Automation World January 2021

10th ANNUAL READERS POLL

JANUARY 2021 / www.AutomationWorld.com

38 SENSOR FUSION: THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE OF DIGITALIZATION 44 16 49 8 10 117

You’re Hired: Recruiting Mobile Robots The 10 Commandments of Cybersecurity The Challenge of Manufacturing Data Management Vision and Control on One CPU Acquisition Paves a New Path for PAS Global A Refined Smart Manufacturing Definition for 2021

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CONTENTS 3 AW JANUARY 2021

JANUARY 2021 | VOLUME 19 | NUMBER 1

38 44 53

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Sensor Fusion: The Swiss Army Knife of Digitalization

With the proper communication protocols and network architecture in place, smart sensor technology and the data it provides can be the bulwark on which digital transformation is built.

You’re Hired: Recruiting Mobile Robots

There’s a new workforce out there, made up of highly intelligent, semi-autonomous robots. Here’s some advice for picking the best candidate.

Leadership in Automation: First Team Honorees Automation World’s Leadership in Automation program reflects reader recognition of outstanding suppliers of industrial automation technologies.

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4 CONTENTS AW JANUARY 2021

EDITORIAL

ONLINE 6

Exclusive content from AutomationWorld.com: videos, podcasts, webinars, and more

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS 8 Vision and Control on One CPU

BATCH OF IDEAS 10

Acquisition Paves a New Path for PAS Global

PRODUCTIONS PERSPECTIVES 12

Flexible Feeding System for High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturers

PERSPECTIVES 15

Using Time-Sensitive Networking to Improve Productivity The 10 Commandments of Cybersecurity Ready to Step-Up Your Automation?

Improving Process Accessibility with Wireless Metering

David Greenfield Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief dgreenfield@automationworld.com / 678 662 3322 Stephanie Neil Senior Editor sneil@automationworld.com / 781 378 1652 Aaron Hand Editor at Large ahand@automationworld.com / 312 222 1010 x1180 David Miller Senior Technical Writer dmiller@automationworld.com / 312 205 7910 Emma Satchell Managing Editor esatchell@automationworld.com / 312 205 7898 Jim Chrzan VP/Content and Brand Strategy jchrzan@automationworld.com / 312 222 1010 x1470 Kim Overstreet Content Strategist koverstreet@pmmimediagroup.com James R. Koelsch, Lauren Paul, Jeanne Schweder and Beth Stackpole Contributing Writers

ART & PRODUCTION

Filippo Riello Art Director friello@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1200 George Shurtleff Ad Services & Production Manager gshurtleff@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1170

NEWS 23

ADVERTISING

Powertrain Manufacturer Deploys New High-Payload Cobot Connecting Sensors to the Cloud Remote Access Technologies Help Keep Food Sanitation Workers Safe PMMI News PACK EXPO Connects Engages CPGs Through March 31

Kurt Belisle Publisher kbelisle@pmmimediagroup.com / 815 549 1034 West Coast Jim Powers Regional Manager jpowers@automationworld.com / 312 925 7793 Midwest, Southwest, and East Coast

PACK EXPO CONNECTS INNOVATIONS REPORT 30

AUDIENCE & DIGITAL

Picking, Placing, and Packing Robot Portfolio Expands IIoT-Enabled Packaging with Multi-Purpose Servo Material Handling by Levitation and Hygienic Linear Transport All-in-One Feeder Systems and a Lightweight 6-Axis Robot New Material Handling and Traceability Systems

David Newcorn Senior Vice President, Digital & Data Elizabeth Kachoris Senior Director, Digital & Data Kelly Greeby Senior Director, Client Success & Media Operations Jen Krepelka Director, Websites & Digital Design Strategy

PMMI MEDIA GROUP

Kurt Belisle Publisher kbelisle@pmmimediagroup.com / 815 549 1034 Jake Brock Client Success Manager jbrock@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1320 Sue DaMario Director of Marketing damario@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1710 Amber Miller Marketing Manager dmiller@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1130 Sarah Loeffler Director, Media Innovation sloeffler@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 205 7925 Janet Fabiano Financial Services Manager jfabiano@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1330

INDUSTRY-SUPPLIED CONTENT 49 The Challenge of Manufacturing Data Management

NEW PRODUCTS 112

Modular Electrohydrostatic Actuation System 3D Metal Printer Edge Computing and AI Platform And more...

FINANCE VIEW 116

All Automation World editorial is copyrighted by PMMI Media Group,

What Financial Metrics Drive Manufacturing Company Value? By Larry White

Inc. including printed or electronic reproduction.

Magazine and Web site editorial may not be reproduced in any form

IT VIEW 117

without the written permission of the publisher.

A Refined Smart Manufacturing Definition for 2021 By Conrad Leiva

ENTERPRISE VIEW 118

Get Connected to Protect Frontline Workforce and Increase Operational Agility By Diane Sacra Automation World | PMMI Media Group 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611 Phone: 312 222 1010 | Fax: 312 222 1310 www.automationworld.com

KEY INSIGHTS 120

PMMI The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies 12930 Worldgate Dr., Suite 200, Herndon VA, 20170 Phone: 571 612 3200 • Fax: 703 243 8556 www.pmmi.org

15

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6 ONLINE

AW JANUARY 2021

PODCAST SERIES What is the Advantage of Combining Vision and Control Technologies?

In this episode, we connect with Daymon Thompson of Beckhoff USA to learn about the trend of combining previously separate automation functions into one system for ease of access and use, specifically the combination of vision and machine control.

awgo.to/1124

AUTOMATION WORLD TV Watch the latest AW TV report on new automation technologies showcased at PACK EXPO Connects, including Beckhoff’s Xplanar floating tiles for material handling, Emerson’s new PACEdge IIoT, and ServiceNow’s 4Industry connected worker platform. Subscribe to keep up with our latest video posts.

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THE AUTOMATION PLAYBOOK The Automation Playbook is a useful source of information as you look for guidance in how to approach the Industrial Internet of Things, communication protocols, controls implementation, safety, asset management, predictive maintenance, the mobile workforce, and much more.

awgo.to/1056

AUTOMATION WORLD E-BOOK How Connected Technologies Are Impacting Industry Today

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) promises increased productivity, better quality products, and more affordable operations. Automation World created How Connected Technologies Are Impacting Industry Today to provide insights into the future of IIoT and Industry 4.0.

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SYSTEM INTEGRATOR BLOGS • Digitization – A Case For Manufacturing • S.M.A.R.T. Communication Manufacturing

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• Use Remote Upgrades to Prevent Software Obsolescence • Time to Revisit/Create Your Company’s Strategic Plan to Address the “New Normal” • Pre-Project Consulting Role for Integrators

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Shorten time to market and increase productivity Integrated engineering with the TIA Portal enables complete access to digitalized automation, from planning and integrated engineering to transparent operation. usa.siemens.com/tia-portal

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8 EDITORIAL AW JANUARY 2021

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS

Vision and Control on One CPU

By David Greenfield

dgreenfield@automationworld.com Editor-In-Chief/ Director of Content, Automation World

C

ombining what have long been separate automation functions into a single control environment has been an ongoing industrial automation trend for years now. Two of the most prominent examples have been the combination of safety and control applications in one controller and the development of platforms that connect a range of devices and software in one Internet of Things (IoT) environment for monitoring and control.

To get insights into this trend, specifically around the combination of vision and control technologies, we connected with Daymon Thompson, automation product manager for Beckhoff Automation, for a recent episode of the “Automation World Gets Your Questions Answered” podcast series (awgo.to/XQpAA).

Explaining this trend of combining automation technologies, Thompson said it typically occurs in one of two ways. “One is where the functions are housed in separate pieces of hardware connected via a backplane. In this case, they each have separate CPUs and essentially remain separate pieces; they just look good together in the cabinet,” he said. “The other approach is to recognize that every one of those CPUs has software running on it to manage its function. Here, the developer takes those pieces of software, integrates them onto one bigger CPU, and then combines them into one programming

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environment. That’s the bigger trend we see with several industrial control suppliers. And it’s really the way I think every automation controller will end up going because the added performance of this approach can be measured in the controller’s total cycle time and update rate. And that has obvious beneficial effects on overall machine production levels and total machine output.”

Integrated architectures

A key aspect to look for in these integrated technology environments is how they are structured, advised Thompson. One method of doing this is to combine the technologies, but to close them off so that only the supplier’s technology works with it. “And, if one day you need more than that, you’ll likely have to add another PC and expand it with data logging or database connections, for example,” he explained.

The other method is what Thompson called the “open path,” wherein the customer can add to the system. “If the customer wants to do things like implement their own C# front end, or advanced data logging, or third-party software, the open path allows for those kinds of things,” he said. “And the open path makes it so much easier to combine new features. For example, with IoT you can take an existing controller and, rather than have to add a piece of hardware to the cabinet, you can just add another software module to the existing CPU using a REST API or MQTT. You can also add functionality for things like new advanced motion capabilities or linear transport system collision avoidance.”

Application

Considering Beckhoff’s history of combining automation functions in one controller, we asked Thompson to provide an example of a company who had done this and the benefits they derived from it.

He referenced a customer who wanted

to retrofit an older machine so that it could duplicate the functionality of other, newer machines in the facility. This company had planned to replace the vision system on the older machine to match what was used on the newer machines. Instead, Beckhoff showed the company how it could implement the TwinCAT Vision software, so that machine control and vision were combined in one system.

Thompson said this company saw a 50% savings in costs versus replacing the older vision system as they had originally intended. “All they had to do was plug in a GigE camera they already had into their existing Beckhoff controller,” he said. “They didn’t even have to update the CPU.” He added that this company also saw a 15% increase in production with this change, as they were able to process products and react faster using the new vision algorithm versus the previous system.

“A key aspect to look for in these integrated technology environments is how they are structured.”

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Converge and contextualize for end-to-end enterprise visibility, with an enhanced layer of intelligence that ensures data works in service of organizational goals Ă—/Ă— ÀŠĿǛĚē ~ƎĚƑÎƼĿōŠƙ ĚŠƼĚƑ Ŀƙ ĆĽ Äš IJōƭŠēÎƼĿōŠIJōƑ ƑĚÎŕ ƼĿŞĚ ōƎĚƑÎƼĿōŠÎŕ ĆŽÄšĆ‘Ä˛ĹŤĆ‘ĹžĂŽĹ ÄŒÄš ŞÎŠÎijĚŞĚŠƼ IJōƑ ÄżĹ Ä˛Ć‘ĂŽĆ™ĆĽĆ‘Ć­ÄŒĆĽĆ­Ć‘Äš ĂŽĹ Ä“ ĆŽĆ‘ĹŤÄŒÄšĆ™Ć™ ĿŠēƭƙƼƑNj ōƑijΊĿǕÎƼĿōŠƙ ƎƑōDŽĿēĿŠij ÄŒĹ•ĹŤĆ™ÄšÄ“ Ĺ•ĹŤĹŤĆŽ ĚŠƼĚƑƎƑĿƙĚ DžĿēĚ DŽĿƙĿċĿŕĿƼNj ĆĽĹŤ ōƎƼĿŞĿǕĚ ÎƙƙĚƼƙ ĂŽĹ Ä“ ōƎĚƑÎƼĿōŠƙ Engineering, Operations and Performance measures can be captured from the site level down to the asset level. This system of systems approach across Ä˛ĂŽÄŒÄżĹ•ÄżĆĽÄżÄšĆ™ ĚŕƎƙ Ç‹ĹŤĆ­ ĿŞƎƑōDŽĚ ƙÎIJĚƼNj ōƎĚƑÎƼĿōŠÎŕ ÄšÄ˛Ç›ÄŒÄżÄšĹ ÄŒÇ‹ ĂŽĹ Ä“ ƭŕƼĿŞÎƼĚŕNj ĆĽ Äš ƎƑōǛƼ ŞÎƑijĿŠƙ ōIJ Ç‹ĹŤĆ­Ć‘ ċƭƙĿŠĚƙƙ

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10 EDITORIAL AW JANUARY 2021

BATCH OF IDEAS

Acquisition Paves a New Path for PAS Global

By Stephanie Neil

sneil@automationworld.com Senior Editor, Automation World

M

ergers and acquisitions are a common occurrence in the manufacturing technology sector, but the recent news that PAS Global agreed to be acquired by Hexagon AB is interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, Hexagon, headquartered in Sweden, provides plant design and engineering software for industrial facilities. This can now be married with the PAS technology for real-time situational awareness in the control room, as well as asset management and operation technology (OT) cybersecurity risk management. This combination gives manufacturers a holistic approach to managing the entire industrial lifecycle of the plant.

Second, this acquisition was not planned.

PAS CEO Eddie Habibi, who founded the Houston-based company in 1993, said he did not have a merger in mind a year ago when he initiated a process to raise investment capital as a way to expand market reach and the company’s technology footprint. “I was an engineer when I started the company and I never thought of growing it to divest it,” Habibi said, remembering the early days when the only goal was to help other engineers escape the sheer terror of dealing with control room alarms going off and not knowing if they could recover from an incident.

Catering to continuous process industries like oil and gas, chemical, pulp and paper, and power generation, PAS is posi-

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tioned as an OT integrity company, providing software that reduces process safety risks to deliver trusted data for decisionmaking and optimized profitability. Several years ago, the company added technology that can prevent, detect, and remediate cyber threats—as cybersecurity and safety go hand in hand.

The cybersecurity technology landscape has so much space to grow, especially as plant equipment and devices are more interconnected. “There’s a wide portion open to be captured, which is why we went out to raise capital,” Habibi said, noting that Hexagon was one of the potential strategic investors. “When Hexagon offered to acquire 100% of PAS, we had to make a tough decision. We weren’t ready for an exit, but we want to build and take market share faster. The difference between growing organically with venture capital versus joining a world-leading software company in the industrial sector is vastly different.”

The reason PAS agreed to the Hexagon acquisition is due to the significant alignment in company cultures and complementary product portfolios, Habibi said. PAS will join Hexagon’s Process Power Marine division (PPM), which is a leading design and construction software company, and which will now have a cybersecurity business. In addition, all of Hexagon’s industry segments, including agriculture, infrastructure, mining, and more, will benefit from the PAS cyber technology. To that end, PAS extends Hexagon’s global customer footprint in the process industries.

“We will continue to offer our current products as there is no overlap between our solutions,” Habibi said. “In fact, we are looking forward to leveraging the data from each of our platforms to create new innovative and disruptive technologies that will enable digital transformation, enhance process safety, and extend our cybersecurity products.”

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed and completion of the transaction is subject to standard regulatory approvals. But once done, the PAS brand will remain and Habibi will assume a new role as founder and strategic advisor to the president of the company, a good use of his engineering expertise. “My primary focus in this role will be to spend time with customers and our internal technologists to identify technology solutions to existing and unforeseen challenges facing the industrial sector.”

While the acquisition of PAS may have been unexpected, and for Habibi, a bit bitter sweet, ultimately, it is a positive move for all involved—especially the customers of both companies.

“ The difference between growing organically with venture capital versus joining a worldleading software company in the industrial sector is vastly different.”

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12 EDITORIAL AW JANUARY 2021

PRODUCTION PERSPECTIVES

Flexible Feeding for High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturers

By David Miller

dmiller@pmmimediagroup.com Senior Technical Writer, Automation World

“A growing number of flexible technologies are integrating robotics with vision and intelligence to meet the challenges of just-in-time manufacturing and customization.”

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T

oday, flexibility is a requirement for all successful manufacturers, but it is particularly important for high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) manufacturers whose machinery and equipment must often handle parts and components of various different shapes and sizes, all while ensuring consistent output quality and rapid changeover capacity.

Myriad factors have contributed to the rise of these small batch manufacturers over the past several years: Supply chain uncertainty requiring less make-to-stock and more just-in-time manufacturing, increased demand for customization, and shrinking margins that require more value to be squeezed out of a single asset or piece of equipment. More recently, skilled labor shortages and social distancing requirements within plants and machine shops have only heightened the need for these manufacturers to be increasingly flexible.

Until recently, it’s been difficult for HMLV manufacturers to meet these challenges without relying on custom machine builders.

In response, a growing number of flexible technologies are integrating robotics with vision and intelligence. One example of this trend is Engineered Vision’s Flex-Bot flexible feeding system, which combines a SCARA robot, machine vision system, flex feeder, hopper, robot end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT), safety system, and human machine interface (HMI) into a single product for HMLV parts feeding tasks.

