Articles and News

By Thomas R. Cutler Only when a small manufacturer has a grasp on operation elements can the promise of lean manufacturing and continuous process improvement be realized

EtherCAT G was introduced by Beckhoff Automation in 2018 as an extension of the EtherCAT standard. Beckhoff recently presented the gigabit technology addition to the ETG, and after thorough review, the organization’s Technical Committee accepted it. Right now, the ETG is working to add EtherCAT G to the corresponding technology specifications.

By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The foundations of the automation industry are being reshaped by the flood of ideas, software, and products driven by Industry 4.0 and digitalization of manufacturing and process industries. Machine builders many finally start to benefit from the leveraging of open standard control software.

Make the pilot lab more flexible, accurate, and productive while maintaining the Class 1, Division 2 hazardous area classification.

A better understanding of closed-loop control, and how to tune it, can be found by looking at the individual parts of the PID equation and the effect of each on the controlled output

The presentation layer for protocols used in control systems provides the translation of data received into a usable format, such as binary data from a programmable logic controller into floating poin

In industrial automation, the mechanical-to-informatics ratio has nearly inverted over the past two decades in diverse industries including assembly, energy distribution, and batch processing.

Because both manual and automated assembly lines improve productivity, efficiency and quality of manufacturing while reducing labor costs and cycle time, the market for new assembly machines is expected to grow 27% by 2025, according to recent research by Global Market Insights.

Cyclic redundancy checking is a method of checking for errors in data that has been transmitted on a communications link.

To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must submit a 1000-1300-word essay via CNC Machines’ online form about why they chose to pursue a care in manufacturing; what they think can be done to attract younger generations to the field; as well as include information on their skills, goals and future plans.

By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The Digital Twin has become one of the most powerful concepts of Industry 4. 0. The implementation of model-based, real-time, closed-loop monitoring, control, and optimization of the entire manufacturing and production process, the Digital Twin concept is helping organizations achieve real-time integrated manufacturing.

By Josh Eastburn, Opto 22 For process control systems, improved hardware and software options can make system operations more effective and offer new methods for end users to access and monitor equipment. Here are some of the ways that standard process automation products and practices are transitioning to encourage more agile and capable systems.

For a direct-acting controller, the resulting output movement is in the same direction as the movement of the process variable.

By Michael Risse, Seeq Corporation As manufacturers transition to Industry 4.0, it becomes critical to accelerate the extraction of insights from ever-exploding quantities of process data.

This paper explores a two-level control strategy by blending a local controller with a centralized controller in a power system.

Both gain and reset (integral action) act upon the error in the same direction, per a simplified proportional, integral, derivative (PID) control algorithm.

The original data of the manufacturers is based on the eCATALOGsolutions technology by CADENAS and can be integrated directly into Game4Automation as a free development framework for visualization, virtual commissioning, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in automated environments.

The control center supervises the different subsections of 100 stations. MDT AutoSave Change Management System was installed to optimize the data backup and version control process.

The group brings together global leaders from the process industries such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, and DuPont, as well as system integrators, suppliers, integrated distributed control system (DCS) vendors, academia and other standards organizations

Rotork’s IQ3 actuators will be used to control the flow of the products on to carriers which use a deepwater jetty with depths up to 24 metres to carry products to the two sites, and will also ensure the isolation of the hydrocarbon products to prevent contamination.