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The Evolution of Redundancy
Industrial Networking, Winter 2008
By Bob Wagner
To minimize downtime due to system failures most major suppliers have developed products and systems to provide redundancy in an attempt to maximize system availability. These products range from redundant power supplies and cabling schemes to redundant processor and I/O systems with automatic failover.
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Automation Insights Network
By Rick Zabel, Publisher
Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.
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Industrial Ethernet Growth Slowed by FUD
By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
The promise of Industrial Ethernet is clear: it will revolutionize manufacturing by tightly integrating control and business systems, if users can overcome their fear, uncertainty and doubt(FUD). One failure can trigger a cascade of problems and result in a significant loss of time and money. There are many issues surrounding the use of Ethernet in industrial control applications that give control engineers reasons for concern.
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The One Network
Control, October 2008
By John Rezabek
It appears that our supplier community is gearing up for a diverse spectrum of interconnection options, instead of the global standard once envisioned for IEC 61158.
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Fieldbus Goes Nuclear
Control, October 2008
By David W. Spitzer
Fieldbus instruments could be used in nuclear applications with appropriate qualification and testing.
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The Basics of Numerical Filtering
Control Engineering, October 2008
By Vance VanDoren
Control engineers use numerical filters to extract streams of valuable data from measurement noise and other extraneous information. Here’s how they work.
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Intrinsically Safe or Explosion Proof?
Control Engineering, October 2008
By Jeanine Katzel
Deciding how to protect a hazard involves more than assessing the application and complying with codes. It is influenced by a variety of variables and driven by habit and growing technologies such as bus networks and wireless.
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Don't Rip Out Your Legacy Network
Control Engineering, October 2008
By Trevor L. Lang, HMS Industrial Networks
As long as existing networks are performing as desired, it may be difficult to justify converting all sensors, controls, actuators, and related I/O modules so they can be connected to Ethernet.
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ISA - Change the name to represent the industry
By Rick Zabel, Automation.com
The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!
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PROFIBUS hits new highs, PROFINET to follow?
By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
This year's PTO General Assembly Meeting again was attended by an enthusiastic group of users, suppliers, and distributors that apply PROFIBUS and PROFINET technology. Michael Bryant, Executive Director, was master of ceremonies and forecasted PROFINET will be the leading Ethernet Technology for automation applications.
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Signal Variables Shape Wireless
Industrial Networking, Summer 2008
By Don Talend
infrastructure hardware and transmission frequency depend largely on transmission speed, amount of data, distance and obstructions.
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The Importance of using and choosing the correct signal isolators
Control Engineering Europe, July 2008
In any measurement and control system there are several electrical interfacing problems that are likely to occur, all of which can be solved by incorporating the appropriate isolation between the signals.
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State of Manufacturing & Automation in the U.S. Looks Good
Could it be that high fuel prices, the weak dollar and crises in the U.S. manufacturing industry are creating opportunities? Andy Chatha of ARC Advisory Group thinks so. He says the U.S. industry has suddenly become competitive on the world market, and companies are no longer moving operations overseas. Instead, many are expanding their facilities, and he predicts a boom in automation right here in the U.S.
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Smart-but-Simple Wireless Sensor Networking
IEN, July 2008
The term smart-but-simple refers to a new generation of wireless sensor networking (WSN) products. Today, WSNs are gaining acceptance in a wide variety of industrial applications ranging from tank level to motor vibration to relief valve monitoring.
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Honeywell 2008 Users Group - Heroes Gather in Phoenix
By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
The 33rd annual Honeywell Users Group Conference was held June 15 - 19, 2008 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ with over 700 customers in attendance. According to Honeywell Vice President/General Manager, "The conferences super hero theme, Power to Perform, highlights the heroic efforts of process industry professionals to perform well despite rising costs and resource constraints."
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Solid-State Relays Enhance Reliability
Control Design, June 2008
By Don Talend
With the lines between solid-state relay (SSR) and programmable logic controller (PLC) capabilities blurring in recent years, SSR manufacturers see a major role for relays in maintaining equipment functions and reliability.
