The production processes in the petrochemical industry encompass crude oil extraction, refining, chemical synthesis, and product storage and transportation, all of which take place in hazardous environments characterized by high temperatures, high pressures, and flammable or explosive conditions. Precise coordination among production equipment and robust data traceability are essential for ensuring safe operations. As a cornerstone of process‑level coordination, time synchronization must achieve… A unified time reference for DCS control systems, PLC controllers, sensors, monitoring equipment, and emergency systems. Beijing Zhongxinchuang Technology Co., Ltd. has developed a time synchronization solution tailored to the characteristics of the petrochemical industry, featuring “industrial-grade stability + explosion-proof compatibility + full-process synchronization.”

## I. Core Pain Points of Time Synchronization in the Petrochemical Industry

1. **Harsh Environment**: The production workshop features high temperature, high humidity, abundant dust, and strong electromagnetic interference, placing extremely stringent demands on the equipment’s protection rating and operational stability.
2. **Explosion‑proof Requirements**: Certain areas are classified as hazardous explosive environments; equipment must comply with explosion‑proof standards to prevent safety incidents.
3. **Multi-System Coordination**: Involves multiple systems, including DCS, SIS, MES, and ERP, requiring cross-system time synchronization to ensure the consistency of production data.
4. **Emergency Response**: In the event of an emergency, the emergency response system must be synchronized with production equipment to ensure rapid execution of emergency commands.

## II. Petrochemical-Specific Time Synchronization Solution

• Core Equipment Selection

1. **Time‑Synchronization Core**: Employs the DNTS‑9 industrial‑grade NTP time server, featuring an explosion‑proof enclosure (Ex d IIB T4 Gb), an IP65 protection rating, and an operating temperature range of –40°C to +85°C, making it well suited for the harsh environments of the petrochemical industry. It supports BeiDou single‑system time synchronization, ensuring autonomous and controllable time‑source management.
2. **Terminal Synchronization**: Explosion-proof digital sub‑clocks are deployed in production workshops, storage and transportation areas, and control rooms, supporting PoE power supply, delivering clear displays, and adapting to outdoor high‑brightness environments. Sensors and PLC devices synchronize with the time server via industrial Ethernet.
3. **Security Protection**: Deploy the DNSIS-612A generative satellite security isolation device to filter electromagnetic interference and malicious signals, ensuring the security of the time source; it also supports autonomous generation of time signals in the event of signal loss, thereby preventing production disruptions.

### (II) Deployment Architecture Design

1. **Control Center Deployment**: Deploy the master time server and monitoring software in the central control room to serve as the plant-wide time reference, interfacing with the DCS and SIS systems.
2. **Regional Deployment**: Time servers are deployed in the refinery workshop, chemical plant area, and storage‑transportation area, synchronized with the master server via industrial Ethernet, to provide time services to equipment within each zone.
3. **Explosion‑Proof Zone Deployment**: Equipment in hazardous explosive areas is connected to the time network via explosion‑proof synchronous gateways, ensuring compliance with safety standards.

### (3) Core Functional Features

1. **Industrial Protocol Compatibility**: Supports industrial communication protocols such as Modbus, OPC UA, and Profinet, enabling seamless integration with mainstream control systems in the petrochemical industry.
2. **Emergency Synchronization Mechanism**: In the event of an emergency, the system automatically switches to local timekeeping mode, maintaining time synchronization with production equipment to ensure efficient emergency response.
3. **Log Traceability**: Production data timestamps are retained for a minimum of 2 years, with support for querying by batch, equipment, and time range, thereby meeting product quality traceability requirements.

## III. Application Cases in the Petrochemical Industry ### Case: Time Synchronization Project for the Production System of a Large Refinery - **Deployment Scope**: Covers the crude oil processing unit, catalytic cracking unit, product storage and transportation area, and the central control room, providing time synchronization services to over 3,000 pieces of production equipment.

- **Implementation Configuration**: The central control room is equipped with two DNTS‑9 industrial‑grade time servers (primary and backup) and one DNSIS‑612A security isolation device; each area is fitted with subordinate servers and explosion-proof sub‑clocks, interconnected via an industrial Ethernet network.

- **Application Outcomes**: 1. System-wide time deviation ≤ 1 ms; DCS–SIS coordination accuracy improved by 40%; production process misoperation rate reduced by 25%.

2. The explosion-proof equipment has passed safety certification, with no safety incidents reported, and is suitable for operation in high-temperature, high-humidity, and strong electromagnetic interference environments.
3. Emergency system time synchronization response time Within 1 second, two equipment malfunctions were successfully resolved, preventing production downtime. ## IV. Industry Application Value This solution addresses the core challenges of time synchronization in the petrochemical industry through industrial‑grade robust design, explosion‑proof compatibility, and end-to-end synchronization capabilities. It not only ensures precise coordination among production equipment and safe operations but also meets regulatory requirements via its data‑traceability features.