Articles and News

By Martyn Williams, COPA-DATA UK Improved operations, a reduction in unplanned outages and better managed variations in market conditions — it's the idyllic aim of power leaders across the globe, but how is the digital twin concept making this goal a reality?

Learn to assess the alarm deadband setting on a high alarm.

The annual competition recognizes Schneider Electric technology partner companies and individuals responsible for the innovations, achievements and service that empower industrial and infrastructure customers to turn their process automation investments into the profit engines of their businesses.

Currently working out of 4 different locations in Loves Park, Rockford and South Beloit, Quantum Design recognized that a move was necessary in order to become more efficient and keep up with the current growth. However, retaining existing employees was equally important

In her new role at ABB, Darcy will continue to develop and strengthen ABB’s global food and beverage business. She will drive the growth plan together with the food and beverage country and business leads.

By Robert Landavazo, Tripwire The OT/IT convergence will no doubt be looked back upon as a turning point in industry’s fight for cyber security and further harnessing of technology for business success. Being an early, proactive leader in that regard certainly, in general, seems like a good role to be playing.

In addition to Subramanian’s role as director of manufacturing cybersecurity for DMDII, Subramanian also will serve as chief information security officer for UI LABS, DMDII’s parent organization, which is driving the digital future of manufacturing and cities.

The whitepaper, Chapter Five: Industrial Control Systems Life Cycle Cost Analysis – Quantitative Evaluation, delineates 450 different factors that impact costs across the following six phases of the industrial control system (ICS) life cycle: engineering, installation, commissioning, maintenance, system, and cyber security.

Aventics is a complement to Emerson’s capabilities and solutions in key discrete and hybrid automation markets, and creates a portfolio of fluid control and pneumatic devices that incorporate sensing and monitoring capabilities.

In a white paper titled, “Automation and the Modern Bakery,” Westfalia discusses how implementing automation can help manufacturers of baked goods overcome challenges

Since no single technology provider can enable IIoT alone, this joint effort will provide a mass-market, end-to-end wireless gateway solution to ensure connectivity with sensors for production-level industrial and commercial applications.

Since no single technology provider can enable IIoT alone, this joint effort will provide a mass-market, end-to-end wireless gateway solution to ensure connectivity with sensors for production-level industrial and commercial applications.

Seeq has secured $23M in Series B funding led by the Altira Group with participation by Chevron Technology Ventures, next47, the Siemens-backed global venture firm, Second Avenue Partners and other existing investors.

In addition to Subramanian’s role as director of manufacturing cybersecurity for DMDII, Subramanian also will serve as chief information security officer for UI LABS, DMDII’s parent organization, which is driving the digital future of manufacturing and cities.

The whitepaper, Chapter Five: Industrial Control Systems Life Cycle Cost Analysis – Quantitative Evaluation, delineates 450 different factors that impact costs across the following six phases of the industrial control system (ICS) life cycle: engineering, installation, commissioning, maintenance, system, and cyber security.

Getting funding for a large-scale automation project depends on proving ROI, so an accurate project cost estimate is paramount. Calculating such an estimate needs to follow a methodical process to avo

The NCDA Legislative Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant impact on policy or legislation related to the career development profession or to its recipients at the local, state, or national level.

High on the priority list for the second half of the year is encouraging strong turnout at several high-profile ISA events.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Much like the Fieldbus wars that marked the industrial automation industry of the 1990’s, there are early-warning signs of competing standards developing in TSN activity that could ignite a similar wave of chaos.

By Tom Ayral, Honeywell Cyber Security Various industry studies and intelligent guess-work already allow us to develop a first-pass financial estimate of potential losses from cyber attacks – which allows an estimate of the savings that implementing an effective cyber security program could bring.

Northrop Grumman chairman and chief executive officer Wes Bush announced that he will step down from the position of chief executive officer effective Jan. 1, 2019. He will remain chairman through July 2019.

To become certified, solution partners undergo a rigorous, multi‐faceted process facilitated by Siemens. A Siemens senior consulting engineer out of Karlsruhe, Germany audited multiple aeSolutions safety projects to ensure their project configuration workflow processes followed Siemens‐documented best practices, as well as international functional safety standards (IEC 61511).

With complex, critical products manufactured across multiple manufacturing sites, the challenge was to ensure manufacturing execution with the highest level of traceability, which could no longer be met by legacy tools.

The primary operations at the Knightdale, North Carolina location include the manufacture and shipment of Powervar’s GTS Series, Sinergy III, and Security Plus UPS products.

