In a system an Object might have multiple Alarms associated with it. These Alarms might be directly Referenced by an Object or they might have no direct References from the Object to the Alarm. Alarms might also be related to Objects that are nested under the Object. When the Object is represented in a graphic in a plant, it is often important to be able to see if there is an active Alarm associated with it. This indication could just be a flashing value or flashing image or a change in color of the image.

Figure 30 - AlarmSummary equipment example

For example if there is a tank (illustrated in Figure 30). The tank might have a level meter, a temperature gauge and a pressure gauge. It might also have a flow meter on both an inlet and an outlet. The tank might also have a pressure release valve. The information model that might result from this equipment is illustrated in Figure 31

Figure 31 - AlarmSummary Equipment Object Example

All of these sub-objects might have unique alarms associated with them, such as limit alarms on the temperature and levels, maybe rate of change alarm as well as limit alarms on the pressure. Maybe some advanced Alarms that are associated with the tank for an invalid state (in the inlet flow > 0 and the outlet flow is > 0). Maybe a discrete alarm on the pressure release valve, i.e. when it is open it is an alarm. The overall alarm state of the Tank might need to be displayed on a graphic or maybe the LevelTransmitter’s value needs to indicate that there is an alarm associated with the value.