By pairing an Epson precision robot with its own machine building innovation, Engineered Vision designed the Flex-Bot to be an affordable, turnkey solution for manufacturers of all sizes. Capable of handling simple to complex parts sized from 5 to 40mm, the Flex-Bot can be used with a variety of materials, ranging from plastic and rubber to metal.

According to Engineered Vision, the

Flex-Bot is suitable for applications such as: mechanical and electronic assembly; medical device handling and assembly; kitting, palletization, and tray loading; and material handling. The Flex-Bot also reportedly offers ease-of-integration by allowing users to program it for any number of applications using a point-and-click interface. Moreover, the need for special tooling is eliminated, as the machine is unaffected by minor part variations, giving it a significant advantage over more typical single part feeder bowls.

“The ability of the Flex-Bot to not only process parts of multiple sizes but also to easily become a part of any existing manufacturing line truly shows how this robotic cell is at the forefront of vision flex feeding technology,” said Seth Brewer, head of business development at Engineered Vision.

Flex-bot pricing begins at $75,000 and includes programming and installation services, as well as a 1-year manufacturer warranty.

“Turnkey deployments of flexible automation systems with this capability do not exist for $75,000,” said Chad Stroud, president at Engineered Vision. “The Flex-Bot is going to help U.S. manufacturers compete in the global marketplace.”

Epson also offers its own flexible feeder system that integrates robotics, vision, and flexible material handling requirements.

Read more about Epson’s Intelliflex series at awgo.to/1129.

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PERSPECTIVES 15 AW JANUARY 2021

Using Time-Sensitive Networking to Improve Productivity

By David Greenfield

Editor-In-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

A

s more automation functions are performed at the edge of the network and/or in the cloud, industry experts increasingly view industrial networking as being as central to automation as the controller. This development is bringing added attention to one of the biggest networking developments of the past decade—TimeSensitive Networking (TSN).

If you’re unfamiliar with TSN, essentially it is a method of industrial networking that enables deterministic control over standard Ethernet. Its proven capabilities are why

most industrial technology suppliers are adapting their products to work with TSN. Beyond the capabilities and advantages of TSN from a networking perspective, the technology is also seen as a way of boosting productivity in specific ways for different industry verticals.

Thomas Burke, global strategic advisor at the CC-Link Partner Organization (CLPA), notes four specific ways TSN can help specific verticals: Transparency and traceability for food and beverage. Heavily regulated industries,

like food and beverage, rely on process data, which must be monitored to ensure product quality and compliance with regulations or good manufacturing practices. “These data require accurate timestamps that support visibility within the network and throughout the production process, eliminating any blind spots where issues can grow unnoticed,” said Burke. “By building a fully synchronized device network, TSN can support precise timestamping for timing analysis.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

Thomas Burke, global strategic advisor at the CC-Link Partner Organization.

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16 PERSPECTIVES AW JANUARY 2021

e 10 ommandments of y ersecurity

By David Miller

Senior Technical Writer, Automation World

I

ndustry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have opened up vast horizons of new production efficiencies for manufacturers of all stripes through data acquisition and analysis. However, the adoption of these technologies can be a double-edged sword if not implemented properly. As software and devices all the way down to the sensor level are increasingly transformed into potential network gateways, previously unseen cybersecurity vulnerabilities may arrive in tow.

More and more companies are connecting previously isolated industrial control systems (ICS) to the enterprise level to enable everything from higher-level data analytics and remote access to digital twin simulations. With COVID-19 expanding the need for remote connection, this trend is expected to accelerate.

These increasing connections are part of the reason the past decade has seen an explosion of cybersecurity concerns, with the world witnessing threats to every imaginable sector of industry—from oil and gas and general manufacturing to critical electrical infrastructure.

The attackers behind these incursions range from organized criminals attempting to steal intellectual property or personal information for the purpose of extortion; hacktivists who aim to knock out critical assets and cause chaos to garner public attention; disgruntled current and former employees; and even state-backed foreign actors engaged in espionage activities for political purposes.

And while attacks on critical infrastructure such as the electric grid or wastewater treatment facilities are more common, the threat to manufacturers is real as well.

Even though industry leaders such as Kellogg’s are investing more resources into securing their network and assets and sharing their insights, much uncertainty still remains. According to a 2019 Deloitte poll of more than 4,200 professionals, when asked

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how confident they were that their organization’s connected products, devices, or other “things” were secure, only 18% said that they felt very confident, while 51% said that they were somewhat confident, 23% said that they were uncertain, and 8% said they were not confident at all.

For those organizations that fall into the latter categories, Ilan Shaya, CEO of ICS Security, a company that develops security measures for industrial control systems, recently shared his “10 commandments” of cybersecurity during Inductive Automation’s Ignition Community Conference.

Commandment 1: Shaya recommended, first and foremost, that operators should identify all connections to their supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)

network and run a thorough risk analysis of each. This includes internal local networks and wide-area networks such as business networks, connections to the internet, wireless network devices, satellite uplinks, and even modem and dial-up connections where they are still in use.

Commandment 2: In addition to ascertaining the level of risk each connection presents and taking steps to protect it, Shaya advised that operators ask themselves whether or not each connection is really necessary to minimize potential vulnerabilities wherever possible. Because every connection also creates an accompanying security risk, SCADA networks should be isolated from the enterprise level as much as possible. In cases where there is a genu-

Ilan Shaya’s “10 commandments” of cybersecurity come at a time when increasing remote access, sensor proliferation, and plant-to-enterprise networking are creating unprecedented concerns over the safety of companies’ assets.

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ine need for ICSs to be integrated with the enterprise network, a demilitarized zone (DMZ) or data warehouse should be used. Moreover, remaining connections should be subjected to penetration testing and vulnerability analysis.

Commandment 3: Because systems can be exposed to attack by default network services, Shaya stressed that, in addition to limiting access points, unnecessary network services should also be removed or disabled where possible. “SCADA servers and clients do not need any applications or software, but the human-machine interface (HMI) and its drivers and structured query language (SQL) databases,” he said. “So, there is no need for any service to run but the HMI service.”

Commandment 4: Relying on proprietary protocols or factory defaults may also be unsafe, Shaya said. For example, while Modbus is often used to connect programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from different vendors, doing so may increase security risks. Instead, Shaya recommended using open protocols such as Profinet or OPC UA. In addition, he noted that end-users should demand their vendor disclose any backdoors that may allow their equipment to interface with the SCADA system.

Commandment 5: Rather than taking security for granted, SCADA system owners must insist that their system vendor implement security features in the form of product patches or upgrades. Shaya has observed that many systems do not have any security measures by default.

However, as some newer SCADA devices now include basic security features, endusers should ask their vendor if they can purchase a device or license with additional security features.

Commandment 6: Strong controls and authentication measures must be established over any medium that may function as a backdoor into a SCADA network.

With more mobile devices being used to monitor plant processes, wireless access points are increasing. According to Shaya, if these wireless devices are to be used, extra security precautions must be taken. In fact, he recommended not using a wireless network unless it is absolutely needed. If a wireless network is required, inbound access should be disabled where possible, as not all industrial control net-

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works and devices require both inbound and outbound traffic.

Commandment 7: Full audits should be conducted on all SCADA networks to eliminate the paths of least resistance for hackers and other malevolent actors.

Once issues are identified via an audit, the entire system should be retested to ensure they are solved. Shaya also advised carefully documenting every single point of failure via documents such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Visio diagrams for ease of display, organization, and accessibility to all stakeholders.

Commandment 8: Because any SCADA system may present a target for hackers, security assessments of physical and remote sites must also be conducted.

With remote access spanning increasingly larger areas, it’s possible that even a single, small unmanaged switch at a distant site could be exploited to gain access to a system. Shaya’s advice: Perform a physical security survey in addition to network audits, create an inventory of all access points, and eliminate single points of failure. Live network access points at remote, unguarded sites should never be allowed simply for convenience.

Commandment 9: Clear and effective configuration management processes must be established by management for both hardware and software. “Changes to the hardware or software can easily introduce vulnerabilities that undermine network security,” Shaya said.

Commandment 10: While the goal is always to prevent security breaches, in the case that one does occur, it is essential that companies have prepared plans in advance to handle it. System backups should exist and disaster recovery plans should include the potentiality of a cyberattack.

According to Shaya, much of an organization’s approach to this may be dependent on how long its system can remain offline.

For example, if some downtime is acceptable, keeping spare parts and servers on hand may be a workable solution. However, in the instance that a system cannot be shut down for even a brief moment, redundant servers that can function locally should already be in place so that operators can respond immediately to a crisis without any idling.

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Ready to Step-Up Your Automation?

By Kim Overstreet

Content Strategist, Alignment, PMMI Media Group

T

hree key elements of automation— speed, precision, and payload—also come with trade-offs, said Scott Marsic, senior product manager at Epson Robots, during his Automation 201 presentation at the PACK EXPO Connects Innovation Stage.

When evaluating these requirements in order to develop an automation system, you are unlikely to get everything you need due to inevitable trade-offs, said Marsic, and if you don’t know the ins and outs of your current process—and where your bottlenecks are—you won’t be able to determine where to invest for the best return. “This is why,” said Marsic, “It’s critical to understand up front what your goals are and clearly define your expectations.”

For those who may be thinking, “Wait, where do I even start an automation project?” Epson offers a white paper called “Automation 201”. Marsic said the white paper is a great place for automation beginners, and provides an easy-to-use framework with five simple steps: 1. Why does your organization need to automate? What are your goals?

2. Define and document your current process.

3. Identify your requirements.

4. Identify the automation components you need.

5. Who will do the work?

“Automation 201” focuses on the third step of identifying requirements.

Speed, though being one of the main three requirements of automation, is also “one of the most important justifications in a business case for a robotics implementation,” Marsic said. But, he asks, what does improving speed mean to you? What part of the manufacturing process needs to be set up to achieve that time and what are you willing to give up to achieve those changes? A simulation of the application will assist with understanding what is possible. Marsic also noted that the robotics manufacturer specification of a cycle time should not be equated to the cycle time of your own project.

Throughput is another aspect of the speed

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requirement, and it is the quantity of output produced within a specific period of time.

This takes into consideration, said Marsic, “How peripheral components interact with the robot, how parts are picked up, delays with PLCs, and the robot vision.” That’s why it is important to know if you are trying to improve cycle time or throughput in your process. Introducing independent parallel processing can also provide big gains in overall throughput, said Marsic, instead of using

sequential processing.

Layout also affects speed, as it can impact reach and cycle times. Marsic said to consider if the layout is fixed or can be adjusted. For example, moving the payload and end of arm tooling, or optimizing weight of the payload.

Peripheral interaction is the final element of speed considerations, and Marsic said there are some low cost, high benefit wins with small component adjustments.

This could mean optimizing code, improv-

Scott Marsic, senior product manager at Epson Robots.

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ing tool activation, or bringing valves, vacuum generators, etc. closer to the system to improve cycle time.

Marsic’s final note on speed is to “document your process, look for the low-hanging fruit, and plan ahead.”

The second requirement is precision, or the robot’s ability to return to the same position and orientation repeatedly (repeatability). “The entire system is often referred to as the stack, and each element of the stack has its own precision and respective tolerance,” said Marsic. “So, in addition to the robot, make sure to evaluate the elements attached to the robot, such as the end of arm tooling, cabling, its rigidity, your vision system, and its field of view, as well as peripheral equipment. Things like manufactured parts, conveyors, and pallets. Like musicians in a symphony, all the components in an automation system need to work in harmony to arrive at a desired output. The overall tolerance of the stack will have an impact on your ability to achieve a desired precision.”

Marsic also offered additional pointers:

• Evaluate

your robot type. Are you using the right robot for the job? Only use what you need.

• Localize your workspace to maintain precision. “The further out the arm extends, the more precision degradation you may experience. Get a robot that optimally moves within the designated workspace.”

• Look at fixtures and tooling. Pneumatics or air will potentially not deliver the same precision as a mechanical gripper.

A molded vacuum tool formed to the shape of the part can improve speed and precision, but the trade-off is incremental cost.

• Peripheral feedback. The addition of peripheral feedback, such as a vision system or force feedback, can help improve the precision of the system.

The last requirement is payload, and Marsic said there can be more than meets the eye with this topic. “When selecting a robot, look at the entire payload that will be moved by the arm.

This includes not just the weight of the product being picked up, but also the end of arm

ONE source.

tooling. And this can include mounting plates, grippers, air valves, cameras, etc. Make sure to consider all payload weights up front. They all get added together as part of the payload.”

Also, consider inertial effects, or the resistance to velocity change, on the robot. “Too much inertia dramatically effects robot cycle times,” he said, “And this has the potential to decrease your overall system throughput.”

Knowing these three requirements will enable you to optimize your automation. Know your current process. Know your trade-offs.

“Not everything you implement is going to have a big trade-off, said Marsic, “Do your homework, buy the appropriate tools, get input from professionals and rely on vendors and integrators for support. All too often people buy the wrong equipment, spend too much or too little, and they miss the target.”

To see this Innovation Stage presentation in its entirety (available through March 31, 2021), visit awgo.to/1126.

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Improving Process Accessibility with Wireless Metering

By David Miller

Senior Technical Writer, Automation World

D

igital transformation initiatives have been creeping into oil and gas for several years now with new technology deployments ranging from outfitting front line workers with augmented reality headsets to using remote monitoring and big data algorithms to increase equipment utilization rates and optimize overall performance. And this trend is only accelerating as COVID-19 pushes many once optional technologies to become essential.

Metering has not been overlooked in the digital transformation process. It is a vital part of the process industries, particularly in fields like oil and gas where the materials being moved are of high value, meaning that even a minor measuring inaccuracy could cost

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thousands of dollars in revenue. Coriolis flow meters, which measure the twisting motions caused by the inertia of fluid or gas flowing through an oscillating tube to derive mass flow, density, and other variables, have become especially popular for oil and gas applications. A major reason for their popularity is their high accuracy and ability to provide numerous output parameters without the need for additional devices.

Though for all the benefits they offer, accessing Coriolis meters in the field can still be difficult. “One of the things we struggle with a lot is that equipment is not always [accessible]. Sometimes you have to climb up ladders, or reach across hot tanks,” said Tonya Wyatt, Emerson’s global product line

manager during a presentation at the Emerson Exchange virtual event series. “It’s not always beautiful weather. Sometimes in Texas it’s so hot you can’t stand it, or it might be pouring rain or some other kind of nasty weather that makes it tricky to find a device and hook up to it or remove power. Not to mention the fact that you have to get a hot work permit—not a fun situation.”

However, wireless technology that allows for remote access is helping to alleviate this issue.

Emerson’s new 5700 Coriolis transmitter, which offers a Wi-Fi configuration option, is a prime example of how wireless technology can address specific industrial operation issues. The 5700 can be used with ProLink III for Windows, iOS, and Android to connect

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to, configure, troubleshoot, and download historical files from Emerson Coriolis meters from a range of up to 115 feet. In the case of historical files being downloaded from the device, ProcessViz software can be used to visualize the data and make decisions on how to improve process performance.

Once a user has accessed their meter through ProLink, an assortment of current and past alerts can be viewed, such as when power resets and other configuration changes have occurred. A visual dashboard also provides read-outs for mass flow rate, volume flow rate, and other metrics, such as the amount of energy being used by the device. Requisite configuration changes to inputs and outputs can be made remotely via the software.

In addition, data from ProLink can be exported into ProcessViz where it can be converted into a spreadsheet format and printed as a report, making Emerson’s wireless metering pipeline convenient not only for engaging in asset monitoring and making on-the-fly adjustments in hazardous or hard-to-navigate environments, but for easing the administrative burden of mandatory reporting to regulatory agencies for compliance purposes.

Still, some threats do abound, and wireless access via the 5700 does not come without its trade-offs. With oil and gas operations having been a target of hackers in the past, cybersecurity concerns must be taken into consideration. Although remote access has great utility, it’s important for operators to keep in mind that with each added point of connection comes an expanded surface for potential cyber attacks.

Emerson is well aware of such risks and has outfitted its 5700 transmitters with the appropriate safeguards. For example, access control allows for two separate sets of log-in credentials—one for administrators and one for operators. This means that while operators can access data and make some moderate changes to configuration without administrative permission, more consequential actions are restricted. Also, the 5700 cannot be connected to via web browser or external web servers. Only Emerson’s proprietary software can be used to limit potential vulnerabilities.

Similarly, devices cannot be connected to automatically, but require an assortment of security credentials.