Technical guidance on ways to optimize settings and options for PID controllers from industry veteran Greg McMillan and participants in ISA's Mentor Program.

PLÜMAT will be introducing the Strategic Parts Management PARTsolutions by CADENAS to its business units of engineering, development and work preparation in the course of 2018.

An intrinsic safety barrier prevents excess voltage and current from reaching the hazardous area.

The $1 million in overall funding will go to 25 institutions of higher learning across North America to support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) educational programming. These grants help achieve DENSO’s goal of exposing students to the careers available in manufacturing

This investment round was led by ST Engineering Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital unit of ST Engineering. Radiflow’s existing investors, led by Zohar Zisapel, also participated in this investment round.

Working together, the two companies will help manufacturers and other businesses to help deploy solutions for monitoring and control, industrial automation, asset tracking and field service operations.

To be held at the Hyatt Regency , from 7-9 August 2018 in Bethesda, Maryland, the event will include briefings by American Water Works Association (AWWA) and Water Environment Federation (WEF) officials, training opportunities, and a vendor exhibition that will showcase new products and services.

DPL is using Honeywell Connected Plant UniSim Operations to train process operators on safe startups and operations.

Performance measure for pipeline leak detection are generally taken to be sensitivity (the size leak that can be detected), specificity (the certainty that a detected event of some kind is actually a

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Recent security breaches have demonstrated the continued dynamic evolution of cybersecurity as vulnerabilities in both software and hardware continue to be identified. Consequently, it is increasingly imperative that cybersecurity is designed into the system components and overall design…and people will want proof of that.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Recent security breaches have demonstrated the continued dynamic evolution of cybersecurity as vulnerabilities in both software and hardware continue to be identified. Consequently, it is increasingly imperative that cybersecurity is designed into the system components and overall design…and people will want proof of that.

Doyle will assume responsibility for the HEIDENHAIN CORPORATION customer-focused operations for the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This change will complete the succession plan for Rick Korte, current CEO of HEIDENHAIN CORPORATION who will be retiring.

The two companies will leverage each other’s technology and industry resources to build a unique IoT solution to support Industrie 4.0, China’s manufacturing upgrade and transformation and other industrial Internet initiatives.

Safety Instrumented Systems: A Life-Cycle Approach by Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE, and Simon Lucchini, CFSE, MIEAust CPEng, leverages the performance and documentation requirements defined in the ISA/IEC 61511 functional process safety standard.

This eBook confronts the trend toward engineering designs comprising a high percentage of procured-in content, and the organizational issues of cross-functional coordination especially between engineering and procurement.

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation Blockchain is changing the finance industry, and there is potential for it to revolutionize other industries too. This article explains how Blockchain can revolutionize manufacturing.

Digital Factory will feature software and wireless technology innovations, digital twin, production monitoring and control systems, IT security and more solutions for the entire production process. The specialty area brings together a high concentration of industrial technology market leaders on Level Two of the East Building in McCormick Place co-located with IMTS 2018.

Key insights on how feedforward control often simplifies to ratio control.

SYSTEMATIX developed a VGR solution. Using a discrete distance measurement sensor, a Cognex In-Sight 8000 vision system with PatMax RedLine pattern-search capability mounted on a vertical slide, and a 6-axis robot, SYSTEMATIX built the work cell.

This document explains the advantages of Sequential Function Chart, SFC. This is a very expressive graphic formalism of the IEC 61131-3 standard. It is not considered a programming language as it needs other languages to express transition conditions and actions.

The strategic partnership will focus on promoting standardized intelligence manufacturing in a cooperative effort to support Made in China 2025.

Alper’s July 18 presentation, entitled “Cybersecurity: Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Keep You S.A.F.E.,” will focus on the growing trend of cybercrime, threats specific to CPA firms, and what firms should be doing to avoid becoming a cyber victim.

The IERA Award highlights and honors the achievements of innovators with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products.

Work on energized electrical conductors and circuit parts, including voltage testing on panelboards, or other equipment rated 240V and below would be classified as Hazard/Risk Category 1.

OPMT is a company based in Fo’shan – of Guangdong Province – in south China. For its latest project, OPMT was asked by Guangdong University of Technology to develop a machining center that combined high speed laser cutting and milling capabilities.

The link is an element of the country’s transmission system and is used as an energy-balancing system, between the two islands. ABB Ability MACH control system, which acts as the brain or nerve center of the link will be a key component of the upgrade.

