Articles and News

More than 800 soldiers, airmen and civilians from across 44 states and territories participating in Cyber Shield 17 at Camp Williams in Utah

With this advancement of its web portal, solutions provider Eplan and the current 130,000 registered users will experience Azure Services like the Azure Content Delivery Network.

Designed to better serve Matrox software users located around the world, the on-demand Matrox Vision Academy expands upon the current classroom-based on premise training sessions to help users build out skill sets and knowledge on their own timeline and from their preferred location.

Ghana Water has invested in 40.000 Danish intelligent meters to help diminish the nation’s supply challenges. The project is the first of its kind ever carried out in Ghana

The target is to offer TSN as firmware upgrade to the users of netX technologies. Hilscher developed a firmware upgrade for TSN which can turn a standard real-time ethernet device into a TSN enabled device.

Cisco introduced three new solutions to the Connected Factory portfolio. Cisco Connected Factory is designed to bring the power of data across the manufacturing siloes of today.

Teledyne DALSA will highlight its configurable LWIR camera platform at the AUVSI XPONENTIAL in booth #1231. The exhibition takes place May 9-11 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.

System design enhancements will bring a step change in compactness, with a potential to deliver 350 percent more power per square meter of space used – suitable in applications like offshore wind or interconnections, in terms of converter station footprint be it on offshore platforms or onshore installations.

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation This article discusses the evolution of the programmable logic controller (PLC), and predicts what the future might hold for this crucial piece of equipment.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) announced that the Automate 2017 show and conference broke all previous attendance records with show attendance of 12,960 people, which is a 37 percent increase over 2015.

Hydro Ottawa transports power from the provincial electricity grid across a distribution network comprised of 85 distribution stations, 2,700 kilometers of underground lines, 29,000 kilometers of overhead lines, 45,000 transformers, and 48,000 hydro poles.

Novatio Digital Workforce is designed to automate repetitive business tasks while freeing companies’ human capital for more value-added activities.

The emerging frontier for industrial innovation points at exciting changes likely to revolutionize the business of manufacturing.

From Monday, September 25 (by exhibitor invitation only) to Thursday, September 28, truck and trailer brands and suppliers will be showcasing new equipment on the floor of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

At the official ceremony held on the Tuesday of HANNOVER MESSE, fleXstructures CEO Oliver Hermanns was delighted to receive the prize in honor of its IPS ROBOT OPTIMIZATION software solution. Second place was taken by Mayser GmbH & Co. KG (Lindenberg, Germany) with eta|opt GmbH (Kassel, Germany) coming in at third place.

By Andy Owen, MasterMover While stability has gradually been restored in the years following the financial crash, the industrial sector continues to face an uncertain future. This is driven by what has been dubbed the skills gap. This article explores why the engineering skills problem is persisting — and what businesses can do about it.

With the integration of the OPC Unified Architecture Standard (OPC UA) into operation and control systems, both existing machines and new designs can be made IoT ready, and so can be integrated into the Smart Factory environment.

This collection is designed to deliver an optimized business operations solution to customers, allowing both companies to solve challenges across the oil and gas industry.

Online registrations are open to all hackers at www.blurrybox.com. The contestants will have three weeks to break the code and report their exploits for their chance to win €50,000.

Mentor provides a portfolio of solutions for the industrial market, with offerings that include the Nucleus real-time operating system (RTOS) and the Yocto Project-based Mentor Embedded Linux platform.

Industry 4.0, energy and environmental technologies, vocational training, startups and direct foreign investment are among the themes that will feature prominently in Mexico’s 2018 showcase. Mexico is the first Latin American nation to ever present itself as a Partner Country of HANNOVER MESSE.

Johnson joined SYSCON in July of 2015 to head SYSCON-PlantStar and lead the startup of the new SYSCON Sensors division.

With TrendMiner, process and mechanical engineers and operators can identify trends in their processes, look for similar trends in the past, fingerprint operating windows, monitor behavior, send notifications to engineering or control room staff and predict deviations in live processes.

Feedforward provides preemptive corrective action for production rate and grade changes enabling key PID controllers to provide consistent product quality.

By Paul Gruhn, ISA Society Leader Pat Gouhin (ISA CEO and Executive Director), Robert Lindeman (AAES Board member and former ISA Society President), along with Eric Cosman and Paul Gruhn (two ISA Society Leaders), attended a number of meetings in Washington D.C. in late April, discussing the future of American engineering with the government

Visitors to the Rockwell Automation booth (NRG Center, Booth 847) will also learn about the latest control and safety solutions for subsea and topside, including emergency shutdown and blowout prevention.