“I typically like to think of security and usability as a trade-off. You want to keep the product as easy and straightforward to use as possible, but you also want to minimize any

vulnerabilities,” Wyatt said. “The Wi-Fi option is just that—an option. For people who have extreme security concerns, rest assured that if you order the 5700 without the Wi-Fi option, it doesn’t even include the hardware to make the device wireless, so there’s absolutely no additional security risk there at all.

On the other hand, if you are interested in the Wi-Fi option, but you have security concerns, we have built in several levels of security, so you can customize it to get the best solution for your needs.”

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Better quality in automotive. TSN’s determinism, especially when combined with gigabit bandwidth, can help manufacturing facilities speed up production processes. This is particularly useful for automotive assembly plants due to their production of a variety of models, each characterized by different trim levels. “That’s why it’s mandatory for manufacturing systems in the automotive industry to handle large amounts of data generated in real time during the assembly of various car parts,” said Burke. “Only in this way can manufacturers ensure that the different combinations of possible model variations do not slow down cycle times and the allocated parts are fitted correctly on the right models, at the right time, in a traceable manner. Automotive companies can use TSN to build production lines that ensure short cycle times because the technology combines advanced synchronization with traffic prioritization capabilities.”

These prioritization capabilities allow the network to deliver time-critical traffic while also allowing less critical traffic to coexist on the network. “Consequently, total cost of ownership can be reduced, since multiple types of network can now be combined onto a single hierarchy,” said Burke. “The end result is higher performance, lowered costs and simplified maintenance, all of which translates into better quality vehicles.”

Simplified machine design and higher performance for the converting sector. When TSN is adopted in networks used in the converting industry, “plants can achieve accurate synchronization between multiple axes on a machine” because of TSN’s deterministic nature, said Burke. “By being able to control the motion of many different axes simultaneously over one network, facilities can optimize product quality and production processes as well as increasing the flexibility of their architectures and machines, while simplifying the mechanical set up. The end result is reduced time for retooling and maximized product yield.”

Higher levels of integration for semiconductor manufacturing. Burke explained that synchronicity and traffic prioritization are also key to combining different types of process control on one network and effectively handling different recipes and activities across multiple machines and stations. “The numerous processing stages of the semiconductor industry—which require process, discrete, and motion control, along with integration of robots and IT systems—can be handled by TSN-based networks because of TSN’s ability to mix time-critical data for high-performance, high-speed motion control with slower, less time-dependent traffic,” he said.

The CLPA’s offering for TSN applications is the organization’s CC-Link IE TSN. Burke said, “This is the first open Ethernet technology to merge gigabit bandwidth and key TSN functionalities, time synchronization, and traffic prioritization. By relying on this cutting-edge network technology, manufacturers from any sector can find a key solution to boost their processes.”

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Powertrain Manufacturer Deploys New High-Payload Cobot

By David Miller

Senior Technical Writer, Automation World

C

ollaborative robots (cobots) have been a fixture of the manufacturing landscape for some time now, with the very first cobot sold to Danish plastic and rubber supplier Linatex back in 2008. At the time, cobots were largely relegated to simple, repetitive tasks capable of being performed by small, low-payload robots, such as machine tending for computer numeric control (CNC) applications. However, as technology has evolved, cobots have increasingly been integrated with more sophisticated sensors, vision systems, and control software, allowing their reach, speed, and payload capacities to improve.

As this trend continues, accelerating adoption is expected. PMMI’s 2019 business intelligence report “Robotics: Innovation 2 Implementation,” predicts that while cobots only accounted for 3% of all robot sales in North America in 2017, that number will swell to 34% by 2025.

Not only does this growth in the cobot space represent an exciting shift for those interested in the technology, it sounds a positive note for those who may fear that automation could displace human workers. Because humans work alongside cobots rather than seeing their roles eliminated entirely, cobots are often seen as a friendly face for the rapid expansion of robotics in industry.

FPT Powertrain Technologies’ industrial driveline plant in Turin, Italy, recently expanded its collaborative manufacturing capabilities with the adoption of Comau’s Advanced Use Robotic Arm (AURA). This robotic arm was designed in coordination with the human-centered manufacturing system (HuManS) project, launched in the Piedmont region of Italy by FPT, Comau, and 17 other companies.

Standing nearly three meters high and weighing in at three tons, AURA has a payload capacity of 170 kg (~375 lbs)—one of the highest of any cobot on the market. In addition to eliminating the need for fencing CONTINUES ON PAGE 27

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Comau, which provided FPT Powertrain Technologies’ AURA robots, is focused on delivering advanced industrial automation products and systems for electric, hybrid, and traditional vehicle manufacturing, as well as industrial robots, and collaborative and wearable robotics technologies.

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Connecting Sensors to the Cloud

By David Greenfield

Editor-In-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

I

ndustry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architecture strategies have largely centered on sending data from controllers, edge devices, or software systems (such as manufacturing execution systems and supervisory control and data acquisition systems) to the cloud for aggregation and analysis. It was generally understood that sensor data would not be sent to the cloud directly; it would first travel through one of these higher-level systems.

However, advances in sensor connectivity and partnerships between companies on the OT (operations technology) and IT (information technology) sides of industry are changing that conception.

One partnership that exemplifies this change is the one between ifm and CloudRail. According to the companies, the integration of ifm’s sensors and CloudRail’s CloudRail.Box technology mean that users only need to connect an ifm sensor, select the cloud system they want to connect to (such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Alibaba), and the data from that sensor will then be processed and transferred to the cloud.

Felix Kollmar, CEO of CloudRail, said the simplicity of this plug-and-play sensor-tocloud connection is enabled by CloudRail.Box

features that make it possible to remotely monitor and configure devices and deliver updates. CloudRail.Box supports several edge computing connection technologies as well as OPC UA. These capabilities enable direct sensor-to-cloud connections to be rolled out across large manufacturing facilities or by OEMs, according to Kollmar.

The CloudRail system is available worldwide via ifm, which offers several starter kits containing all components required to implement an IIoT project. One of these kits contains ifm’s new VVB001 vibration sensor. “Within a few minutes, the vibration of a machine can be detected and evaluated in any cloud,” said Michael Strauss, head of product management, industrial communication, at ifm.

Explaining the partnership between the two companies, Strauss said, "CloudRail offers us market access to big digitization projects. Our salesforce has been explaining the advantages of clouds to automation specialists, now we are cooperating with leading cloud providers and consulting companies on interdisciplinary projects to contribute our sensor expertise. CloudRail is one of few companies worldwide with extensive expertise both in IT and OT.” Kollmar added that "the challenges of digitization are simply too big for individual companies. They require close cooperation between OT and IT, of which the partnership between ifm and CloudRail is a good

CloudRail.Box features enable direct sensor-to-cloud connections. example. While ifm can look back at more than 50 years of experience in industrial automation, CloudRail's specialty is bridging the gap towards the IT world and thoroughly understanding the corresponding target group. ifm already has several cloud solutions in its portfolio; however, these have primarily been developed for the OT target group. With CloudRail.Box and the corresponding Device Management Cloud, our product bridges the gap between OT and IT.” Cloud services supported by CloudRail include: AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT SiteWise, AWS IoT Greengrass, Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, Microsoft Azure IoT Central, Google IoT Core, SAP Cloud Platform Internet of Things, Alibaba Cloud IoT Platform, IBM Watson IoT Platform, and Aveva Insight.

Remote Access Technologies Help Keep Food Sanitation Workers Safe

By Aaron Hand

Executive Editor, ProFood World

R

estrictions on travel have created one of the biggest pandemic challenges as suppliers struggle to provide services to their customers. “In order to uphold a standard of safety for our customers and onsite food safety sanitors, approval procedures were put in place to restrict travel within the organization,” notes Candy Lucas, senior food safety director for PSSI. Suppliers are incorporating new technologies to better service their customers remotely.

2101_News.indd 24

“The increase of Microsoft Teams meetings, Zoom meetings, FaceTime calls, conference calls, and remote desk audits are now part of our new normal,” Lucas says.

Sani-Matic has developed a software as a service (SaaS) called the SaniTrend Cloud Online Data Acquisition & Management System that provides customers with visibility into their cleaning equipment from anywhere. It is available with any new PLC-controlled, automated cleaning system from Sani-Matic and can also be retrofitted with any existing Sani-Matic automated cleaning system that has an AllenBradley CompactLogix or higher PLC processor.

The software provides automated, secure

data acquisition and reporting of critical cleaning cycle information for any automated cleaning system. Dashboards, OEE trends, event history, and alerts also provide actionable insights into cleaning system operation.

The equipment maker was already working on its release pre-COVID, but the timing of its release was fortuitous with so many workers needing to work from home because of the pandemic. “The technology to see information outside of the main plant has existed, but the food industry has been very reluctant to allow data outside the firewall. That’s prohibited a lot of this technology,” says Bryan Downer, vice president of sales and marketing at Sani-Matic.

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“What we’ve seen more and more is that customers are recognizing it’s inevitable. Their IT departments have begun providing a means by which things like this can be done.”

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies might have seemed relatively futuristic just months ago even. But with the restraints that COVID-19 is putting on facility access, they are becoming a more essential part of the toolbox. “Digital tools are boosting efficiency and avoiding downtime, which is always critical, but particularly so during COVID-19, when so many people are relying on a robust food supply,” says David Goforth, vice president of field sales for Ecolab’s Food and Beverage division in North America.

Ecolab, which provides cleaning and sanitation products and services, is leveraging Microsoft’s mixed-reality technology to enable social distancing and gain access to facilities that have closed or restricted access during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping them to keep operating, Goforth notes.

“Ecolab’s sales and technical representatives in the field can wear Microsoft HoloLens

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devices, which allows them to virtually connect to Ecolab’s scientists, engineers, and cross-functional teams for support,” he says. “This allows Ecolab to remotely diagnose and troubleshoot issues around contamination, our engineers to oversee chemistry usage, guide the installation of new equipment, monitor water quality, help train new employees and, ultimately, implement solutions. Response times are quicker and multiple experts can collaborate to diagnose and troubleshoot customer problems without having to travel to the site.”

Ecolab has pilot programs in place at dozens of its customer facilities across six regions.

They’re using mixed reality to identify and fix tank leaks, cross-contamination, and site surveys, for example, and have also recognized and eliminated equipment malfunctions and corrected wastewater flow rates, Goforth says.

“For one beverage producer, we instructed a new employee how to perform an acid wash and the trainer was completely remote,” he notes. “Very few people were needed to achieve these successful outcomes. The mixed-reality program can also save hours or days in response

time, it may eliminate travel expenses, and it keeps our customers and associates safer.”

With customers across a range of industries, Ecolab is also using experience from those sectors to apply lessons learned back to food and beverage customers, Goforth adds.

Ecolab is using augmented reality from Microsoft to help service its customers remotely, particularly in light of pandemic restrictions on access.

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AW JANUARY 2021 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 and barrier requirements, AURA is capable of being manually guided by human workers.

AURA’s hand-guiding capabilities are enabled by a touch-sensitive skin that covers its surface, which allows it to slow its speed and force when it comes into contact with a human operator. Moreover, 3D vision-enabled cameras are used to scan equipment and supply crates being retrieved by AURA to maximize its accuracy. Finally, a laser scanning system continuously monitors AURA’s workspace for speed and separation monitoring purposes.

“The synergy between two leading companies in the technological field, such as FPT Industrial and Comau, has led to an innovative solution focused on the collaborative AURA robot,” said Pietro Ottavis, chief technology officer for Comau. “Cobots and digital instruments are just some of the main technologies that Comau has developed following its own approach to Industry 4.0, called HuManufacturing, to create safe collaboration in production operations between humans and machines, called on to support humans in operations that require greater speed, strength, and repeatability, as well as dangerous operations.”

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PACK EXPO Connects Engages CPGs Through March 31

By Sean Riley, Senior Director, Media and Industry Communications, PMMI

A

fter bringing the industry together during its launch week Nov. 9-13, PACK EXPO Connects continues convening consumer packaged goods companies and brand owners with more than 700 exhibitors at packexpoconnects.com.

“This event continues to connect the industry, which was our number one goal in a year when professionals cannot attend physical trade events,” says Jim Pittas, president and CEO, PMMI. “And our exhibitors were remarkable in their ability to react and deliver effective demonstrations despite the technical challenges entirely outside of their control.”

Despite exhibitor preparedness, technical issues kept the live demonstrations from launching as intended on Monday, Nov. 9, but the PACK EXPO Connects exhibitors adapted, and demos returned for attendees looking to see technology in action the remainder of the live event.

Exhibitor Engage Technologies Corporation and its family of companies, including Squid Ink, Eastey, and AFM, attained nearly 1,000 new contacts during the live launch portion of PACK EXPO Connects, according to marketing manager Josh Nelson.

“We were successful in providing live demonstrations of our equipment after switching over to the Zoom platform after [a few] technical difficulties on Monday morning,” Nelson said. “We formed a plan as a team to put our demonstration agenda into an easily emailable format.”

Nelson was pleased with the feedback he received regarding

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their virtual showroom. Customers were particularly pleased with the interactions and detailed information his team could provide in the chat as the demonstrations were live.

Spee-Dee Packaging Machinery serves as a prime example of an exhibitor who pivoted on the fly to mine substantial success from PACK EXPO Connects.

“Spee-Dee was fortunate to have a successful demo on Monday via the PACK EXPO Connects platform, and then we jumped over to Facebook Live for our remaining demos,” says Dave Navin, president and CEO, Spee-Dee. “We plan to use the recorded content posted on the PACK EXPO Connects platform as a way to continue to build our brand and engage our customers. We have all found new ways to connect with our customers, which provides one more tool for us.”

In addition to demos, educational offerings—many debuting for the first time at PACK EXPO Connects—produced engagement that has been surpassing expectations. More than 800 attendees tuned in live to the keynote address by Kim Houchens, director, Customer Packaging Experience at Amazon, which remains available on-demand at packexpoconnects.com. The daily Jumpstart sessions each averaged 400 viewers seeking insights into key trends and technologies. And every day, more than a dozen Innovation Stages, afternoon Trend Chats, and Daily Downloads with PMMI Media Group editors attracted high daily participation. The Solutions Room wrapped up the week on Friday with targeted interactions from the OpX Leadership Network, Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC), the Institute of Packaging Professionals, and the Contract Packaging Association.

“PACK EXPO Connects offered a unique opportunity to report on industry developments via a new digital format,” commented Jim Chrzan, vice president, content and brand development, PMMI Media Group. “I’m incredibly proud of our team and grateful to Amazon, General Mills, Bush Brothers, and many industry experts who presented. Engagement from the packaging and processing community was exciting to see, and the experience has expanded our vision of the many ways we can deliver content.”

Engagement will continue through March 31, 2021, with on-demand demos, educational sessions and showrooms remaining available as resources for industry professionals in the coming months.

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30 PACK EXPO CONNECTS INNOVATIONS REPORT AW JANUARY 2021

Picking, Placing, and Packing Robot Portfolio Expands The focus on pick-and-pack robots at ABB’s PACK EXPO Connects exhibit reflected changes in direct-to-consumer and direct-to-store shipping trends, as well as hygiene-sensitive pick-and-place applications.

By David Greenfield, Editor-in-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

I

n response to the growth of omnichannel retailing and its requirements for manufacturers to handle both pallets and packaging destined for retail shelves—while also picking and packing highly varied items for shipping direct to individual consumers—ABB highlighted its new FlexPacker robot and PickMaster Twin software at PACK EXPO Connects.

The IRB 390 FlexPacker robot, with its 35% faster pick speed and 45% increase in payload of up to 15 kg (compared to ABB’s IRB 360-8/1130 FlexPicker), is available as a four- and five-axis variant delta robot.

Marc Segura, ABB’s managing director of consumer segments and service robotics, said ABB developed the IRB 390 FlexPacker with the food and beverage, logistics, pharmaceutical, and consumer packaged goods industries in mind. He added that the IRB 390 is designed for secondary packaging and higher payload applications, with the speed and flexibility to support shelf-ready packaging and retail-ready packaging. It features NSF H1 food grade lubricants and is built using an FDA-compliant material, suitable for

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use in hygienic environments.

In its exhibit, ABB demonstrated how the PickMaster Twin, ABB’s digital twin robotic software for vision-guided random flow picking-and-packing applications, enables the simulation of packing stations to optimize the picking process before the stations are physically constructed. This ability is said to dramatically shorten commissioning times from days to hours and reduce changeover times from hours to minutes, while maximizing overall line efficiency. The software also features a color vision system that can support up to 10 cameras for accurate position guidance and inspection.

Just prior to PACK EXPO Connects, ABB announced its acquisition of Codian Robotics, a well-known supplier of delta robots for high-precision pick-and-place applications.

