Add Alarms, Trends and State Tests to a WinCC Explorer Factory Screen

Use alarms and trends to explain the process

The overview tells the operator what is happening now. Alarms should identify conditions requiring attention, while trends help explain how the process reached its present state. Add both to the Unit 101 exercise after the basic tags and symbols work.

WinCC Explorer provides Alarm Logging for the message system and Tag Logging for archived process values. In Graphics Designer, use the corresponding alarm and trend controls supported by your installed release. The Siemens Getting Started guide introduces these workflows; check the local Information System for your version’s control configuration.

The alarm names and test values below are teaching examples. Actual thresholds, priority, delay and response must come from the plant’s approved requirements.

Define the alarm before configuring its row

1. For the first exercise, use one documented training message source for the pump fault.
2. In Alarm Logging, configure its message text and the appropriate message class/type and acknowledgment behavior.
3. Connect the trigger according to the configured message method. A discrete message may use a bit in a message tag; record the actual method and bit mapping for your project.
4. Place the alarm control on a training alarm picture or the designated screen area. Show enough context to identify the equipment and event time.
5. Trigger, acknowledge and clear the source in separate steps. Observe the message state at each step rather than treating acknowledgment as fault removal.

Do not show “fault cleared” merely because the operator acknowledged a message. Fault-source recovery and message acknowledgment are separate events.

Archive useful values and display their history

Begin with U101_LT101_PV and U101_FT101_PV. Document the expected range, units, recording interval and retention requirement. For the slow teaching sequence you can choose a one-second interval as an exercise setting; this is not a recommendation for every plant.

1. Create a process-value archive in Tag Logging and add the intended tags.
2. Configure acquisition/archiving behavior suitable for the exercise and verify that the relevant Runtime components are enabled.
3. Place a trend control in U101_Trends.pdl and select the archive data source for each curve.
4. Label level and flow with their units. Use separately identified axes when their ranges or units differ.
5. Generate a simple sequence: level 70 → 50 → 30 percent and flow 0 → 12 → 0 m³/h, holding each step long enough to be recorded.
6. Move the time window back and confirm that earlier samples remain available. A moving live curve alone does not prove historical archiving works.

Record timestamps and verify the configured time reference across related systems before comparing events. Decide how missing or invalid samples should appear so gaps are not mistaken for stable operation.

Animate only what has a clear meaning

Connect pump and valve appearances to the feedback model from Lesson 3. If you add a pipe-flow indication, use a defined measured-flow condition with data validity; do not make the pipe appear to flow simply because a start request exists.

Keep the normal display stable. Avoid decorative continuous motion that competes with alarms. Use text and symbols together for FAULT, UNKNOWN and FEEDBACK CONFLICT. Define any blinking behavior in the project’s display convention rather than using it for every changing value.

Complete the final training test record

The validity-helper test checks the picture response only. In a connected commissioning test, separately verify the real communication-loss and quality-detection path under the project test procedure.

Final deliverable: keep the annotated P&ID, equipment register, tag sheet, symbol-state sheet, picture revision, alarm definitions, archive settings and completed test record together. Another engineer should be able to trace any screen item back to its drawing tag and test evidence.

You have completed the first five blogs in the ten-part series: understand the process, create symbols, connect data, build the operator picture and verify events/history. Further work can extend the same method to additional units without changing the underlying engineering discipline.