These are preliminary results published by the Statistical Department of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). During the same period, the number of jobs in the US automotive sector rose by 260,600 - according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By Jason Andersen, Stratus Technologies The vision of an intelligent, connected automation infrastructure has the potential to dramatically reshape how industrial enterprises operate. No wonder some are calling it the “next industrial revolution.” But the journey to realizing that vision will be strictly evolutionary.

The cooperation between FIT and Telit will focus on transforming the business service and offerings of manufacturers, enabling them to capitalize on all the benefits of Industrie 4.0.

Gathering requirements are important because they define the objectives, purpose, scope, needs, and other key meters.

The demand for small form factors for space-constrained embedded application is increasing rapidly. In response to this requirement, DFI gladly introduces you to ultra-small size products which includes industrial motherboards and system-on-modules based on the new generation Intel® Atom™ processor E3900 series (code name: Apollo Lake).

Profibus DP enabled Rotork IQ multi-turn electric valve actuators were installed during the upgrade and expansion of the water treatment plant. The majority of the 136 IQ electric actuators were installed to control the inlet, outlet and backwashing functions on the new and existing filters.

In joining The Linux Foundation, Opto 22 hopes to spearhead the adoption of open-source technology in the industrial automation and process control industries, and accelerate the rollout of Industrial Internet of Things applications.

DFI held a factory tour to introduce the manufacturing process of industrial motherboards and embedded system for the Japanese students from Special Needs Education School for the Deaf, University of Tsukuba, in December.

As more and more balance is required among high performance, small size, and ability to be fanless in the embedded markets, DFI is glad to introduce to you a brand-new option: EC70A-SU/EC70B-SU industrial box PC powered by 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 processor (code name: Skylake).

By Alex West, IHS Markit Early this month ABB; a supplier of robotics, process automation, and electrification components, acquired B&R Automation, an industrial software and automation hardware company. So what does the B&R Automation acquisition mean for ABB?

The goal of the project is to minimize adverse effects and make sure associated industry players are represented as the Swiss government makes important decisions that promote a sustainable environment.

EE Boost chose C3D Labs’ line of products for the development of its simulation software of wave behavior in acoustic, elastic, electronic, and photonic applications.

Since studies have shown that ticketing experience plays a vital part in customers’ perception of transit service quality, Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail), a national operator of railway lines, recognized the need to deliver efficient passenger services by upgrading the ticket vending machines at major stations.

DFI’s upcoming boards with 7th Generation Intel® Core™ processor (code name Kaby Lake) bring customers overall enhanced experiences such as low-power with a TDP of 15W, increased CPU performance by 5%, visual enhancement with lower power consumption, and faster speed shift technology.

DFI announced that it has been awarded an IPC J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610 Qualified Manufacturers Listing (QML) by IPC’s Validation Services Program under the on-site audit guidance.

DFI has launched new industrial motherboards powered by the latest Intel® Atom™ processor E3900 family (code name Apollo Lake).

As a national operator of railway lines, Korail recognized the need to improve its services due to consumer demands and the modernization of mass transit. Through collaboration with other hardware suppliers and system integrators, DFI contributed to the successful upgrade of the TVMs at major subway stations in Seoul.

The combination of the 6th generation Intel® Core™ processor and DFI’s high quality production ensures that the new SBC is equipped with high speed CPU performance, powerful 4K-capable graphics, DDR4, and Windows 10 support.

GE Healthcare has reduced the size of its repair cell stations at the Repair Operations Center by 40%, much of which is due to the integration of the OTTO self-driving vehicles.

Wireless technology has gained rapid acceptance in many industrial sectors because of its cost effectiveness, reliability, fast deployment, and flexibility.

The first two joint industry solutions powered by ABB Ability and Watson will bring real-time cognitive insights to the factory floor and smart grids.

The award was presented during the HANNOVER MESSE Opening Ceremony on 23 April by Germany’s Minister for Education and Research, Johanna Wanka.

By Mathew Daniel, Sciemetric Instruments Data, data and more data. It’s the hot topic in manufacturing today with all the hype and anxiety around Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things. How should it be collected, managed and used effectively?

