Articles and News

Bridges is responsible for the development, design and innovation of new products as well as continuous improvement of current designs to assist in growing and strengthening the line of product offerings.

Announced at the 2018 ARC Forum, FieldComm Group and the OPC Foundation presented their joint vision for creating a protocol independent, process automation device information model (PA-DIM) specification to implement the requirements of the NAMUR Open Architecture (NOA).

The collaboration between OSIsoft and INL is intended to enable government and industry partners to advance the adoption of microgrid and renewable technologies

By Henry Boger, Independent Consultant Wireless power transfer eliminates the need for batteries and the replacement of batteries by a skilled technician who is required to go part way up a 100-foot distillation tower on the midnight shift.

Professionals in any industry that work with or produce chemicals will learn how to identify, evaluate, and control chemical hazards to improve safety.

Predictive analytics, a relatively new dimension to analytics tools, can give valuable insights about what will happen in the future based on historical data.

The key aspects are secure remote maintenance of plants and machines, encrypted communications over the Internet, and monitoring of industry protocols at critical network interfaces.

By Nigel Smith, TM Robotics Robots as a Service (RaaS) is a business model for deploying robotic automation on lease. This article examines the potential of RaaS, when compared to traditional robot purchasing.

As CTO, Pekka Sillanpää will focus on driving R&D work and software development, generating growth and sharing his expertise to position Tosibox as a thought leader in its industry. Sillanpää will also become a member of the Tosibox executive management team.

As an Oracle JD Edwards Partner, Corning will leverage its industry experience in manufacturing, aerospace and defense, construction, high tech, and food & beverage to maximize business value for IFS customers.

The building strengthens the Swiss corporation's presence on the Chinese market, enabling it to offer products and services from one single source to local customers in the future.

Under the agreement, Wood automation & control, will deliver Bedrock Open Secure Automation (OSA) to its clients in energy and industrial markets.

Advanced process simulation empowers engineers with greater insight into key processes and enables faster problem solving for distillation column analysis.

ARM projects work to strengthen U.S. manufacturing by addressing critical gaps in industrial and collaborative robot deployment and skills development to support plant automation.

Whitbread will lead the global technology, service and operations teams from Epsilon’s London office. He will be responsible for driving the transformation of the company’s technology innovation and delivering new levels of customer experience for the global business.

The integration between its Indegy Industrial Cybersecurity Suite and IBM’s QRadar Security Intelligence Platform i designed to bridge the visibility gap between enterprise information technology (IT) environments and industrial, operational technology (OT) environments.

By Nick Boughton, Boulting Technology As entire systems have become electronic and software-based, safety and security must also be delivered digitally. This article explains how cybersecurity vulnerabilities can diminish physical safety

Turbine meters almost universally use a magnetic pickup to determine the number of rotations of the spinning turbine element.

MFC worked with system integrator Wachter Inc. to design an automated facility, based on the PlantPAx distributed control system (DCS) from Rockwell Automation.

The Windoor Realfly vertical indoor wind tunnel in Empuriabrava uses variable speed drives (VSDs) to control the fans that generate winds of 150-300 km/hour.

The global energy transformation brings challenges and opportunities for the power sector. These include ensuring power availability and managing complex grids with a growing number of diverse, distributed energy resources and a high penetration of renewables.

The application enables Temblor to monitor and operate well heads remotely, providing secure real-time production data while minimizing the requirements for onsite operators.

The announcement brings OpenFog members into the IIC at a time when their complementary areas of technology are emerging in the mainstream. The first formal meeting of the unified organization will be held in Raleigh, N.C., from February 11-14.

By Tracy Lustyan, alliantgroup Those looking to offset the costs of development and implementation of automation tools should look at the R&D tax credit.

Learn how ISA is advancing the technical competence of everyone in the industry (both members and non-members) through publications, training, certifications, standards, and conferences.

The PTC partnership will extend Novotek’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology offering and will help businesses in the UK’s manufacturing, food and beverage, utilities and energy sector improve their system effectiveness, efficiency and connectivity.

The report analyzes expected cost savings, and ROI timelines in addition to highlighting the most prevalent IIoT use cases across the Automotive, Tire, Industrial Products, Metal, FMCG and Chemical industries.

