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Powerlink motion control network supports unique winding machine
Process & Control Today, October 2008
Powerlink is helping the Swiss company Carbo-Link create carbon fibre components for applications such as rigging for racing yachts. The company used a Powerlink compatible controller and drives from Baldor to build a machine that winds carbon fibres to form lightweight yet ultra-strong tubes or rods up to 14 metres in length.
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CPS Energy Creates an Energized Mobility Strategy
Utility Automation & Engineering, November 2008
By Jason Scarlett, CPS Energy, and Chuck Roark, Motorola
San Antonio-based CPS Energy decided to optimize its network with an overall mobility strategy that would grow with the company, maximize wireless technology, while controlling costs.
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Powerlink motion control network supports unique winding machine
Process & Control Today, October 2008
Powerlink is helping the Swiss company Carbo-Link create carbon fibre components for applications such as rigging for racing yachts. The company used a Powerlink compatible controller and drives from Baldor to build a machine that winds carbon fibres to form lightweight yet ultra-strong tubes or rods up to 14 metres in length.
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Hacked off by online security?
Design Product Automation, October 2008
Arla Foods in the UK perceived a potential security problem for its operations when Microsoft terminated support for Windows NT. Arla is implementing a Norman Network Protection to protect its production networks.
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Automation and Ethernet Combine for 3D Disney Attraction
Control Engineering, October 2008
Disney’s new 3D “Toy Story Midway Mania” ride uses a Simatic S7 315 PLC with centralized I/O for vehicle control. Communication between the onboard and wayside computers is handled over Ethernet via Profinet cabling and protocol using Scalance X208 switches.
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Upgrading Process Controls at a Nuclear Plant
Nuclear Power, September 2008
Process control and instrumentation systems at Progress Energy’s Harris nuclear power plant in North Carolina were supplied in the 1960s and 70s. Its ventilation control was recently upgraded to a DCS including a fault tolerant Ethernet network, redundant Experion server cabinets, two redundant (C200) controller chassis pairs and remote I/O chassis. Next is the radiation monitoring system. Is controlling the reactor a possibility?
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Communicating from the HART
By Adrienne Lutovsky, ProSoft Technology
Valspar, a paint and coatings company, installed Micro Motion flow meters, a Rockwell Automation ControlLogix PAC, and ProSoft Technology’s EtherNet/IP-to-HART multi-drop communication gateway to connect everything.
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Legacy Building Automation Integration
By Advantech
The S4 Group, a building automation software company, used a BACnet-N2 Router to bring information from electric power monitoring meters, building and network infrastructure equipment, and other devices into legacy Johnson Controls Metasys building automation systems.
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CC-Link Finds Fitting Application
Process & Control Today, September 2008
The Yorkshire Fittings Leeds factory installed a SCADA system to monitor a bank of compressors. An audit of all the existing control systems running identified that much of the hardware already in place was either already CC-Link enabled, or could be made so very simply and cheaply through the use of standard plug-in cards. CC-Link was chosen as the as the shop floor protocol for communicating between field devices and production machinery.
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Gateway to process automation
Control Engineering, September 2008
Valspar Corp. is the third largest paint and coatings company in North America. To handle its paint blending process, MMCI uses Emerson Process Micro Motion flowmeters, a Rockwell Automation process automation system, Ethernet communications, and a ControlLogix PAC.
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Industrial Ethernet in VW-Golf production
South Africa Instrumentation & Control, September 2008
In Wolfsburg, Germany, the largest vehicle/automobile plant in the world is combined with the largest production network in the world in the automobile construction industry. Profitek supplied the Industrial Ethernet hardware.
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Amcor PET Packaging Streamlines Plant Operations with Kepware
By Kepware
Amcor, a maker of packaging solutions from corrugated board to blister packs and bottles, installed a KepwareEX server to connect Wonderware, Siemens, Allen Bradley and Apriso/SAP applications into a single network via OPC.
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Ford Mustang Assembly Employs CC-Link Network
IEN, July 2008
The AutoAlliance facility in Flat Rock, MI makes extensive use of CC-Link networking. CC-Link-controlled conveyors move car bodies through the numerous welding, assembly, and painting stations. The motors that power the conveyors throughout the facility are controlled by Mitsubishi VFD Drives, communicating via CC-Link.
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Proximity Sensing Via Wireless Network
Control Engineering, August 2008
A railcar wheel monitoring system shows how a wireless network sensor operates reliably in extreme temperatures, high vibration, and dirt, with five years between battery changes.
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Get Required Information on a Budget
Automation World, August 2008
American Refining Group in Bradford, Pa., installed a wireless mesh sensor network from Emerson Process Management to monitor high-level alarm switches on tanks in its remote tank farm. American Refining has 24 wireless Emerson sensors right now, and its technicians are still adding and building network.
