Color code designation for chart recorders

[YYCTCguy]

Hi all, this is my first post here and im looking for a little help or clarification. I am wondering if such a standard exists for color designation regarding which color to select for a pen on a chart recorder. An example would be what color is used for temperature measurement, flow, ambient temperature or even Process variable in MA's ( milliamps).
The reason I ask is that if there are multiple colors associated to a monitory system and they are not identically setup throughout a plant; personal could get confused or make a mistake simply by visual interpretation instead of being diligent and fully reading what the pens have been designated to monitor. I know there are standard colors used in the piping industry for health care, petrochem etc as well as for wiring in many electrical applications.

Thanks in advance for your response.
YYCTCGuy

 

[danw2]

Welcome to Control.com

There's a huge debate about color useage in HMI screens, particularly related to alarm management and more effective HMI 'recognition'.

Controlglobal.com published an article in 2011, the Ultimate HMI, calling for a revamp of HMI displays.
Link
based on presentations (and a subsequent book, I think) by Bill Hollifield and Paul Gruhn.

Some integrators have seen standardization within an organization for color and design in HMIs. There's a many comments in the multi-post thread by guys who develop HMI screens here:
Link

Just last week, I showed Opto 22's Groov 'put the data on your cell phone' app to a client and his reaction was 'the colors are too bland, I want a "Wow factor", you know, bold colors that reach out and grab you." When I talked to Opto 22 their reply was "we're going with a 'muted palette and no, you can't change any PV from the default bright blue" so it looks like Groov won't fly at that account.

I suspect that a company that wants standardization will tell you they do. I'm unaware of any national standard, but my awareness is not reliable indicator.

 

[danw2]

Oops, you didn't mention recorders in the body, only the title.

More on recorder color schemes:

I maintain trend color consistency with dedicated recorders by using the default colors, plus it saves time deciding and implementing what to use.

I've been doing industrial recorders since the late 1980s and I can not remember a single instance when a 'spec' required compliance to a standard (company or national) for color, and a spec is where that's likely to turn up.

In fact, I find it rare when someone changes the default trending colors on a dedicated recorder.

The older paper strip charts had limited color print ribbons, but the paperless recorders might a 64K color palette. Eurotherm uses 56 standard colors, names each one and provides an RGB value for each. But they warn, "Note: Colour representation varies from screen to screen. For this reason, it is unlikely that the colour on a PC will match those on these pages or those on the recorder display." Good luck trying to distinguish Red (RGB 255-0-0) from Hyacinth (RGB 170-0-51) at an angle when viewing an LCD display.

There was/is no agreement that I'm aware of related to channel colors, even by a manufacturer.

The first four colors on a Yokogawa Yoko FX1000 are red, green, blue, and yellow.

But the default Yokogawa uR10000 measurement channel colors are
Channel01: Purple
Channel 02: Red
Channel 03: Green
Channel 04: Blue
Channel 05: Brown
Channel 06: Black

Then, too, with paperless, there's the possibilities of background color, channel-in-alarm color, graph grid color, message color, alarm annuciation color, scale color and time stamp color.

Anyone asked for color coded PVs?