Plant monitoring apparatus and monitoring method

• US 5,790,424 A
• Filed: 07/13/1995
• Issued: 08/04/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Sugihara, Masashi, Fukai, Masayuki, Maruyama, Takekazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Cosimano, Edward R.
• Application Number:
  US08/502,298
• Time in Patent Office: 1,118 Days
• Field of Search: 340/679, 340/680, 364/550, 364/551.01, 364/138, 377/16
• US Class Current: 340/500
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 3/00 Registering or indicating the condition or the working of machines or other apparatus, other than vehicles

Abstract

In a display method and a display unit, information which is required or often used by an operator is processed visually conspicuously by enlarged display or colored display in accordance with historical data such as the past running conditions of the plant, the number of times of operations by an operator, the frequency of operations, and so on, and the processed information is displayed on the display unit. The use of historical data permits an operator to readily recognize which equipment is in most need of attention due to repeated problems in the past.

Claims

1. A plant monitoring apparatus for displaying information about running conditions of a plurality of plant equipments together with symbols corresponding to said plant equipments so as to constitute a plant system diagram on a display screen, comprising:

a historical data base; and

a processor,

wherein changes of said running conditions of each of said plant equipments are stored into said historical data base as historical data, and displayed forms of said information about said running conditions and/or said symbols are sequentially changed by said processor so as to be displayed emphatically in accordance with said stored historical data.

2. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for identifying users of display units, and for displaying information on said respective display units in accordance with said respective users.

3. A plant monitoring apparatus for displaying process quantities of a plurality of plant equipments together with symbols corresponding to said plant equipments so as to constitute a plant system diagram on a display screen, comprising:

a historical data base; and

a processor,

wherein the number of times of faults or abnormalities occurring in each of said plant equipments are stored into said historical data base as historical data, and displayed forms of said process quantities and/or said symbols are sequentially changed by said processor so as to be displayed emphatically in accordance with said stored historical data.

4. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein sizes of display of said process quantities and/or said symbols are made larger as the number of times of occurrence of faults or abnormalities in said plant equipments increases respectively.

5. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein when the number of times of occurrence of faults or abnormalities in each of said plant equipments exceeds a predetermined value, the size of display of the process quantity and/or the symbol corresponding to the faulty or abnormal plant equipment is made larger at least than that of the process quantity and/or the symbol before said number of times of occurrence of faults or abnormalities exceeds said predetermined value.

6. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising means for identifying users of display units, and for displaying information on said respective display units in accordance with said respective users.

7. A plant monitoring apparatus for displaying process quantities of a plurality of plant equipments together with symbols corresponding to said plant equipments so as to constitute a plant system diagram on a display screen, said plant equipments being arranged so as to be operated through said display screen, comprising:

a historical data base; and

a processor,

wherein the number of times of operations of each of said plant equipments is stored into said historical data base as historical data, and displayed forms of said process quantities and/or said symbols are sequentially changed by said processor so as to be displayed emphatically in accordance with said stored historical data.

8. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein sizes of display of said process quantities and/or said symbols are made larger as the number of times of operations of said plant equipments increases respectively.

9. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein when the number of times of operations of each of said plant equipments exceeds a predetermined value, the size of display of the process quantity and/or the symbol corresponding to the concerned plant equipment is made larger at least than that of the process quantity and/or the symbol before said number of times of operations of the concerned plant equipment exceeds said predetermined value.

10. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising means for identifying users of display units, and for displaying information on said respective display units in accordance with said respective users.

11. A plant monitoring apparatus for displaying process quantities of a plurality of plant equipments together with symbols corresponding to said plant equipments so as to constitute a plant system diagram on a display screen, and for generating an alarm when an abnormality occurs in said plant equipments, comprising:

a historical data base; and

a processor,

wherein the number of times of generation of said alarm for each of said plant equipments is stored into said historical data base as historical data, and displayed forms of said process quantities and/or said symbols are sequentially changed by said processor so as to be displayed emphatically in accordance with said stored historical data.

12. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein sizes of display of said process quantities and/or said symbols are made larger as the number of times of occurrence of said alarm for said plant equipments increases respectively.

13. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein when the number of times of occurrence of the alarm in each of said plant equipments exceeds a predetermined value, the size of display of the process quantity and/or the symbol corresponding to the faulty or abnormal plant equipment is made larger at least than that of the process quantity and/or the symbol before said number of times of occurrence of the alarm exceeds said predetermined value.

14. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising means for identifying users of display units, and for displaying information on said respective display units in accordance with said respective users.

15. A plant monitoring apparatus comprising:

(a) a historical data base in which the number of times of operations of each of a plurality of plant equipments and/or the number of times of generation of an alarm generated when an abnormality occurs in each of said plant equipments are stored for every said plant equipment;

(b) a historical data processing function for outputting display change quantities for changing predetermined displayed forms of symbols corresponding to said plant equipments and process quantities of said plant equipments on the basis of said number of times of operations and/or said number of times of generation of the alarm stored in said historical data base;

(c) a screen processing function for changing said displayed forms on the basis of said display change quantities outputted from said historical data processing function; and

(d) a screen displaying function for displaying said displayed forms of said symbols and said process quantities changed by said screen processing function on a screen.

16. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

(e) means for returning said displayed forms of said symbol and said process quantity changed by said screen processing function to said predetermined displayed forms.

17. A plant monitoring apparatus comprising:

operation terminal display screens provided for each of a plurality of plant equipments and for operating said plant equipments through a display picture screen,

wherein the numbers of times of operations of said plant equipments through said operation terminal display screens are stored for each of said plant equipments, and kinds of said operation terminal display screens to be displayed on said display picture screen are decided on the basis of said stored numbers of times of operations, so that the decided kinds of said operation terminal display screens are displayed on said display picture screen.

18. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 17,

wherein a predetermined number of kinds of said operation terminal display screens to be displayed on said display picture screen are decided in the order that said stored numbers of times of operations decrease, so that the decided kinds of said operation terminal display screens are displayed on said display picture screen.

19. A plant monitoring apparatus according to claim 17,

wherein the intervals of operations of said plant equipments through said operation terminal display screens are stored for each of said plant equipments, and a predetermined number of kinds of said operation terminal display screens to be displayed on said display picture screen are decided in the order that said stored intervals of operations increase, so that the decided kinds of said operation terminal display screens are displayed on said display picture screen.