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It's all in the LANs
InTech, August 2008
By Fereshteh Fatehi and Yuqiu You
In one of our latest projects, we integrated the PLC control process and data transmission by applying the local area network (LAN) technology in PLC control. We set up the communication of the remote PLC control by establishing a LAN connecting computers and PLCs.
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Ups and Downs of Taking the Bus—Part II
Industrial Networking, Summer 2008
By Gary Forrest, Wyeth Research
Part 2: Problems come up with the implementation of Profibus-DP instrumentation and controls, and the software configuration of each Profibus-DP device.
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ConocoPhillips Goes Wireless
Industrial Networking, Summer 2008
The ConocoPhillip Sweeny refinery in Old Ocean, Texas, standardized on Honeywell Process Solutions’ (HPS) OneWireless platform. Sweeny presently operates four mobile Experion PKS stations and 32 transmitters. So far, the plant’s wireless network has had only two multinode interruptions in more than 14 months of operation.
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Fisher BioServices deploys General Electric Wireless Mesh
Control Engineering, August 2008
Fisher BioServices provides customized, turn-key solutions for life sciences applications. It adopted General Electric’s RF Mesh based Kaye Labwatch system to meet stringent U.S. FDA (Food & Drug Administration) regulations.
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ABB Robots Use Wyless Wireless
Process & Control Today, July 2008
ABB Robotics needed a worldwide wireless data network and an internet-based Management Platform to provide real-time control and visibility of its network and connections. Wyless’ managed wireless data network is currently operational in 30 countries for ABB Robotics. Its customers can now communicate data securely and reliably from the robots direct to the service centre.
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Evonik Degussa: A case study in explosion proof wireless networks
Process & Control Today, July 2008
Evonik Degussa Seal Sands installed an explosion proof WLAN from Extronics to enable quick, efficient assessment of OEE to be extended to the extreme environments and Zone 1 hazardous areas found in its plant.
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STARDOM revitalises integrated control system
South Africa Instrumentation & Control, July 2008
The compressor control upgrade project for a polymerisation plant operated by Safripol in South Africa replaces existing PLCs with a STARDOM network-based control system.
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Adroit heads south to manage water system
Control Engineering Europe, June 2008
The six major pump stations at the Adroit SCADA system have PLC controlled MC panels. The telemetry RTU is connected to the PLC via a serial interface using Modbus protocol and provides the ability to monitor all the inputs as well as providing the facility for remote modifications of certain measuring and controlling parameters within the PLC.
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Royal Huisman gives yacht SCADA boost
Control Engineering Europe, June 2008
Royal Huisam, a boat building company in the Netherlands, used a SCADA system to boost energy efficiency on its 58m ‘Ethereal’ yacht. The system includes CitectSCADA V7 with integrated clustering, 26 PLCs, 2 servers and 30 display clients.
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CLPA controls eco building
Control Engineering Europe, May 2008
In Ely, UK, GB Innomech’s building control is based on a PLC, HMI and distributed networked local controls. CC-Link was chosen as the operating protocol as it is an open system which can communicate with a wide variety of field hardware.
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Emerson automates world's largest pulp mill
- 06/18/08
The PlantWeb solution includes DeltaV, 3300 FOUNDATION fieldbus, Profibus DP and DeviceNet devices, MCCs, PLCs, Modbus, Fisher valves with Fisher FIELDVUE digital valve controllers, and AMS Suite.
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PCs Cover Coating System Control
Control Engineering, June 2008
By Norm Hardy, Semicore
To automate its vacuum coating and etching systems, Semicore installed an HMI and control package based on Beckhoff's C6330 industrial PCs, CP7802 control panels, TwinCAT automation software, distributed I/O networked over Ethernet TCP/IP via bus couplers, Ethernet switches, motors, and servo drives.
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Statoil pumps up production through information sharing and smart practices
By IBM Corporation
With oil and gas production the backbone of the Norwegian economy, Statoil–the nation’s largest producer–needed a way to offset the natural trend toward declining production levels. Statoil sought to incorporate new technologies into production processes in order to transform, streamline and improve them.
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Physics Of Structural Automation
Industrial Automation Asia
The Einstein III building in Haidhausen, Germany, has a complete building automation solution that combines CitectFacilities with the European Installation Bus (EIB) and BACnet. The interlacing of these open standards resulted in the networking of the entire building.
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Out of the Cabinet, on the Job
Control Design, April 2008
By Jim Montague
Users simplify networks, reduce troubleshooting and save wiring and labor with machine-mount, IP67-rated I/O components.