Codian’s robots are also recognized for their use in hygiene-sensitive industries, including food and beverage and pharmaceuticals.

Johannes Faden, strategic development manager at ABB for the company’s machine and factory automation business unit, explained that Codian’s portfolio of robots for hygienic food

and beverage processing are built with FDAapproved materials, meet the IP69K waterproof standard, and can be cleaned with high pressure water and detergents.

“There is a strong need for pick-and-place robots that ensure high hygienic standards, which has been accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic. Our food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and logistics customers are particularly interested in the potential of automation, enabling supply chains to continue to function, while protecting employee welfare,” said Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation.

Faden noted that ABB’s interest in acquiring Codian was driven by the growing use of delta robots in pick-and-place applications in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and logistics industries. “Codian’s robot arms will be integrated into ABB’s IRC5/Omnicore control platform, RobotStudio simulation tools, and PickMaster picking software to expand our total solution platform for endcustomers and system integrators,” he said.

Check out the many packaging and automation technologies featured by ABB at their PACK EXPO Connects Virtual Showroom, Found at awgo.to/1118 and awgo.to/1119.

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IIoT-Enabled Packaging with Multi-Purpose Servo The new i950 servo drive from Lenze features three operation modes, providing flexibility to OEMs to use the drive in multiple and custom-configured packaging machine applications.

By David Greenfield, Editor-in-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

O

ne of the clearest trends in modern automation technology is flexibility—the built-in capability of a device to perform more than one function or be used in more than one way. And flexibility of application is evident in Lenze’s new i950 servo drive. In its demo at PACK EXPO Connects, Lenze highlighted a key aspect of the i950’s flexibility via its three modes.

Dan Barrera, applications engineering manager at Lenze, explained the i950’s drive-based motion, which includes two of the servo drive’s modes. Those modes are: 1) drive parameterization using Lenze’s preconfigured FAST software application, which allows personnel who are not engineers or programmers to commission the drive and its application; and 2) custom configuration of the FAST applications, enabling OEMs and system integrators to access the code behind the applications using IEC 61131-3 programming languages to customize the pre-developed FAST software code for unique uses.

Fieldbus protocols, like Profinet, EtherCAT, and EtherNet/IP, can be used to connect a Lenze controller or any third-party controller to the i950 in these two servo drive modes.

The i950’s third mode is control-based motion. “Using control-based motion, the i950 can be set up in CiA402 mode to receive commands from a main control motion system,” Barrera said. He noted that, for motioncentric applications, any third-party controller used with the i950 drive should support motion over EtherCAT. The i950 can be used in packaging machinery for registration and synchronization, table positioning, camming, electrical gearing, and winding applications.

With respect to the drive’s IIoT enablement, Barrera pointed out the i950 supports MQTT communications to deliver the drive’s opera-

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tional data to plant and enterprise systems.

The compact i950 servo is available with a power spectrum ranging from 0.55 kW–110 kW and features modular interfaces for fieldbus and feedback connections.

In addition to its operation and programming characteristics, six technology applications have been implemented in the i950 to save OEMs time and money when developing machine tasks.

These applications are: • Speed control, which can operate with and without feedback, to deliver high control performance with speed stability for conveyor and traveling drives. It also includes start-up and deceleration profiles, as well as process and torque control.

• Electronic gearbox to enable precise speed- and position-synchronized drives in a network for the continuous transport of continuous materials such as paper, films, or textiles.

• Table positioning enables management

of profile data sets and sequence profile control for discontinuously running conveying, lifting, and handling drives. This application provides profile generation and position at target and has an override function.

• Synchronism with mark correction for the transport of continuous and archshaped materials or piece goods.

• Winder with dancer control and winder with tension control enable speed-controlled drives for the storage or dispensing of continuous materials such as paper, film, or textiles and tension-controlled (open loop) drives for the storage or dispensing of continuous materials such as paper, film, or textiles, respectively.

Check out the many packaging and automation technologies featured by Lenze at their PACK EXPO Connects Virtual Showroom, found at awgo.to/1122.

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Material Handling by Levitation and Hygienic Linear Transport Beckhoff’s XPlanar floating material handling system made its U.S. debut at PACK EXPO Connects. The company also introduced a stainless steel, hygienic version of it XTS material handling system.

By David Greenfield, Editor-in-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

F

irst introduced in Europe in 2018, Beckhoff’s XPlanar technology—which enables “flying motion” for materials handling—made its North American debut at PACK EXPO Connects. The XPlanar system uses planar motor tiles as a base to levitate passive movers at speeds of four meters per second with acceleration rates up to 20 meters per sec2.

The XPlanar tiles levitate by use of traveling magnetic fields generated in the planar tiles to precisely move objects in any kind of pattern through different tracks, enabling batch-of-one applications and flexibility

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in product handling. The tiles can be programmed to move as needed for an application by automatically lifting, lowering, tilting, or rotating while traveling.

Because the material handling tiles of the XPlanar system float above the surface, Beckhoff said XPlanar offers maintenancefree motion control for complex packaging, inspection, and material handling applications.

Collision avoidance for the tiles is put into effect once the user programs the XPlanar using TwinCAT 3 software, said Jeff Johnson, mechatronics product manager at Beckhoff.

“The software includes all of the configura-

tion tools, motion function blocks, and collision avoidance functionality. Because the movers travel on programmed tracks, users can prioritize cross-over tracks,” he said.

A particularly interesting feature of the XPlanar system is its anti-sloshing functionality, based in the TwinCAT 3 software, for use in applications involving movement of liquids.

According to Johnson, the XPlanar anti-sloshing ability is enabled by the six axes of coordinated motion used on each mover. “Beckhoff has developed motion algorithms that create very smooth acceleration and deceleration profiles,” he said. “Think of it as a very soft ‘S’

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curve for acceleration/deceleration.”

Johnson added that XPlanar’s planar motor tiles can be coated with stainless steel, glass or any another surface to “ensure XPlanar is a sanitary, wash-down-capable solution.”

He added that Beckhoff supplies the motor tiles and movers, while the machine builder is “responsible for building the machine base and the tile coverings. In some cases, coverings will be unnecessary, and in others they will be critical. This offers the machine builder and end user flexibility in the design and implementation of XPlanar to suit their specific application.”

In terms of how XPlanar coordinates or connects with other systems for placement and removal of materials on the tiles, Johnson explained that products can be loaded onto XPlanar tiles via pick-and-place robots, the eXtended Transport System (XTS) from Beckhoff, manually, or via any other system the user chooses to integrate with XPlanar.

“Most robot manufacturers offer high-speed EtherCAT interfaces which enable very fast and synchronized communications between XPlanar and the robot,” he added. “This creates a faster cycle time versus using an asynchronous Ethernet protocol.”

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Hygienic handling

Also featured by Beckhoff at its PACK EXPO Connects exhibit was the XTS Hygienic—a stainless steel, IP69K version of the XTS system featured at PACK EXPO 2019. This new hygienic version is designed for wash-down production environments in packaging, pharmaceuticals, and food and beverage.

Beckhoff’s XTS material handling system combines rotary and linear drive principles into a linear transport system for packaging machines. The system features customizable motor modules, mechanical guide rails, wireless movers, power electronics, EtherCAT communication, and position measurement in a compact form factor that Beckhoff says reduces the machine footprint up to 50%.

The XTS movers can move as fast as four meters per second and achieve acceleration exceeding 100 meters per second2. The XTS’s flexibility allows it to be designed in circles, clothoids, S-curves, or in straight segments.

The tracks can operate horizontally, vertically, or at angles, and can handle parts with single or multiple movers.

In the new XTS Hygienic version showcased at PACK EXPO Connects, the system’s new Track Management functionality was

also highlighted. This allows individual movers to transfer between multiple XTS systems, enabling further customization, quality inspection, and automatic defect ejection.

Explaining which components of the XTS Hygienic version are stainless steel, Johnson said, “The motor modules and rails are stainless, while the movers have stainless and aluminum options. There is also a NiTuff coating option for the aluminum machine base. Since it is rated IP69K, we went to great lengths to design it for easy cleaning by including food-safe seals and ensuring that the surface can withstand harsh chemicals in washdown environments.”

The XTS also has the ability for its carriers to be tilted—like the tiles on the XPlanar system—even though the XTS has just one axis of linear motion.

Check out the many packaging and automation technologies featured by Beckhoff at their PACK EXPO Connects Virtual Showroom, found at awgo.to/1120.

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All-in-One Feeder Systems and a Lightweight 6-Axis Robot Epson Robots highlighted new additions to its IntelliFlex series of flexible feeding systems and its highest payload, highest reach robot for packaging, kitting, machine tending, or palletizing.

By David Greenfield, Editor-in-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

E

pson Robots debuted the two newest additions to its IntelliFlex flexible feeder system line-up at PACK EXPO Connects. The new additions are the IntelliFlex 80 for handling small parts (3mm to 15mm) and the IntelliFlex 380 for large parts (15mm to 60mm). These systems join the IntelliFlex 240 (for part sizes 5mm to 40mm) and the IntelliFlex 530 (for part sizes of 30mm to 150mm). These flexible feeder systems are used to feed consumer goods for packaging in kits, as well as sorting of electronics and medical device parts for packaging.

A key aspect of Epson Robots’ approach to flexible feeding systems is its all-in-one system delivery. Stacey Tieu, product manager at Epson Robots, explained that common flexible feeder systems are composed of separate feeder communication protocols; feeder tuning requirements; vision system calibration and programming; and system programming and optimization to coordinate the robot, feeder, and vision system. Epson Robots’ approach is to combine all these components into one system that integrates the vision programming, part tuning, and parts control adjustment. This allows

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for the Epson IntelliFlex system to be set up and running in one day, rather than the weeks it typically takes to set up a flexible feeder system, according to Tieu.

“IntelliFlex is a great alternative to bowl feeders,” said Tieu. “With bowl feeders, if you happen to change a part, you have to go out and buy a new bowl feeder or modify your existing one to handle the

new part. “With IntelliFlex, you don't have to retool the system, it can accommodate different part sizes as well as different part and material types.”

This inherent adaptability of IntelliFlex is made possible by Epson’s RC+ integrated software environment, which is used to program and control all aspects of the flexible feeder system. “It’s also what enables

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the IntelliFlex to be set up so quickly,” Tieu added. “We have built-in command sets for parts feeding so that engineers don't have to figure this out themselves. The user interface provides a point-and-click way to program the feeder.

The software environment’s use of artificial intelligence enables autotuning of the IntelliFlex system. Aaron Donlon, Epson product manager, explained that, in the RC+ environment, “if you set up the system for one part and then need to move to the next part for a different product, setting up that new part in the system is very easy with all the built-in wizards. You literally just drop 10 parts on the feeder and it uses the built-in algorithm to determine the right set of vibrations or frequency to spread those parts out for optimized feeding. There’s no trial and error with this process, you just let the machine do the automated tuning calibration for you.”

Donlon noted that the longest he’s seen the system take to self-adjust to new parts is five minutes, but that the process typically takes about two minutes.

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Lightweight 6-axis robot

Though Epson Robots is well known for its SCARA robots, the company has been producing 6-axis robots for 25 years. The newest addition to the company’s C series of 6-axis robots is the C12XL—Epson Robots’ highest payload and highest reach robot released to date. It features a 12kg payload capacity and a reach of 1400mm.

As with Epson’s other 6-axis robots, the C12XL has a slim, lightweight design due to its use of Epson’s QMEMS (quartz micro electro-mechanical system) technology in the robot’s gyro sensors, which are part of the servo system. This technology dramatically reduces the weight of the robot, allows for low residual vibration, and minimizes overshoot with smooth end-of-arm motion, according to Epson.

“Many robots on the market use a lot of mass to dampen out the vibration,” said Aaron Donlon, Epson Robots product manager. “We use the QMEMS technology to cancel out the vibration and that allows us to have a lighter weight, faster, and higherperforming robot. That's how we get a 65kg robot and a smaller controller with that level

of payload capacity.”

According to Epson, the C12XL features high acceleration/deceleration rates and high-speed cycle times to optimize parts throughput. Its compact wrist pitch enables access to hard-to-reach areas. ISO 4 Cleanroom models of the C12XL are also available. In the cleanroom version, protective covers are used to avoid static buildup and a vacuum port in base pulls particles in.

Usable as a stand-alone robot or as part of line, Donlon noted the C12XL will excel in end-of-line applications such as packaging, kitting, material handling, or palletizing.

An integrated vision option is also available for the C12XL. Check out the many packaging and automation technologies featured by Epson Robots at their PACK EXPO Connects Virtual Showroom, found at awgo.to/1121.

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36 PACK EXPO CONNECTS INNOVATIONS REPORT AW JANUARY 2021

New Material Handling and Traceability Systems In its exhibit at PACK EXPO Connects, Omron introduced a new mobile robot, highlighted new vision and picking capabilities for collaborative robots, and demonstrated a new data communication product for managing Industrial Internet of Things data transfer.

By David Greenfield, Editor-in-Chief/Director of Content, Automation World

R

obot technologies have been gaining ground across the packaging and processing industries over the past few years based on their increasing ease of deployment, programming, and use. The effects of the pandemic across industry have also increased the growing interest in robotics due to their ability to help address social distancing requirements and industry’s ongoing workforce development issues.

At PACK EXPO Connects, Omron Automation highlighted three of its robot products designed to address specific packaging and processing applications.

One of these robots is Omron’s new HD-1500—an autonomous, intelligent mobile robot that can handle payloads of up to 1500kg. Omron’s demo of this robot showcased the robot’s use of lasers to provide 360 degrees of safety coverage as well as its sensor, which allows for precise pickup and drop-off of materials. The HD-1500 uses Omron’s Fleet Manager software, which enables the robot to calculate the

best route for material transport while navigating safely around people and obstacles without the use of magnetic floor tapes or other guides. Omron’s Fleet Manager can control up to 100 mobile robots of different sizes, configurations and payload capacities, such as Omron’s other mobile robots—the LD-60/90 and LD-250.

“The HD-1500 is specifically designed for industrial environments and allows for the movement of large payloads while reducing the need for forklifts,” said Kate Cramer, automation engineer at Omron Automation. “Typical applications include high-payload transporting of materials or finished products such as wrapped pallets, modular equipment, and subassemblies to and from the warehouse or from one location to the next.”

Bin picking

Omron also gave PACK EXPO Connects attendees a preview of its forthcoming FH-3D Vision Sensor, which will be available for

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purchase in April 2021. To demonstrate this new sensor, Omron showed how it works with the company’s TM collaborative robot.

Danielle Belskis, automation engineer at Omron Automation, said Omron developed the FH Series 3D camera to solve robotic bin picking applications. “Our collaborative robot, when equipped with our new 3D vision camera, is able to pick up known objects with random overlapping positions out of a bin.

Traditionally, this was difficult to automate due to varying weights, shapes, and orientations of objects that require 3D location and different forces during picking. The FH Series 3D camera locates the various objects in the bin and sends their coordinates to the robot, while the cobot’s software makes the advanced calculations required for optimized trajectory and force to pick up objects.”

Traceability

In Omron’s Traceability 4.0 demo, Brian Jeppesen, automation engineering supervisor at Omron Automation’s Technology Center, used an Omron NX102 automation controller, a mechanical stage with a concentric ring, Omron’s G5 servo system, and Omron’s FH vision system. He explained that, in this setup, the NX102 automation control-

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ler sends motion commands to the G5 servo system. The servo system then sends position data back to the automation controller, which then determines the correct time to trigger the camera and send triggers to the FH-5050 vision system.

“The vision system triggers the camera and the strobe light and the camera passes the image back to the vision system,” Jeppesen explained. “The FH-5050 processes the image and decodes the 2D code. The code value is sent back to the NX102, which sends the decoded data to the cloud using the MQTT protocol. And all of these processes can be programmed and monitored using the Omron’s Sysmac Studio software.”

With the controller’s ability to send data to the cloud via MQTT, Jeppesen said “one of the major benefits of this Traceability 4.0 solution is having the ability to get information scanned at the point of origin and then become immediately available for analysis using cloud services.”

The ability to quickly access and analyze this kind of granular production data is criti-

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cal to industries such as the food and beverage packaging industry so that contaminated products can be traced to a specific serial number or a lot number. With this level of detail, it means that “all products with a specific part number need not be discarded, only the products with that specific lot number or serial number range would need to be

discarded,” Jeppesen said.

Check out the many packaging and automation technologies featured by Omron Automation at their PACK EXPO Connects Virtual Showroom, found at awgo.to/1123.

