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By Ed Romaine, Integrated Systems Design Materials handling process improvement directed at eliminating areas of waste and inefficiency can go a long way in helping manufacturers, warehouse and distribution operations meet lean and green initiatives while improving quality, service--and the bottom line.

By Mark Ingham, Sensor Technology Measuring torque accurately, particularly in rotating shafts, can often be challenging, but new technology is providing a better solution.

By Roy Tomalino, Beamex Manufacturer’s promises are not considered proof of an instrument being within tolerance. All instruments, smart and analog, or whether old or new to the field, should be verified and calibrated on a regular basis.

By Ned Espy, Beamex There are viable methods where a loop can be tested end-to-end and if readings are within acceptable tolerances, there is no need to break out individual instruments for testing.

By Eric Knapp, Honeywell Process Solutions Today, malware can evolve, mutate and hide in its tracks. It can seek out embedded devices and inject them with code. In short, bad guys can gain access and cause harm to industrial control systems once thought to be impenetrable.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Emerson invested nearly $70 million in a new 282,000-square-foot Innovation Center in Round Rock, Texas. The center serves as the global headquarters for Emerson’s automation systems and project services business, which helps customers safely, reliably and profitably operate facilities in various industries.

By Dave Dahl, Rockwell Automation, et al Low power factor and high levels of voltage and current harmonic distortion, are a significant but often hidden cost in industrial operations. Without corrective measures, these factors increase electrical utility charges, impair equipment health, and prevent efficient industrial expansion.

By Macro Sensors Temperature effects can be significant in certain specific applications such as aircraft, subsea and turbomachinery. That’s why it is is important to know the effects that temperature has on LVDT Sensors.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Late last year, Siemens rolled-out of its new Cyber Security Managed Services in the United States. This new offering is aimed at providing continuous, comprehensive cyber protection for production environments. Siemens plans to subsequently introduce this service in Europe and Asia.

By Mike Fahrion, B&B Electronics Ten commandments—rules, that is—for wireless communications. Covers RF power, frequency, long range reception, noise, rain, interference, antenna placement and more.

This article focuses on the moving magnet voice coil style of actuators and compares it with other short stroke linear motion technologies, in order to choose the best component for the specific application. The discussion includes moving coil voice coil actuators, moving magnet voice coil actuators, solenoids and piezo actuators.

SCADA systems were traditionally “walled off” from other systems operating independently from the network. Prior to the awareness of possible attacks, this seemed to provide all the protection the SCADA system needed. They were largely proprietary systems with such limited access and esoteric coding that very few people would have the ability to access them to launch an attack. Over time, however, they became integrated into the larger company network as a means to leverage their valuable data and increase plant efficiency. Therefore, the reality is their security is now often only as strong as the security of the network.

By Bill Lydon, Editor There has been significant automation in petrochemical processing plants. However, it is surprising how little automation has been adopted in other parts of the oil & gas industry. This has changed over the last four years because the cost of operations is growing faster than profit margins.

By Kevin Callahan, Alerton BAS are getting more powerful and easy to use all the time. Key features and benefits to look for this year include BAS software, control modules and wall sensors.

By Thomas Waggershauser, HMS Industrial Networks The growing demands in the number of nodes, transfer rates, and cycle times lead to bottlenecks that the limitations of classic CAN (8 data bytes and 1 Mbit/s data rate) cannot fulfil: CAN FD significantly extends the usable data rate and usable data length.

By Brian Roth, Antaira Technologies Wireless networks are typically setup as an access point, bridge or client combination. The major difference is the access point allows multiple individual wireless devices to connect to the access point. A wireless bridge is used to link a smaller network of devices to the main network through a single wireless connection.

By Sasan Montaseri, ITTIA Developers must plan for data management from the earliest stages of product development. Without the right database, developers risk incurring hidden costs as the complexity and scale of the application grows, including: data loss, inconsistency, poor performance, undetected conflicts, and boundless resource consumption.

By Maureen Clancy, Teledyne DALSA A multi-talented control and automation team applies its mechanical, electrical, and software engineering chops to celebrate—and solve—a timeless puzzle.

By Patty Solberg, Powerit Solutions Utilities are increasingly adopting advanced demand response (DR) programs—and that represents a growing opportunity for energy-intensive businesses to reduce their overall electricity costs while contributing to corporate sustainability efforts. To participate successfully in these programs, energy-intensive businesses must have DR-ready automation.

By Jon Irvine, Valin The rule of thumb in a heating application like heat trace is to place the sensor in the most extreme location-- the lowest expected location for minimum temperature control and the highest expected location for maximum temperature control. The temperature sensor can only process the information supplied to it and placement is everything.