Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd. selects Invensys for process automation at new alumina plant in China

Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd. selects Invensys for process automation at new alumina plant in China

Advanced I/A Series technology to control all units throughout bauxite refining process

FOXBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, USA – November 7, 2005 – Invensys Process Systems has been chosen to implement I/A Series digital automation from Foxboro (www.foxboro.com) to control processes throughout the new Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd. alumina plant being built at Luoyang Xinan county, in the Henan province of China. In addition, Invensys Process Systems China will provide hardware integration services for the 400,000 TPY (tons per year) grassroots bauxite refining facility, which will utilize the Bayer Process technology to make alumina, a feedstock for making aluminum metal.

Automation systems at the Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Ltd. plant will employ I/A Series redundant control processors at seven control nodes serving processes throughout the plant. The control nodes are for raw materials processing, solvent extraction, settling, separation, product filtration, evaporation, and baking. The control processors are connected with more than 5,200 I/O points, representing a wide variety of sensors, devices and signal interfaces.

The control nodes are interconnected with a redundant network built around a control and dispatching center equipped with 15 sets of operator workstations and seven sets of engineering and operational workstations. The centralized facility provides real time data and full graphics of the plant automation network, supporting the plant’s production monitoring and optimization applications.

Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd. and its engineering and design firm selected Invensys, an established supplier in the Chinese aluminum industry, based on the reliability and reputation of I/A Series systems installed at multiple plant sites.

About Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd.

Luoyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd. headquartered in the city of Louyang, Henan province, China, was recently formed through the merger of Luoyang Wanji Aluminum and the Shenzhen Xiangjiang Group. Louyang Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum Ltd. is building the new alumina refining plant to supply feedstock for China’s growing aluminum smelting industry, one of the largest in the world. The project is part of a Chinese government initiative to increase the domestically-produced supply of alumina through the consolidation and construction of larger and more efficient processing plants.

About Invensys Process Systems in China

Invensys Process Systems (http://ips.invensys.com), a business unit of Invensys plc, provides products, services and solutions that enable today’s industrial process plants to monitor, manage and improve the performance of their production assets. In addition to its rapidly expanding Global Solutions group, Invensys Process Systems includes industry-leading brands such as Foxboro, Triconex, SimSci-Esscor, Wonderware, and Avantis, whose products help automate and optimize more than 100,000 plants across the world. These range from small hybrid and batch plants to the world’s largest upstream projects, pipelines, refineries, gas plants, power plants, pulp and paper mills, petrochemical and other process plants.

With the formation of the Shanghai-Foxboro Company Limited (SFCL) in 1982, Foxboro became the first major American manufacturer to establish a joint venture in China. Today, SFCL manufactures a wide variety of state-of-the-art automation products at its factory in Shanghai for both domestic use and export purposes, including the SCD5200 RTU used on this project. In 1991, SFCL became the first company in China to be certified under the stringent ISO 9001 international quality standard.

SFCL has implemented state-of-the-art process control systems in hundreds of different world-class industrial facilities throughout China. These include offshore production platforms, pipelines, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, electric power generation plants, steel mills, cement plants, float glass plants, pharmaceutical plants, and food processing plants.

To be able to better meet the Chinese industrial market’s requirements for comprehensive and well-integrated automation solutions, Invensys this year formed Invensys Process Systems China, which consolidates the operations of SFCL, Triconex, SimSci-Esscor, and Avantis. Invensys Process Systems China offers the most comprehensive portfolio of automation products and services available from a single company. To complement this market presence, Invensys Process Systems China has recently opened a new technology center in Beijing.
The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is made up of five businesses: Process Systems, APV, Eurotherm, Rail Systems and Controls. The Group is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, with over 30,000 employees working in 60 countries.