By Rick Peters, Fortinet The ability to implement security solutions that deliver visibility, control and real-time situational awareness are the differentiators enabling safe and more efficient operations.

Automated multivariable control needs to be a core competency in the process industries. An updated picture of the multivariable control landscape will help to regain forward progress.

His appointment serves to integrate the engineering value stream between the sales order and operations

The pace of technological change in the automation industry seems to be accelerating as we head into 2019, driven by innovations developed for Internet of Things and general computing.

Emulate3D’s software enables customers to virtually test machine and system designs before incurring manufacturing and automation costs and committing to a final design.

The factory comprises a robotized and digitized production line with eight robotic stations with a capacity of up to 300 megawatt hours (MWh) per year.

Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has predicted a compound annual growth rate in the healthcare AI market of 40 per cent through 2021, largely because AI has the potential to improve healthcare outcomes by 30 to 40 per cent while halving treatment costs.

As SCADA, MES, and historian capabilities increased, so did the need for processing power. Process virtualization was the perfect answer.

The collaboration aims to develop tools and offerings that can accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturers in Singapore and internationally.

Inductees into the BACnet Hall of Fame are individuals with at least a decade of meaningful contributions to the BACnet community, who have played a role in the ongoing development of the BACnet standard or the community, championed open dialog and a collaborative approach to resolving issues, and demonstrated a global perspective with respect for regional and cultural differences.

iQ2 is LEC’s end-to-end IIoT platform solution that’s designed from an industrial automation engineering perspective to address individual needs and enable next-generation, cutting-edge IIoT platform technology

Digi-Key Electronics has been committed to offering a selection of in-stock electronic components and is pleased to include ASG’s line of LVIT sensors to their product offering.

Gröninger Cleaning Systems equipped its machinery in remote locations with TOSIBOX Locks, enabling remote control and maintenance. Behind each TOSIBOX Lock there are about 30 to 40 devices such as drives, PLCs, HMIs and control cabinets that are connected and directly accessible via a TOSIBOX Key.

Tag numbers, wire numbers and terminal numbers, and indication of the interrelation to other instrumentation loops, are the essential elements of a loop diagram.

The selection process for components can be time-consuming and error-prone, but the igus configurator enables designers to find the right system based on the triflex R energy chain from igus.

LF Edge is initially comprised of five projects that will support emerging edge applications in the area of non-traditional video and connected things that require lower latency, faster processing and mobility.

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation To tackle the medical, engineering and environmental challenges of the future, innovation is essential. Scientists and engineers must contend with enhancing virtual reality, securing cyberspace, advancing health informatics and engineering better medicines. Sometimes, this happens by accident, but often it’s the result of a positive company culture.

Michael brings close to twenty years of experience from his service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), where he served in senior positions in an elite cybersecurity technology unit

The decision by Amazon to join the Zigbee Alliance at the Board level is a message that the industry is focused on simplifying and adding convenience to the growing range of IoT devices available to customers.

Running under the lead theme of "Industrial Intelligence", HANNOVER MESSE 2019 will zero in on this trend, with a simultaneous focus on the role of human beings – the decisive idea generators for the factory of the future.

The partnership will provide PRN and its partners access to the A3 network of more than 1,200 automation-focused companies in the robotics, vision and motion control sectors across North America as well as leading system integrators, distributors, and users of these technologies.

The standard is intended to meet demands in the region for open, standardized device integration on an enterprise-wide basis.

By Dominique Stucki, ABB Control Technology There was widespread panic across Europe in mid-2017 when millions of eggs were recalled due to being contaminated with Fipronil — a highly toxic insecticide that is banned in the EU.

This paper offers an overview of the responses in five major global economies in which CIMdata delivers its annual PLM Market & Industry Forum: The United States, Germany, India, China, and Japan.

In the company’s whitepaper, Radiflow explains that while the reporting on cybersecurity incidents and attack campaigns is on the rise, each reporting organization uses a different analysis methodology.