The newly formed company has offices in Delft (the Netherlands), Framingham (USA) and Odense (Denmark). RBM has four conference and expo events already planned in the next twelve months.

The 300-exhibitor event provided a platform for companies to conduct business, and tap into the talent and experience from the industry community. Asia’s premier manufacturing technology industry event concluded last Friday at the Singapore Expo.

EdgeX Foundry is an open-source project hosted by The Linux Foundation, building a common open framework for Internet of Things (IoT) edge computing and an ecosystem of interoperable components to unify the marketplace and accelerate enterprise and Industrial IoT.

The two will accelerate the delivery of cloud-based, IoT solutions for all of Schneider Electric’s end user segments, marrying Microsoft’s experience in the cloud with Schneider Electric’s domain expertise in power management, plants, machines, buildings, data centers and grids to empower companies in a wide variety of markets to use IoT as a competitive differentiator.

The EPLAN Data Portal is an online source of free device and component data for machinery and plant design. Downloads now exceed over one million datasets per month from a selection of 700,000 parts from 179 leading manufacturers that continues to grow.

By Tom Egan, PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies Robotics, automatic labelers, smart packaging and digital printing are just some of the technologies that can help an operation become more flexible and cost-effective with rapid response times to save on related expenses. This article will discuss some resources you might not know about.

There are many challenges to effectively executing industrial automation scope as overall project size grows to $100 million and beyond.

A continuity check is performed on a length of finished wire or cable to determine if the electrical current flows continuously throughout the length.

Red Trident’s RF engineering solutions and services include deploying wireless backhaul networks, conducting full RF spectrum analysis, terrain analysis, signal loss analysis, submitting FCC filings, and designing and managing point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and static or dynamic mesh networks.

The book encourages both manufacturers and automation suppliers to better capitalize on fast-emerging innovations in industrial technology, such as process automation systems, to drive transformative improvements in manufacturing.

The expansion will include new production lines, equipment and training at the company’s existing plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia. The plant is part of Honeywell’s Elster Gazelektronika business.

Products from both companies will be showcased, demonstrating how to integrate and deliver edge computing applications and connect real-world signals and industrial “things” to the digital world of information technology, mobile, and cloud computing.

By Jennifer Waldo, GE Digital and IoT Talent Consortium Given the rising importance of the Internet of Things, “digital transformation” has become a business necessity, and the industrial sector is facing a huge shift. In addition to technological challenges, organizations must also address how to find, train and manage the people who will power this transformation.

This plant will be built in Doha, which is about 20 km east of Kuwait City, by Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water. The plant will produce 270,000 tons of fresh water per day, which is sufficient to meet the needs of 900,000 residents.

Effective immediately, Wood Group will serve as TPC’s main automation contractor providing automation, technical, systems, process, software, fabrication and construction support to the company’s manufacturing facilities in Houston and Port Neches in Texas and a terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Since the inception of YES, igus has donated products to tens of thousands of students worldwide for projects including a record-setting solar car, a full scale submarine, a 3D pizza printer, and countless others.

The project’s Honeywell solutions will include licensing, basic engineering design and other associated services for a modular Penex isomerization unit

The topics of H2+FC NORTH AMERICA will include hydrogen generation, storage and transportation, fuel cell systems and applications, stationary-, automotive-, mobile fuel cells, special markets, components and supplying technology, fuel cell and battery testing.

Whoever is interested in innovation in industry will find inspiration at the 150 startups exhibiting at Young Tech Enterprises in Hall 3 at HANNOVER MESSE.

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation While it may still be some time before we replace ourselves with androids, automation is having a significant impact on the way we work. This article will discuss further, the impact of robotics on the job market.

Before implementing a cybersecurity technical solution, take an inventory of your industrial network cyber assets and perform a vulnerability assessment.

By Dan DeYoung, Rockwell Automation Implementing a smart manufacturing approach requires an automation system that can keep up with these demands – a system that integrates all smart devices on a single network with one control platform. Automation systems must be able to deliver the promise of smart manufacturing

Renishaw’s neuromate stereotactic robot assisted surgeon Prof. William Gray during the SEEG case, a procedure which uses intracerebral electrodes to measure electrical signals.

This funding round is intended expand PAS sales and marketing across its global offices as well as increase research and development for Cyber Integrity, its flagship cybersecurity software product.

The demonstrator, which attracted a lot of interest at SPS IPC Drives 2016 in Germany, shows the transmission of the Sercos III real-time protocol via Ethernet standard IEEE 802.1 TSN (Time-Sensitive Networks).

