Articles and News

Automation.com, November 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Industrial Ethernet protocols, coupled with low cost pervasive Ethernet technology, have made the support of multiple protocols on a single controller a reality, enabling users to leverage the advantages of various networks and make technology additions to existing systems.

By Mike Hughes, Schaeffler Specifying linear motion systems isn’t the black art many engineers think it is. Here are some useful tips on how to select suitable linear actuators for single and multi-axis positioning systems.

Use precise valves, scheduled tuning, external-reset feedback, directional rate setpoint limits, and an enhanced PID to stop split range oscillations.

Auto-tuning of cascade control systems

By Ingenia Field Oriented torque Control of a brushless motor is possible using one shunt sensing circuitry, obtaining an ultra-low cost but high performances device.

Automation.com, November 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Homeland Security's Lisa Kaiser gave a sobering presentation on cyber security issues and attacks. Kaiser emphasized that we are playing catch-up, noting that Foreign Cyber Espionage in the USA has been more intense in the last few years with a large black market for buying and selling information.

By Peter Seeberg and Jürgen Lange, Softing An OPC toolkit is a collection of libraries, classes and interfaces that simplify the development of OPC applications for programmers by providing standard functions for reading and writing OPC items, browsing and managing the OPC address space, and much more.

Designing and/or improving a control system is practically impossible if the team does not understand the process.

Technical Spec Writing and Modbus Protocol Training

On-off valves should not be used as control valves (for throttling) and control valves should not be used as on-off valves (for isolation).

Automation.com, November 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Analytic computing methods are increasingly being applied in business and technology with software emerging in the automation industry giving users actionable insights and understanding of performance based on data and statistical methods.

Automation.com, November 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Invensys Foxboro describes their Modernization Program as taking a holistic approach based on business requirements with four major goals - Reduce risk of failures, operational improvements, new & existing systems integration, and securing automation systems from cyber-attack.

Automation.com, November 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Improving operator interaction is a good topic but this perspective may be holding back automation industry progress. It seems to me the industry should be putting more effort into developing more advanced automation with the goal of eliminating operators.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor My discussions with users at the IANA and IMTS shows make it clear that industrial automation is imperative to increase productivity, quality, and competitiveness in world markets. The event provides users and machine builders with an opportunity to see and compare offerings from multiple vendors in one trip.

Operator buy-in and approval are critical to automation project success. Get the operators involved in the design process early and listen to what they say.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Executives from supplier and end-user companies, along with a leading industrial business analyst provided their insights into the future of automation and industry issues, including human performance and challenging new engineers.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor OPC UA technology provides an efficient and secure infrastructure for communications and has the potential to be the standard of choice to complete the vision of IP to the edge, commonly referred to as the "Internet of Things."

Automation.com, October 2012 By Nuris Ismail and Reid Paquin This research explores how industry leaders are taking advantage of industrial networking to enable real-time visibility into data to optimize production, maintenance, and safety - in particular, the adoption rate of industrial Ethernet protocols versus Fieldbus.

How do you spend the first hour of your day?

Estimate benefits from a decrease in variability & an increase production rate. Implement solutions where an increase in plant profitability is justified