By Andrea Belk Olson, Pragmadik In the restaurant industry, training is a given. On the other hand, many small to mid-sized manufacturers resist investing in employee training, citing concerns that if the employee leaves, that investment was lost. However, this is a straw-man argument. Let's address these preconceived notions.

PLCopen Committees are working on two levels: Standardization in the look and feel of safety function blocks Integration of standard procedures in the development environment

A static synchronous compensator is a shunt flexible alternative current transmission systems device that takes advantage of power electronics to control the flow of power to enhance transient stabilit

This solution will remotely monitor 21 thermal generation plants across Europe and South America, a total capacity of 18.5 GW. The software will provide early warning notification of potential future equipment issues.

The latest contract involves approximately 2,000 explosion-proof electric actuators to operate gate valves and ball valves in tank farms.

The latest contract involves approximately 2,000 explosion-proof electric actuators to operate gate valves and ball valves in tank farms.

Automation.com, always closely following new advances in safety trends and technologies, has worked with several industry leaders to compile our first ebook focused solely on safety.

Participants were trained at a temporary scaled version of GE Garage at the venue comprising select equipment like 3D printers, CNC mills, laser cutters amongst others.

By Michael Rothschild, Indegy IT security has been a concern for the better part of three decades. OT security, however, is relatively new simply because operational environments were never connected to the outside world and vulnerable to threats as they are today.

With a goal of 5 million steps between the Appalachian Trail and New England Mountain Hikes, a mission called #5MillionSteps for kids fighting cancer plans to raise one dollar for each step and a total of $5 million dollars to help fund promising childhood cancer research initiatives.

GEIS will be integrated into ABB’s Electrification Products (EP) division, led by EP President Tarak Mehta, as a new business unit called Electrification Products Industrial Solutions (EPIS).

ISA's book is a key resource for preparing for certification, including the ISA Certified Automation Professional, the ISA Certified Control Systems Technician, and the Professional Engineer (P.E.) ex

By Phil Ng, Honeywell Process Solutions This article describes how the latest trend in field instrumentation technology and engineering practices – cloud-based tools to improve application validation, instrument selection, and device commissioning – can help improve project results while ensuring the safety and efficiency of industrial facilities.

The ADMS will replace the utilities’ legacy Outage Management System (OMS) with an integrated, enterprise OT solution that enables operational decisions based on information from various grid devices and automated meters.

For the Reynold's number, the inertial forces in the numerator are given by the product of mass (density), fluid velocity, and pipe diameter.

Honeywell also will provide the process design package, proprietary and non-proprietary equipment, on-site operator training, technical services for startup and continuing operation, and catalysts and adsorbents for the project.

The unit is intended to boost production and expand the capacity and range of its high-voltage dry bushings offering and is under construction at the company’s complex in Ludvika, Sweden

The Studio 5000 Application Code Manager application provides a single place for engineers to access the content, build their applications and even test applications before they build a cabinet.

By Nick Boughton, Boulting Technology A plug and play device or computer bus has a specification that allows for the discovery of a hardware component in a system without physical device configuration or user intervention. This article explores the growing trend of plug and play technologies.

The Open Group Houston 2018 - Digital Transformation in the Energy Industry - will bring together vendors and end user organizations to discuss the development of standards-based and interoperable architecture, with a particular focus on technical and business issues for process automation.

The Global ALLIANCE Excellence Awards program is an annual competition that recognizes Schneider Electric system integrator (SI) partner companies and individuals responsible for innovations, achievements and service that empowers industrial and infrastructure

Simultaneous to the launch of the food and beverage sector, the company also announced the appointment of Keith Goldsmith, Senior Vice President of MonarchFx.

Harting thanked the company’s numerous customers for their, in some cases, years-long trust, also thanking their employees for their dedication, which had been decisive for the positive developments at the company:

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation The logistics and supply chain sector has been inundated with new and novel transport technologies in the past two years, however, experts don’t expect many of these technologies to be widely available for another 5-10. This article explains why parts suppliers may be better served by focusing on reducing lead-times to same-day delivery.

By Tom DeVroy, IFS This article outlines three common reverse logistics scenarios. If these ring true then it may be time to evaluate whether your reverse logistics strategy is costing you time, money and customer satisfaction.

Learn how one manufacturing organization approached the challenge of implementing and complying with the ISA84 Safety Lifecycle in existing facilities by adopting new management practices and software

Features include the ability to access RFQs, quotes and orders all in one place. Customers can add products to a shopping cart and see their own pricing details.

