Articles and News

Banner Engineering's Clean Workspace Monitoring System establishes scheduled workspace sanitizing as an integral part of the return-to-work process.

Plant Process Management deemed critical for Plant Safety and Optimization, according to 451 Research.

In the future, all materials scientists and chemists will have access to machine learning tools to enhance their R&D.

The dawn of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) era will render the usual playbook of continuous shrinking and packing more and more transistors into chipsets will become unsustainable.

An overwhelming majority of survey respondents believe that, in the future, industry standards will be “extremely important” (63%) or “important” (33%). Most respondents (87%) believe that industry standards make processes and facilities safer.

Almost every mechanical room and system on campus has been improved with the energy efficiency measures available from advanced building management systems.

New ARC Advisory Group research on the global Industrial Cloud Application Platforms with IoT market reveals the criticality of applying modern software methods for industrial innovation.

An ISA Fellow describes his family history in mining, engineering, and aviation while speculating about the future of industrial automation.

While the economic implications of COVID-19 threated to shadow the Great Depression, Harel Boren, CEO and co-founder of Inspekto, explains why Autonomous Machine Vision (AMV) could be the new New Deal.

Automation professionals are critical to successfully selecting and applying these technologies and guiding management to maximize their productivity. This role will continue and expand, as more companies look to make informed productive technological investments and implementation decisions to yield profitable results.

By Bill Lydon Open system options continue to emerge from nontraditional suppliers and standards groups, and this is a trend that I expect will accelerate and enable multivendor interoperability at all levels of the system architecture.

The latest marine automation systems can improve vessel connectivity, enhance efficiency, and improve safety and competitiveness by reducing the number of on-board crewmembers required to operate vessels safely and in compliance with maritime laws and regulations.

The partnership will allow both companies to further align with the needs of the growing Australian defense sector for embedded computing applications.

The Women in Manufacturing Association (WiM) will hold its 10th annual SUMMIT on September 28 – October 1, 2020 in a virtual format. The virtual conference will harness the latest in technology to deliver the content and interactive experiences for which WiM conferences are known.

In this monthly column, 2020 International Society of Automation (ISA) President Eric Cosman encourages members to get more involved.

Both wired and wireless networks have been undergoing a significant evolution during the past decade, enabling greater opportunities to those who leverage the advancements in the next one.

There is an increasing recognition that an integrated cybersecurity approach is required for an entire manufacturing and production company. Many manufacturing companies are realizing with the integration of IT, OT, automation and other functions that designating one leader responsible for all cybersecurity for the company is most effective.

The ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance (ISAGCA) shares 5 articles about automation cybersecurity from July 2020.

Sensor Technology has harnessed the phenomenon of SAW or Raleigh waves, which were first observed over 100 years ago and which form a major part of the destructive force of an earthquake.

Through this agreement, both SAP and Siemens will be able to complement and integrate their respective offerings in order to offer customers solutions for product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain, service and asset management.

Verified hardware and software enhance interoperability and allow faster time to production.

The partnership reinforces ForwardX’s ability to address customer pain points and deliver solutions across increasingly competitive industries.

As a 30-year business executive, Geiger has held multiple executive leadership roles across supply chain and technology for Walmart, Walmart International, and Sam's Club. His expertise covers all aspects of supply chain management, including sourcing, inventory, transportation, logistics, and automation. Geiger is currently the Chief Supply Chain Officer for Trimark USA.

The prize, which is usually awarded during the opening of the WomenPower career conference, became part of the digital event after the corona pandemic caused the cancellation of HANNOVER MESSE. Engineer Powerwoman 2020 marks the eighth time that Deutsche Messe is honoring a pioneer in the STEM field who through her commitment, her ideas and her work promotes technical innovation within her company.

By Bill Lydon Time synchronization and accelerate the continued integration of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) groups. This trend has been facilitating changes in organizational structures, and the creation, in many cases, of integrated IT/OT groups.

During each one-hour session, industry experts will lead discussions about the latest technology developments in smart infrastructure and buildings. The free events will be held every other Tuesday, beginning on July 14, from 11 a.m. until noon.

Festo is hosting a real-time visit to an exhibition booth at the First Festo Virtual Exhibition on 15th and 16th July 2020.

