Articles and News

By Rick Zabel, Publisher Have you ever wished you could look back at what your operator was seeing at some point in history? Now you can. The Console Recorder from Longwatch is a virtual time machine - a software package that lets companies see what the operator was watching on the HMI when an event occurred.

By Bill Lydon, Automation.com PLCopen finalized release 2.1 of the PLCopen Technical Committee 6 – XML Standard. This release 2.1 is based version 2.0 published in December 2008, as well as the feedback received from PLCopen members and the AutomationML organization. Here’s a synopsis of what the standard contains.

There's an old saying, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." A number of experts have said that the United States has lost its edge – its ability to innovate. Kamen believes that inventions in the U.S. have not slowed down. However, Kamen says, "Our society has become more cautious and we don't accept new innovations as quickly."

Solid-state relays (SSR) are able to perform many of the same tasks as electromechanical relay (EMR)s. The main difference is that SSRs have no moving mechanical parts within it.

Automation.com, August 2009 By: Christopher Eckert & Attilio Bellman, Siemens IT Solutions & Services Plant managers require IT solutions that support production lines, just-in-time scheduling and demand planning. However, forecasting and demand planning is not standard in today's IT and manufacturing environments.

As I travel from one user conference to another, there is one clear and consistent theme coming from the major automation suppliers. Services, which include systems integration, optimization, life cycle management, asset management, and maintenance, have become a major focus for many of them. Even in this challenging economy, the services groups within these organizations continue to grow – sometimes significantly.

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As an engineer, you may not think you could learn anything about innovation from a former travel agent. But this former travel agent was the founder of Travelocity.com, one of the few profitable dotcoms during the dotcom bust. Jones referred to Wikipedia's definition of the word innovation - a new way of doing something that ultimately creates value to a producer or customer.

ProfiBus was created in 1989 by the German government in cooperation with several manufacturers of automation equipment. It is a messaging format specifically designed for high-speed serial I/O in factory and building automation applications.

After traveling to Germany last week for Hannover Messe (Fair), the world's largest industrial trade show, I was struck again by the difference in how engineers are perceived in Germany versus the U.S. German Engineering is often revered as a high quality engineering standard. I'm convinced that this reverence has everything to do with the deep-rooted culture surrounding engineering in Germany.

By Rick Zabel, Publisher There is nothing better than face to face meetings. Unfortunately, face to face meetings are not always possible, especially if the participants live in different parts of the country or world. Social networking tools have become a defacto standard of communication for many people and the trend is spreading from younger generations to older generations.

By Steve Lankford, Diamond Phoenix There are many things to consider when taking on a material handling project. It's in your best interest to have a systems integrator take responsibility for delivering a system that meets your expectations and goals.

Project management is critical to ensuring projects are implemented correctly, on time and within budget. Good project management also communicates to your management or stakeholder that you are a professional.

By Carl Hosier, Honeywell Process Solutions Many manufacturing facilities have taken to integrating plant subsystems with their DCS to maximize productivity and improve overall efficiency. Applying this same concept to power generation could help electricity and steam generators streamline production in a way that makes sense to both their pocketbooks and the regulators.

Molded rubber and silicone electrical connectors, plus short-run production of completely custom-connectors help manufacturers get the most up-time and ROI from new equipment

By Andy Krapf, Loudoun Water Loudoun Water, in Louden County, Virginia, installed an Iconics Genesis64 HMI/SCADA system running under the Vista operating system and reduced their customization times by 30-40%.

The 33rd annual Honeywell Users Group Conference was held June 15 - 19, 2008 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ with over 700 customers in attendance.

By Rick Zabel, Publisher Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.

"The Six Most Common PID Configuration Errors: How to Find and Fix Them" white paper identifies the most common PID configuration issues, and provides techniques to help find and fix these issues.

By Rick Zabel, Automation.com The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!