The Building Intelligent Infrastructures Forum, on Feb. 15, will include keynote presentations, use cases, lunch, and two panel discussions: Smart Cities Infrastructures and Intelligent Transport Systems.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be used to analyze large-scale industrial processes to improve operating performance.

As part of the acquisition, the Atlona team will join Panduit’s Enterprise business group. Atlona will continue to serve its customers from its global headquarters in San Jose, Calif. for all sales, customer support, and training related inquiries.

By Stephen Hayes, Beckhoff Automation One of the key economic concepts for government to iron out before IDT can deliver performance, is the contributory capacity that robots, automation and AI fulfil in the overall economy.

They are developing a profilometer that will provide part inspection. Based on an optical technology, the profilometer for composite placement has in-process inspection technology designed to help manufacturers meet strict standards by providing measuring information without limiting the process functionality.

The KASTO solution is based on a UNICOMPACT storage system which, with a height of 15 m and a length of 115 m, has space for around 10,000 cassettes. Each cassette can accommodate material up to six metres in length and has a payload of up to 3.4 tonnes.

Kaspersky Lab Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS CERT) experts have identified and patched seven previously unknown vulnerabilities in Moxa’s ThingsPro Suite.

More observation improves accuracy and reduces error of all kinds in industrial and process industry applications.

With a goal of increasing productivity and shortening the development time of new products, Maxiforja has adopted Femap software, the Plant Simulation solution in the Tecnomatix portfolio, the Teamcenter portfolio, NX software and Line Designer from Siemens in order to reach its goal of becoming a digitalized enterprise.

By Carlos Millan, Oceaneering International For decades, automated guided vehicle (AGV) technology has delivered materials handling and logistics solutions to automotive companies. Automotive manufacturers, in general, have embraced the lean principles of advanced logistics and manufacturing solutions.

Rego has proven himself over his 18 years of growth within PI USA’s sales operations and in progressive sales leadership while working at PI USA’s Auburn headquarters.

A forward decoupling algorithm can be used to cancel out MIMO interactions, making more traditional control methods applicable to complex systems.

By Nick Boughton, Boulting Technology Every plant has its unique lifecycle, which sees both equipment and employees evolve over time. This article explains the concept of virtual commissioning and its benefits when installing new plant equipment.

Organizations interested in submitting must send a letter of intent (LOI) by the LOI deadline indicated in the RFP document. Submitting a LOI is not legally binding and does not commit an organization to being part of a submission team.

HARTING Customised Solutions (HCS) is now manufacturing tailor-made solutions in its 500m2+ facility. These products and solutions are primarily intended for mechanical and plant engineering.

Legacy industrial devices are "insecure by design" and vulnerable to interruption from cybersecurity threats or unintentional network incidents. Risk is increasing as Ethernet networking becomes more

This acquisition is intended to provide Hitachi Solutions with capabilities across cloud-native application development, data platform modernization, big data, machine learning, and advanced analytics along with modern workplace and managed services solutions.

Under the terms of the agreement, Schneider Electric will collaborate with Nozomi to provide customers in the industrial manufacturing and critical infrastructure segments advanced anomaly detection, vulnerability assessment and other cybersecurity solutions and services

The 2019 Smart City Guide demonstrates a new approach to IIoT-based technologies from initial design of system-integration projects to cloud management and network control.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) protocol, adopted worldwide, provides digital signal and measurement data from smart field instruments in a wide range of control, monitoring, and automation applications.

This integration enables industrial manufacturers and operators to replace OpenSSL, an open source crypto library, with Mocana’s cybersecurity software solution that is FIPS 140-2 validated and compliant with industrial cybersecurity standards.

Selecting the best drive technology for each application can become a tedious job for the microscope designer as well as the researcher. PI’s “Nanopositioning for Microscopy” brochure is designed to simplify this selection process with flow charts and application tables.

Many factors come into play when selecting a new or upgraded control system, with careful consideration of each resulting in the best outcome.

Nichols will manage the commercial vehicle show portfolio, which currently includes the North American Commercial Vehicle Show (NACV Show 2019). He also will develop new North American events in the fire and safety segment of the company’s portfolio of INTERSCHUTZ exhibitions & conferences.