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Top tips on squelching electrical noise
Machine Design, June 2008
By Helge Hornis and Thomas Sebastiany, Pepperl+Fuchs
Industrial automation equipment must often perform reliably under some of the harshest conditions imaginable. One of the factors that make industrial conditions harsh is electronic noise pollution. Industrial devices and sensors must operate reliably in a caucophony of electromagnetic emissions both intentional and unintentional.
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Intrinsic Safety in the Digital Age
Control, June 2008
By Paul Miller
As fieldbus becomes the norm rather than the exception, there are many users who are demanding protection for their fieldbus networks. However, there are significant conflicts between the technique of intrinsic safety and multiple-device, multi-drop networks.
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Don't judge a supplier by its name
By Frank Hurtte, Contributing Author.
For those of us who live and breathe the rarified vapors of technology based automation, it's pretty hard to fathom how life existed without electronic automation. Yet, it has been a short 30 years since the venerable PLC became anything more than a novelty outside of the Big 3 in Detroit. Sometime in the late 1970s, microprocessors changed our lives forever. Since those early days, the power of these tiny chips forever changed the way we think about manufacturing.
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Safety instrumented systems: shedding light on SIL
South Africa Instrumentation & Control, May 2008
By Andrew Ashton
Safety engineering principles have evolved over the past decade or so from employing a relatively formulaic and prescriptive philosophy to one which involves risk assessment and risk reduction. This risk-based approach places far more responsibility on control system engineers.
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HART monitors extract data from smart instruments
Plant Engineering, May 2008
By Greg Feliks, Moore Industries
A simple and cost effective solution for gathering HART information is to use a HART interface device. Fortunately, HART interface devices, available from several manufacturers, make acquiring HART data a fairly simple proposition. This HART data is then made available to the control system via analog signals, discrete outputs or serial communications.
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Wireless transmits technology to new frontiers
Plant Engineering, May 2008
By Darvin Kaelberer, Banner Engineering
Recent innovations in radio transmission make wireless a rugged, reliable solution for demanding applications.
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Safety systems: Perfection remains an elusive goal
Plant Engineering, May 2008
By Paul Gruhn, ICS Triplex
Safety Instrumented System standards are performance oriented and cover cradle-to-grave activities. While most would probably argue that the standards have proven very helpful and have led to safer systems, some problems remain elusive.
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Custom Controls Survey - Complimentary assessment, tips and tricks
We are conducting a brief survey on custom controls — that is, board-level controllers used in place of standard PLCs or process controls. If you use custom controls in your automation applications, please take a minute to tell us why you use them and what challenges you face. You may be eligible to receive a complimentary controls assessment, plus tips and tricks on how to lower your control costs.
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Regional Manufacturing Expos Prove Most Valuable
By Thomas R. Cutler
Deciding which conferences, webinars, and expos are worthwhile for manufacturing engineers and buyers to attend often feels like a dangerous yellow brick road, never knowing quite what to expect.
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Bit-level Buses Compete on Speed, Connectivity
Automation World, May 2008
By C. Kenna Amos
Down in the lower levels of the seven-layer International Organization for Standardization’s (www.iso.ch) Open System Interconnection Reference Model, two bit-level buses compete to control devices such as actuators and sensors: the Actuator Sensor Interface (AS-I) and CompoNet.
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Do You Really Need that Separate Safety Network?
Automation World, May 2008
By James R. Koelsch
Why install the latest generation of safety networks? Most people would put the money saved on less wiring at the top of their list of answers.
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Digital Data Acquisition and Analysis
Sensors, May 2008
By Strether Smith
A Digital data acquisition/recording system is the fundamental component of almost every experiment performed today. The success of the experiment is entirely dependent on the capabilities of the system and it is almost universally assumed that it will provide the correct answer. Unfortunately, life is not so simple.
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Enabling seamless WiMAX fabric
Test & Measurement World, May 2008
By Ron Wilson and Rick Nelson
WiMAX stands poised to extend coverage in PC networking and mobile phone communications as semiconductor makers roll out WiMAX chipsets and as test-equipment vendors offer the lab instrumentation and production ATE systems necessary to test the chipsets and the products they populate.
