Articles and News

New HMI Alternatives Improve Operations and Cut Costs

The world market for operator terminals was worth $2.32 billion in 2013, and will generate revenues of approximately $3.16 billion in 2018.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Industrial control systems are the “brains” of any automated manufacturing system. Many of these systems require motion systems - “brawn” - to accomplish the physical aspects of automation. Motion technologies have improved and are refined to meet the new manufacturing requirements. MDA North America provides the opportunity for engineers to sharpen motion knowledge and learn from industry experts first hand.

Six 100” video screens attached to six industrial robots help cruise ship operator take on-board entertainment and amenities to the next level.

Next Frontier for the Operator-Automation Relationship

Rotalec has been a distributor of high technology industrial machine automation products, product identification systems, and mill products for over 30 years.

Tritec Systems is an established UK systems integrator, with over twenty years of experience providing industrial automation and control systems, software, support and training.

Joel Neidig, an engineer at Indiana Gear, has been awarded a $75,000 prize for his research project titled “Expanding Manufacturing’s Vision: MTConnect and Google Glass.”

By Denny Redwine, Kemper Controls A custom-designed HMI-based solution increased uptime at TGKY, a plastic injection molding facility in Lebanon, KY, by providing continuous real-time monitoring and alarming of machines and associate processes.

LCD Displays are certified for Class 1 Division 2 environments such as oil and gas drilling platforms, underground and surface mining, chemical processing, pharmaceutical and food processing, and outdoor HMI.

A successful industrial project implementation starts with the selection of the right manufacturing operations management (MOM) software applications.

AIS HMI Embedded Technology Designed To Meet Challenging Substation IEC 61850-3 Compliance Standards for Shock and Vibration Resistance, EMI and Wide Temperature Ranges

PcVue HMI software monitors and supervises 400 fermentation tanks at champagne maker Veuve Clicquot in France.

Carometec produces touch screen control panels, contained in a stainless steel enclosure, for use in slaughterhouses where they get pressure hosing at a temperature of over 80°C to kill all bacteria.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Ted Krevis of Sherwin Williams gave an enthusiastic presentation about their HMI software implementation at Inductive Automation’s Ignition User Conference last fall. I had the opportunity to talk personally with Krevis and the Lead Software Developer about their experiences using Ignition software. Below is a synopsis of my interview.

Enhancements in Version 2.1 include faster tag handling with OPC-UA servers, and improved data exchange with mobile devices for faster response times and lower mobile network costs. Price: $2895.

10 Pitfalls of DIY Control Systems

By Bill Lydon, Editor The improvement of manufacturing productivity and quality requires sharing data and synchronizing controllers. This can now be accomplished by using new standards that were jointly developed by PLCopen and the OPC Foundation.

By Andrew Stuart, Honeywell Process Solutions Today, plant personnel have access to new human-machine interface (HMI) solutions providing the ability to display and interact with system or plant-wide data. This enables high-quality collaboration with the field or with experts in other locations.

Parker Remote Manager mobile application lets users monitor and control Interact Xpress and Parker Factory Display products.