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Sensor Fusion: The Swiss Army Knife of Digitalization With the proper communication protocols and network architecture in place, smart sensor technology and the data it provides can be the bulwark on which digital transformation is built.

I

By David Miller, Senior Technical Writer, Automation World

f industrial control systems are the brains of a plant, then sensors are its eyes and ears. Simply put, without sensors there would be nothing for SCADA, DCS, or PLCs to respond to.

That’s why increasingly intelligent or “smart” sensors packing more onboard processing power, the ability to monitor new variables, and digital communication capabilities are playing such an important role in helping plant operators and enterprise level planners alike to see better and respond to problems with more finesse.

In the past, sensors were largely relegated to the status of mere on-off switches. When inputs such as temperature, flow, or proximity pass a certain threshold, an analog sensor sends out a current or voltage signal to set a simple control loop into action. For instance, fans could speed up or slow down, control valves might change position, or bumpers on

George_2101_F1.indd 39

a conveyor may be actuated.

Today’s smart sensors, however, are different in a number of ways, says Manikandan Nambiar, vice president of product management for Plantweb and reliability solutions at Emerson Automation Solutions. Most importantly, many contain micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) along with onboard microcontrollers, which allow them to collect and process more information in real-time.

The use of this technology in modern sensors reflects two major trends at play: The first is “sensor fusion,” or the ability for a single sensor to monitor multiple input types, leading not only to more granular insights, but cost efficiencies as well. In essence, more data can be attained without needing to invest in multiple devices. Secondly, the capacity to track how inputs are changing over time may allow maintenance personnel and others to move from engaging in a

merely reactive approach—that is, responding to a problem when an on-off switch is tripped—to truly understanding the root cause of a failure and moving to prevent it from happening again.

“There’s a lot of different ways to define a smart sensor, depending on the type you’re talking about; but in my mind, where the smarts really come in is with these MEMS along with the microcontrollers,” says Christopher Koch, senior application engineer for connected devices and solutions at Bosch Rexroth. “When you add these components, you can have sensors that have accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers all combined into one; or environmental sensors that have temperature, pressure, and humidity all together. Then you have the ability to communicate that data into upstream analytics sites.

That’s really what a smart sensing device is.”

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40 INTELLIGENT SENSORS AW JANUARY 2021

Communication protocols and network architecture

The evolution of smart sensing technology to its current state has been a long time coming. The edge computing power present in modern sensors is largely the result of Moore’s Law (the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every two years), yielding exponential growth in processing power and fueling the endless array of ever-smaller devices we continue to make use of.

However, smart sensors didn’t develop in a vacuum, and their value can’t be fully tapped in one either. According to Balluff marketing manager Shishir Rege, numerous communication protocols and network architecture complexities have often hampered their deployment. Just as sense organs are of little use without the neural pathways that carry the information they gather to the brain, smart sensors with no effective means of communication are little more than expensive hunks of circuitry. Solving these problems over the past decade has greatly accelerated new sensor adoption and will continue to do so.

The TDL110 Bosch Rexroth Transport Data Logger senses and records relevant temperature, humidity, tilt, and shock events.

According to Balluff Marketing Manager Shishir Rege, IO-Link has been a major enabling technology for the proliferation of smart sensors.

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While digital network protocols, such as HART, have been of some utility in this regard, Rege notes that the real breakthrough has been in device-to-device communication technology such as IO-Link. First developed by a consortium of industry stakeholders and automation suppliers in 2006, IOLink is a fieldbus agnostic point-to-point networking standard that allows sensors and actuators to send and receive data from higher-level controllers with standard cabling.

For example, numerous smart sensors outfitted with IOLink chips can communicate with a single IO-Link master via standard three or five pin connectors and IO-Link can pass that data to a control system over any other Fieldbus protocol. Users can then “rinse and repeat” in either direction.

The most obvious advantage this arrangement confers is that, by being able to employ low-cost standard cabling, both compatibility and economic efficiency are ensured. Yet there are other gains to be had as well. For instance, Rege observes that, by eliminating the need to assign individual IP addresses to each sensor on a network, a great deal of programming and other configuration tasks can be replaced with a simple plug-and-play model.

“With IO-Link, you can use a standard cable that used to plug into an analog sensor; so you can basically just unscrew the old one wholesale and put the new one in,” says Jack Moermond, engineering partner manager at Balluff. “We now have the ability to do with one sensor what it used to take multiple technologies to achieve because IO-Link makes configuration so much easier. Years ago, you had to use an analog network module if you wanted to do a simple distance measuring sensor. Now, you can put IO-Link right out there next to the device, run a standard four connector cable as far as you want, and you’re getting additional digital value right away.”

How You Want Them, When You Want Them Short lead times for custom or off-the-shelf cylinders

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Endless applications

Once the proper communication and network infrastructure are in place, the true power of the dizzying array of smart sensors available on the market can be fully brought to bear on production. Potential applications are almost endless, spanning predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and even enterprise level planning. In many cases, successful deployments rely as much on the ingenuity of operators as the capacities of the hardware itself.

According to Koch, predictive maintenance in particular rises to the fore. Consider a mining operation where large pumps are used to move hard rock slurries through pipelines.

Rubber encasements are placed along the interior of the pumps to prevent them from being punctured or eroded, and maintenance is scheduled to ensure the integrity of the housings every three to six months. These inspections require that the entire line be shut down, often for a full day, even if no changeover is required. By employing an intelligent accelerometer sensor instead, the changing rate at which the slurry moves through the pump can be used to deduce when maintenance is actually necessary, saving precious time and labor.

Also, it’s important to note that the value to be tapped from these sensors need not be limited to the confines of a single operation. Often, by aggregating plant level data across numerous sites, along with external variables such

Pancake II • Robust compact actuator • Eight bore sizes (1/2 to 4”) and up to 9” stroke standard • Composite body enables impact resistant, self-lubricating operation • Composite rod bearing for reduced wear and increased load capacity

OEM NFPA • Cost-optimized NFPA interchangeable pneumatic cylinder • Five bore sizes (1-1/2 to 4”) and strokes up to 48” standard • Adjustable air cushions and magnet for position sensing standard • Variety of NFPA mounting options

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42 INTELLIGENT SENSORS AW JANUARY 2021

as weather conditions or GPS coordinates, even more advanced efficiencies can be attained, says Mike Hamoy, product manager at Omron Automation.

As an example, imagine a company running two plants that perform the same tasks in different parts of the world where the seasons differ. If the first plant were to optimize its winter operations to adjust for changing demand or environmental effects on equipment performance while it is still summer time for the second plant, the data gathered from the initiative could later be used to model a similar repeat transition and maintain a more consistent product output across locations.

Self-learning

Such data aggregation trends speak to a world where plant data is increasingly shipped upward to the enterprise level to be mined for new aggregate insights—a prospect that would be impossible without sensor

level data. With much of industry moving into a landscape of tightening margins, cutting costs and squeezing new efficiencies out of production may be the new normal. As a result, smart sensors capable of providing richer data will almost certainly continue to play a role in the transition to Industry 4.0.

Moving forward, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning could be the next major frontier. Data is the key to enabling the algorithms that drive these breakthroughs, and more is never enough. Hence, as sensors become more ubiquitous, multimodal, and precise, the storehouses of data needed to nourish burgeoning AI applications will only grow.

“Right now, we implement sensors and then data analysts have to look through all of the data gathered, determine what it means, and then program the system so that it knows what to do,” Koch says. “As we move toward [greater use of] artificial intelligence, we’ll

start to see self-learning algorithms that help us to move away from that long learning stage. You’ll buy a sensor, plug it in, and it will learn what the processes are, learn what is good and bad, all on its own.”

As for the hurdles that remain, growing quantities of available data may turn out to be a double-edged sword. While this surplus of information can enable unprecedented coordination and efficiency, dealing with it may prove overwhelming for many. With hundreds of sensors providing new readings every millisecond, terabytes of data could be created in mere days.

Sorting, analyzing, and finding ways to use this data will be a tall order indeed.

Still, the emergence and accelerating deployment of smart sensor technology is just one more promising step along the road to the full realization of Industry 4.0.

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44 MOBILE ROBOTS AW JANUARY 2021

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MOBILE ROBOTS 45 AW JANUARY 2021

utonomous robots criss-cross the aisles of mammoth warehouses to retrieve items or stack and unload pallets. Robot arms move parts from one work cell to the next or perform some basic welding. A semi-autonomous control unit and 6-axis robotic arm combo sweeps in to handle COVID-19 disinfection services without endangering human lives.

Say hello to the next-generation robot workforce—a diverse group of highly intelligent mobile robots capable of performing tasks not possible with older robot technology and doing so in direct and safe collaboration with humans. While industrial robots have been part of the automation mix for decades, key advances in sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), software, machine vision, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), among other technologies, are coalescing to empower an emerging category of more capable mobile and collaborative robots that are easier to program, less expensive to deploy, and far more flexible in the kinds of tasks they can perform. Already, companies are deploying mobile robots to gain efficiencies moving products and materials, to assist in the picking process, to facilitate sorting, and to perform mundane assembly tasks to free up human colleagues to focus on highervalue work.

Challenges raised by the COVID-19 global

pandemic have also buttressed interest in integrating mobile robot talent into the existing workforce. Some manufacturers are turning to mobile robots because operations are not safe for their human employees. Others, in catch-up mode after temporarily shutting down operations, are now deploying mobile robots to augment their workforce and maximize plant floor productivity without having to make years-long, multi-million commitments to robotics and automation projects.

“Companies big and small are wrestling with how to come back to full production and still maintain social distancing…and this class of robot can work in close proximity to human workers,” notes Joe Campbell, senior manager, strategic marketing and application development and the head of North America for Universal Robots.

“The concept of incremental investment in automation is unique to the collaborative space and we see companies figuring that out—exacerbated by COVID-19.”

Categories and use cases

Mobile robots are typically classified in one of two categories: 1) Smaller, lightweight robots that can easily move from one line to the next or between work cells and operate safely in close proximity to humans; and 2) autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), which use sens-

ing hardware, software, machine vision, AI, and other technologies to operate with a huge amount of autonomy.

Unlike conventional industrial robots that are generally fixed to a particular line or work cell, perform highly repetitive tasks, and need to be cordoned off behind a cage to ensure safe operation, collaborative robots (cobots) are lighter with more versatility. This new robot class can safely share a workspace with employees, is relatively simple to program and deploy, and can mimic human actions with similar payloads and reach. Cobots are finding work doing repetitive or injury-prone tasks—from palletizing to machine tending. As such, the market for cobots, valued at $649.1 million in 2018, is projected to surge at a calculated annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44.5% between 2019 and 2025, according to Grandview Research. This growth is fueled by advanced innovations, decreasing price tags, and a growing need to have more flexibility in automation.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are generally considered to be the successor to older automated guided vehicles (AGVs), providing a more flexible, less expensive path to this form of automation (i.e., moving items from point A to point B). AGVs, already wellentrenched workhorses on the shop floor and in warehouses, follow fixed tracks determined by wires, beacons, or magnets. Because they have little on-board intelligence, AGVs are not able to change their route or navigate around obstacles, which means they typically must be relegated to low-traffic or caged areas due to safety concerns. In addition, deployment requires a significant investment in planning and architecting the factory floor layout, which can lead to lengthy and potentially expensive implementations.

Comparatively, AMRs are far more sophisticated, packed with sensors and onboard intelligence that help the robot understand its operating environment and navigate congestion, whether that’s people, pallets, or forklifts. While AGVs are good at repetitive, highly controlled movements and tasks,

The Motoman HC20XP collaborative robot goes to work in a palletizing application. Image courtesy of Motoman/Yaskawa.

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AMRs are much more dynamic and flexible, and can go anywhere in a facility. Prescient & Strategic Intelligence is predicting the market for AMRs to grow from $29.3 billion in 2019 to $220.6 billion by 2030, fueled, in part, by the expanding e-commerce sector.

“In the past, you had to change the warehouse for an AGV, today with AMRs, the robot adapts to the warehouse,” explains Lior Elazary, CEO and co-founder of InVia Robotics, which markets AMRs with a focus on the e-commerce segment. “When we put railroad tracks around the world, trains became fairly autonomous, but it was very costly to do that. Now we’re building cars that are able to adapt to roads and conditions. That’s what we’re talking about in the warehouse—using AMRs that can adapt, which decreases costs tremendously. At the end of the day, that ties into ROI.”

Selecting the right robot candidate

One of the first caveats for recruiting the right robot is understanding the business problem you are trying to solve—not selecting a particular robot class because the technology is trendy or state-of-the-art. One of the advantages of new mobile robots is that they allow companies to invest in automation incrementally—instead of trying to automate

an entire 10-step process with a time-consuming, expensive implementation, they can pick off a couple of steps and augment the human workforce with a cobot, says Universal Robots’ Campbell. “You don’t have to look for a $1 million problem—you can find a series of $75,000 problems because you don’t have to automate everything at once,” he explains.

“Because of their collaborative nature, you don’t have to dedicate floor space or build out hard safety barriers and everything else that goes along with traditional automation.”

Once the business problem is defined, it becomes easier to evaluate robot classes and vendor offerings through their respective features and functions. Speed of robot operations, payload constraints, reach, precision, and the gross manipulation motor skills to get the job done are just a few of the criteria that should be in play when evaluating mobile robot candidates, experts say.

Ease of programming and accessibility is another big differentiator. Universal Robots touts its ability for non-experts to quickly learn the fundamentals and program the robot to adapt to solving different tasks. Case in point: A research team at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is readying for public trial the XDBOT, a semi-autonomous robot that marries a Universal UR5 cobot

outfitted with an electrostatic spray nozzle and a mobile AMR platform to disinfect large areas in place of humans.

“Because we’re so flexible and easy to reprogram and redeploy, we see a lot of this use of robot as a tool,” Campbell says.

“There’s the ability to mount it on a cart and move it from machine to machine depending on the production load for that day.”

Companies must also consider safety standards as they evaluate the different robot classes and offerings, including a deep dive to determine if the sensing capabilities of a platform map to the kinds of obstacles in a particular environment, explains Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics, which makes AMRs. The capabilities of the robotics software and its ability to integrate with core systems and plant floor hardware are a crucial consideration. For example, Fetch recently announced a collaboration with Zebra Technologies Corp., integrating its AMRs with Zebra’s FulfillmentEdge software to support collaborative picking and dynamic workflows that allow workers to spend more time in the aisle instead of manually moving material throughout a facility.

“Not all solutions are equal across AMR providers,” Wise says. “Every product has different levels of integration with fixed auto-

InVia’s subscription-based offering melds AMR robots with AI-driven optimization software to optimize warehouse operations and fulfillment.

Image courtesy of InVia Robotics.

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mation like conveyors or software like MES systems. You have to look at what the mobile robot provider has in terms of software for connecting to other automation in the plant.”

As part of the selection process, organizations need to look beyond their requirements for a particular project or series of projects and consider the entire lifecycle of a mobile robot, including potential service requirements and changeovers. “You need to consider what is the cost to change over to another solution—is it easy enough to do ourselves within minutes or hours or does it require a lot of effort and cost in terms of servicing the solution,” notes Shermine Gotfredsen, vice president of global sales at ROEQ, a manufacturer of accessory equipment for mobile robots, including carts, top rollers, and conveyors.

The general ease of programmability and flexibility of AMRs compared to older industrial robot generations is enabling a new generation of accessories and integrations that weren’t possible with older robot technology.

The resulting expanded ecosystem of add-

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on products is another factor to consider as manufacturers evaluate different mobile robots. For example, Universal Robot’s ecosystem offers a range of third-party options, including a collaborative robot welding package using technology from ARC Specialties. In another example, ROEQ is offering GuardCom, a system that employs sensors to replace cumbersome and unstable Wi-Fi setups for communicating between conveyor systems, mobile robots, and stationary cargo transfer systems, the goal being to prevent delays and mismanagement when transferring goods between platforms.

“AGV technology requires highly customized accessories, which can create a lot of unreliability,” Gotfredsen says. “There are not as many accessory integration challenges with AMRs.” Part of the evaluation process means balancing what an organization needs today with what it will need in the future. Many mobile robots are offered via a cloud-based, robots-as-a-service business model, which ensures companies can easily scale to meet

future needs. InVia, for example, contracts with customers, not by the number of robots, but rather agreed-upon productivity levels for the robots. “We understand the robots and what they can do and the customer understands how many totes they need to get through the system,” says Elazary. “With robotics-as-a-service, you don’t buy software or robots, you buy productivity.”