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Implementing Smart Grid Solutions
Control Engineering, April 2008
By Jake Rasweiler, Arcadian Networks
When the project is fully implemented later this year, Great River Energy power company will be able to monitor system performance instantly, gathering customer use and billing data at some 620 points on the system. Substations are equipped with WiFi hot spots so field crews can communicate wirelessly with operations when needed.
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Ethernet Connectivity For Pipe Organs
Control Engineering, April 2008
By Peter Welander
One of the oldest and most complex musical instruments now uses Ethernet to connect player and pipes. Latency, both constant and variable, is an issue.
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Industrial Ethernet Plays Key Role In Water Treatment Plant
Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2008
The Joe Mullins reverse osmosis treatment plant in Melbourne, Florida, tried to use an office-grade Ethernet hub, but it failed from the heat. They installed a Contemporary Controls CTRLink eight-port Ethernet hub to solve the problem.
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Philips installs 20km of Single Mode Fiber Cable
Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2008
The Turnhout site was using a multimode optical fiber network, but there was a need for a larger bandwidth. They installed sngle mode optical fiber, devices, connectors and other elements. The result: a 1Gbit bandwidth network which can be enhanced to 10Gbit without any changes to the cabling.
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European trains run on Industrial Ethernet
- 04/01/08
Regional trains in Germany and the Netherlands are currently being delivered by BOMBARDIER with an on board Ethernet network, using Westermo’s REDFOX railway switches.
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GFC installation simplified with SmartWire
Control Engineering Europe
March 2008
The Good Food Company bypassed the need for a PLC, instead using a panel wiring system from Moeller Electric in its new refrigeration system. It was able to use one control panel, instead of the three originally planned, for the installation at the Wellingborough, UK food manufacturer’s site.
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Ethernet bolsters handling system
Control Engineering Europe
February 2008
When a commuter railway in New York looked to modernise a 20-year-old material handling system it choose an industrial-grade, Ethernet managed fibre optic switch from Contemporary Controls to connect control equipment to the network.
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Network upgrade increases performance at distillery
Control Engineering Europe
January 2008
The Midleton distillery in Ireland is a complex plant that relies on a sophisticated industrial Ethernet control network. But when that network started to become a limiting factor in terms of speed and availability, Irish Distillers turned to GarrettCom Europe for an update.
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Digital power
Intech, March 2008
By John Blaney, Jim Murray, and Gary Tingley
A description of how Portland General Electric installed a system that uses both Foundation Fieldbus and Profibus in a power plant.
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Greencold keeps its cool with smartwire
Process and Control Today, March 2008
Moeller Electric SmartWire, a panel wiring system that puts fieldbus-like connectivity inside the control panel, has made it possible for refrigeration expert Greencold of Kettering to use just one control panel instead of the three originally planned, eliminate the need for a costly PLC, and reduce panel wiring time.
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Hands Across the Water
Control Design, March 2008
Trumpf uses Tele-Diagnostics to fix 90% of its machine problems. Sensors embedded in each machine allow technicians to diagnose remotely. Data is transmitted by an analog phone line using the software package PCAnyWhere and through the Internet via WebEx, provided that the customer’s machine has Internet access that is not blocked by a firewall.
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Milking Robot Uses Ethernet for Data
Control Design, March 2008
Dutch company Lely Industries’ Astronaut robotic milking system uses sensor technologies and integrated data management to create a total dairy farm management solution. Westermo’s SDW 550 Ethernet switches are used for real-time data communication management between the peripherals and the central supervision PC.
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Building control system uses LonWorks
- 02/12/08
By Lonmark International
Floor controls are linked via a LonWorks network, using Siemens LMEC gateways onto a BACnet system which handles the interaction with the central AHU, boilers and chillers.
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Adding Ethernet to Railroad System Increases Reliability
By Contemporary Controls
A commuter railroad modernized its 20-year-old automated material handling system in one of its maintenance facilities using PLCs and Ethernet/IP. An Ethernet managed fiber optic switch from Contemporary Controls was part of the solution.
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Connecting SmartMotors to Ethernet networks
Industrial Embedded Systems, January 2008
By Rahul Shah, Lantronix
Connecting an embedded device server to an Animatics SmartMotor provided all the networking hardware and software required to connect the motor to an Ethernet network or the Internet.
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Baldor PowerLink system controls tube-bending production cell
- 01/24/08
The Ethernet-compatible Powerlink system controls four axes of motion, plus the I/O needed for the continuous operation of the process.
