Articles and News

The whitepaper, Chapter Five: Industrial Control Systems Life Cycle Cost Analysis – Quantitative Evaluation, delineates 450 different factors that impact costs across the following six phases of the industrial control system (ICS) life cycle: engineering, installation, commissioning, maintenance, system, and cyber security.

This document explains the advantages of Sequential Function Chart, SFC. This is a very expressive graphic formalism of the IEC 61131-3 standard. It is not considered a programming language as it needs other languages to express transition conditions and actions.

Participants were trained at a temporary scaled version of GE Garage at the venue comprising select equipment like 3D printers, CNC mills, laser cutters amongst others.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com The ability to enhance industrial and process automation efficiency, through the application real-time enterprise computing, cloud applications, and IoT devices. While such investments can be a gamble, the cards are laying in the automation industry’s favor.

To gain a better understanding of the issues and opportunities faced by ICS organizations today, Kaspersky Lab and Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC – a CXP Group Company) conducted a survey of 320 global professionals with decision-making power on OT/ICS cybersecurity from 25 countries across the globe from April – May 2018.

Ted Crandall, senior vice president, Control Products & Solutions (CP&S), one of the company’s two operating segments, announced his intent to retire near the end of the calendar year 2018.

By Benson Hougland, Opto 22 Traditional industrial networking methods have proved workable but difficult to implement. The next generation of communication technologies may work to ease implementation while addressing security concerns.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, more than 3 million industrial robots will be in use in factories around the world by 2020. This means that the operational stock will more than double within seven years

By Robin Whitehead, Boulting Technology Many systems that have been retrofitted for compatibility with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are not well protected. This article explains the top considerations to ensure cybersecurity when retrofitting a system.

In addition to the Experion Orion Console, the Leppävirta site will implement Honeywell’s Field Device Manager, which uses smart instrumentation to perform device configuration and management capabilities.

Resembling more a bustling city than a trade fair, the 71st Hannover Messe was very busy and chock full of energy and innovation this year, with over 200,000 attendees from 75 countries. Focusing on the theme 'Integrated Industry – Connect & Collaborate', the Digital Factory was front and center.

Designed for implementing small touch pads and screens, the 2D Touch Surface library runs on a device’s existing MCU. This removes the need for a dedicated touch controller, giving product designers the flexibility to add finger position tracking and gesture detection, such as swipes, pinch and zoom, to products.

The Executive Conference featured 26 workshops and sessions, as well as several special events including the third annual CSIA Fun Run/Walk, area tours, the annual Industry Expo, and the Awards Dinner.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com At Hannover Messe 2018, it was clear that many in the computing industry are focused on implementing a holistic cyber security approach, encompassing the entire architecture including cloud, enterprise, and edge devices. This article will explore some of these efforts and explain how they are shaping the future of cybersecurity in industrial automation.

Multiple production lines are planned for this plant, the first of which will have Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 7000 and PowerFlex 755T integrated power systems from Rockwell Automation.

Wunderlich-Malec will deliver Bedrock OSA from its 32 U.S. locations. Bedrock’s control systems combine standards-based control and embedded security with industrial hardness and edge control.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com The world might not be able to eliminate the cyberthreat from existence, but today’s industrial businesses can take proactive action to ensure that they are able to effectively respond and recover if a cyberattack does come.

In its Partner Country role, Sweden is taking over from Mexico as the nation featured in 2018. In 2018, Forbes named Sweden the world’s best country for doing business and the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index ranked Sweden as the most competitive economy in the world.

Seeq will join more than 500 control system integrators from around the globe on April 24-27 in San Francisco for the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Executive Conference.

The Palo Alto Networks NGFW aims to put in place protection to secure the complex interfaces between office and automation networks. The NGFWs allow Siemens customers to select from a variety of security levels and adjust them in-line with their own specific needs.