Articles and News

For suppliers of industrial control products and solutions, implementation of the FDT standard is a forward-looking strategy supporting the new era of automation.

The following article describes how technology collaboration between two open, automation industry standards organizations is changing the paradigm for integrating control systems, applications and devices within a unified architecture – all aimed at optimizing information exchange throughout the industrial enterprise.

The industrial revolution now underway, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, is powered by advancements that include smart manufacturing, advanced analytics and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

The support for PROFINET @ TSN technology will be on its portfolio of netX multiprotocol network controllers. netX is a single-chip ASIC that provides a master and/or slave communication connection to all Industrial Ethernet systems, fieldbuses and Industry 4.0 protocols.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Based on discussions at the Rockwell Automation Fair, this article explores Rockwell Automation and PTC's committment to building out software into an integrated Industrial Digitization solution, in order to fully achieve the goals of Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.

By Bob McIlvride, Skkynet The IIoT is all about connecting data sources, integrating their data, using it to power analytics, and possibly doing supervisory control on selected equipment or systems. There's no reason that can't be done on-premise.

The combined memberships will continue to drive the momentum of the Industrial Internet including the development and promotion of industry guidance and best practices for fog and edge computing. The organizations expect the details to be finalized in early 2019.

The document is an overhaul and rewrite of RC 1.0.2 (2013) that incorporates current features and functions of MTConnect and OPC UA.

Lydon brings more than 10 years of writing and editing expertise to Automation.com, plus more than 25 years of experience designing and applying technology in the automation and controls industry. Lydon started his career as a designer of computer-based machine tool controls; in other positions, he applied programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and process control technology. In addition to working at various large companies (e.g., Sundstrand, Johnson Controls, and Wago), Lydon served a two-year stint as part of a five-person task group, where he designed controls, automation systems, and software for chiller and boiler plant optimization. He was also a product manager for a multimillion-dollar controls and automation product line and president of an industrial control software company.

Tricco was tasked with developing a secure and reliable way to collect data from control systems running at power plants located hundreds of kilometers from the Siemens office. The first phase was to be a pilot—to connect his WinCC OA SCADA system to a Siemens T3000 DCS running at a power plant located about 100 kilometers from Buenos Aires.

Tricco was tasked with developing a secure and reliable way to collect data from control systems running at power plants located hundreds of kilometers from the Siemens office. The first phase was to be a pilot—to connect his WinCC OA SCADA system to a Siemens T3000 DCS running at a power plant located about 100 kilometers from Buenos Aires.

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 Chassis Plans High-performance computing is used for solving advanced mathematical calculations and performing data processing through the use of computer modeling, simulation and analysis.

Dzilno has been instrumental in making EtherCAT a fieldbus in chip manufacturing. He is currently Head of Engineering at the ALD Division as Managing Director and Senior Principal Member of Technical Staff at AMAT.

The initiative plans to address use cases not currently in scope for EtherNet/IP. It could also simplify other use cases, especially in multi-vendor, controller-to-controller environments and for the vertical integration of field devices.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com The buzz continues to grow in anticipation of TSN’s turn to mainstream. Yet, the big missing piece that continues to hinder that key evolution is a lack of complete solutions for time management.

IIC-member participants TE Connectivity and SAP SE, with supporting participants OPC Foundation and ifm, developed a solution that enables operators of decades old manufacturing facilities (brown-fields) to connect sensors to an IT system using existing infrastructure without affecting real-time operations.

Weinhofer will help lead the OPC Foundation in its mission of creating standards that allow multi-vendor industrial IoT technologies to securely and reliably work together.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com An open system can impact all phases of a project from inception, through its entire lifecycle including: project design, configuration, operations, and lifecycle maintenance in order to create tremendous savings and value.