Articles and News

By Rob Sullivan, AutoGuide Mobile Robots The mobile robot proliferation is an extension of lean manufacturing principles. Whether labor savings are from tugger application or with fork attachments, reliable navigation that requires no magnetic tape or RFID tags to guide its way safely through a facility, the growth the automonous environment is unstoppable.

By Mondi Anderson, RealPars A DCS or distributed control system is similar to a PLC in that it has rugged computer controllers, however, the DCS contains multiple autonomous controllers that are distributed throughout a system, also used for automating processes.

The cascade dead zones problem in a typical two-stage proportional directional control valve is analyzed and a cascade dead zones model is developed for the main stage spring constant.

By Nick Boughton, Boulting Technology While AR is becoming increasingly popular in popular culture, how does the world of manufacturing keep up with the opportunities available to them? This article examines how AR can be used across the manufacturing industry.

Proper grounding provides safety, over-current protection, electrical noise reduction, lightning protection, and static electricity reduction.

By Rachel Bugaris, Panduit The significance of PtD in manufacturing-oriented environments today can’t be understated, and furthermore the case for PtD in implementing solutions that design electrical safety into the process can easily be made.

FDT technology integrates any device, system, or network in an automation architecture. It leverages IIoT and Industry 4.0 to help realize the true potential of decentralization, interoperability, and

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation Traditionally, the way to succeed in an engineering career has been to work your way up the corporate ladder, but is the influx of new start-ups changing this? This article looks at how engineering businesses can retain staff in the era of the start-up.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com The THINC Academy is working to address the skills gap problem by engaging students with the fundamental knowledge and skills to be productive. THINC Academy already has a success record adding skilled, motivated, and well-rounded workers to help close the skills gap with their educational approach.

Learn about the importance of process optimization and how to achieve it through better PID control from members of the ISA Mentor Program.

By Robert Bova, AccuSpeechMobile One of the greatest impacts of automating with new mobile voice technology is the ability to decrease the ramp-up time required for temporary and seasonal staff.

Pressure recovery factor is the increase in fluid static pressure that occurs as fluid moves through a valve from the vena contracta to the valve's outlet and downstream piping.

By Sean Robinson, Novotek Sales people will tout an endless stream of benefits of an IoT-enabled device but the IoT isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme where one purchase can promise a life of high ROI. This article explains why the data from your new IoT device might not be meeting expectations.

By Lisa Silverman, RunSafe Security As more and more controllers, servers, remote terminals, monitoring equipment, and sensors are tied to the internet, the cyberattack surface has increased exponentially, making our critical infrastructure and manufacturing plants vulnerable to unprecedented threats.

Model predictive control software identifies the dynamics and automatically incorporates them into the industrial evaporator controller.

By combining AVEVA’s industrial automation and information management capabilities with Canon’s imaging technology, the two companies can develop new solutions to facilitate Smart Manufacturing operations.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Today we take another dive into the world of new technologies in today's automation ecosystem. For this article, I had opportunity to examine Opto 22's groov EPIC product at the 22nd annual ARC Industry Forum in February.

Research focus on the use of OPC technology for the study of distributed control systems as a cost effective and flexible research tool for the development and testing of advanced process control techn

By Ben C. Garber, Ultra Electronics, 3eTI Cyber attacks can bring these thriving smart cities to a standstill and create utter chaos. Ensuring cyber-physical security against local and foreign adversaries is the new challenge for today’s city planners.

Documentation of the "as left" condition of the control system is a basic requirement for all maintenance, calibration, commissioning, and testing tasks.