• Introduction
• Mission and goals
• History
• Activities
• Team
• Partners
• Licences and certificates
• Projects
• MTIA forum
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History

The "Tornado Modular Systems" company was founded by the specialists from bus & modular-crate systems laboratory of the Institute of Automation & Electrometry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IA&E, SBRAS, Novosibirsk) in 1992. The specialists of the laboratory have been working in the area of development and use of open bus & modular-crate systems, such as CAMAC and VME for many years.

The history of the company as told by its director is the history of the innovative company in difficult times. It all started back in 80s, when Founders of the company were developing the automation systems based on VME standard at the Institute of Automation & Electrometry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IA&E, SB RAS) in the laboratory of Yuri Nikolaevich Zolotukhin.

In 1992, the “Tornado MS” company was established. It continued development in cooperation with the “PEP Modular Computers” company (Germany). Development of a set of the on-board measurement systems (OMSs) for JCS “AVTOVAZ” in 1994-1997 (Togliatti, Samara Oblast) was the company's first step in the field of automation. According to information from reliable sources, one of the OMSs purchased by “AVTOVAZ” approximately in 1996th or 1997th (“Udar” economic contract) in 2000 still successfully withstood daily hits against the wall along with the “Zhiguli” cars (which are also manufactured at “AVTOVAZ”) .

In 1997, “APCS of oil extraction based on “Gazlift“ advanced energy-saving technologies” was integrated at the oil wells of Western Siberia (Gubkinsky, Tarasovskoe oilfield). It was based on developments of the Tornado’s team.

1997 – the first DCS of the Company was installed at the Novosibirsk Fat Plant. The company received first certificate of compliance for DCS after this integration.

2001-2002 – creation of the first full-scale APCS of the 210 t/h power-generating boiler of the boiler unit No. 1 of Chita CHPP-1, it allowed to test the developments in actual environment on the large power-generating boiler.

In 1997-2004, the first full-scale APCS of large power-generating unit was created for the 6th power-generating unit of Novosibirsk CHPP. This work has determined the path of the company for many years. The developments of the “Tornado Modular Systems” company are now applied at such facilities as Novosibirsk CHPP-5, Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association named after V.P. Chkalov, Russian Railways, energy facilities in the Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk Territories, and heat & power-generating facilities abroad – in Kazakhstan, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In total, about 270 projects have been implemented in the course of company's work, among them 210 projects performed with supply of the DCS equipment. According to the Zhuravleva L.V., the head of design office, the total information capacity of designed systems is 107036 physical signals and about 15000 digital signals (transmitted to the DCS via digital network), the total capacity of generation facilities is 9303 MW, which is equivalent to ~40 power-generating units.

Product development history

At the beginning the goal was set: the creation of integrated fault-tolerant industrial automation systems that take into account particular aspects of the domestic technological equipment and would compete with the best foreign technical analogues. The idea of creative use of world experience and integration of advanced technologies forms the basis of the company’s activity.

Quality hardware components were needed to create a modern control system. At that time only foreign producers of open automation equipment could provide the basics. The “Tornado Modular Systems” company became an official Russian representative of the “PEP Modular Computers” ("Kontron” today) and “UniControls” companies in 1992. These companies are well-known in Europe as manufacturers of controllers and industrial computers. “Tornado Modular Systems” also became a Russian representative distributor of the “Wonderware” company, which is a software provider for all APCS levels. Later it was decided not to be limited to the role of a system integrator of a large foreign company, but start the development of our own hardware and software products. All basic requirements for modern distributed control system, the experience of leading world suppliers of automation system and Russian and international specification documents were taken into account in this work.

The series of DCSs “Tornado” for APCS production at industrial facilities of various scale and complexity has been developed as a result.

Later, the multiple implementations of DCS “Tornado” allowed improving not only the system itself but also the technological process of its development, manufacture, assembling, commissioning, and management service. The implementation in a short time was achieved due to the company’s well-established communications with the major national technological and design organizations.

The DCS “Tornado” has become the company’s trademark product, which demonstrates a high level of the national developers.

Domestic manufacture

The specialists of the company were involved in the development of our own automation equipment along with the creation of integrated solutions. One of the most interesting developments was the MIF-controller (an intellectual function module); it’s a high-availability industrial computer for creation of high-reliability distributed control systems. The DCS “Tornado-M”, an out-of-the-box solution for automation of large industrial facilities such as turbines, boiler units, TPP power-generating units, etc., is based on the MIF-module.

The geography of the “Tornado Modular Systems” implemented solutions has expanded quickly. In addition to the automation of industrial plants in Russia, the company has developed and introduced a range of the systems at the thermal power plants in China, Serbia and Montenegro.

Since 2001, the company has been running a program of import substitution and transition to its own hardware components. At present time, we have developed and produced series of modules and other components the quality of which is on a par with the foreign analogues and at the same time is much better adapted functionally for Russian technological equipment.

The company has organized a training center for more efficient support of customers. This center is equipped with educational and laboratory test stands of the company’s own design intended for practical training of industrial enterprise specialists, equipment and software developers, system integrators and students.