Articles and News

By Eric Knapp, Honeywell Process Solutions Today, malware can evolve, mutate and hide in its tracks. It can seek out embedded devices and inject them with code. In short, bad guys can gain access and cause harm to industrial control systems once thought to be impenetrable.

ISA Automation Week Revisited Comes to Canada

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Industry 4.0 initiative is just one part of a 10-point high-tech plan in Germany’s strategy to be the leading supplier of products in a number of disciplines. The 10-point plan was created in 2006 and focuses on academia, research institutions and industry.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Layered cyber security protection has become an important factor for automation systems. The bottom layers of the network include the controllers with real-time embedded processors. I recently interviewed Alan Grau, President and Co-Founder of Icon Labs, about their company and cyber security solution offering.

Use external-reset feedback to prevent oscillations for a slow secondary loop or final control element; meet process objectives with setpoint rate limits,

A successful industrial project implementation starts with the selection of the right manufacturing operations management (MOM) software applications.

A Delay Decomposition Approach to Robust Stability Analysis of Uncertain Systems

When calculating the cost of a project, a decision, or some other activity, do not fail to consider the intangible costs.

By Chase Gregory, Stahlin Most control housings are typically made up of metals, thermoplastics, or composite materials. Here's a brief overview of the three main types of enclosure materials describing how they perform relative to preventing corrosion and impact resistance.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Emerson invested nearly $70 million in a new 282,000-square-foot Innovation Center in Round Rock, Texas. The center serves as the global headquarters for Emerson’s automation systems and project services business, which helps customers safely, reliably and profitably operate facilities in various industries.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Even though New York City experienced a snow storm that accumulated 10 inches of snow, the AHR Expo experienced a record attendance. More than 43,000 visitors and 18,000 exhibitor personnel flocked to the Javits Convention Center.

By Dave Dahl, Rockwell Automation, et al Low power factor and high levels of voltage and current harmonic distortion, are a significant but often hidden cost in industrial operations. Without corrective measures, these factors increase electrical utility charges, impair equipment health, and prevent efficient industrial expansion.

MES Projects Are About the Business, Not the Technology

Signal characterization in a DCS can solve problems resulting from signal characterization in the valve positioner.

By Alex Mills, Chess Logistics Technology Warehouse management systems have come a long way in the last 25 years and the latest versions far surpass their predecessors in terms of performance, sophistication and the value they can deliver to a business. And yet the market is slowing down.

Are Smart Devices in a Plant Your Most Valuable Assets?

By Bill Lydon, Editor Pharmaceutical automation leaders from around the world gathered to discuss a number of automation challenges, including how their companies are dealing with reduced personnel and the need to support multiple technologies at multiple sites. This article highlights those conversations and addresses the automation support models and the use of managed services.

Do not let the integrator take the system through a scripted test sequence to prove its functionality.

By Bruce Nicolson, Intelligent Plant EEMUA 191 Revision 3 has revised requirements in terms of generating and representing KPIs. Alarm Management professionals and engineers responsible for control systems on process plants should therefore be aware of these changes and how to interpret them

By Macro Sensors Temperature effects can be significant in certain specific applications such as aircraft, subsea and turbomachinery. That’s why it is is important to know the effects that temperature has on LVDT Sensors.