German industrial giant Siemens has announced it will acquire UK based Process Systems Enterprise (PSE), a supplier of advanced data modelling software for process industries, including the chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food and beverage manufacturing.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter; the fee is undisclosed. The addition of PSE to Siemens’ industrial automation and digital factories portfolios will boost its ‘digital twin’ services, specifically.
Advanced process models play are employed in digital design and operations. They apply detailed mathematical models of process equipment and services to provide predictive data about their operation. The data can be fed into digital twins to virtualise future performance. It can also be flowed back through into equipment and process design.
PSE’s gPROMS platform offers model-based solutions and tools to cover the life-cycle of manufacturing operations in the process industry. Siemens said the product set complements its own portfolio in the space, which serve the gamut of plant management functions.
Eckard Eberle, chief executive at Siemens’s process automation business unit, said: “The combination of high-fidelity predictive models and real-time process data play an increasingly important role in the digitalization of operations in the process industry. It is important to take the process knowledge that is already available in product and process development and to map it in predictive models, which can then be used to add value in the digitalization environment in every step of the life-cycle.”
He added: “PSE helps us significantly here, because now we can integrate model-based technologies from PSE in our applications in the entire plant life-cycle. This makes us even better equipped to meet the specific requirements of our customers.”
The pair have worked as ‘strategic partners’ since the middle of last year, and have co-authored model-based solutions for plant performance monitoring and forecasting, soft sensing, real-time optimisation, non-linear predictive control, and operator training.
Costas Pantelides, managing director at PSE, said: “Our combined portfolio will build on Siemens’ already strong position in digitalization in the process industries, to deliver unprecedented benefits to our customers throughout the process and product life-cycle.”