As companies move forward with the evaluations and, ultimately, deployments, they need to keep in mind these mobile robots are not a panacea and won’t be a fit for every application. “Many companies don’t realize their parts are not necessarily manufactured for automation or that their stamping process puts out parts that won’t come together easily or that the robot can’t keep up with unplanned production surges or change overs,” says Dean Elkins, segment leader, handling, at Yaskawa Electric’s Motoman Robotics Division. “Don’t assume robots can do more than they can.”

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INDUSTRY-SUPPLIED CONTENT 49 AW JANUARY 2021

The Challenge of Manufacturing Data Management What happens when automation and plant IT teams get past their differences and work together effectively? A chance for the company to outperform the competition and make progress on Industry 4.0 projects.

By Julie Fraser, Vice President of Research, Manufacturing, and Operations, Tech-Clarity

R

ecent research conducted by TechClarity (with input from Automation World subscribers) for the report, “The Manufacturing Data Challenge: Lessons from Top Performers,” shows that top performers in the manufacturing industries are far more likely to have automation or operations technology (OT) teams working closely with plant IT. In fact, over half have these disciplines in the same organization or tightly integrated.

However, beyond the organizational issues of OT and IT working together, there are many other aspects of manufacturing data management that everyone needs to tackle.

Investing in what matters

• Enriching data with context—from other

data streams, typically; and • Analyzing the data both for instant plant action and off-line.

Most respondents to the surveys we conducted believe all six of these are important or critical to their success with Industry 4.0.

Over half of the respondents actively use these two plant data management programs: • Integrating equipment, plant, and enterprise systems (54%) • Putting OT data into context with plant IT data (52%) In both cases, a larger percentage—more than 80%—believe those plant data management programs are important. Once a company

recognizes their importance, they must invest in these plant data management programs. But these are just the top two areas—other aspects of plant data management are not yet in active programs for most production companies.

Integration: a perennial challenge

Integration among plant floor data sources has been a topic of conversation for decades.

Even still, it is a challenge that consumes considerable resources. We asked how much is required to integrate and maintain the integration between MES, quality, maintenance, scheduling, IIoT, and other equipment or machine data. More than 80% of respon-

Most manufacturers want to create a new, more digital, and streamlined future. Whether they call it Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, digital transformation, or something else, industry is moving into new ways of working.

Regardless of the terminology used, plant data management is at the core. The complete and correlated set of data about actual production is the foundation on which connectivity, automation, and analytics can succeed.

Through our research, we identified seven programs relating to manufacturing data: • Collecting data from many distributed sources in many formats; • Cleansing the data to eliminate errors; • Normalizing the data to come to agreement and a coherent picture; • Storing the data that can best help make decisions and improvements; • Ensuring that stored data is consistent enough to use;

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50 INDUSTRY-SUPPLIED CONTENT AW JANUARY 2021

dents indicate a moderate (29%), a lot (28%), or a great deal (28%) of time, expertise, and effort are required (Figure 1).

Part of the integration challenge comes from the diverse nature of plant data. The variation in formats, granularity, and time periods is inevitable. The result is massive complexity in correlating various streams and types of data.

Yet, it is an essential element for Industry 4.0 success. Getting data to flow across the facility will create significant opportunities for insights into the process and for analyzing the overall production operation.

ally plagued the relationship between these two groups that control most manufacturing data, automation, and plant IT. Top performers are also more likely to be fully staffed with production domain experts and people to serve as a liaison between IT and OT. These are crucial positions. There are indications that the skills shortages in production are likely to get more severe.

And many Industry 4.0 and advanced analytics projects fail due to a lack of people who understand both the information systems issues and the production process needs. A liaison can help to bridge that gap.

Top performers’ results

Process capabilities

Our research methodology identifies a set of responses for comparison we call top performers. In this study, these top performers are those who rated themselves at least nine of 10, where agility and continuous improvement (CI) each count for five. Top performers make up about 35% of the response base.

Top performers are three times as likely to have made significant progress with their Industry 4.0 efforts. They not only have several projects going on—they feel they are on a path to even greater success.

That combination of having a steady focus on what to change overall as well as how to respond when conditions change has led to other benefits. For example, top performers were at least two times more likely to have improved dramatically (more than 15%) over the past three years on a range of key performance indicators (KPIs).

Their greater improvement appeared in KPIs that indicate how well a company can keep customers satisfied: time to market, quality, and perfect orders. Top performers were also far more likely to improve dramatically on operational metrics, including yield, capacity utilization, and equipment availability.

So, what plant data management practices do they use to achieve this success? Not surprisingly, they are doing things differently across people, processes, and technology.

Where do the manufacturing data processes and the operations processes most need to come together? We identified six areas around speed of delivering data, working across disciplines, agreement on “single source of truth,” integration between IT and OT systems, and putting data into a common context for analysis.

Top performers are three times as likely to have excellent capabilities in these two dimensions: • Collaborating among manufacturing, IT, and automation teams (39% of top performers vs. 9% of non-top performers) • Providing plant data access fast enough to impact performance (39% of top performers vs. 12% of non-top performers) These two issues establish a foundation for the improved performance the top performers enjoy. Cross-functional collaboration

can maximize their ability to make improvements that have positive, long-term business impacts. It also reduces the friction and disagreement that can prevent data from flowing where it needs to go promptly. As shown in Figure 2, speed also matters. Anyone who works with automation knows that fast decisions and control loops are essential to a successful system.

Technology used

With the people and processes lined up, technology can have its full impact. Cross-functional collaboration and speedy processes typically rely on savvy use of technology.

Therefore, it’s not a big surprise that top performers use commercial technologies more widely than others. They are nearly twice as likely to use intelligent, instrumented automation (52% vs. 27%). It is this type of technology that has unlocked the possibility for Industry 4.0 to succeed. Despite their use of advanced technologies, nearly half of even top performers still have some OT replacement, upgrade, and augmentation work to do.

Top performers are more likely to use advanced data approaches as well. These include digital twin simulations of the plant, IIoT platforms, and advanced analytics.

It’s important to note here that successful manufacturing data management is not all about new technologies and approaches. Top performers are also more likely to use established commercial applications such as MES (56%) and PLM (52%) as primary systems for manufacturing management.

People practices

More of the top performers have already addressed the IT/OT divide. They are far more likely to have IT and OT either in the same organization or tightly integrated (more than 56% of top performers have done this vs. just 36% of non-top performers). A close working relationship helps overcome many of the thorniest issues that have tradition-

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Figure 1

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INDUSTRY-SUPPLIED CONTENT 51 AW JANUARY 2021

Meeting the manufacturing data challenge

For Industry 4.0 to become a reality, companies must meet the manufacturing data management challenge head-on. This requires a focus on harmonizing data sets, integrating across the diverse data in a plant, and putting it all into context to convert data into information or analyze it for insights. In addition, this all needs to be done fast enough to impact performance.

Companies need not only to recognize how important these manufacturing data management issues are, they need to invest in the people, processes, and technologies required to adequately address them. Top performers are already doing this. Their rate of improvement from their current baseline may threaten competitors.

Despite this advantage held by the top performers, any manufacturer can make the investments and get on the path. It’s not too late to gain the benefits of being a top performer. Manufacturing data management initiatives are a clear path to making progress on Industry 4.0. Start with a strategy, then staff, and spin up programs on the most pressing aspects for the specific business.

And don’t assume that technology investments have to be in new technology. Having the right primary systems in MES, PLM, finite scheduling, and instrumented, intelligent automation is the best start.

It’s also important to note that, even with investments, the path may not be easy. Even top performers find the integration of manufacturing data difficult. So, pay attention to new approaches. Validate their fit as well as whether your current manufacturing data infrastructure

will support your future needs.

The “Manufacturing Data Challenge” eBook is free to download at awgo.to/1117.

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LEADERSHIP IN AUTOMATION 53 AW JANUARY 2021

Automation World’s Leadership in Automation program reflects reader input on the companies they recognize as being outstanding suppliers of industrial automation technologies.

By Automation World Staff

E

nd users’ selection of automation technologies—including hardware devices and software platforms—is contingent on many factors. These factors include established business relationships, familiarity with the technology, ease of integration, availability of support, and, of course, price. The importance of relationships, familiarity, and support play a prominent role in automation technology decisions because users rely on these technologies to not only keep them competitive, but keep them in business. This often translates into users being rather consistent in their technology supplier preferences.

However, we are seeing more and more companies—outside the scope of the most recognized players—receiving recognition from Automation World readers. Recommendation by our readers is the driving force behind our Leadership in Automa-

2101_LIA.indd 53

tion program. The honorees listed on the following pages were noted by readers in an open-ended survey that Automation World maintains nearly year-round on the AutomationWorld.com site.

We do this to ensure that reader responses are not influenced by a pre-determined list on a survey. Instead, respondents weigh in with their honest preferences.

This year’s Leadership in Automation honorees list, created from the recommendations of your peers across industry, is designed to help highlight the technology suppliers most worthy of your consideration as you make product buying decisions in the coming year. Please return the favor by letting us know who your preferred suppliers are as well. Visit awgo.to/lia to access the voting survey for our 2022 Leadership in Automation program. Your input is greatly appreciated.

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Aveva Emerson GE Digital Inductive Automation Siemens Industry

SENSORS — DISCRETE Balluff Banner Engineering IFM Efector Omron Industrial Automation Pepperl+Fuchs Sick Telemecanique Turck

SENSORS — PROCESS Balluff Emerson Endress+Hauser IFM Efector Sick Siemens Industry Wika Yokogawa

SIMULATION/MODELING Siemens Digital Industries Software

VISION

Balluff Banner Engineering Cognex Keyence Omron Industrial Automation Teledyne Dalsa

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60 LEADERSHIP IN AUTOMATION

Special Advertising Section

AW JANUARY 2021

LEADERSHIP IN AUTOMATION 2021 Cast a Vote for Your Favorite Automation Products and Services at automationworld.com/leadership

W

elcome to Automation World’s Leadership in Automation program. This in-print and online program for the manufacturing automation community is designed to recognize the many innovative companies that supply technology, software, devices, and services that keep manufacturers competitive and successful.

We created Leadership in Automation to give our readers a voice in identifying the technology providers that best exemplify leadership and innovation in their respective product categories. We believe such recognition should come from the professionals who understand the daily challenges of manufacturing, and the value of an excellent supplier partner.

On the following pages, you’ll see information from the suppliers who have chosen to participate in 2020 by supplying a profile of their organization.

Throughout the year, you can also find these profiles online at automationworld.com/leadership. Use these as a reference as you search for automation partners for your next project.

Also, cast your vote online for your preferred vendor (one per category). The results of 2020’s voting, which was conducted through an unaided recall survey, can be found beginning on page 53 in this issue.

Cast a vote for your favorite automation products and services One vote per category. automationworld.com/leadership

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COMPANY

Acromag, Inc. Aerotech, Inc. AutomationDirect AVEVA B&R Industrial Automation Beckhoff Automation CC-LINK IE Industrial Ethernet Network CIMON Digi-Key Electronics Dorner Dynatect Manufacturing, Inc. Endress+Hauser Fabco-Air, Inc., A member of Festo Group FAULHABER MICROMO Festo Corporation Hammond Manufacturing HARTING North America Helukabel USA HighByte HMS Networks HONEYWELL PROCESS SOLUTIONS Inductive Automation L&T Technology Services Lenze Maverick Technologies, LLC A Rockwell Automation Company

Mitsubishi Electric Automation mk North America, Inc. Motion Index Drives Moxa Americas Inc. MTS Sensors Murrelektronik, Inc. Newark, An Avnet Company NORD Gear Corporation,

A Member of the NORD DRIVESYSTEMS GROUP

NSK Automation Omron Automation Opto 22 Pilz Automation Safety, LP Pro-Face America ProComSol PULS Power Supplies Schmersal USA SEW-EURODRIVE, Inc. Siemens Industry Softing Inc. Stratus Technologies Telemecanique Sensors WAGO Corporation Winsted Xometry Yaskawa America, Inc.

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I/O Modules Instrumentation Networking & Connectivity

Acromag, Inc. 30765 Wixom Rd, Wixom, MI 48393 USA Phone: (248) 295-0882 Email: sales@acromag.com www.acromag.com Acromag designs and manufactures signal conditioning and remote I/O solutions for oil/ gas, power generation, water/wastewater, raw material processing, and industrial automation industries. For more than 60 years Acromag has focused on being a customer-driven company offering professional personalized technical support, guaranteed.

Acromag I/O is ideal for a broad range of monitoring and control operations where controllers communicate with instrumentation on the plant floor or in the field. Our products are performance guaranteed to meet or exceed published specifications offering you dependable value and peace of mind.

Acromag’s signal conditioning line features more than 100 transmitters, isolators, alarms, and computation modules. If networked I/O is required, Acromag offers analog and discrete I/O modules for Ethernet, Modbus, and Profibus.

Acromag Advantages: • Wide Operating Temperature Ranges (up to -40° to 85°) • High Resistance to RFI, EMI, Surges, Electrical Transients • High-Voltage Isolation and Built-in Surge Suppression • Easy-to-Use and Maintain • High Channel Density to Save Space • Large Inventory of Stock Items for Same-Day Shipping • Special Designs and Custom Services Available • 2-Year Warranty Available at No Extra Cost • AS9100 and ISO 9001 Certified Quality management Acromag products are built to the highest quality standards. Manufacturing is located in Wixom Michigan and is ISO9001 and AS9100 certified. Acromag products are designed to be rugged. Many have CE, UL, cUL, ATEX certification and are approved for Class 1 Div 2 Zone 2 operation and temperatures from -40 to 80°C. For more information or help selecting the right product for your application please contact us at 248-295-0882.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Motion Control Systems

Aerotech, Inc. 101 Zeta Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15238-2811 USA Phone: 412/963-7470 Email: sales@aerotech.com www.aerotech.com Aerotech is the global precision motion control and automation industry leader. Our solutions enable manufacturing, testing and inspection processes on a micrometer and nanometer scale.

We are the only company offering solutions for every motion challenge, including controller software and hardware; servo and stepper motors; positioning mechanics and robotics; and motion subsystems and integrated system solutions.

As an engineering-focused company that employs more than 180 engineers (85% of our salaried workforce), we pursue a unique, collaborative approach to solving mechatronic challenges. Unlike some competitors that grow by acquiring multiple companies producing distinct, narrowly focused product lines, all of Aerotechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technologies are developed by one engineering team in Pittsburgh, Pa. Aerotechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holistic method of designing all motion control solutions with only one engineering group ensures that all of our technologies work together seamlessly.

Mechanical, electrical and software engineers collaborate in interdependent teams.

Mechanical engineers design the physical automation equipment. Electrical engineers develop electrical hardware to drive the automation equipment. And software engineers write controller interfaces that allow users to program and control the equipment.

And with more than 50 years of experience developing custom solutions for a wide range of markets, Aerotechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s applications engineering team is the best in the industry at solving the most complex motion control challenges. In fact, more than half of our business comes from custom technologies. We build a deep understanding of specific customer applications so that we can recommend the perfect solution, whether that is a standard or customengineered product, subsystem or completely integrated system.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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PLCs/PACs HMI Hardware Drives

AutomationDirect 3505 Hutchinson Road, Cumming, GA 30040 USA Phone: 800/633-0405 Email: customersupport@automationdirect.com http://www.automationdirect.com A well-recognized name in the industrial automation market, AutomationDirect provides quality products with FREE award-winning in-house sales and technical support.

AutomationDirect provides customers with quick order and delivery through an online store and toll-free number. Prices on most products are well below the industry average and a 30-day money-back guarantee is offered on nearly all items.

With tens of thousands of part listings, new products include the Productivity1000 PLC, the Do-more BRX PLC and the DURApulse GS4 AC drive. These products represent many years of design and development by AutomationDirect’s own engineering team as well as their strategic partners.

The company also offers motors, sensors, pushbuttons, enclosures, circuit protection and more. The state-of-the-art headquarters facility near Atlanta is designed throughout for maximum performance. Orders for in-stock items can be taken as late as 6 p.m. EST and be shipped for next-day delivery.

The company provides online tutorial videos through their web store at www. automationdirect.com as well as their YouTube channel. A Customer Forum provides peer support on technical and application questions.

