For display, monitoring and analysis of your process alarms
View current or historical alarms
Filter by time, text or priority inseconds
Export facility to Accessdatabase
User configurable for text,colour and priority
Import all alarm settings fromExcel spreadsheet
Archive all alarms/events tocomputer system
View and record system errors,inhibited alarms andconfiguration changes
Designed to work in conjunction with the RTK range ofAlarm Annunciators and Alarm Systems the AMS is apowerful graphical Human Machine Interface (HMI).
The AMS Software is designed to provide the user withthe ability to view, store, print and export alarm and eventdata dynamically or for later analysis.
The operator can see the occurrence of new alarmsclearly showing the channel, priority/group, time/date andwhen the alarm has returned to normal.
The standard package will suit most alarm monitoringapplications and bespoke configurations can be createdto suit particular site or industry requirements.
Following the initial handling of an alarm situation thesoftware can then be used to analyse the details of alarmevents by looking at the history for certain alarms,priorities or the events between a certain time/date.
Features & Benefits
Current AlarmsIn the normal mode the display will beshowing the Current Alarm screen, thisgives immediate indication of whichalarm channels are still in alarm, if thesealarms have been acknowledged and ifthe fault has cleared. The system willautomatically sort the alarm informationinto chronological order down to thenearest millisecond.
Each channel will show the date/time,description, event type, priority andstatus as shown below.
Alarm ActivationWhen an alarm occurs the full alarmdetails will be displayed on the screenand a coloured flashing backgroundcolour is used to inform the operatorthat a new alarm has occurred. As anoption, the software can generate anaudible alarm from within the PC.
As the AMS software is capable ofdisplaying various different screenssuch as History Alarms, System Alarmsetc the software automatically switchesto the Current Alarm Screen each timea new alarm occurs to ensure that theoperator is always kept informed of thecurrent alarm situation.
Alarm PrioritiesOne of the key decisions an operatorhas to make when an alarm occurs ishow urgent an alarm is compared toother alarms occurring in closesuccession. Priority levels (0-30) can beused to help the operator determineeither the type of alarm (for examplepressure, level, temperature, trip, status)or to determine the level of importance.The pre-assigned priority number willappear alongside the alarm descriptionas a prompt.
History ScreenBy definition the Current Alarm Screenis used to display active alarms
however it is often more important todisplay and establish the root cause ofproblems and therefore the HistoryScreen is available to help the useranalyse the true sequence of events.
Search by Priority, Time/Date, Channel or TextUsing the History Screen, alarm detailscan be filtered to only see certainevents. The filtering can be bypriority/group, channel number or text,date and time range or any combinationof the above. So it is a simple task toinvestigate certain targeted alarms tofind exactly what has happened andwhen on the plant.
System Events and Internal ErrorsIt is not only the external events that aremonitored, the software will alsomonitor and record significant systemevents and faults such as when a cardis removed or goes faulty, when a cardis configured and when system faultsoccur such as “buffer full” and “paperlow” etc. These events allow anengineer analysing the data to see thefull picture of what happened and when.
Archive History and Backup onNetworkOne of the main benefits of linking AlarmAnnunciators and Event Recorders tothe AMS software is the ability toarchive all the alarm information andhave this remotely backed-up or linkedto a company wide computer network.This archiving process can be set toautomatically proceed on defined timescales or triggers.
User ConfigurationThe AMS software is supplied withcoloured fonts and backgrounds, whichare used to identify each step within thealarm process. A different colour isused for an alarm, acknowledged alarm,return to normal, system alarm,
configuration change etc to furtherassist the operator. To allow the usermaximum flexibility, all these key visualparameters can be changed by theuser, these include channel description,priority/group, colours etc.
Multi Level AccessThe AMS software is provided withpassword protection, which allows theclient to limit the features available tothe user depending on the privilegesrequired for each skill set, i.e.Supervisor, Engineer and Operator,within the software. Each user isassigned a unique login name andpassword and access to features islimited as required.
