Fisher Controls International LLC

John S Fuller

Kenneth William Junk

Shannon Eugene Jelken

Annette Lynn Latwesen

Bret Dahme

Aaron Shelly

Methods and apparatus to analyze valve characteristics are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus to determine at least one characteristic of a valve includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to partition a valve stroke curve of the valve to define bins thereof, the valve stroke curve corresponding to stroke data of the valve, filter data points associated with a seat contact portion of the valve stroke curve, fit curves of the bins to define fitted curves, and characterize a seat contact of the valve based on the fitted curves.

Methods and apparatus to analyze valve characteristics

Systems and methods may be provided to execute online tests of a valve in a digital valve positioner. The digital valve positioner may receive a request to execute a test of the valve, which specifies a test start point, and queue the request for execution. The digital valve positioner may subsequently receive a new setpoint for the valve. The digital valve positioner may further reposition the valve according to the new setpoint. The digital valve positioner may further, while the valve is being repositioned, compare the test start point to a current position of the valve, and in response to determining that the current position of the valve has reached the test start point, collect sensor data indicative of the operation of the valve, to generate results of the test.

Method and system for executing online tests of valve seating integrity for control valves

Systems and techniques for accessing and controlling field devices to collect data and convert protocols are disclosed herein. An example system to access a field device includes one or more processors, a transmitter, a wireless network interface controller, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed, may cause the field communicator device to retrieve process parameter data encoded in a field device transmission protocol. The field communicator device may retrieve the process parameter data at a plurality of time intervals from a field device, and the process parameter data may correspond to a process parameter for the field device. The field communicator device may also store at least some of the process parameter data, analyze the process parameter data over the plurality of time intervals to identify a condition of the field device, and transmit an indication of the condition of the field device to a remote device.

Wireless universal interface

Methods and apparatus to establish secure low energy wireless communications in a process control system are disclosed. An example field device includes a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) interface to receive a first initialization message from a remote device over an unpaired BLE connection. The first initialization message includes a plaintext message containing authentication content. The authentication content is generated based on a private authentication token available to the remote device using middleware. The field device also includes a BLE message analyzer to validate the plaintext message based on the authentication content using the authentication token stored by the field device.

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Marshalltown, IA, United States of America

John S Fuller