Local Control - Central Monitoring Capabilities Introduced to the Industrial Heat-tracing Market

Tyco Thermal Controls (Belgium) has launched DigiTrace NGC-20, an advanced field-mountable electronic temperature control system which provides local control and central monitoring capabilities for industrial heat-tracing applications. Compared to a centralised control system, this “Smart Thermostat” can significantly reduce costs without compromising safety and reliability. Approved for hazardous areas, the DigiTrace NGC-20 is also available with an integrated intelligent safety temperature limiter (SIL 2 device).

Heat-tracing is widely employed for temperature maintenance on process lines, vessels and other equipment. The demand for safe and reliable operation has increased the need for centralised access to critical heat-management system information. The DigiTrace NGC-20 meets these objectives by combining the benefits of both centralised and local control.   Temperatures, earth leakage, operating currents and other crucial data associated with heat-tracing circuit integrity is constantly monitored and reported. Both monitoring and configuration of the DigiTrace NGC-20 can be achieved remotely via the DigiTrace User Interface Terminal (UIT) and/or by using Tyco Thermal Controls’ DigiTrace Supervisory software application. A hand-held wireless device is also available to enable the system to be configured and monitored in the field without opening the control unit.   As DigiTrace NGC-20 control units are field mounted close to the heating application, the power distribution and RTD wiring requirements are reduced. Power distribution and control panels can be simplified further reducing the total installed cost of the overall Heat Management System.