White Papers

In hydrogen-blend ultrasonic metering, the flow equation may remain valid, but acoustic confidence becomes the real commissioning requirement.

For industrial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the real challenge is not generating a software bill of materials (SBOM) once but maintaining trustworthy software composition data that supports vulnerability decisions throughout the product lifecycle. 

Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition supports the harmonization of cybersecurity standards for industrial and operational technology (OT) systems.

Fortinet's 2026 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report discusses OT cybersecurity program, process and solution maturity.

Certification to the ISA/IEC 62443 standard can reduce industrial cybersecurity risk and regulatory burden. This overview compares how ISASecure, the IECEE Cybersecurity Program and proprietary certification approaches evaluate compliance.

FieldComm Group, ODVA, OPC Foundation and PROFIBUS & PROFINET International have collaborated to establish a shared operational environment and architecture overview for industrial communication protocols in alignment with EN 40000-1-2.

The U.S. manufacturing sector is projected to need more than 2 million skilled workers by 2030 just to meet demand, and mentorship is emerging as one of the most practical ways to address that shortfall.

Identity-centric, unified and auditable remote access is becoming the operational standard for industrial environments.

See real-world examples that emphasize quality data, continuous improvement and teamwork for lasting success. 

We asked about income in 2024 and how it changed in 2025. How do you compare to your industrial automation peers?

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) offers a new document created jointly with several other cybersecurity agencies around the world focused on safely integrating AI into OT systems.

Advanced AI models trained on video and multimodal data are transforming industrial applications like product quality control and personnel safety.

The refreshed roadmap defines Ethernet’s evolving role in AI, automotive and next-generation connectivity, spotlighting emerging trends shaping tomorrow’s networks.

Dragos presents an investigation into the financial impact of cyber incidents involving OT assets and provides important estimation of potential future OT cyber breach losses.

Preliminary results show that the communication layer based on OPC UA on a 61499 environment successfully enables integration with other standards.

Redwood Software's report discusses trends, benchmarks and insights into automation an AI readiness.

The Reshoring Initiative’s Annual Report provides detailed data and analysis on U.S. reshoring by domestic companies and foreign direct investment (FDI) by foreignheadquartered firms shifting production or sourcing to the U.S.

Honeywell's 2025 Cyber Threat Report delivers data, insights and context to help you better understand and prepare for potential threats.

Four possible career paths in IACS are Technical, Managerial, Sales and Academic. Understanding the career options and the required competencies can help you align your aspirations with your strengths.

The latest installment of the Ask the Automation Pros series from ISA describes what to consider when specifying variable frequency drives (VFDs) for pump motors. This paper provides additional information.

This briefing document provides an analysis of the implications and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) within the context of critical infrastructure (CI) sectors in the United States, with a particular focus on the energy sector.

The latest installment of the Ask the Automation Pros series from ISA describes what to consider when specifying process control valves. This paper provides additional information.

The white paper highlights the limitations of traditional ROI calculations in capturing the full value of automation systems provided by the world’s top integrators and proposes an updated model.

A proactive, adaptive approach to OT security is critical to safeguarding against the growing complexity of cyberthreats targeting critical infrastructure systems.

Automation.com, a subsidiary of International Society of Automation (ISA), surveyed automation professionals from around the world about their 2023-2024 gross salaries.

This white paper explains why lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCL₂) batteries are unrivaled, lasting up to 40 years.

Authors from the ISA Mining and Metals Industry Division showcase actual and emerging use cases, related standards and best practices.

A Single Loop Logic Solver (or Safety Trip Alarm) monitors a temperature, pressure, level, flow, position or status variable.

Discover how Generative AI transforms predictive maintenance in this white paper by Siemens Senseye Predictive Maintenance.

Automation.com and Hikvision have jointly released a white paper that explores how AIoT is helping manufacturers work more effectively.

The collaboration between a customer and MESCO Engineering in the development of a functionally safe drive technology module for cobots with MESCO Safety Design Packages has set new standards.

By using the right signal interface instruments, in the right ways, potential problems can be easily avoided well before they boil over... quite literally in some cases.

This white paper explores the concept of electrical isolation, its benefits and the potential risks associated with non-isolated systems.

Industrial computers have different use cases and operating environments from commercially available, desktop consumer PCs. Read the white paper by Sealevel Systems to learn more.

Dive into the white paper where Moore Industries covers how temperature stratification can impact efficiency and safety within distillation columns and how they must be monitored and mitigated.