Wi-FAR supports line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight broadband services at distances up to 30 km, enabling deployment of middle- and last-mile solutions to regional, rural and remote areas. TV white space can also support a range of current and emerging infrastructure applications, including machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Grid deployment, industrial automation and homeland security.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com As automation technology gets more advanced, with more capabilities, so to does it come with an increasing number of cyber security vulnerabilities. As such, this week’s Deep Dive will revolve around Deloitte's new cyber risk platform

Safety, equipment and environmental protection, process efficiency and capacity, product quality, and control system maintenance depend on PID tuning.

The combination, which is the first investment of its kind for Superior Controls, closed on March 31, 2017. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Honeywell acknowledged 14 channel partners for excellence, innovation and service among more than 300 companies supplying and integrating Honeywell solutions in Asia-Pacific. Honorees surpassed their business goals by delivering superior value to customers.

The objective of feedforward control is to measure disturbances and compensate for them before the controlled variable deviates from set point.

The software will help support the next generation of geoscientists throughout India and will be rolled-out to petroleum and reservoir engineer students at both universities.

U.S. manufacturing technology orders increased more than expected in February, up 19.6 percent from January, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders report from AM

This is the first-ever plant-wide implementation in Japan (based on a March 2017 Yokogawa market survey) of SDN, a software-based technology that enables the creation of virtual network environments.

The Romania facility plays an important part in the Group’s global growth strategy. Over the next two years around 100 new jobs will be created in Sibiu.

ISA President Steven Pflantz says ISA members should seek opportunities to serve as advocates and ambassadors for the industrial automation profession.

During the meeting with Secretary Ross, Moret, who previously served as chair of the Board of the NAM Manufacturing Institute, highlighted the contributions Rockwell Automation has made to lifelong learning and its critical role in bolstering modern manufacturing competitiveness.

Honeywell’s solution is designed to improve safety, efficiency and productivity through control, optimization and monitoring of product blending, movements and inventories in refineries, tank farms and terminals.

Beyond opportunities from developing new and existing applications, the investment will enable Victrex to explore the potential of additive manufacturing within the fibers area, building on the additive manufacturing consortium announced in 2016.

An ISA technical paper proposes a model predictive control as a novel active queue management algorithm in dynamic computer networks.

By Don Pham, IDEC New laser scanner technology allows plant personnel to address safety challenges with more comprehensive coverage zones and configurations. This article will explore some of these technology advancements and discuss how they help improve safety and optimize operations.

NGCP is responsible for delivering safe and reliable power to customers in the Philippines over more than 21,000 circuit kilometers of transmission lines. Cost, resource and energy optimization pressure drove NGCP to invest further in their Schneider Electric solution

The UK’s role in robotics innovation will be shared again with the public this summer with the return of UK Robotics Week, encompassing an expanded nationwide program of events for this week-long celebration (24th – 30th June 2017).

VEGA Americas and SignalFire Wireless Telemetry have teamed up to couple VEGAPULS69 radar level instruments with a SignalFire Remote Sensing System (SFRSS) to provide a wireless remote monitoring and control solution to track flour usage.

Knick Interface LLC will be managed by Mr. Steve Allard, who brings substantial experience in both factory automation and process control industries. Steve will be operating out of Knick Interface’s sales office in California.

Combined with the SIL 2-certified One Series Safety Transmitter, UE now offers process instrumentation end users with a e range of options for electromechanical or digital switching in general process or hazardous area functional safety applications.

At interpack 2017, Siemens is presenting automation solutions for packaging machines, such as the Multi-Carrier System, as well as machine concepts to meet the requirements for speed, efficiency, individuality, and flexibility.

Automated Control Concepts, Inc (ACC), announced that key executive team members have been promoted to advanced roles within the company as the company founder, Robert Tomasetta, retires from the operational role he has held for 34 years to serve as Chairman of the Board.

This relationship is intended to enhance the integrated Petro-SIM engineering environment for a holistic approach to equipment sizing and rating in process design and troubleshooting across the upstream oil and gas, oil refining and petrochemicals industries.

