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By Bill Lydon, Editor The Fair provides a unique world perspective of the industrial sectors. “Integrated Industry – Next Steps” was the 2014 theme, which focused on maximizing manufacturing flexibility and efficiency. This year, key representatives from the United States participated in a summit stressing the importance of a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The automation benchmarking survey of leading pharmaceutical companies reveals how these manufacturers are dealing with some of the latest industry trends. Topics of the survey include big data utilization, return on investment, major innovations, organizational structures, in-house vs.contract staff, automation management and challenges. How does your company compare?

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Industry 4.0 initiative is just one part of a 10-point high-tech plan in Germany’s strategy to be the leading supplier of products in a number of disciplines. The 10-point plan was created in 2006 and focuses on academia, research institutions and industry.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Layered cyber security protection has become an important factor for automation systems. The bottom layers of the network include the controllers with real-time embedded processors. I recently interviewed Alan Grau, President and Co-Founder of Icon Labs, about their company and cyber security solution offering.

By Chase Gregory, Stahlin Most control housings are typically made up of metals, thermoplastics, or composite materials. Here's a brief overview of the three main types of enclosure materials describing how they perform relative to preventing corrosion and impact resistance.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Even though New York City experienced a snow storm that accumulated 10 inches of snow, the AHR Expo experienced a record attendance. More than 43,000 visitors and 18,000 exhibitor personnel flocked to the Javits Convention Center.

By Dr. Alex Tarter, Ultra Electronics For less than the price of a nice dinner, and a weekend's effort, almost anyone can build a penetration device that can be slipped into a pocket, surreptitiously connect to the network, and used to remotely access systems anytime and from anywhere desired.

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.

By Bill Lydon, Editor After a successful debut in 2012, Industrial Automation North America (NA) is coming back to Chicago. Industrial Automation NA is co-located with the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS). The shows will welcome visitors at McCormick Place on September 8-13, 2014. As an added bonus, this year Industrial Automation NA will feature the inaugural Motion, Drive & Automation North America (MDA North America).

By Bob Dolin, Echelon The emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) represents the next generation of control networks for building automation. But unlike the consumer Internet of Things, the IIoT isn’t starting from scratch.

By Pat Garrehy, Rootstock In our litigious society, the day is quickly coming when any manufacturer better be able to trace the history of anything they make. Where the law requires you to maintain accurate records for each unique Lot and/or Serial Number purchase and sale, you need Lot Serial Control.

By Keith Schmitz, Rytec High Performance Doors At MINOR’S food processing plant in Cleveland a forklift picks up a bin of their product and carries it into the next room. Unlike most facilities the forklifts here never take a break because there is no one sitting in the driver’s seat.

By Bill Lydon, Editor On February 11, 2014, along with dozens of other journalists from all over the world, I attended the 2014 Hannover Fair Preview Event in Berlin, Germany. The primary focus of the preview event, as well as the upcoming Hannover Messe, is the next steps for achieving the vision of integrated industry, also known as Industry 4.0 or the 4th Industrial Revolution.

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.

By Greg Goodwin, LNS Research In a manufacturing organization, understanding what’s happening at the plant level is crucial because it’s where the rubber really hits the road. Having visibility into shop-floor operations is important for achieving several company goals, like meeting customer demands, identifying lagging assets, and reducing manufacturing costs.

By Chuck Cimalore, Omnify Software With the ability to share information across the enterprise, PLM technology touches many phases of the engineering design and manufacturing cycle.

By John Pritchard, MAC Solutions The most successful OEMs and machine builders are now generating between 20-40% of their revenues and profits from services rather than ‘pure’ manufacturing. Here’s how to use Internet 4.0 in a safe, secure network.

The kit has a PIC32 microcontroller (MCU), HCI-based Bluetooth radio, and everything that a designer needs for rapid prototype and development of Bluetooth SPP designs.

By Roxtec Understanding the behavior of pests, including mosquitos, bees, snakes, rodents, ants, etc., is essential to assist electrical and mechanical designers in designing cable, pipe and conduit penetrations that are protected against infestation.

By Chuck Fuerst, HighJump Software Cloud-based supply chain management software is helpful to companies of all sizes, but not all technology is created equal. This article addresses both the technical and vendor capabilities that manufacturers should understand when considering supply chain software in the cloud.