Articles and News

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.

One of the key benefits mentoring is the stability it brings to industrial automation and the process industries when done effectively.

Since 1968, Moore Industries has been serving process manufacturing businesses and fortune 500 companies in oil, gas, mining, chemical, power generation, water/waste water treatment, pharmaceutical, food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, semiconductor, and biotechnology industries.

Ted Crandall, senior vice president, Control Products & Solutions (CP&S), one of the company’s two operating segments, announced his intent to retire near the end of the calendar year 2018.

By Robert Glass, ABB Industry 4.0 continues to open up new opportunities across food and beverage manufacturing. Virtual commissioning is one of these key technologies. This article explores the concept of virtual commissioning and how system testing can benefit the food industry.

Its aim is the development of an asset life cycle data model and its integration into the Siemens software solution Comos. The asset life cycle data model was developed by Evonik on the basis of the international DEXPI standard ISO 15956 and other internationally valid standards.

The catalog and design guide illustrates a range of products engineered for use as building blocks in linear motion assemblies depending on the customers’ application needs.

By Helen Marston, Cressall There are several women in our past that have changed the face of engineering forever, being highly praised for their skills and expertise. This article discusses the role of women in engineering throughout history.

Vuzix Corporation, a supplier of Smart Glasses, Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets, announced that the Company has appointed Zach Stone as Vice President of Operations and Shane Porzio as Vice President of Engineering.

Automation is essential to the implementation of Industry 4.0 and IoT strategies as manufacturers realize low labor rates are no longer a winning strategy.

For an equal percentage valve characteristic, each increment of valve movement provides the same percentage increase in flow.

Focus on upcoming events and training opportunities, governance activities, and ISA's extensive cybersecurity training programs and resources.

The automation industry is experiencing rapid changes and challenges; the diversity of ISA members is a great resource of experience, ideas, and know-how.

This agreement provides that Sartorius Stedim Biotech will use Siemens automation technologies, which will include industrial PCs, the S7-1500 software controller, the TIA Portal and the SCADA system Simatic WinCC, among others.

Following its acquisitions of artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Zementis (2016) and the Cumulocity IoT (2017), Software AG’s acquisition of TrendMiner is consolidating its position in the IoT market.

Siemens, through its global venture firm Next47, also invested in Claroty, joining a global syndicate of industrial organizations that invested $60 million in the company’s Series B round, bringing the company’s total investment to date to $93 million.

Obtaining clear guidance for securing your smart factory isn’t easy to come by. This article discusses smart factory security and what manufacturers should consider when protecting their facility.

By Emma Cygan, Pailton Engineering The theme for International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) 2018 is raising the bar. However, perhaps it's time to use this bar to quash a few misconceptions instead. This article will go in depth in today's engineering environment to do just this.

The Academy’s aim is to share best practice for plant engineering and operations. Academies are situated in the strategic locations of Karlsruhe, Germany (Siemens Process Automation World), Houston, Texas/USA (Bentley’s Digital Advancement Academy) and Shanghai, China (Siemens Process Industry Centre for Excellence) to support the global process industry.

By Scott Fawcett, Essentra Components The integration of digitisation and data exchange into the manufacturing process has led to the rapid growth of what is known as smart factories. These facilities, which incorporate smart planning, smart machines and smart data, are completely changing traditional manufacturing processes.

Students will work to master 3D modeling skills. Moreover, CAM functions like 2-axis turning & 2-5-axis hole milling and mold functions like part library & non-solid mold parting, are all at their disposal to turn ideas into reality.

As part of the partnership, Rockwell Automation will make a $1 billion equity investment in PTC, and Rockwell Automation’s Chairman and CEO, Blake Moret, will join PTC’s board of directors effective with the closing of the equity transaction.

By Alan Binning, COPA-DATA UK Renewables are set to be the fastest-growing source of electrical energy generation in the next five years. This article explores three common issues for renewables — managing demand, combining distributed systems and reporting.

The goal is to fully integrate the Endress+Hauser field instruments as digital twins into the SAP cloud platform. Both companies want to take advantage of the services and smart apps from SAP’s Leonardo system as well as Endress+Hauser’s IIoT offering.

The solution will connect an ABB Ability PowerStore 30 megawatt (MW) battery energy storage solution to the Electranet transmission system enabling the value stacking of storage in regulated energy market.

The new company combines U.S.-based Perception Robotics, Hungary-based OptoForce, and Denmark-based On Robot to become OnRobot, which aims to drive innovation for robotic end-of-arm tooling. OnRobot's headquarters will be located in Denmark under Iversen’s management, and the three entities will continue their individual operations and development as well.