The Automation Competency Model has been a tool for educators and parents, industry management, and lawmakers.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Connecting the manufacturing plant floor with the business enterprise through a single, open network has been an elusive goal in today's automation industry. Many industrial automation people believe that TSN will become a high volume, low cost technology with adoption by automotive and consumer industries

AbraxSys announced the enhancement of the operating and storage temperatures for its industrial and sunlight readable outdoor LCDs. Operating temperatures as low as -22°F and as high as 176°F in some models.

The AMT board of directors, which represents more than 600 builders and distributors of machine tools, manufacturing machinery and related products, named Ronald S. Karaisz II to serve as Chairman.

The St. Louis, MO-based contract manufacturing and metrology company has expanded its manpower and footprint to the Wichita-area to serve manufacturers who require services from product design to quality control.

By Rick Delgado, Freelance Automation Writer It used to be that automation was only available to larger businesses because of the cost or software involved, but a new wave of innovation has brought automation tools specifically designed for all sizes of businesses that make it more accessible to even the newest ventures,

The dead band is the range through which an input signal may vary, upon reversal of direction, without initiating an observable change in output signal.

Elenion Technologies’ silicon photonic optical engines enable communications for Data Center Interconnect (DCI) and Telecom markets. The collaboration extends capabilities to enhance onboard optical transceivers for intra-data center applications.

APEM’s historical presence and reputation will help accelerate IDEC’s growth in Europe. IDEC’s leadership position in Japan and across Asia will open new markets for APEM products, and help to support existing APEM business across Asia.

Teel Plastics was inspired to find a solution that would allow operators to control all pieces electronically and reduce human error. They ultimately found that Kepware’s IoT Gateway for KEPServerEX provided the way to control all the essential components.

The globally-active company submitted a record 273 patents in 2016. Around three-fourths involve level, flow and analysis measurement technology, followed by digital communication and instrument diagnosis.

By Peter McDermott, MDI According to research from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, 2 million manufacturing jobs are likely to go unfilled over the next decade. Tapping into the myriad abilities of people with disabilities can be part of the solution.

By Michael Risse, Vice President, Seeq Corporation These five types of people often hinder big data analytic projects, but recognizing their characteristics can make them allies instead of enemies.

Statseeker's downloadable whitepaper provides insight into the digital transformation that IoT technology is bringing to manufacturers. The paper will cover IT/OT convergence, big data collection, and more.

The IAMD show comprises production, process and energy automation systems; robotics; industrial IT; hardware and services; production technologies and services; transmission and fluid power components and systems; pneumatic and hydraulic systems; plain and rolling bearings; geared motors; linear technology; and sealing technology.

Stacks, chimneys and other gas handling equipment can take all sorts of forms depending on the application, but a common element is the need for effective temperature measurement of the gas at various points in chimneys.

The combination is intended to result in a comprehensive offering for customers of industrial automation, by pairing B&R's products, software and solutions for modern machine and factory automation with ABB’s offering in robotics, process automation, digitalization and electrification.

With so many variables, including furnace pressure, air-to-fuel ratio and controller stability, Anchor Glass knew it needed a new control system to better manage furnace operations. To help design the new system, Anchor Glass turned to Stone Technologies, a Rockwell Automation Solution Partner and member of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program.

The devices feature a multi-touch screen and are suitable for installation in the front of the control cabinet. The user can choose between different performance classes and display sizes ranging from 7.0 to 21.5 inches.

Verizon’s Cat M1 network is built on a virtualized cloud environment which enables IoT solution deployment and nationwide scaling aimed at increasing IoT adoption for developers and businesses with new and more economical IoT data plans.

The goal of the strategic advisory board is to explore and secure new growth opportunities for Seegrid’s vision guided industrial solutions.

Aventics makes a move to expand its business beyond pneumatics in order to offer the market both pneumatic and electronic systems and components in response to customer demands.

Industrial pervasive sensing devices lower energy requirements and reduce maintenance costs.

The PartnerNetwork program is designed to help industrial companies better solve their production and automation challenges by working with an expansive network of suppliers, distributors, system integrators, and machine and equipment builders.

The company’s expansion in Japan is designed to strengthen its existing relationships with key clients in financial services and other sectors, as well as expanding partnerships with global consulting firms and Japanese system integrators to explore new business opportunities.

RPA Express lets customers automate the manual work of integrating Citrix, Oracle, SAP and other vital core systems by eliminating the “swivel chair” tasks of entering credentials, navigating application interface, and performing core systems functions.

Prior to joining Konrad USA, Mr. da Silva was Director of Engineering at Apple, Inc – Cupertino, California and before that he was Vice President of Operations at Siemens COM, Inc – San Diego, California.