Several aspects of BASF’s Smart Manufacturing program will be supported by AVEVA’s platform, including Augmented Reality and Predictive Maintenance applications.

The calculator will enable heavy users of commercial refrigerant such as supermarkets, cold storage facilities and food processing plants to evaluate the cost savings associated by reducing the amount of leaking refrigerant.

To gain a better understanding of the issues and opportunities faced by ICS organizations today, Kaspersky Lab and Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC – a CXP Group Company) conducted a survey of 320 global professionals with decision-making power on OT/ICS cybersecurity from 25 countries across the globe from April – May 2018.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com The ability to enhance industrial and process automation efficiency, through the application real-time enterprise computing, cloud applications, and IoT devices. While such investments can be a gamble, the cards are laying in the automation industry’s favor.

For the bypass demo, Layer 2 Managed M12 PoE switch MP310 and Layer 3 Managed M12 PoE switch MP614 were deployed in topology simulating onboard train network linear topology in train cars and train driver cabin.

By Vivek Joshi, Entytle The recruitment, management and retention of top talent within industrial manufacturing firms is an extremely hot topic of discussion today more than ever. Future leaders must be prepared for the role that will be. Not the role that is.

Appropriate actuator fault estimation allows for the application of various fault tolerant control strategies enabling compensation of the faulty actuator by increasing performance of the other actuat

More than 1,300 delegates from across the oil and gas, chemical, pulp and paper, and metals and mining sectors are attending the event, which features numerous displays of the newest technologies along with dozens of Honeywell- and customer-led sessions and technical discussions.

ABB has received the order from the Engineering and Procurement Company (EPC) Stelmec Ltd. for this digital substation which will be operated by Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL),

Integration Objects’ OPC UA .NET Client toolkit is a collection of libraries, classes and interfaces that allows programming of OPC UA Client applications using .NET framework

The 12,000 word guide covers such topics as automation trends, KPI’s, robotics, labor availability, efficiency, AS/RS, G2P, poly-bags, safety, system maintenance, and more.

By Nigel Smith, TM Robotics Collaborative robots (cobots), machines that work harmoniously alongside humans, account for 3% of this market, but will reach 34% by 2025. This article explains what manufacturers need to understand before they jump on the cobot bandwagon, as this investment may not be as low-risk as it first appears.

Only a closed-loop tuning method can be used with an exothermic reaction where the reactor can "run away" (increasing speed of reaction as the reaction progresses, catalyzed by its own heat of reactio

The goal of the cooperation is a joint presentation of a preliminary solution at the Innotrans 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Both parties have shown the intention to further strengthen the cooperation by offering solutions for more Voith components on the Siemens Railigent application suite.

By Bob McIlvride, Skkynet Cloud Systems SDKs tend to be collections of reference implementations, wrappers, helper classes, and sample applications aimed at giving you a head-start for building your UA app. Developers with experience in OPC UA find these tools indispensable. The problem is, in the end, they still need to build it.

After a general introduction to the subject the reader is then given a detailed overview of the technicalities and functions of industrial signal devices. A detailed explanation of the different types of signals and their meaning together with the difference between the optical and audible signal devices is given.

The acquisition is designed to broaden Bentley’s ProjectWise construction offerings—which includes ConstructSim, a 4D construction modeling in project delivery of industrial plants.

The Journal of Innovation highlights the ideas, approaches, products and services emerging within the industrial internet such as IoT and digital transformation, AI, smart cities, the smart factory and edge computing

At the Hyperloop competition at SpaceX this July, its third phase called “Competition III” will take place. In order to win, the pod must accelerate to a speed faster than all of its competitors before fully braking in the short distance provided by the track.

The education programs and demonstrations will take place from September 10-14 on the HANNOVER MESSE USA trade show floor co-located with IMTS 2018 at McCormick Place in Chicago on Level 2 of the Lakeside Building.

The company will operate within Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division as part of the CAD/CAM and production software business currently led by the Vero Software brand.

The OPC UA Vision companion specification is now available free of charge as VDMA Specification number 40100 (as release candidate version). The OPC UA Robotics companion specification is now available free of charge as VDMA Specification number 40010 (as draft version).

North American sales of machine vision components and systems increased 19% year over year to $709 million in the first quarter of 2018, setting an all-time record for quarterly sales, according to new statistics issued by AIA, the industry’s trade group.