OPC is a client/server protocol. The server has a list of data points (normally in a tree structure) that it provides. A client can connect to a server and pick a set of data points it wishes to use.

Using the Siemens platform for digital innovation, Konecranes has been able to connect the data from all of these organizations to create one 360 degree view of how prototypes are running and performing, and correlating requirements to, real world performance data.

Headquartered in Braunschweig, Germany with a global network of distribution partners, Etalon will operate within Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division.

By Graham Smith, Curo Talent We’ve all heard of the wider IT skills shortage, but the lack of security skills in the industry is even more critical. This article explains the role of automation in IT security and how it could address the skills shortage.

The competition gives the industry’s most innovative young companies the chance to vie for a $10,000 cash award and the spotlight at the Automate 2019 Show and Conference—a showcase devoted to automation industry trends, leading-edge technology and business innovation, taking place April 8-11 in Chicago, Illinois.

All circuits to be worked on should be tested with a multi-meter prior to performing work to ensure that no voltage or current is present.

ISA is a nonprofit professional association that provides technical resources and programs for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure.

While updating the plant’s control layer, IT teams at Arkansas Steel began considering additional opportunities to improve operations. What they found was an issue with workforce utilization: Operators’ attention was divided between the process of creating tie plates and handling data.

By Robert Glass, ABB Digitalization encompasses a transformation in the way industrial environments work. For the food and beverage industry, this means companies can better comply with legislation through a transformation in areas including connectivity, smart sensors, traceability, cloud computing and monitoring.

Through this acquisition, eSimulation can offer a range of solutions to the midstream and upstream industries. For example, ControlSoft’s MANTRA advanced process control (APC) platform can help stabilize gas plants, condensate stabilizers, and fractionation facilities and enable operators to effectively hit optimization targets

Due to the high demand and requests for training in the field of industrial automation, AutomationDirect is now offering unlimited access to selected Interconnecting Automation training series for anyone interested in learning about industrial controllers.

Through the acquisition, FreePoint will accelerate the development of its ShiftWorx platform for machine monitoring in manufacturing while providing configuration and customization to meet enterprise customer needs.

The patent covers analytics for detecting anomalous behavior in ICS networks incorporating specialized ICS protocols such as Modbus and DNP3, and specialized ICS devices such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs).

While taking advantage of full Modelica standard support, users can benefit from the Simcenter Amesim solver and its platform capabilities such as performance analyzer or linear analysis.

By Asael Sharabi, Emerson Automation Solutions Inventory is one of the most important assets of an organization, and its effective management is increasingly recognized as a key component of financial health and profitability.

AXISCADES will be working directly with Altizon’s Datonis platform and products R&D group to design and build manufacturing applications that help manufacturers accelerate their Industry 4.0 journey

The companies have joined forces to launch a digital maintenance service that combines Iconsys’ expertise in industrial data collection and integrated manufacturing systems with Senseye’s prognostics and predictive maintenance software.

The performance of conventional PID controllers in robotics falls short in applications which are nonlinear and uncertain. Almost all industrial processes are nonlinear and uncertain.

The ISA/IEC 62443 standards are developed primarily by the ISA99 committee of the International Society of Automation (ISA), with simultaneous review and adoption by the Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission.

By Andrew Kling, Schneider Electric Hackers follow a process to launch an attack, and there’s a concurrent process for manufacturers to defend themselves from these attacks. By describing both of them, organizations can ensure they’ve addressed every element of their cyber risk strategy.

Keegans will provide strategic vision, change leadership and development and implementation of the company’s people programs, and lead cultural transformation for Rockwell Automation to support its delivery of the Connected Enterprise.

Data access will be through Aker BP’s Cognite cloud platform, their drilling monitoring solution and other 3rd party applications. OPC UA-based information modelling enables Aker BP to use models that can be shared between companies.

The following article describes how a field device management solution employing FDT Technology helped a major bioethanol producer streamline device commissioning and maintenance tasks, and at the same time, increase productivity and savings as part of a major Greenfield project.

Yokogawa’s FlowNavigator is a software tool that is used to configure the flow parameters for multivariable transmitters and vortex flowmeters and thereby ensure the precise measurement of mass flow.