Articles and News

Net Neutrality is the hot topic of the moment and seeing as it deals with one of the most widely used utilities in the world, the Internet, it’s hard not to see why. Unregulated access to the Internet is an inalienable right of every buyer of data and fighting for it is a worthy fight.

Choosing a pH sensor for use in harsh process environments requires careful consideration of numerous key factors.

By Alan Grau, Icon Labs Security can no longer be thought of as a “nice to have”. Investment in security cannot be viewed through the lens of ROI or competitive advantage. Security must be considered a fundamental requirement – like air bags in automobiles. Everyone involved in the development of technology for critical infrastructure needs to recognize the threats and begin investing today in security solutions.

The fast kinetics and composition response of a fluidized bed reactor enable the direct manipulation of reactant feed rate by temperature control to inherently maximize production rate to the coolant

The ISA reference book Maintenance of Instruments & Systems, 2nd Edition by L. D. Goettsche covers topics related to level measurement.

By Norbert Meierhoefer, AspenTech While industrial technology is partly responsible for leaking carbon emissions into the atmosphere, technology can also play an important role in helping to manage and reduce CO2 output.

By Bill Lydon, Editor I recently learned more about Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning cloud-based predictive analytics software. It is designed to allow users to gain insights into their systems by leveraging data from those systems. I believe Azure is analogous to the power of Excel and Visual Basic - two products that democratized computing in the past.

Are the employees and contractors who interact with your safety systems from concept design through to operation and maintenance, qualified and competent to carry out their work?

Bringing in professionals to help before a project gets off the rails makes the whole experience easier and less costly.

Selecting the right Ethernet cable can make the difference between success and failure of any network communications infrastructure and its systems.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Daikin Industries Intelligent Equipment platform translates the IoT buzzwords into a real-world IoT application. The platform provides predictive and preventative maintenance HVAC information that helps facility managers maintain equipment before it loses efficiency or impacts occupant comfort.

Major social networks enable you to build online communities with ease. But what's the best solution for your automation or industrial controls community?

New process plant construction or upgrade projects launched using in-house resources often end up calling in outside professionals to help.

There are many things a business can do to manage its cybersecurity. Improving the reliability & uptime of systems delivers a high return on investment.

Which documents should be fully developed before a control software program can be developed?

By Patrick Supanich, Contributor As an end user, you must rely more and more on outside engineering services for your automation needs. Choosing a services partner can be a high-risk decision for your company and, frankly, your career. Not all CSIs are created equal. So how do you pick one?

By Andy Chang, NI The Factory of the Future is a research and technology initiative aimed to push emerging technologies to improve the competitiveness of manufacturing processes by leveraging cyber-physical systems and big data analytics to enable a smarter, operator-centric production.

The annual automation industry salary survey from ISA.

By Terry Nagy, Computer Aided Solutions The architecture of data acquisition and control systems which have their own DSP processors makes them well-suited for use in PID applications.

By Bill Lydon, Editor There is a great opportunity to leverage the latest technologies and compete in the global manufacturing landscape. The future lies in the convergence of product design, production planning, production engineering, production execution, and services.