New ARC Advisory Group research on the global Machine Vision Systems (MV) market reveals that the trend toward robotics and smart manufacturing makes machine vision technology an indispensable tool for industrial automation.

By Bill Lydon Accelerating the application of collaborative types of robots is the integration of vision systems with artificial intelligence, and this integration is enabling a range of new applications.

By Bill Lydon, Implementing Digital Twin concepts is quickly becoming fundamental for organizations achieve real-time integrated manufacturing.

Rhonda Pelton, an ISA member, was recently recognized as #8 on the EMPower Top 100 Ethnic Minority Future Leaders list for 2020.

Though predicted years ago, COVID-19 has made autonomous forklifts an immediate reality for small footprint manufacturing facilities.

Birla Carbon has relied for many years on a distributed control system to optimize the production of carbon black powder. When it came time to modernize their DCS, they implemented an IO migration strategy to minimize plant downtime and hardware replacement costs.

The findings from the latest Honeywell Industrial USB Threat Report show that the total amount of threats posed by USB removable media to industrial process control networks remains consistently high, with 45% of locations detecting at least one inbound threat.

To accelerate market share gains for Beckhoff, Lee will work directly with strategic accounts as well as with the experienced local sales and applications engineering team. He reports to Joe Martin, West Region Manager.

The Cobot Expo is free to attend and is open for anyone with an interest in collaborative robotics, July 28-30, 9am-4pm EDT. Attendees are invited to visit booths that feature new insights and resources on the most common cobot applications such as machine tending, packaging and palletizing, product inspection, assembly, welding, dispensing, and finishing.

By Antony Bourne This article highlights what he believes are three major ethical issues facing the industry, as manufacturers weigh up their AI investments and embark upon this new technological direction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtuosity exclusively offers Virtuoso Subscriptions that bundle — with a Bentley infrastructure modeling, simulation, or construction application — the virtually delivered services of Virtuosity’s experts to accelerate and advance the success of an infrastructure practitioner.

At the click of a button, visitors can download resources on additive manufacturing (AM), artificial intelligence (AI), Industry 4.0, cyber security, obsolescence, sustainability and the circular economy.

The worldwide market for artificial intelligence software will expand to $98.8 billion by 2025, rising by a factor of six from $16.4 billion in 2019—despite the varying effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across different industries, according to Omdia.

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. has named Milton Coleman as its new Vice President of Sales, Katsutoshi Urabe as Sr. Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development, and Ken Innami as Vice President of Business Development.

In this book excerpt from ISA Publishing, the author explores a real-world example of calculating OEE.

Here are three reasons why you should consider attending the 2020 Virtual Cybersecurity Standards Implementation Conference, an event hosted by ISA.

Remanufacturing enables existing robot users to sell inactive or legacy robots to ABB with an attractive buy back service, rather than scrapping them or leaving them unused in a corner of the factory.

Nielsen brought his background in mechanical engineering to his role at MiR, along with the experience gained from more than 25 years of managerial positions with major international corporations such as Danfoss and Siemens.

In its new report, “Building Robotics Solutions,” Lux Research creates a framework for selecting robotics vendors based on the key capabilities and level of customization required.

By Jonathan Wilkins This article explains how the manufacturing industry can prepare for unanticipated periods of increased demand.

The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam is a prerequisite to the Professional Engineer (PE) exam, which engineers need to pass to practice in the U.S.

Dairy cooperative Arla Foods has, for the first time, created transparency over the energy consumed in cottage cheese production at its Falkenberg location. This involves the use of the Baumer Flex-Flow sensor, which is able to measure the temperature of the medium as well as the flow rate.

The BionicMobileAssistant is a prototype of a robot system that moves independently in three dimensions and can identify objects, grip adaptively and work together with humans.

HY-LINE Computer Components GmbH, an independent company within HY-LINE Group, is an experienced technology partner and applications specialist in the fields of display technology, embedded computing, and signal management and transfer.

By Bill Lydon The Process Automation industry has been heavily impacted by the influx of new technologies and, as we enter the next decade, several organizations are providing roadmaps in order to help process automation companies enable the best practices to leverage these technologies and drive competitiveness and productivity forward.