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Careful, hot wireless
Intech, January 2008
By Davis Shull and Joseph Cordaro
Introducing wireless technology into a government site where nuclear material is processed brings new meaning to the term harsh environment. At Savannah River National Laboratory, we are attempting to address not only the harsh radio frequency and harsh physical environment common to industrial facilities, but also the harsh regulatory environment.
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Full Transparency Without a Central Process Control System
Process and Control Today, January 2008
Instead of an expensive centralized process control system, Follmann & Co, a chemical company in the UK, used compact modular controllers and HMI control terminals from Mitsubishi Electric. Follmann uses MX Sheet software to feed the process data from the controllers directly into the existing office software.
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Avoid Collisions on the Track
Andritz Inc. uses high-speed Ethernet radios to create a robust anti-collision network for three different dual Portal Crane projects for the pulp and paper industry. Andritz chose ProSoft Technology's RadioLinx Industrial Hotspot for each multi-million dollar crane.
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Westermo Ethernet switches serve water treatment plant in France
- 11/14/07
At the Seine Grésillons treatment plant, technicians can connect locally at any point of the network by wire or WiFi to the same production management interface to obtain data.
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Remote Diagnostics in a Fiber-Optic Network
By Russell Davoli, National Instruments
The Anritsu Company serves telecommunications customers who have large networks with distant monitoring substations. When a problem arises, a trained technician has to travel to the monitoring substation. Anritsu provided remote control capability, using LabVIEW.
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Digi Provides Remote Networking Solution for Construction Industry Control System
Process and Control Today, September 2007
Dorner Electronic has construction customers all over the world. In many locations, such as the Middle East, there are no proper network connections. This made remote monitoring of these facilities difficult. Dorner needed a solution that would allow these facilities to be IP-enabled. The solution came in the form of the ConnectPort WAN from Digi International.
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Remote Services via Internet
Koenig & Bauer, a manufacturer of printing plants, implemented remote maintenance via Internet using open standard technologies in an integrated mGuard solution from Innominate.
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Ethernet switches for gas field exploitation
150 Westermo Ethernet switches have been installed at Norway's Ormen Lange, one of the world's largest gas fields. The switches were installed in the fibre optics network of the Safety and Automation System.
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Oil Refinery Uses Ethernet in Hazardous Environments
A petroleum company recently upgraded the remote control and monitoring system in its Belgium manufacturing site. Since the monitoring cells are either in or next to high temperature refinery areas, the devices used for this project are required to operate under the Class 1 Zone 2 standard. Another issue that must be considered is the reliability of the devices. The operating temperature in the cells is high, and the refinery is usually unmanned, so that in general no one will be available to troubleshoot the situation when a device fails. The answer was to use Ethernet switches over a fiber optic network.
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Packaging Machine Builder uses Ethernet Switches aid
Here’s how one of the world's leading machine builders of filling, labeling, and packaging machines uses Ethernet communications. Each of these machines is made up of a combination of PLC controllers, HMI control panel, and numerous I/Os, relays, sensors, and counters. The builder uses Moxa Ethernet switches, which support multimode fiber and are capable of transmitting data up to 5 km, making it easier to configure and support reliable, high-speed data transfer between machines or to the central control room.
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Upgrading Small RS-232 PLCs
Application note from Moxa Technologies describes how to let small PLCs communicate over the Ethernet. Small PLCs have only one RS-232 serial communication interface, and may be located in remote areas, making communication possible only via conversion to RS-485 or a modem. This note describes how a serial device server allows the PLC serial data to be transported over the Ethernet very economically.
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Largest US Ethernet Powerlink Application with 22 Motion Axes
by Markus Sandhoefner of B&R Industrial Automation
Increased raw material prices, skyrocketing labor cost and huge customer incentives at car dealerships force the Automotive Industry in the United States to use more efficient machinery in order to cut overall production cost. As an answer to that urgent demand Eagle Manufacturing designed a new machine concept with 22 different interacting servo-axes.
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Rugged Oil and Gas Well Logging Data Acquisition System
By: Corin Chepko, Rocky Mountain Wireline Service
Rocky Mountain Wireline Service is an oil and gas perforating and logging company. The data acquisition system we use is rack-mounted in a wireline truck and must withstand vibration and dust generated as the truck moves to different locations over rough roads. These conditions cause problems with industrial PCs. We needed a system that was reliable and easy to repair or replace in the case of failure.
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Ease of connection improves plant efficiency for Santee Cooper
OPC technology provides ease of access to the wide variety of devices in our enterprise, eliminating costly custom or proprietary interfaces. Providing us with a flexible and scalable solution we can build on for years to come. We are confident and secure in our ability to meet the 98% uptime emissions reporting requirements. Now that these manual processes are automated, we are saving approximately 4 hours of resource allocation in a 24 hour shift rotation.
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