What were the challenges to be solved and what specific benefits were achieved?

Linde Engineering requested an overarching system with a focus on the standardization of plant engineering, which can be used also for later operation.

One challenge was to reduce the engineering costs and to support re-usability. This should be achieved with a comprehensive software solution.

Customer benefits:

• Reduction of engineering costs
• Higher engineering quality
• Direct use of the engineering data in the operation of Linde Gas plants
• Integrated data management

"The Comos software solution gives us the opportunity to support our plant design through a template-based approach and thereby encourage the re-use of previously developed solutions." Dr. Franz Malcher, Project Manager CAS at Linde Engineering

How can the Industrie 4.0 approach be described?

COMOS was introduced as engineering software at Linde Engineering with the objective of an integrated and harmonized IT landscape along the entire plant life cycle.

What could be achieved?

With the help of the uniform COMOS data platform, the P&ID creation, electrical and instrumentation engineering have been interlinked closely, enabling engineering on more consistent data. This guarantees a higher engineering quality and a seamless integrated data management.

What measures have been taken to achieve the solution?

The central software application, which was implemented at Linde, is CAS (COMOS for Air Separation Plants). The modules for P&ID creation and E&IC were introduced in 2015. They complemented the since 1999 existing COMOS-based applications for process and equipment design. Data sheet templates and symbol libraries have been adapted according to the Linde specifications.

What can others learn from it?

The construction of standardized plants, even if they are always unique in their final form, requires a quite different approach than the construction of large plants. This is also reflected in the software applications used for this purpose. The functional requirements for engineering systems for standardized plants are mainly driven by capabilities to manage consistent cross-plant templates. Even if the resulting documents, e.g. a P&I diagram, are similar in both cases, the engineering of standardized plants based on templates is possible in a much tighter schedule.