Articles and News

By Bill Lydon, Editor The recent ODVA annual conference and meeting provided a number of technology updates to the Common Industrial protocol (CIP) networks, specifically EtherNet/IP and DeviceNet. Topics included a new initiative for the DeviceNet of Things, as well as updates to the Machinery, Process and Energy initiatives. Wireless network and IO-Link integration and IPv6 migration concepts were also discussed.

Elections were held in conjunction with ODVA’s 2014 Industry Conference & 16th Annual Meeting of Members, held March 11-13, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ken Hoover is President of Softing North America.

In addition to a fresh graphics approach, the website now offers a greater depth of information on the Sercos automation bus.

Deutschmann attained certification to the current PROFINET 2.2 and GSDML 2.25 specifications for the UNIGATE IC and UNIGATE CL series.

By Chad Sullivan, 5 Star measurement, et al Five Star Measurement of Weatherford, Texas uses Software Toolbox's Electronic Flow Measurement (EFM) Suite to remotely monitor and manage more than 700 wellheads as an initial stage that may eventually expand to 6,000 sites.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The OPC Foundation held their General Assembly meeting on December 4, 2013. Dr. Grant Wilson of Emerson Process Management and Foundation Chairman of the OPC Board opened the meeting, and Tom Burke summarized the Foundation’s current successes as accelerating adoption of OPC technology, successful OPC certification program, IEC standardization, and continuous improvement.

Since adopting KEPServerEX communications platform, the food production system integrator has been able to improve interoperability and reduce production facility downtime for its customers.

New members of Sercos include Innovasic, Festo, Beijing Shouke Catchet Electrical Technology, STGCON New Energy Technology and Huangzhou Wahaha Group.

By Bill Lydon, Editor At Automation Fair 2013, I spoke with Rockwell Automation’s Frank Kulaszewicz about the progress on their new architecture developments. The new controller architecture will consist of a backplane and each module will have its own IP address. Every motor drive, intelligent overload, intelligent sensor, intelligent light curtain, and other device will have an IP address.

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.

Schneider Electric added EtherNet/IP Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to the ConneXium Tofino Firewall to further harden industrial control systems against network incidents and cyberattacks.

Softing's PROFINET device implementation has passed the Class III category of the "Net Load Test" performed by PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI).

The OPC Data-UA toolkit was certified by the OPC Foundation for OPC UA client development.

By Bill Lydon, Editor With this acquisition, Schneider Electric significantly enhanced its position to serve the process industries and now has a complete portfolio of products to serve the entire industrial and process automation industry. This article highlights a few key aspects of the integration of the two companies.

As an ISA Promotional Partner, the FDT Group will provide the ISA community access to device maintenance and management strategies through a range of ISA media and direct marketing opportunities.

Sercos International will exhibit at 20 events this year, provide training, and conduct webinars.

PROFINEWS App lets users receive up-to-date information about PI and its technologies directly on their devices anytime, anywhere in the world.

Matrikon, an OPC Foundation Charter Member, has produced a 30-minute online multimedia tutorial to explain the basics and vision of OPC and how to begin integrating it into new and current systems.

Sercos is making recordings of webinars on the topic of “CIP Safety on Sercos & EtherNet/IP” and “Common Sercos III and EtherNet/IP Infrastructure” available free and on-demand.