By Ola Lennartsson, Axis Communications For a long time, physical security was strictly analog, and it’s only connection to the IT network was at its end point. But now, now that IP-based security systems are becoming the norm, with all the associated benefits, both IT & OT professionals need to be aware that the game has changed.

Teledyne DALSA will feature its BOA Spot ID advanced barcode reader and latest innovations in thermal imaging in booth #459 at Automate 2017

By Matt Smith, Cortet Engineering This article will help readers navigate through the deluge of IoT information and identify which technology choices will have the biggest positive impact on upcoming product plans.

The podium discussion on 25 April, “High-Level Research as Innovation Motor in Germany”, addresses the importance of science and STEM education for the further economic, industrial and innovative development of Germany.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Connectivity is the name of the game in today’s IIoT atmosphere and ODVA is the latest to join the push for open communication standards. ODVA’s Common Industrial Cloud Interface (CICI) Special Interest Group is working on enhancements to ODVA specifications to connect CIP (Common Industrial Protocol) protocols, EtherNet/IP & DeviceNet with cloud applications.

Successful leak detection depends on a productive confluence of several situationally dependent technologies.

The postal recognition technology of Prime Vision will complement Delft Robotics to apply robots based on 3D machine vision using deep learning.

Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI) has been awarded a contract by Great Lakes Energy (GLE) for a SCADA and Distribution Management System (DMS) based on OSI's monarch (Multi-platform Open Network ARCHitecture) platform.

Dr. Wade—who has more than 50 years of experience designing, applying and installing process control systems—says the updated edition builds upon the real-world experiences and process knowledge of engineers and technicians to demonstrate the application of successful regulatory control strategies and techniques.

By Travis Schneider, Parker Hannifin To increase the chances for success in these collaborations, clear ongoing communication between the motion supplier and OEM customer is critical. The following guidelines are crucial in any engineering collaboration of this type.

Elite can access the platform’s fire and gas control system remotely from its headquarters in Livingston, Scotland. As a result, the automated control systems used to operate Chirag operate and allow production to continue without interruption

With the 2016 North American robotics market breaking all-time records in orders and shipments, according to the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) survey, OptoForce looks forward to playing a role in the automation of North American manufacturing initiatives.

Model predictive control excels at dead-time dominance and simultaneous optimization while accounting for future prediction of proximity to constraints.

The collaboration is designed to offer customers enhanced features, coordinated system-wide control, and data integration from legacy SCADA environments to new enterprise-wide solutions.

The second annual Global Day of the Engineer, presented by DiscoverE, is a one-day event that unites individuals, engineering employers, educational institutions, governmental bodies and engineering associations, all of whom pledge to join in celebrating engineers and engineering.

This location will serve as center of operations for the Festo North American executive management team, as well as marketing, finance, technology, human resources, and other corporate functions. All employees from the current Moreland Road location will relocate to its new location on Motor Parkway.

Based at the Singapore office, he will oversee all areas of a business that is seeing demand for precision engineering services from industrial and manufacturing sectors, and recently opened a new Thailand office in Bangkok.

Automation technologies will be at the forefront at Automate 2017, including the fast-growing segment of collaborative robots that are designed for safe, collaborative use alongside human workers.

Rockwell Automation will be showcasing the technologies, solutions and services that can help companies successfully and securely take advantage of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) at Hannover Messe 2017, April 24-28 in Hannover, Germany.

The meeting event, “Pharmaceutical Cybersecurity Convocation: A Critical Executive Dialogue,” will be held at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Convention Center in Framingham (Boston area), Massachusetts, in conjunction with ISA’s Food & Pharmaceutical Industries Division (FPID) Symposium.

By Jorgen Saxeryd, ABB In 2014 in the UK, a large food manufacturer had to pay a £800,000 fine after a serious industrial accident. This article explains how safety procedures must be developed in food processing plants.

The video shows how Okuma distributor Gosiger went into the control and created a GUI interface so the Moser operators don’t even see the OSP controls, or have to call up any programs at all. The app also provides safeguards so the operators can’t crash the machine tool.

Festo named AWC to distribute process automation products in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.

In the role of CEO, Mr. Mori will be responsible for all day-to-day business operations in North America. Mr. Mori began his career as an engineer, helping implement systems projects for Yokogawa customers all over the world.