Conditions encountered by pipelines in the U.S. are diverse and the complexity motivates broad and cautiously general requirements. This is not the case at the borders of all sovereign nations. Diverg

By Benson Hougland, Opto 22 Traditional industrial networking methods have proved workable but difficult to implement. The next generation of communication technologies may work to ease implementation while addressing security concerns.

One focal point of the collaboration is to increase the availability of all assets in a plant and to give personnel on site decision-making tools for their work. The objective is to make the plants more reliable through products and services and to be able to predict developments in the condition of a plant’s assets.

All lifecycle costs should be considered over the entire expected life of a project, with all costs calculated on a net present value basis.

Housed in a glass-clad building, the 400-kilovolt (kV) Länsisalmi substation plays a key role in Finland’s transmission grid. As part of the project, ABB replaced an outdoor air-insulated switchgear (AIS) installation with its gas insulated switchgear (GIS) technology, freeing up 70 percent of the space occupied by the old facility.

The certification recognizes the cyber security features of the ControlEdge RTU, which is used for remote automation and control applications such as wellhead monitoring in the oil and gas industry

The alignment of AspenTech and Microsoft’s technology and expertise is intended to deliver on the IIoT promise to connect assets, measure their performance and improve business outcomes.

The certification recognizes the cyber security features of the ControlEdge RTU, which is used for remote automation and control applications such as wellhead monitoring in the oil and gas industry

Free for Aquicore customers, the mobile app helps property and engineering teams to access up-to-the-minute asset intelligence. The mobile app also streamlines direct, day-to-day communication among asset managers, property managers and building engineers, enabling them to receive alerts, directly message their teams, contact customer support and receive updated building consumption reports.

By Sean Robinson, Novotek UK & Ireland Over the past five years, the industrial sector has begun to see the value in digitalisation and has invested more in adopting it. This article explains how plant managers can make proactive maintenance even more effective with machine learning.

By Vivek Joshi, Entytle The Digital Revolution has already disrupted media, finance, consumer products, healthcare, and other sectors. Manufacturing leaders can’t (and shouldn’t) escape it.

Listen to Greg McMillan's lessons learned the hard way during a 40-year career in process control industries. Many of the mistakes made in the field are still being made today, some posing safety risk

TT will provide Precision with customer and market access in Europe and Asia, supported by a global Field Application Engineering team and distribution network. TT’s operating footprint will provide manufacturing and supply chain capabilities in Asia to support customers in region.

The 2018 Integrated Industries Conference takes place on Tuesday, September 11 during IMTS 2018 and covers three major educational topic tracks: Motion, Drive, and Automation; Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)/Industry 4.0; and Integrated Industries.

By Nigel Smith, TM Robotics Many industries have already made the jump to automated processes. However, it’s only been in recent years that the food and beverage industry has begun to truly explore what automation and robotic technology has to offer.

The industrial automation and control system (IACS) community must recognize the value of the ISA/IEC 62443 IACS family of cybersecurity standards.

By George Walker, Novotek Plans to integrate digitalization across the globe have led many governments to set-out initiatives to accelerate the rate of adoption over the next 10 to 20 years. This article explains why businesses should be looking to digitalize their systems sooner rather than later.

A bridge rectifier consists of diodes in a bridge circuit configuration. It features the same output polarity for either input polarity, and is used for converting an alternating current (AC) input in

By Stephany Romanow, Industry Consultant Because of the ever-changing business environment, O&G operators can no longer thrive, or even survive, by relying solely on yesterday’s technologies. They must reinvent themselves to be competitive within the marketplace and remain attractive to investors.

OMV will use the Honeywell Connected Plant's Process Insight Reliability Advisor to continuously feed plant data through Honeywell UOP process and fault models, and to provide performance information and process recommendations.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, more than 3 million industrial robots will be in use in factories around the world by 2020. This means that the operational stock will more than double within seven years

Reliable wireless high temperature electrochemical sensor technology is needed to provide in situ corrosion information for optimal predictive maintenance to ensure a high level of operational effecti

The Nymi Band is a multi-factor biometrically authenticated wearable that is worn by shop floor workers to perform day-to-day authentication tasks, such as digital signatures within an MES.

By Christopher Ealahan, Teguar Computers The factory floor can be an unforgiving place for equipment, especially when it comes to electronics. Very few of these devices make it out of the plant intact or have a long operational life. Here are five factors that any industrial user should look for in their search for the right tablet computer.