Articles and News

By Robert Landavazo, Tripwire The OT/IT convergence will no doubt be looked back upon as a turning point in industry’s fight for cyber security and further harnessing of technology for business success. Being an early, proactive leader in that regard certainly, in general, seems like a good role to be playing.

Getting funding for a large-scale automation project depends on proving ROI, so an accurate project cost estimate is paramount. Calculating such an estimate needs to follow a methodical process to avo

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Much like the Fieldbus wars that marked the industrial automation industry of the 1990’s, there are early-warning signs of competing standards developing in TSN activity that could ignite a similar wave of chaos.

By Tom Ayral, Honeywell Cyber Security Various industry studies and intelligent guess-work already allow us to develop a first-pass financial estimate of potential losses from cyber attacks – which allows an estimate of the savings that implementing an effective cyber security program could bring.

Technical guidance on ways to optimize settings and options for PID controllers from industry veteran Greg McMillan and participants in ISA's Mentor Program.

An intrinsic safety barrier prevents excess voltage and current from reaching the hazardous area.

Performance measure for pipeline leak detection are generally taken to be sensitivity (the size leak that can be detected), specificity (the certainty that a detected event of some kind is actually a

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Recent security breaches have demonstrated the continued dynamic evolution of cybersecurity as vulnerabilities in both software and hardware continue to be identified. Consequently, it is increasingly imperative that cybersecurity is designed into the system components and overall design…and people will want proof of that.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Recent security breaches have demonstrated the continued dynamic evolution of cybersecurity as vulnerabilities in both software and hardware continue to be identified. Consequently, it is increasingly imperative that cybersecurity is designed into the system components and overall design…and people will want proof of that.

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation Blockchain is changing the finance industry, and there is potential for it to revolutionize other industries too. This article explains how Blockchain can revolutionize manufacturing.

Key insights on how feedforward control often simplifies to ratio control.

Work on energized electrical conductors and circuit parts, including voltage testing on panelboards, or other equipment rated 240V and below would be classified as Hazard/Risk Category 1.

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.

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

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.

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.

For the Reynold's number, the inertial forces in the numerator are given by the product of mass (density), fluid velocity, and pipe diameter.

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.

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.