Product experts will be on hand, and product demonstrations, inducing a Fanuc 6 axis robotic arm featuring the igus triflex RSE cable retraction system, featuring lightweight triflex R multi-axis cable carrier.

How to develop a proper control system for separation of multiple batch components by vacuum stripping.

The FieldComm Group Plant of the Year is an international award presented to end user companies in the process automation industry to recognize the exceptional and valuable application of FOUNDATION Fieldbus, FDI and / or HART Communication technologies.

The companies are leveraging their expertise in the field of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), sensor fusion, Hardware in the Loop (HiL), V2X communication, GNSS simulation and data management to provide a one stop solution for fully autonomous vehicles.

ABB Drives and Controls was lacking a component information management system with a centralized database for their Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) components and the mechanical parts that included PCBAs. They selected Omnify Empower PLM

Part of the Honeywell Connected Plant intiative, UniSim eLearn is hosted in the cloud and revolutionizes access to operator training simulation (OTS). It’s a key tool in delivering effective operator competency management.

The project aimed to test the feasibility of developing an integrated data platform for Chester city centre. The focus was on linking a novel air quality network of low cost wireless sensors with the traffic management within the city centre to alleviate air pollution ‘hot spots’ caused by queuing traffic.

Operating independently from Productive Robotics, Inc, Cobots Guide will advocate for the collaborative robot industry to encourage broad knowledge and acceptance of collaborative robots in manufacturing and non-manufacturing practice, education and public policy.

The Bedrock controller is part of an integrated plantwide SCADA system. Users connect to that system via Ignition software from Inductive Automation. Ignition is an industrial applications platform that coordinates control and data acquisition for all plant PLCs and remote transfer units (RTUs).

For supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) in its vegetable oil and grain plants, Adams uses Ignition by Inductive Automation. Ignition is an industrial applications platform with fully integrated tools for building SCADA, manufacturing execution system (MES), and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions.

For more than a decade, the company’s 305,000-square-foot production facility in Hammond, Wisconsin, had been experiencing voltage sags several times per year that disrupted its largest production line. To get a better grip on the voltage-sag problem, Loparex installed the Allen-Bradley i-Sense and i-Grid intelligent network system from Rockwell Automation on its largest coating line.

By Arun Ananthampalayam, Honeywell Process Solutions Whether you are a tool builder or an application developer – if your software needs to access automation data, you may want to implement OPC UA connectivity to ensure your system can access data via the world’s most popular, standards-based, open connectivity solution. The question is: How to best do this?

GKN, a manufacturer of automotive driveline products, was seeking an end-to-end traceability strategy and discovered the Argonaut system from RedViking

HighJump’s cloud solution is designed to simplify each step of the supply chain while assuring levels of service through system uptime, response time and security.

Closed Loop Input Error (CLIE) approach for on-line parametric estimation of a continuous-time model of a DC servomechanism functioning in closed loop.

By Bernhard Erdl, PULS GmbH The fourth industrial revolution is extremely power-hungry. Due to increasing networking and continuous information exchange in production technology, power requirements as well as the importance of machine availability are ever increasing.

By Christoph Frodl, PULS Train travellers and commuters want one thing above all else from the railway: Reliability. This expectation is also passed on by the railway company to its suppliers, right through to the manufacturers of individual components, such as power supply units.

Mustard is featured in an online article—posted by PLASTICSTODAY—that promotes the presentation he will be giving next week at the Advanced Design and Manufacturing conference, to be held 29-30 March at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

The European Southern Observatory based in Garching, Germany, is relying on displacement measurement systems from Micro-Epsilon for a project to build the world’s largest mirror telescope in Chile, which also involves French cooperation partner Fogale. The inductive sensor systems used for displacement measurement determine the position of each single mirror segment in three axes to nanometer accuracy.

One of the project’s objectives was to consolidate global R&D activities into one location. The engineering center houses additional test and inspection equipment, particularly for moving applications as well as for extreme temperature climates.

Officially launching to the North American market at Automate 2017 in April, On Robot’s two-finger RG2 grippers—available in both single and dual versions— mount on the arms of cobots without any external wires; for robots that have infinite rotation of the last joint.

A butterfly valve has a circular body and a rotary-motion disk-closure member. The physical blocking mechanism in a globe valve is a plug.

At interpack 2017, May 4 to 10 in Düsseldorf, Germany, visitors to the Rockwell Automation stand (hall 6/stand A61) will see the next generation of smart solutions that can help manufacturers build systems to support these demands.

