Nippoh's Chimachi factory is located in the pastoral lands of the Boso peninsula. It manufactures industrial/agricultural chemicals and pharmaceutical ingredients, and also produces iodine from brine that is recovered along with the natural gas. Iodine is well-known as a tincture or radiopaque dye for x-rays, but iodine compounds have recently been used extensively not only for agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals, but also as raw materials for critical high-tech components. Brine, the raw component of iodine, is sampled from all areas around Boso. The Narita plant where Yokogawa products are being used enriches iodine and transfers it about two hours away to the Chimachi plant for processing into the final product.

We met with Mr. Tanaka of the Production Management Division who is in charge of all planning, installation, and execution of measuring equipment in the factory.
That Narita plant has adopted Yokogawa's CX2000 Control and Measurement Station and the UT550 Digital Indicating Controller for flow and fluid level control of its enrichment blowout preventer.

Mr. Tanaka: "The UTs are doing the actual control. The UTs control flow and fluid levels, measure electric potentials via sensors, and control fluid quantities. The CX records the data from the UTs. Also, we can change the SP values on the UTs from the CX, and that's convenient because we don't have to open the instrument panel. It's also extremely helpful in that the recorded data can be monitored from the offices two hours away via a server by using the CX's networking functions. We've set it up so that the CX sends an e-mail to the managers when alarms occur."
Nippoh is using the CX's most distinctive feature, its networking functionality, to its fullest advantage.

They are utilizing the classic CX combination of recorder and controller functions. And in an integrated application, they are also combining it with a dedicated controller to create a compact system that avoids the risk of general shut down when a single loop fails.