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Make the most of WirelessHART
Chemical Processing, May 2008
By Gareth Johnston and Alan Munns, ABB
HART 7 gives plants a real incentive to consider wireless. Authors examine the advantages and typical applications of a wireless instrument network, whether now is the right time to consider a wireless project, and how a WirelessHART instrument network works.
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What’s needed in process automation?
Chemical Processing, May 2008
By Mark Rosenzweig
A recent survey of end users by Jacobs Engineering Group provides an extensive wish list for field instrumentation, including disposable instrumentation for disposable process components; Class 1 Division 1-rated I/O modules; power-over-Ethernet instruments; and built-in control module logic, including alarming. Wish lists also cover controllers, HMI, control systems, batch, and more.
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ABB is powered up and running at high efficiency!
By Bill Lydon
The products and services shown at ABB Automation World in Houston, Texas along with the enthusiasm of the ABB employees and users would seem to explain why the company’s 1st quarter 2008 earnings beat investment analysts’ consensus by over 40%. The three-day trade show and conference ran from April 29 through May 1 in Houston, Texas. There was a great deal of energy and enthusiasm at the event which showcased ABB products, ABB services, partner products, and over 300 workshops/training sessions.
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Safety Sensors Rise to New Heights
Control Engineering, May 2008
By Mark T. Hoske
An integrated safety system, like any control system, contains sensors, logic, and actuation, with I/O connections, networks, and software to tie it altogether. As connected sensors advance in functionality and fall in cost, redundancy and fail-safe designs reduce risk.
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Wireless: Bluetooth vs. Bluetooth
Control Engineering Europe, May 2008
Most industrial applications require more than a standard Bluetooth wireless solution. Looking at traditional Bluetooth technology versus industrial Bluetooth technology can illustrate necessities for tough industrial applications.
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Put Your Coat On
Assembly, April 2008
By Bill Boyd
Conformal coatings do more than just keep electronic products dry. These polymer coatings strengthen delicate components and leads and support small devices that can’t be mechanically secured. Because they are electrically insulative, conformal coatings prevent current leakage and inhibit arcing.
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Loggers Keep Feeding Data-Hungry Users
Control, April 2008
By Jim Montague
Recorders and DAQs have survived the advent of PCs, adapted to cooperate with software-based historians, and continue to serve in applications where computers can't go
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The Pluses and Pitfalls of USB DAQ
IEN, March 2008
By Jonathan Tucker, Keithley Instruments
With all the benefits of USB come a few hidden hazards, which, if unchecked, can lead to inaccurate measurement results. Being aware of the hazards can help prevent problems.
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Best practices for process instrumentation cabling
Intech, March 2008
Proper electrical installation and connectivity of field instrumentation devices glues the entire PAS system together, involves cabling, grounding, cable routing, and mitigation of external influences such as noise and interference.
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Going the (Short) Distance With Wireless
Machine Design, February 2008
By Darvin Kaelberer, Banner Engineering
Wireless technology, which is frequently used in factories and other industrial settings where I/O must be sent from a remote area to an operator located several miles away, can also make sense if data only has to travel a few feet.
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Three’s a Crowd for Instrumentation Amplifiers
Sensors, February 2008
By Prashanth Holenarsipur, Maxim Integrated Products
This article explains the architectural limitations of conventional three op amp IAs, and introduces an indirect current-feedback circuit topology that provides specific advantages for single-supply operation.
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Isolate the noise, not the signal
Plant Engineering, February 2008
By Greg Feliks, Moore Industries
Some engineers think that the need for isolators and signal converters is eroding with the advent of smart instruments, isolated electronics and digital fieldbuses. However, isolators and signal converters can also be used to solve difficult or complex problems.
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Safety Instrumented System design is all about the process
Plant Engineering, February 2008
By Charles M. Fialkowski, Siemens Energy & Automation
Designing a single component may be viewed as a relatively simple matter – one that a single person can handle. Designing a large SIS, however, is typically beyond the ability of any single individual. Large systems require a multi-discipline team.
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Distributed I/O systems create islands of automation
Plant Engineering, February 2008
By Tim Roberts, Schneider Electric
The latest distributed I/O systems are open, modular systems that make it possible to connect motor starters, variable speed drives, operator interface terminals, encoders and other third-party products across networks and fieldbuses.
