Articles and News

By Dr. Arne Linder, Kollmorgen Decentralizing servo technology can bring machine and plant construction savings during installation. Two additional advantages include reduced cabinet heat loads and more straight forward drive architecture. The question arises however, which technology is better, an integrated motor/drive solution or a detached motor and drive?

Key Questions to Ask Before Migrating to High-Performance Graphics

Eliminating Black Boxes in Safety Applications

How to Select the Optimal Temperature Sensor for Industrial Applications

Robust Fault Detection for Switched Positive Linear Systems with Time-Varying Delays

By Bill Lydon, Editor Should the control room operator be responsible for making business decisions? Focusing solely on improving operator interaction may be a mistake. Your competitors may be focusing on increased automation and integration to gain a competitive business advantage.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The OPC Foundation Information Revolution 2014 Conference was held at Microsoft's Redmond Campus on August 4-7, 2014. The conference featured industry experts who both presented and learned more about OPC Unified Architecture. This article summarizes the highlights from the conference.

Mission Critical Operations programs are designed to develop a career pathway to address demand for a workforce able to anticipate, prevent, mitigate, and respond to mission-critical breaches.

By Andrea Sorri, Axis Communications With the arrival of network video, plant operators can integrate security, safety and production control in one single system. With HDTV image quality, network cameras can provide detailed and clear images - allowing remote operators to virtually place themselves at any location of the plant or process and see what is happening at any given time.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Every time you contract a third-party service provider, you are putting your company’s intellectual property (IP) at risk. With the current cyber security landscape and the new range of services offered by vendors and system integrators, manufacturers are increasingly challenged to protect their IP.

Recurrent Fuzzy Neural Network Backstepping Control for the Prescribed Output Tracking Performance of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems

By Robert Harrison, COPA-DATA It takes an average of twelve years and over £200m to get a new drug from the laboratory onto the shelf. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry is well known for its prudence, especially regarding the uptake of new technologies. Here’s how appropriate technologies can help, rather than hinder, essential regulatory compliance including ISO 50001 and FDA 21 CFR Part 11.

How Do You Make an Automation Buying Decision?

By IDTech It is true that virtual IP addresses can be created for the nodes in a network that only has internet connection at backhaul but this does not offer sensing or the other main benefits of a genuine Internet of Things.

By Dennis Gilhooley, Jr., Ultra Consultants Many manufacturers have come to the conclusion that “smart” part numbering is an unwieldy approach to part numbering and data analysis. Instead, leading companies are shifting from “smart” to what is termed as “insignificant” or unique part numbers.

By Dennis Gilhooley, Jr., Ultra Consultants ERP selection is typically driven by a common set of conditions, including poor access to information, core systems that are difficult to use, and an over-reliance on standalone systems that function as islands of information. Organizations saddled with legacy solutions often don’t know where to begin when it comes to an ERP selection project.

A Closer Look at Process Instrument Commissioning

By Bill Lydon, Editor They say, “What goes around comes around.” I think this is happening with Advanced Process Control (APC) and Model Predictive Control (MPC). There seems to be a renewed interest in APC, and the systems, while not trivial, seem to be easier to use and lower cost.

By Jim O’Callaghan, EnOcean Energy harvesting wireless technology stems from a simple observation – where sensor data resides, sufficient ambient energy exists to power sensors and radio communications. Harvestable energy sources include: motion, indoor light and temperature differentials.

By Jonathan Wilkins, European Automation There are myriad issues that can cause electric motors to fail. However, among this rogue’s gallery of problems there is a set of usual suspects that crop up more often than the others.