Triconex is a brand owned by Schneider Electric that offers a wide range of safety systems, solutions, and services for industrial automation applications. The company specializes in providing highly reliable and secure systems that help protect industrial processes, personnel, and the environment. In this article, we will provide a detailed introduction to Triconex, including its history, product offerings, and key features.

History of Triconex Triconex was founded in 1984 in Irvine, California, by two engineers who saw a need for high-integrity safety systems in the process industries. The company quickly established itself as a leader in the field of safety-critical systems, and its products were widely adopted in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and power generation industries. In 1997, Triconex was acquired by Invensys plc, a British multinational engineering and technology company, and became part of its Process Systems division. In 2014, Schneider Electric acquired Invensys, and Triconex became part of Schneider’s Industrial Automation business unit.

Product Offerings Triconex offers a range of safety systems, including:

1. Tricon: A family of safety systems that provides high-integrity, triple-modular-redundant (TMR) protection for critical control and safety applications. Tricon is widely used in the process industries, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, and power generation.
2. Trident: A safety system that provides high-integrity protection for turbomachinery control applications, such as gas and steam turbines, compressors, and pumps.
3. General Purpose Controllers: These controllers offer a flexible and scalable platform for a wide range of automation applications, including process control, machine control, and discrete automation.
4. Emergency Shutdown Systems: These systems provide a safe and reliable means of shutting down critical processes in the event of an emergency.

Key Features Triconex systems are designed to provide high-integrity protection for critical applications in the process industries.

Some of the key features of Triconex systems include:

1. Triple-Modular Redundancy (TMR): Triconex systems use TMR technology to provide a high level of fault tolerance and reliability. The TMR approach involves three separate processing channels, each of which processes the same data in parallel. In the event of a fault in one channel, the other channels can take over seamlessly, ensuring that the system continues to operate safely and reliably.
2. Cybersecurity: Triconex systems are designed with cybersecurity in mind, and incorporate a range of features to protect against cyber threats. These include secure communication protocols, role-based access control, and encryption.
3. Certification: Triconex systems are certified to a range of international standards, including IEC 61508 and IEC 61511, which are widely recognized as industry best practices for safety-critical systems.

Conclusion

Triconex is a trusted brand in the field of safety-critical systems, offering a range of highly reliable and secure solutions for industrial automation applications. With its focus on fault tolerance, cybersecurity, and certification, Triconex systems are designed to provide the highest level of protection for critical processes, personnel, and the environment.

Tricon Safety Instrumented System (SIL3)

Summary 

The Triconex Tricon Safety Instrumented System is designed to meet the needs of safety and critical control applications in oil and gas, power, refining, chemicals, pharmaceutical and biotech industries. It is based on industry leading TMR technology, is easy to operate and maintain and provides the lowest total cost of ownership

Business 

Value Triconex safety systems help customers protect their production assets and comply with rigorous environmental standards; in turn customers meet and exceed production targets by maintaining maximum process uptime by safely operating their plants.

ENSURING OPERATIONAL CONTINUITY AND MANAGING OPERATIONAL RISKS Invensys is the only automation company with the experience and track record in safety and critical control as demonstrated by our 27 years of experience in safety systems, in excess of 8,000 installed systems, the only approved Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commercial off-the-shelf controller for Nuclear 1E applications, large number of TÜV certified Functional Safety Experts and Engineers, deployed world wide, and patented Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) technology.

A powerful, scalable design with assurance of continuous operation, the Tricon system complies with international safety standards such as IEC61508 and fulfils the requirements for applications such as Emergency Shutdown (ESD), Fire and Gas Protection (F&G), Burner Management (BMS), High Integrity Pressure Protection (HIPPS) and Turbomachinery Control (TMC). The redundant high availability architecture provides a flexible, robust, reliable and powerful solution that is ideal for clients looking to achieve environmental and safety excellence. The Tricon system is a must for clients who need to maximize the safety and performance of their assets. If you are challenged with reducing investment and lifecycle costs, meeting new safety standards, combating tough competitive pressure in your markets as well as the welfare of your employees and the environment, then the Tricon system is designed for you.

BENEFITS • Maximizing process/plant uptime, productivity and yield • Increased reliability and availability, performance and profitability • Lowers investment and lifecycle costs • Complies with International safety standards • Meets safety targets • Mitigates environmental impact • Assists you in avoiding penalties or fines for non-compliance • Enable you to achieve competitive advantage in your markets

