Bristol-Myers Squibb Bulk Manufacturing Facility, Cruiserath, Republic of Ireland

In November 2000, Bristol-Myers Squibb started the construction of a new bulk manufacturing facility in the Republic of Ireland. The facility was due to cover a green field site of 100 acres at Cruiserath near Dublin. The site was chosen because of its proximity to an existing plant at Swords and Blanchardstown Institute of Technology. The construction of the facility required an initial investment of $85 million.

The final investment for the construction of the first three phases of the plant totalled $300 million. A plan was submitted to the local authority in 1999 and full planning permission was granted in April 2000. The plant construction was completed early in 2002 and after the required validation and commissioning procedures began production during the later half of 2002.

CONTRACTORS

The plant construction contract was awarded to Kvaerner (Ireland) Ltd in September 1998 for the conceptual design, basic engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, validation and commissioning of the plant. Automation and control systems were to be designed and installed by Fisher-Rosemount. Fluor Corporation announced in June 2002 that it had been awarded a contract for the Cruiserath facility for construction and management; it is thought that this was for the construction of an additional phase not covered in the original plan. Air Products PLC has also been awarded a contract for wastewater management and provision of gas facilities.

SITE AND CONSTRUCTION

The facility consists of 12 buildings on a site area of 150,000m². The facility consists of three main parts. There is an area dedicated to utilities, production and storage of chemicals and finished products. A second area includes all administration and laboratory areas while a third part of the plant deals with waste management and disposal. The final facility contains 90,000m of piping, 240,000m of electrical cable and 155,000m of instrument cable.

ROSEMOUNT INSTRUMENTATION

Fisher-Rosemount has been responsible for the installation of control and automation systems. In particular, Rosemount pressure, temperature and flow instrumentation has been supplied as part of the initial order, which exceeds £1.7 million ($2.5 million). All equipment will be intrinsically safe or flameproof and the key networked intelligent field components will transmit information, especially plant equipment diagnostics, using HART and foundation fieldbus communications.

AMS (ASSET MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS)

PlantWeb architecture in the plant includes AMS (Asset Management Solutions) as a key modular software platform, enabling PlantWeb to use information from field devices to manage plant assets.

The adoption of this approach to the control of the new plant comes as a result of extensive field trials and co-operative evaluation work across the world. In addition, the cost savings that can be achieved are attractive, both in the initial plant investment and in the plant versatility for competitive manufacture.

FOUNDATION FIELDBUS

Foundation fieldbus is a bi-directional digital communications protocol used for communications among field instrumentation and control systems. It is the only digital fieldbus protocol developed to meet the ISA's SP50 requirements and it is the only protocol that meets stringent, mission-critical demands for intrinsic safety and use in hazardous areas, volatile processes and difficult regulatory environments.

Foundation fieldbus claims to prevent explicit synchronization of control and communication for precise, periodic execution of control functions without deadtime or jitter introduced by communications. It delivers time distribution to fieldbus devices for support of Function Block scheduling and alarm time-stamping at the point of detection. The use of Function Blocks allows basic features in measurement and control to be consistently implemented in devices from different manufacturers. Thus, the time required for operator training, maintenance and engineering will be reduced. Control engineers will be able to apply Function Blocks to solve problems without becoming experts in using the Function Blocks of 10 or 20 different vendors.

As it enables digital interoperability among field instruments and systems from a variety of companies, foundation fieldbus offers users the flexibility to add new devices with the confidence that active control functions on the fieldbus will not be disrupted. Therefore procurement is far cheaper as there are more supplies.

Other benefits of foundation fieldbus include reduced wiring, multi-variables from a single field instrument, enhanced field-level control, simpler integration and easier maintenance. Ultimately, fieldbus will be the key to greater manufacturing flexibility and productivity, higher quality products, and improved regulatory compliance. The easier maintenance helps to reduce running costs.