AutomationDirect’s customer support team has been rated top-notch by its customers. For 15 years straight, the Tech Support team was voted by readers of Control Design magazine as best in service and support for various products. And, their own customer surveys consistently rank the company’s service as better than other suppliers.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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HMI Software SCADA Cloud Computing

AVEVA 30 Cannon Street, London, UK EC4M 6AH, United Kingdom Phone: :+44 (0)1223 556655 Email: sales@aveva.com http://www.aveva.com AVEVA creates industrial software that inspires people to shape a sustainable future.

We work with our customers and harness the power of our ecosystem to deliver solutions and expertise to optimize engineering, operations and performance. From water and energy to food and infrastructure, our solutions transform opportunity into business value. We use collaborative innovation to empower people and industries to thrive.

AVEVA’s engineering, operations and performance solutions deliver proven results to over 16,000 customers across the globe. Its customers are supported by the largest industrial software ecosystem, including 4,200 partners and 5,700 certified developers.

AVEVA is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with over 4,400 employees at 80 locations in over 40 countries.

Customer Success – Danone Danone is a global leader in the Food & Beverage industry with a mission to drive healthier and more sustainable consumption through its “One Planet. One Health” initiative. Working with AVEVA, the Specialized Nutrition team has developed a core model or template that provides 20 standard functions for deployment across manufacturing sites, including a standard interface to SAP. “We had the ambition to develop a state-of-the-art MES and chose AVEVA as a strong and global partner to maintain and improve our core model. The Model-Driven MES template gives Danone the flexibility to deploy a menu of 20 standard functionalities including standard interfaces, to all Specialized Nutrition plants.” — Sebastien Boissier, Specialized Nutrition Digital Manufacturing Director, Danone

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PLCs/PACs Robotics Vision

B&R Industrial Automation 1250 Northmeadow Parkway, S-100, Roswell, GA 30076 USA Phone: 770-772-0400 Email: marketing.us@br-automation.com https://www.br-automation.com B&R is an innovative automation company with headquarters in Austria and offices all around the world. On July 6, 2017, B&R became a business unit of the ABB Group. As a global leader in industrial automation, B&R combines state-of-the-art technology with advanced engineering to provide customers in virtually every industry with complete solutions for machine and factory automation, motion control, HMI and integrated safety technology. With Industrial IoT communication standards like OPC UA, POWERLINK and openSAFETY as well as the powerful Automation Studio software development environment, B&R is constantly redefining the future of automation engineering.

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Industrial PCs Motion Control Systems I/O Modules

Beckhoff Automation 13130 Dakota Ave, Savage, MN 55378 Phone: 952 890 0000 Email: beckhoff.usa@beckhoff.com www.beckhoff.com Next-step Automation Tech from Beckhoff Offers Unrivaled Flexibility and Throughput Beckhoff Automation is a global provider of open automation systems based on advanced PC Control technology. The “New Automation Technology” philosophy at Beckhoff represents universal and open automation solutions used in a wide spectrum of high-tech applications around the world. These applications range from control of machines and robots, to Internet of Things (IoT) systems, to category-defining mechatronics solutions and much more. The world headquarters of Beckhoff Automation is in Verl, Germany while the U.S. headquarters office is in Savage, Minn. (Minneapolis area).

Beckhoff expanded the EtherCAT-enabled eXtended Transport System (XTS) recently with new hardware and software enhancements. XTS Hygienic, a stainless steel, IP69K version, is ideal for wash-down production environments in packaging, pharma, food and beverage. In addition, new Track Management functionality allows individual movers to transfer between multiple XTS systems, enabling further customization, quality inspection, automatic defect ejection and more. These features, along with the system’s high speeds, dynamics, small footprint, instant recipe changeovers and real-time integration with robotics, further revolutionize possibilities in machine design.

Another breakthrough in mechatronics technology, the XPlanar flying motion solution delivers unrivaled flexibility and throughput in part, product and package handling. The system uses planar motor tiles as a base to levitate passive movers that can fly at speeds of 4 m/s and acceleration up to 20 m/s². Path planning and collision avoidance software produce extremely efficient and maintenance-free motion control for complex assembly, packaging, inspection and material handling applications. Anti-sloshing functionality in TwinCAT 3 software optimizes XPlanar’s transport capabilities in applications involving liquids, such as filling of beverages, cosmetics and other goods. XPlanar offers wear-free movement and the ability to cover planar motor tiles with stainless steel, glass, plastic or other hygienic surfaces.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Communication Protocols/Standards Networking & Connectivity Safety, Process

CC-LINK IE Industrial Ethernet Networking 500 Corporate Woods Parkway, Vernon Hills, IL 60061 USA Phone: 847/478-2647 Email: info@cclinkamerica.org am.cc-link.org CC-Link is a family of industrial open technology automation networks that process control, information & diagnostics to provide efficient, integrated factory-wide industrial and process automation. The family provides IIoT Ready high speed, deterministic communication seamlessly linking a wide assortment of multi-vendor automation devices.

CC-Link IE TSN – A next generation network based on the current CC-Link IE with the adoption of Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) technology. CC-Link IE TSN provides flexible IIoT system construction along with reduced downtime by using GP Ethernet diagnostic tools compliant with SNMP. CC-Link IE TSN can offer a best in class motion control operation with cycle times better than 31.25µs.

CC-Link IE Field Basic – Software based, open-technology general-purpose Industrial Ethernet network. CC-Link IE Field Basic is a cyclic network that provides a cost effective industrial Ethernet network for small-scale equipment not requiring high-speed control.

CC-Link IE Field – IIoT Ready 1 Gigabit Industrial Ethernet network linking field level devices to controllers. CC-Link IE Field provides a secure industrial Ethernet network via its tokenbased architecture. CC-Link IE Field is IEC approved for safety communications and can provide integrated motion control functions all on a single Industrial Ethernet network.

CC-Link – Open-technology fieldbus network providing complete deterministic behavior & cost effectiveness, flexibility and ease of use. Fully compatible CC-Link Safety is IEC/ISO approved for safety communications and exceeds industry safety network standards.

CC-Link IE TSN is the only released TSN compatible network on the market. CC-Link IE Field is cost effective, flexible, high-performance as well as easy to install and use. CCLink IE is an industry leader with Gigabit Ethernet networking. CC-Link is a market leader in Asia. Many export oriented American manufacturers are incorporating CC-Link IE compatibility because of its strength and market leadership in Asia.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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SCADA PLCs/PACs HMI Hardware

CIMON 2435 Horizon Ridge Pkwy., Henderson, NV 89052 USA Phone: 800/300-9916 Email: sales@cimoninc.com www.cimon.com CIMON is an industrial automation company focused on the process control and manufacturing markets.

Since its establishment in 1999, CIMON has grown from the emerging Asian Industrial markets into the competitive European and North American Industrial markets.

CIMON has worked with hundreds of manufacturers worldwide, providing solutions for today’s challenging industrial automation issues. Our products and services allow control solutions for every level of projects, from the small OEM or System Integrator to the large critical applications of Oil/Gas processing plants. Industries include: Agriculture; General Manufacturing; Automotive (assembly); Marine Applications; Building Automation; Mining; Chemical Plants; Oil & Gas; Pharmaceutical; Water treatment & Wastewater; Food & Beverage; Power & Utilities; Pulp & Paper Production; Packaging; Semiconductor Manufacturing; Transportation & Tolls; Infrastructure & Construction; Aerospace.

CIMON is focused on developing world class hardware and software solutions. All CIMON products are designed, developed and manufactured by CIMON. This allows us the advantage of bringing innovative, quality products at a very competitive price to the World Industrial markets. Our customers include: LG, Samsung, General Motors, Kia, Hankook Tire, Korean Air, SK Chemicals, Hyundai, and Sharp to name a few.

All CIMON programming software is available at no cost with free unlimited technical support, and all CIMON hardware include an above-standard 2-year Warranty.

With CIMON, you can depend on quality, innovation and cost-effective solutions for all your industrial automation projects.

Contact CIMON to Experience the future of automation.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Safety, Process Sensors, process Networking & Connectivity

Digi-Key Electronics 701 Brooks Ave S., Thief River Falls, MN 56701 USA Phone: 800/344-4539 Email: sales@digikey.com www.digikey.com Digi-Key Electronics, a global Internet-based distributor of electronic components, is an authorized distributor of more than 11.5 million components, including over 2.6 million in stock, from more than 1,500 trusted suppliers.

Digi-Key is the preferred supplier for Industrial Automation, Control and Safety products.

They carry a broad line of products from advanced controls such as PLC, HMI and temperature controllers to accessories such as wire duct, safety switches and safety light curtains. With excellent technical resources and same-day shipping, Digi-Key will get you the parts you need when you need them.

The company recently launched the Digi-Key Marketplace to give customers access to even more products and services in applications including bare PCB boards, industrial automation, test and measurement, IoT solutions and virtually all things related to technology innovation; while providing these added solutions through a singular shopping experience.

They also offers a vast selection of online resources including a range of EDA and design tools; reference design library; on-demand multimedia library; a comprehensive article library; and community forums, among others. Digi-Key also offers numerous Supply Chain solutions such as a complete set of APIs, bonded inventory, and just-in-time shipping, as well as a newly updated BOM manager.

Digi-Key prides itself on the ability to provide the best possible service to customers. A customer can request electronic components or reach the talented team of technicians and application engineers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year either by phone, fax, e-mail or through the website.

From prototype to production, Digi-Key has the resources and products to take your design to the next level! Find out more at www.digikey.com.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Mobility Motion Control Systems Safety, Machine

Dorner 975 Cottonwood Ave. | Hartland, WI 53029 Phone: 262/367-7600 Email: info@dorner.com www.dornerconveyors.com At Dorner our mission is to Transform Conveyor Automation by providing cutting edge solutions with best-in-class support. It’s that commitment and history of proven excellence that has made the Dorner Brand a recognized leader in product handling for over 50 years.

With our complete line of customizable stainless steel and aluminum conveyor automation systems, Dorner can provide solutions for almost any conveyor need.

Dorner’s conveyors are designed to move product to the exact location, at the exact time and in the exact position it needs to be for the next phase of the production line. With benefits such as industry best product transfers and in-house belting capabilities, Dorner is leading the market in precision conveyance. This extremely accurate product control allows Dorner conveyors to easily integrate with robots, workers and equipment. Dorner’s Engineered Solutions Group (ESG) is transforming product handling with innovative solutions that are custom designed to solve customers’ unique needs. This full service team can provide systems for applications such as accumulation, indexing, positioning, product flow and much more.

Using Dorner’s Online Configurator, you can design and engineer simple or complex conveyors to meet your needs in minutes. The industry leading tool delivers a complete 3D CAD assembly model for instant validation of fit.

Dorner’s new ERT250 Conveyors utilize Edge Roller Technology to provide low back pressure accumulation, non-contact zoning, and conventional transport, all without a belt! They feature a clean, open roller design and are ideal for assembly automation and cleanroom applications. Check out this must see in pallet and tray handling conveyance.

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Safety, Machine Motion Control Systems Maintenance/Reliability

Dynatect Manufacturing, Inc. 2300 S. Calhoun Rd. New Berlin, WI 53151 USA Phone: 800/298-2066 Email: sales@dynatect.com https://dynatect.com/ Dynatect (formerly known as A&A Manufacturing) manufactures custom motion control and equipment protection components including laser protection doors, machine safety doors, bellows, way covers, cable carriers, ball screws, and slip clutches. Dynatect has supplied roll-up machine doors for over 30 years.

Dynatect’s VF Automated Machine Safety Door restricts access to hazardous operations while allowing the operator to maintain closer proximity to the work area, thus improving ergonomics and increasing productivity. Dynatect’s VF door is designed to contain process driven hazards such as weld sparks, UV flash, and light debris. These doors feature modular base plates, header and legs specifically designed for large, fast, mission critical doors. The base plates allow for a free-standing door and there are integrated T-slot channels on multiple surfaces to easily mount other components and/or safety considerations.

Dynatect’s Laser Protection Door is based on the Automated Machine Safety Door components and capable of door travel speed up to 20 inches/second. Customers have consistently and successfully conducted their own safety analysis and approval for each application. The shade consists of double-wall anodized aluminum slats, featuring a ball-and-socket style configuration that is both strong and light-tight. This type of hollow aluminum semi-reflective extrusion serves as a functional heat-dissipating barrier. The frame’s legs feature guides that accept the door to maintain a light-safe labyrinth.

Dynatect is a growing, diversified business with a 75-year track record, manufacturing on 3 continents, including 5 facilities in the U.S. Each year Dynatect services nearly 5,000 customers in North America, including OEMs, distributors, and MRO customers. Dynatect’s mission is improving human-machine safety and machine uptime. As Dynatect prepares for the next 75 years, we continue to focus on bringing reliable engineered solutions to complex and specialty applications. We look forward to an opportunity to work with you along the way.

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Instrumentation Sensors, process IoT Platforms

Endress+Hauser 2350 Endress Place, Greenwood, IN, 46143 USA Phone: 888-ENDRESS Email: info.us.sc@endress.com www.us.endress.com Endress+Hauser is a global leader in measurement instrumentation, services and solutions for industrial process engineering. They provide process solutions for flow, level, pressure, liquid analysis, gas analysis, temperature, recording and digital communications, optimizing processes in terms of economic efficiency, safety and environmental impact. The company serves a variety of industries, including chemical, oil & gas, food & beverage, water & wastewater, life sciences, power & energy, and primaries & metals.

Endress+Hauser, a Switzerland-based company, was founded in 1953, and expanded operations to the U.S. in 1970. More than 80% of all Endress+Hauser instruments ordered and shipped within the U.S. are manufactured in the U.S. This means customers can rely on Endress+Hauser to deliver the products they need quickly. This strong manufacturing base is complimented by a complete network of sales partners and service locations to support its customers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; wherever their instruments are installed.

Premium services, customized solutions, project management and IIoT applications round out Endress+Hauserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s offering, helping customers gain efficiency, increase quality and maximize plant availability.

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Actuators and Valves Hydraulics/Pneumatics Motion Control Systems

Fabco-Air, Inc. A member of Festo Group 3716 N.E. 49th Avenue Gainesville FL 32609 USA Phone: 352/373-3578 Email: service@fabco-air.com www.fabco-air.com FABCO-AIR, Inc . . . Delivering interchangeable air cylinders in 3 to 5-days Fabco-Air is a US supplier of a wide array of pneumatic components and solutions that has been in business for 60 years. Since then, we have developed a specialty in manufacturing of interchangeable air cylinders. Our Florida production facility allows for quick response times and flexibility to meet the industry’s ever-changing requirements Pancake® Air Cylinders out-perform the entire field of compact air cylinders. Rugged construction provides unequalled strength, rigidity, and piston rod support maintaining perpendicularity and concentricity for locating, mounting and making attachments to the rod. Heavy wall prevents damage to the bore. 8 bore sizes 1/2” to 4”; strokes to 4”.

F Series & H Series Cylinders - Fabco has purchased the Humphrey Stainless Steel Disposable Cylinder line, adding to our existing F-Series products.

Global Series™ Cylinders - Features hard anodized aluminum extrusions, oversized hard chrome plated stainless steel piston rods, and non-lube service to 150 psi and many more options Pancake® II Air Cylinders –High strength composite cylinder barrel is self-lubricating and impact resistant. Rod bearing, captive in cylinder head, has higher load capacity, lower friction, zero slip-stick and many more options.

OEM-Priced NFPA Air Cylinders –Incorporate important no-cost options. Standard eatures: • d usta le air cushions oth ends • agnetic pistons • ard chro e plated piston sha t • Stainless steel tie rods • Special rod ushings provide sel lu rication o piston rods • nodi ed alu inu end caps • actor lu ricated ith agnalu e • Shipping in 3 to 5 days.

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Motors Motion Control Systems Drives

FAULHABER MICROMO 14881 Evergreen Ave., Clearwater, FL 33762 USA Phone: 800/807-9166 www.faulhaber.com As the exclusive provider of FAULHABER products for North America, FAULHABER MICROMO creates value through advanced design and engineering services, and is proud to offer the broadest range of high precision, high performance products for micro motion applications within diverse, challenging industries, such as Medical Devices, Lab Automation, Robotics, Industrial Automation, Optics, Aerospace, Defense, and Semiconductor Equipment.

The FAULHABER product line includes fractional horsepower coreless (brush) DC motors, brushless DC motors, stepper motors, piezoelectric motors, linear DC servo motors, planetary & spur gearheads, high-resolution encoders, fail-safe brakes, speed & motion controllers, micro-mechanical systems, complete servo systems, and custom subassemblies which incorporate FAULHABER drive systems into OEM devices.

