Lawrence Equipment Innovates Burner Management Safety

When Rockwell Automation released the Compact GuardLogix 5380 safety controller, Lawrence Equipment saw an opportunity to improve burner safety in a way that could also create safety and operational advantages. Integrating burner management with combustion and process control was key.

“We try to make equipment that is safe, easy for our customers to operate and maintain, and easy to diagnose and keep working for years,” said Froylan Mier, Control and Automation Manager at Lawrence Equipment, a Gold OEM Partner. “It must be easy to troubleshoot because if customers don’t diagnose it properly, it could be dangerous. The drive with this innovation was to make burner management better, simpler and more integrated.”

Modernizing an Outdated Safety System

Lawrence Equipment ovens and fryers were built using Rockwell Automation CompactLogix™ for combustion and process control. Burner management was controlled by a third-party BMS through a hard-wired control interface and single-channel sensors tied in series to one input, which limited visibility into the system. Because different startup sequences needed a different BMS, multiple units were used, leading to increased assembly time and complexity, and more space needed in the control panel.

Given the long-standing partnership with Rockwell and the fact that many Lawrence Equipment customers already rely on Rockwell Automation in their facilities, the company approached Rockwell about developing a simpler, integrated safety solution. Third-party certification of the safety solution would enable fast, issue-free installation and commissioning of Lawrence Equipment worldwide.

Rockwell developed the Burner Management Add On Instruction Suite in Studio 5000® with input and beta testing by Lawrence Equipment. The Suite enables the same GuardLogix™ safety controller to perform standard control, machine and process safety on one integrated platform. The resulting increase in visibility makes burner management easier to troubleshoot and maintain, and reduces risk of errors.

The free Add On Instruction Suite provides standard code to manage all of the sequences of burner management. Without writing custom code, Studio 5000® users can quickly and easily develop their own integrated-safety BMS applications configurable for multiple pilots and fuels. Despite variation in BMS types and types of fuel, the Suite provides flexibility to match the majority of BMS applications across industries.

Streamlining Compliance at the Global Level

Securing safety certification of the Burner Management Add On Instruction Suite from exida was crucial. “We wanted a third-party safety specialist to do the certification,” said Mier. “Certification is fundamental for us to implement this integrated safety solution all over the world. That is the only thing that will allow all of our customers to use it.”

Third-party certification of both the Burner Management Add On Instruction Suite and GuardLogix Safety Controller-based architecture streamlines compliance at the global level, making it faster and easier for OEMs to meet safety requirements and for customers to commission their systems.

For Lawrence Equipment, the Rockwell Automation Compact 5000 I/O System was the final piece of the integrated safety solution. 5069 Safety IO is TÜV Rheinland-certified and provides automatic device diagnostics with no special wiring. With 5069 I/O, each sensor is tied to its own input, providing greater visibility and diagnostics for operation.