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Relays Take on Controller Functions
Control Design, February 2008
By Loren Shaum
Relays can perform machine control and safety tasks, and the line between controllers and relays is becoming a gray area.
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Absolute Noise Corrupts Absolutely
Control Design, February 2008
By Mike Bacidore
Since most wiring is fixed in place, varying currents are the usual cause of magnetic coupling. A good design rejects as much noise as possible.
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Suppress Those Surges
Design News, February 2008
By Jon Titus
In addition to protecting exterior sensor and communication lines from transient pulses caused by nearby lightning strikes, you should protect inside equipment from transients or surges that can travel through power lines.
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Embedded RFID: 'RFID as a Feature'
Design News, February 2008
By Martin Payne
It's likely that in the near future, most products we buy will include RFID. Embedded RFID applications can enable innovations in a wide range of industries including aerospace, chemical, hospitality, health care and retail.
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Designing for Robotics
Design News, February 2008
By Kamran Shah, National Instruments
Robot engineers have to interface with the right sensors and actuators. These could include analog input and output, digital lines, GPS sensors, LIDARs, cameras, motors and CAN interfaces for vehicles. This makes software a key component of any robotic system.
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Potential Power Picks
Control Engineering, February 2008
By C.G. Masi
Power options for embedded systems are as varied as the applications they serve. Mixing and matching these available power sources for primary, recharge, and backup duty gives embedded system designers a wide range of options to power their creations. Here’s a tutorial on the choices.
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Relays: Far from Dead
Control Engineering, February 2008
David C. Thomas, Tyco Electronics
The traditional socket mounted, electromechanical relay, often based on designs that are several decades old, is still a highly effective solution to load-switching problems in industrial and commercial applications.
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On-Machine Controls
Control Engineering, February 2008
By C.G. Masi
Automation vendors have begun to reverse the trend away from on-machine controls by introducing ruggedized industrial electronics packages that make it possible to move controls back onto machines.
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GPS Synchronization Architecture for DSA Devices
By National Instruments
GPS synchronization enables measurement systems to make synchronized measurements over extremely large areas. GPS provides a method of sharing timing signals without the need of running timing cables to each measurement system. This article shows how to do it.
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Going Wireless is More Than Just Eliminating Cables
American Machinist, January 2008
There are three significant problems with gathering shop floor data: First is that it can increase labor costs; second, implementing an automated data capture system is often difficult and expensive; third, a system you implement today may not meet tomorrow’s needs.
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Signal Conditioning for PC-Based Control
Control Engineering, January 2008
By C.G. Masi
Control-system designers need to pay extra attention to signal conditioning issues when using PC-based controllers. PACs and PLCs don’t have the same problems.
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Eliminating non-repeatable errors
Motion System Design, January 2008
Repeatable error is easy to accommodate and correct. But speed changes and servo-system bandwidth issues sometimes cause non-repeatable error in automated systems.
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Striking at the heart of condition assessment
Power Engineering International, December 2007
By: Dave Randl, QinetiQ, UK
Remote visual inspections of machinery and pipework have always had limitations because of the inherent inflexibility of fibrescopes and videoscopes. The unique articulation of a guide now opens up the possibility of navigation through areas not previously possible, allowing a more comprehensive plant condition assessment.
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Remote monitoring closes the gap between meters and breakers
Plant Engineering, January 2008
By Jack Smith
Remote monitoring helps plant managers make informed decisions about operational efficiency, system reliability, employee safety and energy costs.
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Process control: Managing the modernization process
Plant Engineering, January 2008
By Jack Smith
When process industries face control system modernization, they also face inevitable decision opportunities. Changes can range from simple component replacements to a full-blown overhaul.
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Isolator and signal converter basics, Part 1
Plant Engineering, December 2007
By Greg Feliks, Moore Industries
Isolators are useful devices to solve instrumentation problems in process control applications. However, be sure to check the specs carefully. Not all isolators are created equal. Isolators can be used for many applications in process control beyond just eliminating ground loops and conditioning signals
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Advanced applications for isolators and signal converters, Part 2
Plant Engineering, December 2007
By Greg Feliks, Moore Industries
a selection of advanced applications for isolators and signal converters, including HART, digital converters, signal conversion, VFD noise, AC current/voltage conversion and isolation and Hazardous area isolation.
