Articles and News

The top process industries grew at a faster rate than the top discrete industries in 2017, and this trend continued in 2018, according to the “Low Voltage Motors Report” from IHS Markit.

Drawing on Siemens expertise in the mining industry and Industry 4.0, the solution will be based on the advanced architecture and performance of Siemens WinCC Open Architecture. As part of the contract, Siemens will also provide inter process communication (IPC), accessories, plus software engineering and site commissioning services.

Siemens shares the vision of the OPC Foundation to extend the scope of OPC UA down to field level communication and is looking forward to contributing in standardization activities in the upcoming working groups of the OPC Foundation concerning information models for devices, necessary adaption of OPC UA core standards, application profiles, etc.

The software-based interface can be implemented in controllers offered by any device manufacturer, which makes it an interesting feature to vendors of both master devices and diagnostic tools.

By Chris Johnson, SMB Bearings Vibration analysis can provide valuable insight into machine condition, flagging up problems before extensive damage occurs. This article explains the steps machine builders should take to reduce the likelihood of bearings being the root cause.

This agreement spans all three of KBR’s synergistic global businesses: Hydrocarbon Services, Technology, and Government Services.

These personnel bring collaborative robotics experience in engineering, product development, and customer applications, which will combine with UR’s expertise to continue to drive new collaborative robotics solutions.

As of now, product manufacturers can use the seal to promote their battery-free, wireless switches integrating EnOcean’s energy harvesting technology for wireless standards in the sub-1 GHz and 2.4 GHz range.

Power/mation has warehouses and sales offices in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Heitek Automation will now be distributing the full line of Festo pneumatic and electric automation components and systems in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.

In its role, Emerson will update control and safety systems, fire and gas systems, field instrumentation control and isolation valves, and other equipment to improve production efficiencies.

The additions to the machine safety portfolio are all designed to communicate over EtherNet/IP and are tested against machine safety standards to ease compliance. The products will also be included in the next release of the Safety Automation Builder software tool.

The competitive award is for students enrolled in a CNC machinist, CNC operations, engineering or manufacturing certificate or degree program. As part of the award process, the scholarship recipient's school will also recieve a $500 donation made to their machining or manufacturing department.

Indonesia is working to become Southeast Asia’s biggest digital economy by 2020. The “Making Indonesia 4.0” initiative was developed to revitalize the Indonesian manufacturing sector through the adoption of Industrie 4.0. It focuses on five sectors for the initial implementation: food and beverage, textiles, automotive, chemicals, and electronics.

The Linear MOTIONEERING tool retains the Thomson engineering calculations for design engineers and has added new product families, interactive navigation, expanded global support and mobile access.

The investment will include the addition of a lab and showroom to the on-site warehouse and distribution center as well as increasing capabilities for injection molding and die-casting processes. The project is slated to create at least 50 new jobs.

Working with Cognex, engineers at automotive manufacturer General Motors of Canada Company (GM Canada) developed a chain drive stretching system that measures every link in real time and automatically marks non-compliant links without slowing or stopping the line

Using elements of Emerson’s Project Certainty methodology, North West Redwater Partnership reduced global automation engineering complexity and completed the instrumentation and control scope for refinery automation.

Supported by AI-based machine-vision technology, the novel “WiseEye” can be installed in a weaving machine to help fabric manufacturers to detect defects in the production process.

By Mondi Anderson, RealPars A DCS or distributed control system is similar to a PLC in that it has rugged computer controllers, however, the DCS contains multiple autonomous controllers that are distributed throughout a system, also used for automating processes.

Available as a free download on the Parker website, the software has been highlighted by Parker design centers, professional users, and DIYers for its interface, BOM generation, and quote capabilities.