Process Engineering
Engineering Solutions for Creating PF and P&I Diagrams
Process engineering deals with the production and conversion of a wide array of materials, including both solids as well as liquids and even gases. The application fields can vary widely, with examples that include grain processing, paper production, metal extraction from ores and much more. No matter what materials you manufacture or process, EPLAN supports your engineering by creating process flow diagrams (PFDs), piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), and optimising and integrating your engineering processes.
Process Engineering Tasks and Challenges
An important engineering task, especially in process engineering, is creating the PFDs, which serve the design and documentation of various process steps. They often need to include hundreds of components such as containers, actuators including pumps, ventilators and heating elements and valves for a machine. Their connection via pipes must be documented in the flow diagram. Creating the P&IDs is important for downstream processes such as designing and mapping the sensor systems and the instrumentation and control systems for machine and plants, whereby numerous measuring points need to be created and measured values and signals recorded. The process engineering data is the central source of information for machine and plant engineering and needs to be seamlessly transferred to fluid power and electrical engineering – which makes it all the more important to automate these processes based on integrated engineering data.
Process Engineering Tasks and Challenges
An important engineering task, especially in process engineering, is creating the PFDs, which serve the design and documentation of various process steps. They often need to include hundreds of components such as containers, actuators including pumps, ventilators and heating elements and valves for a machine. Their connection via pipes must be documented in the flow diagram. Creating the P&IDs is important for downstream processes such as designing and mapping the sensor systems and the instrumentation and control systems for machine and plants, whereby numerous measuring points need to be created and measured values and signals recorded. The process engineering data is the central source of information for machine and plant engineering and needs to be seamlessly transferred to fluid power and electrical engineering – which makes it all the more important to automate these processes based on integrated engineering data.
Necessary Foundation for Efficient Engineering Processes
What is true for all engineering disciplines also holds for process engineering: building a basis for your engineering by complying with codes and standards and high-quality device data means that you create the necessary foundation for efficient processes and workflows.
Important Standards for Process Engineering
The ISO 10628 and ISA 5.x standards regulate the creation of schematics in process engineering. System structuring can also be carried out according to the IEC 81346 standard to enable interdisciplinary engineering. Finally, IEC 61355 regulates the type of documentation for more clarity.
High-Quality Device Data for Your Projects
Using the EPLAN Data Portal provides you access to high-quality device and component data from a continually growing pool of manufacturers. This way you get all the necessary device data for process engineering from one source and can easily integrate it into your projects via drag-and-drop.
Focus on Interdisciplinary Design
Process engineering data is the central information source for machine and plant system engineering and must be seamlessly transferred to fluid power and electrical engineering. This makes it all the more important to optimise your processes based on integrated engineering data. EPLAN solutions support you in this.
Creating PFDs and P&IDs
For optimal P&ID creation, symbols, circuits and piping need to be easily adjustable and usable, and cross-references need to be simple to manage. Numbering the components and pipes should occur automatically and automatic P&ID creation should also be possible. With EPLAN Preplanning, you have the ideal solution at hand for process engineering design – both for creating PFDs in the first step and detailed P&ID designs later. Furthermore, EPLAN Platform creates an integrated foundation for your engineering, allowing you to seamlessly transfer data to downstream disciplines such as electrical and fluid power engineering.
Preplanning Connections
EPLAN Preplanning provides you with connection design objects for piping and cables, which allows you to define which segments will be connected to one another in the preplanning phase. Beyond this, you can design connections between device connections as well as device sources and targets and can determine page placement within the documentation.
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