The report uncovered a record-breaking ransomware payment–nearly double the highest publicly known ransomware payout.

Easy installation and low maintenance are two major benefits that manufactures can gain by deploying Remote Desktop Services and Web Based SCADA/HMI on the plant floors.

Factories using AI-powered digital twin solutions are three times more confident about meeting their 2024 targets than those that do not use AI-powered digital twin solutions.

This report explores the use of the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards for industrial automation and control systems (IACS) that include cloud-based functionality (i.e., industrial internet of things (IIoT)).

The Siemens report highlights industry-specific costs of unplanned downtime, with automotive and heavy industry sectors experiencing higher costs compared to oil and gas.

This article by ISA Fellow Russ Rhinehart explains first-principles models.

This whitepaper explores deploying wireless communication networks within construction projects and introduces a comparison approach to assess deployment difficulty at each project phase.

The survey data provides insights into the trends in technology, processes and politics of IIoT implementation.

John Davis, CTO at Global Shop Solutions, discusses 10 areas Artificial Intelligence (AI) could make an impact for manufacturers.

Automation.com, a subsidiary of International Society of Automation (ISA), surveyed automation professionals from around the world about their 2022 gross salaries.

As IoT devices become more common in industrial and enterprise settings, the risk from IoT-specific malware is increasing dramatically. Cybersecurity leader Zscaler has released a research report that tracks these risks and highlights trends in the IoT malware landscape.

In this white paper, Sparkplug and OPC UA are compared as MQTT-based solutions according to the requirements of the Industry 4.0 scenarios Plug & Work and Condition Monitoring.

This white paper offers guidance for safety instrumented system professionals, helping you make informed decisions when selecting a logic solver that suits your safety requirements.

Technology advances make vision systems more flexible and effective, enabling faster and more accurate manufacturing, packaging and distribution.

Automation has a significant role to play in achieving sustainability goals–offering new ways to accelerate environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities across manufacturing, industry and beyond.

This white paper examines commercial energy use, specifically in buildings. Energy is the largest operating expense in commercial buildings, requiring approximately one-third of the operating budget.

The annual ThreatLabz Ransomware Report tracks trends and impacts of ransomware attacks, including encryption-less extortion and growth of ransomware-as-a-service.

See how all of Jacob Vehicle Systems' new assembly modules are fully IIoT capable, in both automated and human-operated lines, with CAI ShopVue MES and its Direct Machine Interface.

What's new with flaring in 2023? This white paper from will teach how improving flare accurary can alleviate reporting problems.

Technology and analytics can boost the overall resilience of the system, enabling companies in energy-intensive segments to get power from different sources in a seamless and cost-effective manner.

This paper discusses carbon capturing technologies, specifically CO2 capturing from flue gases using different amine solvent formulations (IECM 2019). Selecting the optimum solvent will benefit the final set up of a digital twin.

With increasing interest in connecting OT (operations technology) to IT, MQTT has been called upon to connect not only sensors and actuators in the field but also edge devices, SCADA systems, IoT gateways and more.

Advances in smart technology allow manufacturers to connect pneumatic systems to the internet, facilitating automation and transmitting data in real time. Learn how connected pneumatic circuits can benefit operations through greater efficiency, improved productivity and reduced machine downtimes.

Moving data within different levels of factory automation is easier said than done. For brownfield projects, the current data exchange method is often through proprietary protocols resulting in data silos. This whitepaper highlights how MQTT can bring data interoperability and help modernize smart manufacturing.

Read this report, Impacts of Cyberattacks on IoT Devices, to learn about how modern IoT attacks affect your devices and your network.

With increasingly interconnected systems and exponentially growing quantities of data, industrial operations must consider not if a cyber attack will occur, but how to respond when it does.

This next-generation process controller is a real alternative to the complexity and difficulty of tuning conventional controllers.

In this white paper, you’ll learn why it can be a good idea to push gearmotors beyond 60Hz. You will also learn how to break the 60Hz barrier safely and effectively. Finally, we’ll walk through a common example that will show you how to select the proper gearmotor for a wide speed range.

In the past few years, the convergence of OT and IT has moved from curiosity to necessity in just about every industrial sector. Demands for improved efficiency brought on by the possibilities of Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0 are compelling management to find better ways to extract value from OT data.

This Readiness Guide provides the foundation, the necessary steps, and the path for each utility to achieve those essential insights that lead to an efficient and optimized utility.

This white paper covers the criteria to make an informed decision and shows how Cisco helped one manufacturer standardize its operational network in factories across the globe.