By Bill Lydon The impact of open manufacturing initiatives continues to be a worldwide affair. These initiatives continue to grow as industry recognizes the need to modernize and the Industry 4.0 movement (called “Industrie 4.0” in Germany, its country of origin) continues to accelerate.

In experimenting with grid control software Spectrum Power, Siemens gains valuable insights on the potential attack vectors and can thoroughly test new security features or protocols for its products and solutions.

Bosch Rexroth has gathered experts from across the global Bosch organization, from July 13-16, to present topics that take attendees on an exploration of the Factory of the Future.

Ternium S.A., a steel manufacturer in the Americas, wanted to find a way to minimize these breakages, safeguarding the mechanical integrity of the mill and ensuring maximum process continuity.

ROI Lock is supported by an AA- rated global reinsurance company and will apply to eligible customers monitoring 50 or more assets for a minimum of 12 months.

By Chris Turlica, MaintainX Modern factories are as sophisticated as any server farm or computer lab, and to keep them firing on all cylinders we’ll need high-tech solutions too.

TV shows like 'Mr. Robot' that depict cyberattacks can be surprisingly accurate. To guard against hackers, it's important for IT and OT to work together.

By Bill Lydon Manufacturing and production companies are realizing digitalization requires structure, organizational changes, and integration of information technology (IT), operations technology (OT) and automation technology.

The likelihood of cyberattacks increases with greater digitization of business processes, as shown by the June 2020 Honda and Natura attacks.

Effective January 1 2021, Nicolas Breton will take the position of Chief Executive Officer of B2A Technology. Pierre Marol will remain involved in the development of the group as Chairman and Jean-Luc Thomé as a member of the Board.

Hanseatic Power Solutions GmbH (HPS) automated its control cabinet engineering in several steps and has just implemented EPLAN Cogineer. The company has now used a "before and after" comparison to record actual time savings. Electrical planning alone now takes only 20% of the original time.

FOBA’s marking lasers, laser marking workstations and vision assisted laser marking workflows mark a variety of materials and parts not least in the key markets of Automotive and Medical but also in Electronics, Plastics and Tool, Metal and Mold Making. Worldwide sales and service branches serve the most important markets. Since 2004, Alltec/FOBA – headquartered near Lübeck/Germany – is part of the US-based Danaher Corporation.

HighByte, an industrial software company, announced the appointment of both Betsy Peters and Corson Ellis to the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Sandvik has installed 330 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels onto the roof of the Göranssonska Technical High School in Sandviken, Sweden.

Phoenix Contact, HARTING, Molex, Murrelektronik, Binder, CONEC, ESCHA and Weidmüller have come together to establish a standard for the push-pull locking mechanism of M12 connectors on the market. Together, they are pursuing the one goal of ensuring compatibility across manufacturers.

OPC UA is an industrial, protocol-agnostic framework for the Industrial Internet of Things and Industrie 4.0 that contains mechanisms for secure, reliable, manufacturer and platform-independent information exchange, as well as options for semantic information modeling and self-description of devices.

Pepperl+Fuchs’ 2020 Online Summit is a free digital platform that will allow customers and other interested parties to learn about the latest trends and solutions in factory and process automation—even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Neumeyer has lived and worked in Italy, Germany, Belgium and the U.S. He will relocate to Sweden and will be based out of the company’s Stockholm headquarters. Dr. Neumeyer studied nuclear physics and has a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Darmstadt.

This ARC research explores current and historical market performance and related technology and business trends, identifies leading technology suppliers, and provides five-year (global/regional) forecasts for the low voltage controlgear market.

To assist machine tool operators and builders through the rough economic times created in 2020, FANUC is offering this simulation tool at no cost.

The partnership will combine Salesforce’s Work.com, powered by Customer 360, and Siemens’ Smart Infrastructure solutions, including Comfy and Enlighted, to orchestrate the processes, people and things that are essential to creating safe, connected workplaces for the future.

The purification plant will treat wastewater from 26 municipalities across two provinces, servicing the needs of more than 90,000 inhabitants.

