A Personal History of Fieldbuses: From Seriplex to EtherCAT
EtherCAT is similar, in some ways, to the old bit-buses like Seriplex. Each device has its time slot to talk, very deterministic, easy and cheap.
Big Picture Processes Impact Efficient Lineside Delivery
The self-driving vehicle (SDV) using an autonomous guidance system breaks free of magnetic strips and pre-programmed routes.
Selecting Pneumatic Linear Slides for Automated Assembly Equipment
Rather than sizing up to a slide model with very large diameter guideshafts, you may be able to use a smaller model with the addition of the optional center support.
Industry 4.0 - Interview with Red Lion Controls
While much of the IIoT is focused on end-customer benefits, manufacturers need to recognize that they can also benefit from these emerging technologies and change their businesses if desired.
Comparing Three Different Types of WirelessHART Adapters
Transmitting small amounts of data over long distances is one of the challenges in process plants.
Intrusion Detection for the IIot: How Do We Detect Threats on the Factory Floor
Attackers are becoming more sophisticated over time. They are learning about new vulnerabilities and developing automated attack tools to exploit those vulnerabilities.
Industry 4.0: Cloud driving the rise of machines
From BizCommunity: The technologies defining the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution', more commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, are being powered by cloud infrastructures. The Oracle Cloud: Opening up the Road to Industry 4.0 report has found that from robotics to artificial intelligence, businesses view the cloud as a blank canvas upon which to build their innovation strategies.
[Industry 4.0: Cloud driving the rise of machines] The research investigated how companies in EMEA are managing the transition to Industry 4.0 and sheds light on which technologies they are investing in to continue succeeding in the data-driven age.
The majority of businesses are currently implementing, or plan to implement new innovation strategies:
• 62% have or plan to implement robotics technology
• 60% have or plan to work with artificial Intelligence
Most companies also recognise a cloud infrastructure is required to bring these technologies to life – 60% believe an enterprise cloud platform provides the opportunity for organisations to capitalise on innovation such as robotics and artificial intelligence. Cont'd...
Safety solutions for intelligent human-robot collaboration
Fanny Platbrood for SafeToWork: Human-robot collaboration (HRC) describes a work scenario in which humans and automated machines share and work in the same workspace at the same time. Driven by Industry 4.0, this model of collaboration promises highly flexible workflows, maximum system throughput and productivity, as well as economic efficiency. However, ensuring that HRC is actually able to live up to this promise requires exactly the right safety technology for the application in question.
One of the major issues associated with Industry 4.0 is making work processes flexible. At the extreme end of the spectrum, this may involve manufacturing products in batch size 1 under industrial mass-production conditions – that is, manufacturing unique items on a conveyor belt. Cont'd...
Automatic Lubrication Systems That Stand Up to Corrosive, Caustic Environments
The latest in automated lubrication systems ensure optimum equipment performance, even in harsh plant environments, and reduce unscheduled maintenance. Corrosive plant environments are among the most serious threats to many industries today, contributing to extensive production downtime and exorbitant maintenance costs.
IIoT and Industry 4.0 to Create Growth in Telerobotics in Manufacturing
Kagan Pittman for Engineering.com: By now, we’re all be familiar with industrial robotics—but you might not have heard of telerobotics. Telerobotics is all about the control of semi-autonomous robots from a distance, hence the prefix “tele-,” meaning “to or at a distance.”
Telerobotics and teleoperation are playing an increasingly meaningful role in industrial automation and the rapidly evolving industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) arena, according to industry researchers at Mind Commerce Publishing.
It’s also worth noting that there are various other supporting technologies that promise to accelerate the adoption of industrial robotics and improve process controlling and monitoring in IIoT environments. These technologies include hardware, such as sensors, activators and dynamic control interfaces such as exoskeleton gloves, as well as software, such as Big Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). Cont'd...
Special News Report for International Manufacturing Technology Show 2016
New product announcements and news from IMTS 2016. Post your company news or read about what others are doing at the show.
Hirose, Harting Team Up on 10 Gbit Ethernet Connector Standard
Spencer Chin for Electronics360: Interconnection component suppliers Hirose Electric Co., Ltd., based in Tokyo, and Harting Electronics GmbH, Espelkamp Germany, have reached an agreement on the joint development, product standardization and marketing of a miniaturized connection technology system for 10 Gbit ethernet. The technology will overcome the limitations of RJ45, which is not ideally suited for industrial environments and could only be deployed with certain modifications.
In light of this situation, Harting developed reportedly the world’s first industry-compatible field attachable RJ45. The miniaturization of components and interfaces in connection technology has become a key factor in global digitalization through the Internet of Things and Services. Cont'd...
Factory Equipment Maintenance and Industry 4.0
The automation and collection of information thats available from machine to machine communication enables manufacturers to transition from corrective to preventive maintenance and ultimately to predictive technologies which rely on more information and data collection.
Why manufacturing will make or break the future of energy
Lauren Hepler for GreenBiz: From solar panels a decade ago to energy storage today, the history of clean tech is littered with capital-intensive concepts poised to radically alter the relationship between industrialized society and the environment.
But why do these widely heralded breakthroughs always seem to limp along so slowly when it comes to actually hitting the market? The dreaded "valley of death" between conception and commercialization is one increasingly recognized explanation, dooming novel technologies to relegation in never-ending pilot projects as follow-on investment lags.
For Mark Johnson, the Department of Energy's resident innovation expert, the real problem often boils down to production. That is, not just inventing a new energy-centric technologies, but making sure those new tools can be reliably made in a cost-effective manner. Cont'd...
Welcome to the International Manufacturing Technology Show
No article can do this show justice, especially with over 2,000 exhibitors utilizing 1.3 million square feet of show floor.
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Automation & Networking - Featured Product
Rittal - Blue e+ IoT module
Rittal Blue e+ cooling units are currently the most efficient of their kind on the market. Besides being 75 percent more energy-efficient than previous cooling solutions on average, the units also excel in terms of connectivity, safety and handling.   What's more, their IoT interface enables Blue e+ units to link to customer-owned monitoring, energy management and/or superordinate systems via OPC-UA, Profinet, SNMP, Modbus TCP and CANopen, enabling predictive maintenance, data analytics and more.