This report examines the importance of data to the digital transformation of manufacturing and the ways the right tools and a data-driven culture can enable predictive maintenance.

This Automation.com 2020-2021 Automation Salary Survey report will explicate data collected in mid-2021 about the salaries and work lives of automation professionals across the globe in various industries and stages of their careers.

Created for automation vendors, “Getting your TSN product to market” provides a practical insight on how to implement the technology and the importance of conformance testing for TSN products.

This white paper illustrates the supply chain disruptions that are lowering the competitiveness of our combined industries and hindering our members’ U.S. manufacturing capabilities.

Trantek Automation, a machine builder specializing in robotic welding systems, was facing a challenge connecting information technology (IT) systems with production machinery. The tManager Enterprise Appliance Transaction Module provided a solution. With this innovative appliance in place, TranTek Automation quickly delivered a plasma cutting robotic system that could communicate with its customer’s enterprise database without having to write any code.

The ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance explains Security Risk Assessment for Design in a new whitepaper.

A new report from Fortinet focused on operational technology found that insider breaches increased by over 100% in the past year and that industrial organizations continue to grapple with immense security challenges. The full 2021 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity report is available for download.

How FDT 3.0-based solutions help industrial personnel work smarter, faster, safer and more effectively.

Participants in a recent global survey of nearly 300 manufacturers recognized the importance of smart manufacturing for agile decision making, process automation and greater efficiency. This study from Plex Systems, in collaboration with Hanover Research, explores how manufacturers can use technology to address today’s challenges and take advantage of long-term opportunities.

Conducted in Fall 2020, the Automation.com 2020 salary survey reflects the early effects of pandemic-related economic upheavals for engineering, business and technical professionals in manufacturing and industry.

This paper explores the benefits and limitations of the stepper servo control technique, also called closed loop stepper, and explains why it is attracting serious attention from machine designers.

This special report from Smart Industry features expert perspective from OSIsoft principals and partners on a range of topics in the world of digital manufacturing—from smart strategies to evolving processes to operating your plant as an innovation hub.

The whitepaper outlines why organizations need to move beyond IT/OT convergence to ensure full integration—for enterprise security.

In "Eliminating Friction," VP of Business Development Dave Westrom explains that the true cause of failure is the lack of getting to value quickly. After all, time is money, and the more time spent trying to launch a successful IIoT initiative, the greater likelihood it will fail.

Organizations need data-based energy management solutions to succeed in the era of digitalization, says a new ABB whitepaper.

To empower development teams to fulfill their objectives across the development cycle, it is important to consider a whole solution approach toward instrument selection.

This paper explores how Martinshof Werkstatt Bremen is empowering workers with handicaps to excel operating manual workstations, which are indispensable, despite advancing digitalization.

This paper uses a modified version of the Golden Circle, changing the original sequence to Why-What-How to approximate how organizations currently operate and thereby increase the chances of achieving the relevant UN SDG.

To develop insight about how organizations are keeping up with the changes and transformations taking place throughout the industrial sector, the Digital Transformation Council and ARC Advisory Group, in conjunction with ISA and Automation.com, conducted a survey of industrial companies. This white paper summarizes the results of the survey.

Collaborative automation has become a versatile,cost-effective, and user-friendly technology that allows businesses of almost any size (and any level of technical expertise) to increase productivity, improve quality, and respond more nimbly to changing customer demands.

Written for all IIoT stakeholders, the white paper explains why measuring the efficiency and efficacy of industrial digital transformation solutions across industries is essential.

Distributing water on a large scale has been a challenge that the world has tackled for decades. It is a particular challenge in high-rise buildings, and with a trend for designers to build up in urban areas, rather than out, it is a challenge that has become a new focus for design engineers.

This paper discusses the challenges faced in route planning and how existing algorithms are largely insufficient. It also discusses how the use of a hybrid heuristic method derived from the combination of straight line heuristics and real road distance metrics presents the best solution to solving the challenge of planning efficient routes at high speed for last-mile deliveries today.

The robotics revolution is rapidly accelerating, as fast-paced technological advances in automation, engineering, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and machine learning converge. The result will transform the capabilities of robots and their ability to take over tasks once carried out by humans.

When it comes to non-contact continuous level measurement, radar and ultrasonic are two of the most common technologies used. This paper will compare and contrast 80 GHz radar sensors with ultrasonic transmitters for liquid and solid level measurements.

The two types of non-contact level radar, Pulse Level Radar and Frequency Module Continuous Wave (FMCW) Level Radar have been widely used throughout the process industry.

