Articles and News

Wireless technology for process instrumentation has the potential to bridge key gaps in a variety of industrial applications, including asset management solutions, monitoring, and noncritical alarming

Up to 2014, there was only limited interest in thermoelectric energy harvesting in general and its use in automotive applications in particular. IDTech predicts thermoelectric energy harvesting will be on production hybrid electric on-road vehicles from 2018.

The guide lists 130 providers of nearly 300 Sercos-enabled products and serves as a guide for all mechanical engineers, systems integrators and control unit manufacturers who use the high-performance Sercos automation bus.

By Kepware Technologies Repete implemented Kepware’s KEPServerEX communications platform to address the diverse protocol environments of its growing international customer base.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The goal of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to massively instrument the world with intelligent sensors and actuators (analog/digital) that communicate over both wired and wireless networks and leverage the Internet Protocol (IP). .

Molex plant floors consist of hundreds of different machines from a variety of vendors, with each speaking its own language or “protocol.” An OPC server connected them all.

By Rainer Schmidt, Harting PROFINET is an independent, proprietary system, which is primarily used for communication between PROFINET components. If PROFINET wants to seamlessly communicate right into the SAP level, it runs into the structured cabling which the IT infrastructure of the company uses.

This specification describes the mapping of the Sercos information model to OPC UA so that functions and data of Sercos devices are made available and accessible via OPC UA.

Testing tool verifies the correct implementation of the Sercos Internet Protocol Services (S-IPS).

The SIG will proliferate adoption of EtherNet/IP in the process industries, and integrate field devices with industrial control systems and related diagnostic services.

The latest EtherNet/IP Specification provides the framework for users to design energy-conserving functionality into their products for when equipment is in production mode.

Skkynet's Secure Cloud Service allows industrial and embedded systems to securely network live data in real time from anywhere across five continents that has an Internet connection.

The IP core for Sercos III master and slave controllers (SERCON100M/S) includes all hardware functions, such as timing, synchronization and processing of cyclic and non-cyclic data on the basis of two integrated Ethernet MACs.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in many respects is the progression of distributed computing. The fundamental components of an automation (or other) system are sensors; they are the “eyes, ears, and fingers” of any system. If the concepts of IIoT are to succeed, we need more effective, powerful sensors.

By Paul Brooks, Rockwell Automation, on behalf of Industrial IP Advantage Without standard, unmodified Ethernet on the plant floor, many industrial automation companies can’t easily take advantage of higher-level protocols and the immense functionality they support. EtherNet/IP enables organizations to save money by moving away from expensive, closed, plant floor dedicated networks.

FDI Cooperation, FieldComm Group and Profibus & Profinet International gave FDI to the FieldComm Group.

PLCopen and OPC Foundation created an open standards ecosystem that simplifies the communications of packaging machines with other plant systems and the business enterprise.

Linux has long been on the “wishlist" for control systems. Until now, most systems have been locked-in to the Windows operating system due to reliance on classic OPC—a ubiquitous communication standard based on Microsoft’s Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). The name of the game is changing, however, with the arrival of the next-generation OPC standard, the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA). The new standard was designed for cross-platform compatibility, which makes room for Linux to gain popularity in the automated control industry.

By Bill Lydon, Editor There is a growing frenzy over the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to industrial automation. The question is, “Why do we want to do this?” The high level goal is to improve manufacturing processes in a number of dimensions, including efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet individual customer needs in a timely manner.

Exide had difficulties in reading 2D data matrix codes burned into plastic with a laser burner. The problem was solved by switching to image-based Cognex DataMan 200 readers with 2D decoding software and an EtherNet/IP interface to the PLC.