Operator ControlThe serial communication link betweenthe alarm hardware and the AMSsoftware is bi-directional so it is asimple process to Acknowledge, Muteand Reset alarms from the AMS screenor the Annunciator or both if required.
This allows the operator to removealarms from the Current Alarm Screenonce they have returned to the normalstate although full details will still beavailable within the History AlarmScreen for later analysis.
Audit TrailIt is sometimes necessary to have anofficial audit trail of the critical alarmson a process or power plant. The AMScan be used to record and archivethese alarm events together with thedetails of when alarms wereacknowledged, when the fault clearedand then subsequently reset.
The AMS software is a cost effectivesolution to many alarm monitoring andanalysis applications, but there aremany applications in the world-widemarket that have specific requirementsthat are not part of the standardproduct. As the software application isdesigned on a flexible and powerfulSCADA core many other options andfeatures can be configured into thesoftware. These include lamp-box typedisplays, analogue input levels, mimicdiagrams showing the overall plant,help screens to guide operators to thesource of the problem and how thisshould be resolved.
These systems will always be quotedagainst an agreed functionalspecification and would be subject tonormal ISO9001 design controlprocedure and customer approval priorto completion of the system.
Analogue InputsThe standard AMS package is designedfor monitoring of digital inputs but thebespoke system can also monitor,animate and record analogue valuesand use this information to monitor andanalyse trends.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)Using the built-in graphics editor,detailed graphical screens can bequickly assembled and animated. As anaddition to these graphics screens, thesoftware is able to utilise ActiveX objectsand background images such as photos,or images imported from third partysoftware packages such as AutoCAD.
ArchitectureThe AMS Software is based on a highperformance SCADA software corewhich comprises a native 32-bit multi-tasking structure.
With TCP/IP networking functionalityand full redundancy management built
into the core of the product it ispossible to create multi-server, multi-redundant architecture for true dataintegrity and high system availability.
“On Call” ModuleThe bespoke systems can include the“On Call” module which add the abilityto send alarm messages to pagers,mobile phone SMS text messages, E-mails etc. The current engineers thatare “On Call” are defined through afully configurable scheduler. Using amodem it is also possible to remotelyassess the situation and directly handleit as necessary.
Remote AccessFor diagnostic purposes it is possible todesign systems with remote accesscapabilities. The connection can bemade using TCP/IP through a public orprivate telephone system. The systemcan be accessed using a standard PC,portable PC or Pocket PC technologies.
Time Stamp Events to 1msWhen connected to the RTK 9000TSSequence of Events Recorder the AMSsoftware will include the full date andtime to a resolution of 1ms. This time isactually logged and buffered securely atthe 9000TS and transmitted via a seriallink to the AMS software. On powernetworks and process plants thisresolution is often necessary to see theREAL chain of events that causes poweror process interruption or shutdown.
ODBC LinkUsing the ODBC standard the AMSsoftware can be used to link all gathereddata to proprietary databases such asAccess. This allows further detailed
analysis of the data using a variety ofdifferent software tools.
Import System Details From ExcelCustomers can use a standard Excelspreadsheet to collate all theinformation on the alarm channels,including channel description, priorityetc. When this is complete it is a simplejob to import this data into the AMSsystem and avoid unnecessary inputerrors and time delays.
Auto-shelvingThe 9000TS Event Recorder there are anumber of ways that alarms can beautomatically or manually inhibited(shelved). This may be because an alarm
channel is temporarily out of service or
that the system has sensed that the
frequency is outside pre-defined limits
and as such considered to be erroneous.
In all these situations the AMS can show
these inhibited alarms on the screen and
also log at which time/date the inhibit
started and stopped.
Communicate to different productsWhilst the AMS is offered with the RTK
range of alarm products it can also be
used as an Alarm Management Display
for other third party products. A huge
number of different drivers and
protocols are available as standard.
Features & Benefits
Bespoke Systems
RTK Instruments Limited St James Business Park,Knaresborough, North Yorkshire,England. HG5 8PJ