This white paper is focused on helping readers understand in detail the Open Industry 4.0 solution reference architecture framework for interoperability. It provides a dive deep into key design principles of its members defined and supported end to end solutions

Position sensors and motors are crucial components in oil and gas equipment and must operate day in and day out in some of the most challenging conditions.

With the manufacturing sector facing a bleak outlook in 2019, we thought it prudent to share our projections for the growth and development of the programmable logic controller (PLCs) market in key countries and industries, calling out specific bright spots and those set to suffer more deeply.

As data, connectivity, and processing power expand, so do opportunities for industrial companies to extract value through innovative products, services, and business models. This McKinsey study delves further into how technology delivers value to today's industry.

Originally developed for audio speakers, voice coil actuation technology is now being used to provide precise and reliable motion control for a wide range of medical, industrial process and space applications.

Engineers designing systems for industrial and factory applications are adopting functional safety design practices to reduce the risk of system failures that could result in costly damage or injury.

Self-regulation or legislation does not stifle innovation at all. It steers the internet in the right direction. It is just an example, albeit a very important example, of market feedback for engineers and innovators to develop the right products.

If you have a ControlLogix PLC being used as the MCS, how can you make use of the OPC UA MDIS spec and bypass the old Modbus integration to the DCS? Softing has developed an OPC UA MDIS compliant server module that inserts into the ControlLogix chassis and creates the OPC UA provides a framework that can be used to represent field devices, for example.

This paper will explore how one construction materials hauling company used level measurement sensors and IIoT networks to better manage their operation.

To help make the process of selecting linear motors simpler, we’ll start by explaining the mechanics of a direct drive linear motor and contrast it with a more traditional indirect drive system.

Whether you’re tasked with recommending what to buy, a purchasing agent or the ultimate end user, you can ensure that you’re getting the right system by learning a bit about the most important parts to focus on.

This brief overview has been designed to help guide users through the basics of data loggers and how they can simplify data collection for an organization.

The IIoT connects devices with the digital world to provide data visibility. But the real value of the IIoT lies in how that data will be used by industry to realize the potential benefi ts of this connectivity.

Today’s smarter edge devices can streamline integration efforts while providing secure remote access for end users and machine builders, too

The World Market for Gas Flow Measurement examines the gas flow measurement market on both a worldwide and regional basis. It covers each flow technology used for gas flow measurement.

While serial bus systems will continue to play an important role in the future, solutions based on Industrial Ethernet are becoming increasingly common with Industry 4.0 applications. The focus is less on cable measurements, signal levels or signal shapes, but in the case of standards such as PROFINET, utilization and the greatest possible availability of the networks are the focus of interest.

The goal of an energy audit is to get accurate energy data that shows you where your facility’s energy went over the period; which equipment, circuits, buildings or divisions consumed the energy; and exactly when this usage occurred.

An explanation of what a gas spring is, component parts, and how they are both constructed and operate. It gives the reader a basic understanding of the workings and terminology used when specifying gas springs.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN), low power wide area networks (LPWAN) and cloud-based platforms are driving growth for the industrial Internet of Things (IoT)

The aim of an energy audit is to reduce usage and improve performance. It is becoming a standard practice for large industrial locations as well as smaller operations

Protecting sensitive data created, stored and consumed by sensor-driven Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology and applications is one of the foundations of trustworthy IIoT systems.

By Istec In this whitepaper we focus on the mechanical health and behaviour of reciprocating compressors with four important indicators; impact, temperature (valves and bearings), vibration and rod drop. Table 1 shows the typical measurements for reciprocating compressors.

Mobile devices can solve many challenges in hazardous industrial environments. But a device that lacks the proper protection could seriously compromise the safety of your plant and personnel.

Instrument transmitters became smart by integrating digital technologies, paving the way for instrument sensors to acquire a similar level of intelligence. As we move into the future, digital technology will continue to provide more information from instruments.

Effective cybersecurity management is essential for all organizations, regardless of size. This ISA document is intended to provide a starting point for small- and medium-businesses (SMBs), particularly those that manage industrial processes and employ some level of automation.

The Science and Technology Directorate's (S&T) Linking the Oil and Gas Industry to Improve Cybersecurity (LOGIIC) project is an ongoing collaboration of oil and natural gas companies and the DHS S&T. Formed in 2004, this project facilitates cooperative research, development, testing and evaluation procedures to improve cybersecurity in petroleum industry digital control systems.