ABB releases the latest update of Freelance DCS for the process industry

Security is the primary task in the 4.0 era of industry. Enhanced security is one of the new functions and advantages of Freelance 2019.

The original version of Freelance was released in 1994. It is an economical and efficient distributed control system (DCS) solution provided by ABB for the process industry. It combines the advantages of DCS and Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), and has the characteristics of ease of use, scalability, flexibility and reliability. Freelance 2019 is the latest version of the distributed control system.

The Freelance solution suite includes Freelance Operations for operator level, an extensible process level option, and Freelance Engineering for configuring and debugging systems, including operator interfaces. The new version provides significant improvements to the whole system.

New Functions and Highlights of Freelance 2019

Improved availability: Freelance 2019 significantly improves engineering efficiency and availability by adding advanced navigation, filtering and sorting functions to its operations and engineering solutions. User experience has been improved through a new and very modern user interface.

Scalability: The new PM 904F controller extends the upper limit of the Freelance AC 900F controller family and supports four communication interfaces. It also provides more application memory and supports specific memory reservations. For all Freelance controllers, user applications are 100% runtime compatible, enabling smooth upgrades.

More connectivity: Up to four monitors can now be connected to an operator's workspace. The available display types of each monitor and the layout of the monitor can be easily configured to meet the typical requirements of occupational safety and operator efficiency.

Enhanced Security: Freelance provides an alternative user management function called a "security lock" through a solution called Extended User Management. This new option uses Windows user accounts to support local and domain accounts. Therefore, it can satisfy typical requests such as central password management, password complexity rules or password aging.

Compatibility: Freelance 2019 supports Windows 10 and Windows 7 operating systems running on the same system architecture. This allows customers to gradually upgrade to a modern IT infrastructure, thereby helping to reduce maintenance costs.

Ingo Mauritz, global product line manager of ABB Freelance, said: "User-friendly, cost-effective and functional, Freelance has become a popular choice for process industry enterprises in more than 100 countries around the world. Its flexibility and wide range of applications can be demonstrated by the thousands of control systems installed in many industries.

"Wake Chemicals Germany uses Freelance Operations, a Freelance control system, as a tool for effective operation and monitoring of its acetone plant. In China, Freelance provides on-line unified configuration of field equipment for Yunnan Hongta West Yunnan Cement Plant to achieve maximum automation with minimal engineering volume. Freelance is not only an important part of Glinojeck's modernization project, the leading sugar producer in Europe, but also the core of the most complex reverse osmosis desalination project in the Middle East. Mauritz added.

Like earlier versions of Freelance, customers can choose to automatically keep the software version up to date by subscribing to Automation Sentinel, such as providing automatic network security patches.

Freelance offers a multilingual version that takes only five minutes to install on any standard computer and can be easily self-taught. The intuitive operation interface makes the operation and diagnosis of the whole system simple. The whole application can be stored on a small memory stick, and the backup of the application can be easily carried out with only one file.