The presentations will speak of the benefits Seeq customers are realizing in the oil & gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, mining, food and beverage, and other process industries.

RobMoSys (Composable Models and Software for Robotics) is an €8 million Innovation Action involving 9 partners from 5 countries and will be carried out over four years.

MicroHAWK, in combination with the browser-based WebLink user interface, allows users to adjust reader settings remotely and to monitor results in real time from any web-enabled device without installing any software.

By Maria Ferrante, PMMI PMMI had a chance to speak about new technologies and trends in automation with Don Wickstrum, president and owner of Quest Industrial, a robotics integrator based in Monroe, Wisconsin. Wickstrum will present an Innovation Stage seminar at the inaugural ProFood Tech (April 4-6; McCormick Place, Chicago) on how robotics can fill the labor shortage in the food industry.

This new collaboration is designed to attract and introduce more high school students to career opportunities in the industry and prepare them to become the next generation workforce for jobs that are in high demand.

Hänel offered two Rotomats to the Material Handling Institute (MHI), and Western Guilford was one of several schools to apply for the donation. The Rotomat vertical carousel will be used to store school materials and provide live demonstrations for the school’s Logistics Education Department.

By Alan Grau, Icon Labs Recent WikiLeak documents allege that the CIA developed, or sought to develop, or even “borrowed”, cyberattack technology that could target a wide range of IoT devices, including smart TVs, connected cars, and mobile phones. What can we learn from this?

Learn and share knowledge via discussion groups, articles, user group meetings, ISA meetings, Web meetings, and trade events.

The idea for the competition is for engineers, makers and students to come up with innovative applications and solutions based on the open IoT gateway.

In Hanover, HIMA will demonstrate the modular automation concept via a safety control system that features considerable processing power, multiple encoder interfaces and granular architecture.

The 2nd “Startup Pitch @ Young Tech Enterprises” from 24 to 28 April 2017, will see forty young companies compete not only for prize money, but also for potential investors, customers, partners and media coverage.

By Matt Smith, Cortet Engineering This article will aim to help your decision-making process by explaining the existing technologies and attempting to demystify the ocean of IoT protocols.

At the March 22-23 event, Festo and Siemens will demonstrate the Multi-Carrier System, a mass customization transport solution. Festo will provide strategies for smart manufacturing during presentations on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.

Matrikon's downloadable OPC whitepaper discusses how vendors can enable their new and existing products with OPC technology to compete on the IIoT/Industrie 4.0 landscape

GE's Industrial Internet Control System IICS is a central control system for industrial asset and plant control on the basis of analyzed machine data.

An array of examples from practice will allow visitors to experience applications and innovations demonstrating the competitive benefits to be gained by merging the real and the virtual worlds.

The M2M & OPCF user group has been founded in order to document and spread best practices for building secure communication solutions and smart services based on device and machine data.

Barto comes to Seegrid with more than 30 years of experience and has held CFO and executive positions at both privately held and public technology companies

This is the first acquisition for Electro-Matic Ventures, which has three other subsidiaries: Electro-Matic Products, Electro-Matic Integrated, and Electro-Matic Visual.

The availability of many new technologies has provided the building blocks for dramatic changes in the manufacturing industry. Is your business model set to keep up?

ISA has technology needed to solve infrastructure security challenges, such as the world's only industrial cybersecurity standard, ISA99/IEC62443.

SensAction will operate as a division of the Endress+Hauser center of competence for flow measurement technology headquartered in Reinach, Switzerland.

The effort, developed by Catalyst, recognizes CEOs and top industry leaders who support and drive diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

The integration, which is targeted for completion by the end of calendar year 2017, is intended to enhance Dematic's system integration capability in Europe. Egemin Automation had been acquired by the KION Group in 2015.

By Rajiv Sivaraman, Siemens Digitalization may find its way into the dictionary as a homonym, for all its multiple meanings, but it has already found its way into boardroom agenda. Are you on board with digitalization?

Alongside OPC UA and other control protocols, the echocollect gateway (version 7.10) includes publisher functionality of the MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) protocol.

The forum will be held April 4 at the Automate 2017 Show and Conference at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The forum will bring together A3’s Robotic Industries Association (RIA), and its counterpart, the China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA)

The study looked at the rise of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deployment in organizations, and to what extent it is expected to cause security problems in 2017.