Emerson Process Management has opened a new European Education Facility in the valve manufacturing centre of excellence in Cernay, France. The education facility aims to support companies that want to minimise unscheduled shutdowns, reduce maintenance costs and optimise their plants and will meet the Fisher valve training requirements for customers across Europe.

The new facility covers all aspects of control valves, including engineering, optimisation, diagnostics and maintenance. Hans Nieuwpoort, Director Quick Ship & Service Fisher Europe, Emerson Process Management said: “The new European Education Facility will help customers that want to make significant plant improvements, but also face the prospect of losing valuable experienced engineers through retirement. Losing valuable experience can potentially lead to increasing and longer shut down periods, which lowers plant effeciency. By providing new and existing workers with the necessary skills and understanding of control valves and instrumentation, we aim to minimise the impact of this lost experience.

A unique feature of the facility is its Flow Laboratory, which provides a sophisticated training infrastructure for control valves and instrumentation. The laboratory includes a flow loop and a dynamic performance loop, both powered by Emerson’s PlantWeb digital plant architecture. This is equipped with multiple communicating systems, software and instrumentation, allowing participants to learn how control valve technologies affect the dynamic performance and impact their processes.

The new education facility was officially opened in May 2013. Emerson customers who attended the opening event were given an opportunity to discuss the range of courses and training tools available that can be specifically linked with their own activities. Attendees were also provided with an insight into valve sizing and Emerson’s Fisher FIELDVUE digital valve controller technology.