Articles and News

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.

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.