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Put Lightning in the Ground
Design News, January 2008
By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a direct strike to turn expensive instruments or sensors into junk. Lightning within a few kilometers of equipment can induce destructive voltages and currents on conductors. You can do a quick cost-benefit analysis to determine what to protect and how to protect it.
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Improving Analog Circuits
Design News, June 2007
By Hae-Seung Lee, professor, MIT Microsystems Technology Labs
With MIT’s new analog circuits, power consumption is a lot less. They eliminated the need for op-amps. Instead, they provide the same functionality by using comparators or zero-crossing detectors. Prototypes are built for A/D converters, but they can also be applied to amplifiers, filters or delta sigma modulators.
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What's a TDC, Anyway?
Design News, June 2007
By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor
A time-to-digital converter (TDC) charges a capacitor for the unknown period you want to measure (t1 to t2) and, at the end of that charging period, you quickly measure the circuit's output voltage.
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Condition Monitoring Gets Sophisticated
Control Engineering, June 2007
By Peter Cleaveland
New ways to gather information, including wireless, plus integration of information from top to bottom is helping users cut costs and avoid costly downtime.
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FIR Filters Fly
Design News, May 2007
By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor
A FIR filter works much like a moving average. The FIR filter first applies a coefficient to each data point. Raw data, say from an analog-to-digital converter, flows through an FIR filter that multiplies each value by a coefficient and then sums the results to produce a new value.
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LTF Technology Simplifies Light Sensing
Control Engineering, June 2007
By Ray King, TAOS
What is a light-to-frequency converter and how does it work?
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Mix-and-match machine safety
Control Design, May 2007
By Dan Hebert, Senior Technical Editor
A practical look at the convergence of safety-related devices and networks with their machine control counterparts.
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Users fear wireless networks for control
Intech, May 2007
By Dick Caro
Here is an item-by-item rebuttal of plant engineer’s vow: “Critical data will never transmit over a wireless link in my plant.” Fear and loathing on the technology trail.
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Using RDMA to increase processing performance
Embedded Computing Design
By William Lee, Mellanox Technologies
Applications are increasing the demand for CPU processing performance and the amount of data being transferred between subsystems. Offloading data movement to I/O hardware increases the amount of CPU resources available for these applications, boosting the system’s performance.
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Choosing the Right Industrial Wireless Network
The decision to implement wireless technology in your industrial facility is a strategic choice, enabling an infrastructure that will provide significant benefits for your company beyond avoiding the wiring costs. The right decision will help improve safety, optimize the plant and ensure compliance.
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Changes in temperature can cause subtle errors in LVDT readings
Machine Design, May 2007
By Harold Schaevitz, Macro Sensors
Changes in temperature can cause subtle errors in LVDT readings.
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Eye on Hazardous Area Sensors
Control Engineering, May 2007
By Jeanine Katzel, Control Engineering
Increasing use and advancing technologies in an ever-shrinking global environment are changing the focus of these critical process control devices.
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Are wireless sensors ready for me?
Control Design, May 2007
A reader wants to know what his best options are for reliable, and easily connectable wireless sensors for vibration monitoring, temperature and presence sensing. Various experts answer.
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The Sensor Web: A Distributed, Wireless Monitoring System
Sensors, April 2007
By: Kevin A. Delin, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Sensor Web is a distributed sensing system in which information is globally shared and used by all networked platforms. It's already been deployed long term in different environments and is opening up new avenues for distributed sensing and control.
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SIL 3-rated relays: The new accepted industry practice
Plant Engineering, April 2007
By Mike Garrick, Phoenix Contact
Accepted industry practice for process safety applications has been the use of standard relays in redundant or triplicate configurations to achieve 'safe’ standard relay functionality.
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Modular manufacturing steers machine control choices
Control Design, April 2007
By Loren Shaum, Contributing Editor
To improve flexibility, machine builders are incorporating more distributed control and remote I/O. This article focuses on machines with multiple stations.