KEY CAPABILITIES • TÜV Certified up to SIL3 applications in accordance with International standard IEC61508 • Easily integrated with all major Distributed Control Systems • On-line module replacement ensures plant availability by hot-swapping of modules • Works with both centralized and distributed applications • Comprehensive family of I/O modules • HART protocol pass through to Asset Management Systems • Fast program cycle time for TMC applications • Expertise available from our TÜV certified Functional Safety Experts and Engineers • Certified for use in non-incendive applications TRICONEX TRIPLE MODULAR REDUNDANCY Tricon operation is based on the principle of safety and high plant availability, which identifies and compensates for failed control system elements and allows on line replacement while continuing its assigned task without interrupting the controlled process. Fault Tolerance is achieved through TMR technology. TMR employs three isolated, parallel control systems and extensive diagnostics integrated into one system. The Tricon system uses two-out-of-three (2oo3) voting to provide high integrity, error-free, uninterrupted process operation with no single point of failure. Setting up applications is simplified with the Tricon, because the TMR system operates as a single control system from the user’s point of view. The extensive diagnostics are inherent and transparent to the programmer. Use of the Tricon continues to expand into new industries and applications as customers require increased system safety and/or high availability. Today, Invensys has delivered and installed Triconex safety system solutions in over 70 countries, providing increased safety and high process uptime

SAFETY SOFTWARE SUITE Triconex’ comprehensive suite of software solutions provides clients with a set of robust and user-friendly tools to help manage and maintain their safety systems. Having the right information at the right time can help clients mitigate risks, avoid costly process downtime, comply with regulations and help achieve your production targets. The suite of intelligent applications offers clients the visibility and leverage needed to maintain their process operating safely, efficiently and make decisions in a timely manner. Our Safety Software Suite includes: TriStation 1131 An IEC1131-compliant configuration and application development environment for Triconex fault tolerant controllers. Enhanced Diagnostics Monitor The Enhanced Diagnostic Monitor is an application which monitors the hardware health of Triconex controllers and allows users to effectively troubleshoot the safety system during maintenance. Sequence of Events Recorder A sequence of event data retrieval software application that retrieves events recorded by the Triconex controller and organizes them in user readable view for trip analysis. Dynamic Data Exchange Server A Windows application that enables DDE-compliant clients (Human Machine Interface, or HMI) to request data from Triconex controllers. TriLogger Suite– High Speed Event Recorder Provides unmatched ease, speed, and reliability in recording, playing back, and analyzing operating data from your Tricon and Trident system. Emulator A software application that allows customers to emulate and execute TriStation 1131 applications without physically connecting to a Triconex controller. Using the Emulator, customers can test applications in an offline environment, without exposing online processes to potential application errors. TRISIM Plus A “Virtual Simulation” of Triconex controllers combined with the Base modeling capability from DYNSIM. TRISIM Plus allows simulator access in the emulator available in TriStation 1131 series software

APPLICATIONS • Emergency Shutdown (ESD) • Burner Management Systems (BMS) • Fire and Gas Systems (F&G) • High Integrity Pressure Protection systems (HIPPS) • Turbomachinery Controls (TMC) • Critical Control

OPERATING PRINCIPALS • Fault Tolerant • Fail Safe—De-energise to trip • Energise to trip COMMUNICATIONS • Peer to Peer • OPC DA and A&E (embedded server) • Modbus TCP/IP Master and Slave • Modbus Serial Master and Slave • Triconex System Access Application (TSAA) • Achilles Level 1 Certified CERTIFICATION • IEC 61508 • DIN V 1925 • DIN V VDE 0801 • EN 54 • NFPA 72 • DIN V VDE 0116 • NFPA 8501 • NFPA 8502 • EMC Directive 89/336/EEC • ATEX 94/9/EC • Canadian Standards Association (CSA) • Factory Mutual Research (FM) • G3 Corrosion level OPERATING CONDITIONS • Operating Temperature: • 32° to 140°F (0 to 60°C) ambient • Storage Temperature: • -40° to 167°F (-40°C to 75°C) • Relative Humidity: • 5% to 95% non-condensing

Model Description 

3501E/T 115Vac/Vdc Digital Input 

3502E 48Vac/Vdc Digital Input 

3503E 24Vac/Vdc Digital Input 

3504E 24/48Vdc Digital Input 

3505E 24Vdc Digital Input 

3564 24Vdc Digital Input (simplex) 

3511 Pulse Input 

3515 Pulse Totalizer 

3601E/T 115Vac Digital Output 

3603B/E/T 120Vdc Digital Output 

3604E 24Vdc Digital Output 

3607E 48Vdc Digital Output 

3611E 115Vac Digital Output 

3617E 48Vdc Supervised Digital Output 

3623E/T 120Vdc Digital Output 

3624 24Vdc Supervised Digital Output 

3625 24Vdc Digital Output 

3664 24Vdc Digital Output (Dual) 

3674 24Vdc Digital Output (Dual) 

3636R/T Relay Output 

3700A 0-5Vdc Analogue Input 

3701 0-10Vdc Analogue Input 

3703E 0-5, 0-10Vdc Analogue Input 

3704E 0-5, 0-10Vdc (high density) Analogue Input 

3706A Thermocouple Analogue Input 

3708E Thermocouple Analogue Input 

3720 0-5Vdc Analogue Input 

3721 0 to 5 or –5 to +5Vdc Analogue Input 

3805E/H 4-20mA Analogue Output 

3806E 4-20mA and 20-320mA Analogue Output 

3807 -60 to +60mA Bipolar Analogue Output 2770H Analog Input Interface Module 

2870H Analog Output Interface Module