The HANNOVER MESSE Digital Days launch on 14 July with a diverse, top-class program. The event begins with the panel discussion “Forward to the New ‒ New Opportunities for Progress?” featuring Siemens board member Klaus Helmrich; Festo chairman Oliver Jung; BDI president Dieter Kempf; Friedhelm Loh Group owner and chairman Friedhelm Loh; Robert Bosch managing director Rolf Najork; and SAP board member Thomas Saueressig.

Microchip’s Analog Design eBook is intended to expand knowledge with insightful technical articles that will help any engineer.

These machines reduce the production time of each individual mask compared to doing it by hand, and reduce the need for experienced sewing machine operators, as the process is fully automated.

IoT plays a crucial role in remote patient monitoring systems, which have changed the nature of health care delivery during COVID-19—possibly forever.

COVID-19 has ushered in the era of remote work. Organizations must update their cybersecurity strategies to adjust to changing tactics from cybercriminals.

The rapid speed and economic impacts of COVID-19 have shifted the balance between state, citizens and businesses within national economies.

Located in Luther, Oklahoma, the Redbud plant comprises four identical 1X1 units generating a combined output of 1,230 megawatts.

The addition of UltraSoC to Siemens enables a unified data-driven infrastructure, and the creation of a solution to help semiconductor industry customers overcome key pain points including manufacturing defects, software and hardware bugs, device early-failure and wear-out, functional safety, and malicious attacks.

The study was commissioned by Kryon to answer the ever-present question for any company taking its first steps toward an RPA implementation. On June 17, 2020, Kryon hosted a webinar featuring Forrester to discuss the results of the TEI.

Companies considering AMRs for their manufacturing, warehouse or other e-commerce-related distribution applications can virtually visit the test facility now—with the facility opening for onsite visits following Massachusetts’ phased re-opening guidelines—to see how the AMRs would work in their own facilities.

Smith has experience in a variety of manufacturing environments including continuous flow, batch processes, hot glass, refractory, finishing and assembly.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) and industry expert Jim Beretta have partnered to launch the Robot Nation podcast, featuring a series of conversations with experts and thought leaders in robotics and automation.

Automation professionals from the ISA Mentor Program address a question they received: 'What factors affect dead time identification for a PID loop?'

The multi-session live event, recorded and available on demand for those who missed it, described how digitalization is a competitive imperative for manufacturing and production companies that want to thrive and survive.

Programming the OnRobot Screwdriver is done by entering the appropriate screw length and torque value into the user interface that is integrated into the teach pendant of any robot.

This specification describes a standardized OPC UA object model for PROFINET devices which enables PROFINET devices from a wide variety of different manufacturers to transfer device data to asset management systems in a standardized way, for example. Standardization makes information collection significantly easier for tool manufacturers, regardless of the manufacturer, but this is just the beginning of PI’s vertical integration strategy.

The HARTING Technology Group has been awarded the golden German Brand Award, with the company garnering the prize for its European Distribution Center (EDC) logistics centre. This marks the fifth time the award has been conferred.

By Cory Fogg Here are few of areas outside of the factory where innovative robotic solutions are the answers to specific needs.

A world-first robotic innovation that scans and measures export logs on trucks has landed its Kiwi developers on the 2020 RBR50, Robotics Business Review’s prestigious global list.

The Jubail-Riyadh water transmission system, owned by the state-run Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), will transport water from desalination plants near Jubail on the Persian Gulf coast to Riyadh, the growing capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

ISA Executive Board member Carlos Mandolesi reflects on the present and future of the organization in this personal essay.

Absent an effective OT security plan, OT enterprise and their integrated ICS/SCADA systems are left vulnerable to cyberattacks that could result in financial loss, reputational damage, diminished consumer confidence, and even threaten the safety of citizens—and in the case of critical infrastructures, also threaten national security.

We asked a few of the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance founding members why they decided to join. This is Part 2 of a series.

Device libraries have been a common problem for many field communicators, and the complicated update procedure has been a nightmare for many users. Vendors sometimes struggle to understand what really happens in the field, and the chat groups on WhatsApp prove that the challenges still exist out there.

PRM centralizes management of large volumes of data from instrumentation and equipment.and fully supports communication standards such as HART, FOUNDATION fieldbus™ (FF-H1), PROFIBUS, PROFINET, ISA100 and FDT/DTM (Field Device Tool/Device Type Manager4) interface standards