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Why Use Temperature Transmitters Instead of Direct Wiring?
By Gary Prentice, Moore Industries-International
Today's highly functional microprocessor-based field-mount temperature transmitters are comparable in price to direct wiring strategies. When the additional advantages of using intelligent transmitters are factored in, you can save considerable time and avoid maintenance headaches. This is especially true when the measurement point is located a long distance from the readout and control system.
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Wireless Technology is Ready for Industrial Use
By Gary Mathur, Moore Industries-International, Inc.
Wireless works in a plant, but you'll want to be careful regarding which "flavor" you choose. There are many flavors of wireless, and an understanding is needed to determine the best solution for any particular application. Wireless can be licensed or unlicensed, Ethernet or serial interface, narrow band or spread spectrum, secure or open protocol,Wi-Fi…the list goes on. This article provides an introduction to this powerful technology.
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The hard choices of integration include decisions of how to connect proprietary systems
By Jim Hammond and Larry Castelli
The interconnection and integration of existing heterogeneous sub-networks into a homogeneous network has always presented challenges. Evolving and converging protocol standards along with emerging multi-protocol components suggest a clear understanding of the problems and solutions has never been more important.
These concerns include reliability, redundancy, robustness, and security.
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The intrinsically safe fieldbus has arrived
By Dr. Dave Rizzo
The capacity barrier of FISCO has now been significantly surpassed by a novel split architecture design that has already proven itself in the field. For plants that process chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petroleum and other products whose production may involve hazardous environments, it appears that recent technological improvements in split architecture systems design have finally delivered what FISCO promised: intrinsically-safe segment capacity virtually indistinguishable from non-hazardous fieldbus implementations.
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Reaping the Rewards of a Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics Program
As today’s manufacturers continue to seek new methods and tools that can enable them to do more with less, many leading-edge companies are turning to innovative monitoring and diagnostics tools that can dramatically enhance and improve a company’s existing Maintenance, Repair and Operation (MRO) programs. Often referred to as “remote monitoring and diagnostic systems,” such technologies can help companies cut overall production costs, improve quality, minimize downtime and increase operational efficiency.
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On-Machine™ - On the Cutting Edge of Automation
With the current squeeze on capital investments, companies are searching for ways to lower the cost of installing and maintaining automation systems. As a means to this end, they’re finding that moving industrial controls and hardware closer to the application or directly onto the machine saves considerable time and money. This paper examines the scope of On-Machine™ solutions, outlines the key benefits of this growing trend and highlights examples where a distributed, On-Machine architecture has been successful.
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Using High-Reliability Digital I/O
By National Instruments
White paper describes the operation of High-Reliability Digital I/O, demonstrates the features in typical scenarios, and illustrates how to program the features in LabVIEW.
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Isolation Technologies for Reliable Industrial Measurements
Voltage, current, temperature, pressure, strain, and flow measurements are an integral part of industrial and process control applications. Often these applications involve environments with hazardous voltages, transient signals, common-mode voltages, and fluctuating ground potentials capable of damaging measurement systems and ruining measurement accuracy. To overcome these challenges, measurement systems designed for industrial applications make use of electrical isolation. This white paper focuses on isolation for analog measurements, provides answers to common isolation questions, and includes information on different isolation implementation technologies.
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Distributed I/O: The Future Of I/O
By: A-B Journal Staff
Increased integration, technology migration, and distributed solutions are driving I/O to become more integrated and flexible. This evolution continues as manufacturers demand smaller, faster, and easier to install control systems. The I/O industry is transforming the appearance and function of I/O devices on the factory floor to meet these needs. Among the most noteworthy changes are collapsing architectures, smart devices, intelligent I/O and packaged controllers, and smaller size.
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The Future of Industrial I/O
By: Jim Lamberson, Sensoray Company Inc
I/O implementation strategies in our automated world: some are newer and others are, for the most part, remnants from an earlier technology era. Aside from the legacy aspect, why do so many I/O implementation strategies exist? Because every strategy has both strengths and shortcomings. This article examines the various I/O strategies and concludes that Ethernet I/O is the future.
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