Articles and News

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.

Traditionally, body panels are inspected by using a robot to present the part to an array of proximity switches. Ford improved on this method by using machine vision. The camera connects to either the robot or the PLC using the Ethernet/IP protocol.

By John Lewis, Cognex The need to use PCs to interface with vision systems and ID readers required the purchase of expensive hardware and development of sometimes complex software. A new generation of vision systems and ID readers with built-in EtherNet/IP connectivity streamlines factory network integration.

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.

Centero will distribute and support the ISA100 Wireless Device Test Kit and ISA100 Wireless Stack Test Kit.

Using Kepware’s KEPServerEX, Cascades now supports communications across all of its seventeen plants, seventeen paper machines, and nearly ninety converting lines with just one piece of software.

To simplify the development of complex machines, Rexroth is integrating safety technology into the Sercos automation network.

By Julia Santogatta, Belden Wireless can actually be extremely secure, shared medium or not, if you follow the “wireless Golden Rule” and ask yourself some typical security questions when planning a wireless local area network (WLAN).

By Bill Lydon, Editor By recently joining the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), MOXA emphasized their strong focus on the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Another example of this commitment is their increased rugged industrial communications product scope, including security offerings.

Security Application Site simplifies security design by providing access to the latest security resources all in one place.

By Jonathan Wilkins A new industrial wireless European standard (EN300328 V1.8.1) threatens to make essential plant control sensors useless. It introduces the “listen before talk” (LBT) protocol as a solution for preserving bandwidth in industrial environments.

Yokogawa will license its ISA100 Wireless technology to Murata and Murata will develop communication modules.

By Julia Arneri Borghese, Paradox Engineering When considering a wireless network, the critical decision is how to invest in future proof infrastructures that can provide adequate flexibility and scalability over time. Industrial organizations are not likely to install technologies which bind them to legacy protocols, or force them to replace existing equipment.

On October 21, Dr. Wei Sun, representative of the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), made the announcement.

By Edward Nugent, PcVue The implementation of Cybersecurity under the NIST Framework is ultimately the responsibility of the SCADA Application owner and operator as it encompasses the entire system including the organization developing the SCADA application, the corporate networks and computers that it runs on and the control devices and instrumentation attached to it.

By Paul Brooks, Rockwell Automation Manufacturers should carefully consider their infrastructure investments today to take advantage of the emerging wealth of industrial innovations enabled by the Internet Protocol (IP).

Android-based Smart Device Communicator Application uses the Device Descriptor (DD) for the connected HART device so the user has full access to every Parameter and Method.

Clearfield also opened a manufacturing plant in Tijuana, Mexico.

The RapID Platform with the fido5000 REM Switch chip has been certified to PROFINET v2.31 for Class B and Class C devices.

The RapID Platform with fido5000 REM Switch chip has been certified to EtherNet/IP CT11 for beacon-based DLR devices.