Articles and News

Although few engineers now hesitate to use wireless for monitoring purposes, wireless valve control has not enjoyed such success.

Products are becoming commodities in the fast-moving new global business environment. To succeed, businesses need a competitive differentiator – a proprietary edge which can only be developed through innovation, knowledge and experience.

Network marketing is a distribution system, or form of marketing, which channels goods or services from the manufacturer to the consumer through a "network" of independent distributors or consultants.

The world of HAL and Data, of sentient machines, is fast approaching. Indeed, in some ways it has already arrived as humanlike machines increasingly take on the work of humans. As processing power increases exponentially, and as MEMS technology brings smaller and smarter sensors and actuators, robots are the breeding ground for future-generation products with new, varied and exciting applications.

Today, ETO manufacturers, as opposed to repetitive manufacturers, are required to use technology to stay one step ahead of foreign competition.

Buhler, a provider of grain milling solutions, standardized on Softing’s industry-hardened S7/S5 OPC Server to provide reliable connectivity between Buhler’s “WinCoS.r2” automation system and multiple S7-400 PLC’s

The reason to use derivative (or D) is that you can use more Proportional and especially more Integral action. The result can be a much faster reacting control loop.

Counterfeit electrical products are a growing problem that can have serious consequences. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports fiscal year 2008 seizures totaled more than $272.7 million in counterfeit and pirated goods, a 38 percent increase in domestic value over fiscal year 2007. In the category of Top Safety and Security Commodities for fiscal year 2009, electrical products moved from 5th to 2nd position just behind pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Godart is known for developing high-performance teams and applying groundbreaking technologies to improve business productivity and sustainability. He comes to OSI well equipped to provide strong strategic leadership to the company’s industrial energy management business unit.

The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) announced the release of the open architecture gigabit (GB) CC-Link IE Field Network. I recently met with two members of CLPA Americas to get an update on the latest CC-Link IE standard.

The two main ways to implement secure remote access are with a hosted VPN and with a traditional VPN.A hosted VPN works well in most applications and is much simpler to implement and support.t

Suggested industrial applications for XP Embedded include human-machine interface (HMI) panels, process automation systems, industrial robots, inspection systems, Soft programmable logic controllers (Soft PLCs), remote control devices and factory monitoring systems. Accordingly, many Advantech systems are compatible with XP Embedded. A few of the many possible consumer and commercial applications of XP Embedded would include set top boxes and terminals such as kiosks and ATMs.

Over the years, corrosion evaluation tools have been developed to help the corrosion engineer do his or her job more efficiently. In the end, these tools gave the corrosion expert a high level of data for determination of corrosion but the data was only useful to the specialist, not the facility operator or control systems engineer – that is, until now. Finally, corrosion monitoring technology is available that can be easily implemented into standard control room architecture.

Traditional compressor monitoring has focused on velocity vibration and rod drop. Hardy provides two additional measurement techniques, Impact and Triangulated Rod Drop, that were developed especially for reciprocating compressors.

The vast majority of encoder users have a solid understanding of the type of encoder they need to accomplish their objective. What they don’t always know, at least without painful experience, are the major factors that need to be considered when specifying, installing, and interfacing with the encoders they select for their machine. This article will address those issues, primarily as they relate to rotary incremental optical encoders, though most of the concepts that follow apply to several encoder types.

The methodology proposed in this paper can be applied to any processes i.e. manufacturing, management, software development, financial, etc.

The Freelance system combines easy engineering with open system architecture. ABB describes Freelance as a small footprint DCS for small to medium sized plants in the process industry and for applications requiring DCS functionality in a compact system with intuitive and efficient engineering tools.

ISO 9000 is a family of international quality management systems standards designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while meeting statutory an

In his role, Markus Spanner has established an extended management team to take a structured approach to achieving the new targets. He will be assisted bDr. Peter Schittenhelm (COO), Dr. Markus Czanta (CTO), Stéphane Bussa (CSO), and Heiko Brehm (CFO).

The transaction includes the purchase of a minority interest in ASEM held by KEB Group, Germany. Post-close, Rockwell Automation will maintain ASEM’s strategic supplier and technology partner relationship with KEB.

The solution is a result of co-innovation between Orange and its strategic partners Ekinops and Dell Technologies, combining Enterprise Branch Server IT and Virtualization Management.

The awards, which are judged by independent juries of industry experts, recognize infrastructure projects for digital innovations that improve project delivery and/or asset performance. The deadline for nominations is May 1, 2020.

The report shows that the current deceleration in manufacturing output seen in 2019 is expected to continue into early 2020. However, a solid recovery is anticipated by 2021, before the sector enters another natural business downcycle towards the end of 2022. A rise in output for most industrial segments is then forecast beyond 2022.

From 2020 to 2022 almost 2 million new units of industrial robots are expected to be installed in factories around the world. New technology trends and market developments enable companies to react to changing requirements. The International Federation of Robotics shows top trends to innovate.

Designed to help digitalize the smart buildings industry, the Smart Buildings Challenge had technology suppliers compete to design solutions for four different use cases.

The amount of worldwide e-waste generation is expected to exceed 50 million tons by 2020. Americans specifically, throw away an estimated 55 billion USD in e-waste material each year. This article explains how manufacturers can achieve sustainable manufacturing through obsolescence management.

There are very few if any chemical or refinery units that would not benefit from state-based alarming.

ISA past president Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE, will be presenting at local meetings around the country during the first quarter of 2020. As a global functional safety consultant with aeSolutions, Gruhn has gained extensive experience consulting with sites around the world.

SystemLink was developed by National Instruments as a tool to help engineers and engineering management navigate through Industry 4.0. It works to simplify tasks such as software deployment, device configuration, system monitoring, and data management.

Through his experience on numerous projects, Kuusman has acquired a breadth of knowledge in the company’s systems and site work management, which he now brings to this new role. Namely, he will be responsible for leading the Cimcorp U.S. office in Norcross, Georgia, guiding its strategic growth and quality of customer service and after-sales support.