With on-site machining and assembly facilities, a versatile standard product line, and an Advanced Engineering Group, customization is our strength. FAULHABER MICROMO’s facility of 75,000 ft² includes a state-of-the-art CNC machining center, a 12,000 ft² clean room assembly operation (class 100,000 capable), and a dedicated R & D team and engineering testing center.

FAULHABER’s engineering team partners with customers for the design, specification and after sales support of industry leading motion control products. Advanced online tools, such as the FDST (FAULHABER Drive Selection Tool) used for evaluating and selecting a variety of product configurations and performance options, combined with our easy online store, OEM engineers can easily and quickly purchase compact motion systems, day or night. Plus, with our localized inventory, many products can be delivered in three days or less to meet immediate design and testing requirements.

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Actuators and Valves Hydraulics/Pneumatics Motion Control Systems

Festo Corporation 1377 Motor Pkwy. Ste 310 Islandia, NY, 11749 USA Phone: 800/99-FESTO Email: Customer.service.us@festo.com www.festo.us To win, manufacturers need partners they can trust to help them build better products. To streamline production. And of course, to continuously cut costs. It’s all about innovation.

For over 40 years in the US and 80 years globally, Festo has been a positive force for manufacturers. Our passion is automation — intelligent automation solutions that transform the way people work — and the way companies compete. Ultimately, it’s about continuously stimulating progress. In big ways and in small ways.

We are driven by a desire to always be helpful. We observe. We analyze. We inspire. We engineer with an intense focus on every last detail. We operate with a simple, yet powerful manifesto: That intelligent automation isn’t just about movement - it’s movement with purpose. And it’s not just about innovative products. It’s about products that come with expert advice and differentiated customer support. Our aim is to help our customers make their products faster, smarter and more precisely. That’s how they thrive instead of just survive. And when our customers win, we win.

We are Festo. And our purpose is to help people turn the power of intelligent automation into a catalyst for transformation.

We offer a comprehensive line of over 30,000 automation products and can support even your most complex automation requirements. Our standard and customized products include pneumatic drives, servo pneumatic technology, handling and vacuum technology and air preparation equipment. We also offer a variety of valve manifolds, sensors, control technology and other electromechanical components to meet your needs.

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Enclosures

Hammond Manufacturing 475 Cayuga Road, Cheektowaga, NY, 14225 USA Phone: 716/630-7030 Email: ussales@hammfg.com www.hammondmfg.com For more than 100 years, customers who have required unsurpassed performance, wide selection and durability for power distribution, racks and enclosures have relied on the Hammond brand. In 1917, the original company known as O.S. Hammond and Son was established in Guelph, Canada. Hammond began making tube radio sets and other related products between 1919 and 1927. In the decades since the company has evolved and expanded to manufacture transformers and enclosures for hundreds of industries and tens of thousands of customers worldwide. Hammond differentiates itself by working towards a simple mission: Quality products and service excellence.

Enclosures & Accessories—Hammond has a wide selection of UL listed, NEMA rated enclosures for use in nearly limitless applications. Combined with a comprehensive line of climate control and power distribution accessories, Hammond enclosures are a complete solution for the automation industry.

Hammond also manufactures a world-leading line of electronic enclosures ideal for use in applications such as sensors, environmental monitoring, IOT, and associated industries.

Worldwide Service Excellence—Hammond has nine manufacturing facilities in Canada, the USA, and Europe (UK), each of them specializing in different types of enclosure products from injection molded plastic boxes, to communications infrastructure, to power distribution, to water-resistant stainless steel enclosure fabrication. This group of factories feed the company’s warehousing and distribution centers in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Hammond’s large inventory combined with a vast network of world-class distributors help ensure that Hammond products can quickly reach destinations anywhere on planet earth.

In addition, Hammond prides itself on having knowledgeable and experienced staff to provide excellent customer support from the design phase throughout the service life of their enclosures.

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IoT Platforms Cables, Wiring & Connectors

HARTING North America 1370 Bowes Road, Elgin, IL 60123 USA Phone: 877/741.1500 Email: more.info@HARTING.com www.harting-usa.com HARTING is the global choice connectivity solution provider for high demand markets and critical applications. Best known for world-class connector and cabling solutions for getting power, signal, and data quickly and reliably from point A to B. Not at least because HARTING invented the rectangular connector in 1956.

The 6 Trends in IIoT: Miniaturization: The new award-winning ix Industrial® requires 70% less installation space and is more robust than the legacy RJ45 with the same functionality.

Modularization: Modularization means offering flexible, reconfigurable production elements that have standardized interfaces for mechanical connections and power, data and signal transmission. HARTING’s Han-Modular® series illustrates this trend perfectly.

Identification: In 2006, HARTING introduced an industrial RFID solution developed specifically for utmost reliability even in harsh operating environments, with a product lineup that has continued to grow over the past dozen years.

Integration: The HARTING MICA® serves as an ideal communications hub in a decentralized IIoT production environment. For example, the HARTING MICA® has been used to monitor the amount of power used at the machine, measure power quality, provide insights into machine health and ensure process quality.

Customization: HARTING customized the hood for its economical Han-Eco® series of thermoplastic connectors to make them suitable for data center applications. This is why the customized Han-Eco® was selected as the connector for Microsoft’s open-source Project Olympus data center developed through the Open Compute Project.

Digitalization: Digitalization is taking things that typically do not transmit data or are analog and make them digital so that they can be integrated into larger IIoT systems. The flexible configuration possibilities with MICA® mean shop floor and machine operations can be retrofitted to perform digital, networked applications for more efficient production processes, predictive maintenance, and documentation of process data.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Cables, Wiring & Connectors Motion Control Systems Robotics

HELUKABEL USA 1201 Wesemann Dr., West Dundee, IL 60118 USA Phone: 8479305118 Email: cables@helukabel.com www.helukabel.com HELUKABEL â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Worry-Free Cable Experience HELUKABEL USA, based near Chicago IL, is a global manufacturer and supplier of cables, wires and cable accessories. Our extensive product line includes flexible and continuous flex control cables, data/network/bus cables, VFD/servo cables, torsion cables for wind turbines, single-conductors, and multi-norm cables with domestic and international electrical approvals. HELUKABEL combines excellent cable quality, innovation and technical expertise with a vast product portfolio and smooth logistics operations. We call that the worry-free cable experience!

New automation technology means new cable challenges. With almost 40 years in the cable business, we have designed our products to provide an uninterrupted flow of power and data to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s automated manufacturing systems, regardless of working conditions.

Our cable engineering expertise allows us to meet and exceed customer expectations as industry technology becomes more advanced. We continuously provide new cable solutions for our customers, which allows them to maintain their position at the forefront of the market.

HELUKABEL cables have long service lives, and have been tested to multi-million flexing cycles. This makes the automated manufacturing process leaner by reducing downtime and increasing productivity. We also develop and manufacture complete cabling protection systems for robotics applications.

Combining a product portfolio of over 33,000+ line items with worldwide logistics operations allows us to deliver the cable products you need, when you need them. With a fully automated logistics center in Germany, and a large warehouse near Chicago IL, we are able to serve the North American market on a just-in-time basis. Truly making HELUKABEL your one-stop shop cabling solution provider.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Data acquisition Edge Computing IoT Platforms

HighByte 52 Alder Street, Suite 2, Portland, ME 04101, USA Phone: +1 (844) DATA-OPS Email: info@highbyte.com www.highbyte.com HighByte is an industrial software development company in Portland, Maine building DataOps solutions that address the data architecture and security challenges created by Industry 4.0.

We believe contextualized and standardized data is essential for Industry 4.0 to reach broad adoption. That’s why we’ve launched HighByte Intelligence Hub—the first DataOps solution purpose-built to meet the unique requirements of industrial assets, products, processes, and systems at the Edge. The software enables manufacturers to securely connect, model, and flow valuable industrial data throughout their extended enterprise without writing or maintaining code.

With HighByte Intelligence Hub, you can accelerate and scale your data lake, IIoT, and analytics initiatives while improving communications between OT and IT. Deploy HighByte Intelligence Hub at the Edge to organize, merge, and standardize your industrial data in one solution; model, document, and deliver your data more efficiently; stop writing custom scripts and troubleshooting broken integrations; reduce time spent preparing data for analysis; reduce cloud ingest, processing and storage costs for unusable and unneeded data; improve system-wide security; reduce time spent deploying and maintaining system integrations; reduce data loss from dropped connections.

Available no-code connections include Azure IoT Hub and Event Hubs, AWS SiteWise, OPC UA, MQTT JSON and Sparkplug, REST, and SQL. Join our free trial program to get hands-on access to HighByte Intelligence Hub and set up your first data flow in less than 10 minutes at hightbyte.com.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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IoT Platforms Networking & Connectivity Communication Protocols/Standards

HMS Networks 35 E Wacker Drive, Suite 1900, Chicago IL 60601 USA Phone: 312/829-0601 Email: us-sales@hms-networks.com www.hms-networks.com HMS Networks is the leading independent supplier of solutions for industrial communication and the Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT. We believe that connecting matters, in everything from making devices, machines and systems talk, to engaging actively with our customers. Our state-of-the-art technology connects millions of industrial devices all over the world - in automation systems as well as in innovative IIoT applications.

HMS develops and manufactures software and hardware for industrial communication. Our products connect automation devices such as robots, sensors, control systems and motors to different industrial networks and control systems.

Our Anybus brand offers multi-network connectivity with fieldbus and industrial Ethernet. It allows you to connect any industrial device to any industrial network - wired or wireless.

Our Ixxat brand offers connectivity solutions for embedded control, energy and automotive testing. Ixxat products enable communication inside machines and between components.

Our Ewon brand offers remote access and management of industrial equipment. Ewon remote solutions allows access to monitor and control industrial machinery online.

Our Intesis brand is known for its unique technology and competence within building automation.

With millions of delivered products, our technology is today a business-critical part of factories all over the world. This puts high demands on quality, compliance, and our ability to deliver.

HMS can offer a complete solution â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from product development through manufacturing and support. This makes us a unique and market-leading industrial communication partner.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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IoT Platforms Process Control Software Safety, Process

HONEYWELL PROCESS SOLUTIONS 2101 CityWest Boulevard | Houston, TX 77042 | USA www.honeywellprocess.com Honeywell Process Solutions is a pioneer in automation control, instrumentation and services for the oil and gas; refining; energy; pulp and paper; industrial power generation; chemicals and petrochemicals; biofuels; life sciences; and metals, minerals, and mining industries.

Honeywell plays a critical role across the entire lifecycle of an industrial facility, including project design and engineering, technology licensing, technical services and ongoing operations, cybersecurity and continuous modernization.

A leader in digitization, Honeywell delivers software and services that help its customers overcome competitive pressures and uncertain market conditions to achieve gamechanging business outcomes. Honeywellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comprehensive portfolio in process control, monitoring, and safety systems and instrumentation provides optimized operations and maintenance efficiencies to meet diverse automation needs.

Honeywell ExperionÂŽ PKS Highly Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE) is a new generation of control system technology, enabling elevated levels of design flexibility and optimization which significantly simplify control system design, implementation, lifecycle management and support.

Our technologies are helping facilities, and supply chains improve their resilience, and enabling a more agile and safe workplace â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with integrated, industry-specific solutions to meet evolving customer needs with any size of operation.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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HMI Software MES/MOM SCADA

Inductive Automation 90 Blue Ravine, Folsom, CA, 95630 USA Phone: 800/266-7798 Email: dpearson@inductiveautomation.com www.inductiveautomation.com Inductive Automation produces industrial automation software that reduces frustration and increases efficiency in the industrial market. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core mission is to inject innovation and unprecedented value into the industry.

Ignition by Inductive AutomationÂŽ is a universal industrial application platform. It empowers users to connect to all of the data across their enterprise, rapidly develop any type of industrial automation system, and scale their systems in any way, without limits. Ignition is also capable of unlimited extensibility through the addition of fully integrated software modules that extend the functionality of the platform. With Ignition, users can create a variety of seamlessly integrated industrial solutions.

SCADA: Control, track, display, and analyze your process.

HMI: Build optimized screens to monitor and control your machinery.

IIoT: Make your data more accessible and efficient with MQTT. MES: Track your production, manage recipes, calculate OEE, and more.

Alarming: Build complex alarming systems and get notifications instantly.

Reporting: Create and deliver dynamic, database-driven industrial reports.

Edge Computing: Capture critical data at the remote edge of your network.

Enterprise: Empower teams with better data to make smarter decisions.

Markets include: Automotive, Beverage, Consumer Packaged Goods, Entertainment, Fibers & Textiles, Food, Forest Products, Government, Home, Health & Beauty, Manufacturing,

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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PLM Energy Management Robotics

L&T Technology Services 2035 Lincoln Highway, Edison (New Jersey) – 08817 USA Phone: 226/752-5656 Email: info@ltts.com www.ltts.com L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) is a global leader in Engineering and R&D (ER&D) services. Our innovations speak for themselves – World’s 1st Autonomous Welding Robot, Solar ‘Connectivity’ Drone, and the Smartest Campus in the World, to name a few.

We offer consultancy, design, development and testing services across the product and process development life cycle. Our customer base includes 69 Fortune 500 companies and 53 of the world’s top ER&D companies, across industrial products, medical devices, transportation, telecom & hi-tech, and the process industries. With substantial presence in the U.S. Europe and India, we have over 15,900 employees spread across 17 global design centers, 28 global sales offices and 52 innovation labs as of September 30, 2020.

LTTS’ Product Engineering practice assists customers in every step of their product development journey – starting with design & prototyping to VLSI, software, hardware and security engineering. This practice encompasses VLSI, Mechanical Design, Software Engineering and Hardware Engineering Our Manufacturing Engineering service offering focuses on providing line expansion and transfer, frugal product design and asset care to accelerate operations of global manufacturers.

LTTS’ Operations Engineering Team is focused on helping customers unlock operational efficiencies by offering integrated content management, connected services support as well as sourcing and procurement, in line with global best practices.

LTTS is building up a Consultancy practice that assimilates the best technologies and practices from multiple industries and integrates it into the latest products and solutions.

The Engineering Consultancy Practice enables customers to maximize returns from Industry 4.0 investments, create new revenue streams for another product category, and address common challenges around cybersecurity.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Drives Motion Control Systems Cloud Computing

Lenze 630 Douglas St., Uxbridge, MA, 01569 USA Phone: 800/217-9100 Email: info.us@lenze.com www.lenze.com “The best machines and production facilities around the world use Lenze.”

As a global specialist in Motion Centric Automation, Lenze offers you products, drive solutions, complete automation systems, and engineering services and tools from one single source. Lenze is one of the few suppliers able to support you throughout the entire machine development process – from the control system to the drive shaft, from the initial ideas to after-sale. We are a reliable partner with the knowledge and expertise to provide you with the best overall solutions reducing machine development times and enabling faster time-to-market.

Engineering made easy – in order to deliver the ideal solution for your machine tasks, Lenze advises and supports you through all five phases of the engineering process: 1. Developing ideas, 2. Drafting concepts, 3. Implementing solutions, 4. Manufacturing machines, 5. Ensuring productivity If you are looking to implement cutting-edge machines and plant concepts, or modernize existing installations, you can trust Lenze. We help choose the best products, providing energy efficient drive dimensioning, project planning, implementation and commissioning.

We make it easy for precise implementation of your machine tasks.

Lenze is a global manufacturer of electrical and mechanical drives, motion control and automation technology. We are a leading provider of automation solutions to the following industries: consumer goods packaging, automotive, material handling and logistics, robotics, and commercial pumps/fans. With a global network of engineers, sales representatives, and manufacturing facilities, Lenze is well-positioned to meet the motion control needs of customers worldwide. Lenze Americas, a subsidiary of Lenze SE of Germany, is headquartered in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. Corporate global headquarters are located in Hamelin, Germany.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Communication Protocols/Standards Data acquisition Instrumentation

MAVERICK Technologies, LLC A Rockwell Automation Company 265 Admiral Trost Drive, Columbia, IL, 62236 USA Phone: 888/917.9109 Email: info@mavtechglobal.com www.mavtechglobal.com/contact MAVERICK Technologies® is a platform-independent automation solutions provider and a global leader in industrial automation, system integration and strategic manufacturing solutions, with customers across a wide range of manufacturing and process industries.

Our people, processes and technical capabilities ensure delivery of the right solution for every project. Since our founding in 1999, we’ve completed more than 17,500 projects in 46 countries across six continents. Our work ranges from initial assessments and operational consulting engagements to comprehensive, multimillion-dollar projects.

MAVERICK works across all major technology platforms, delivering value at all four stages of manufacturing. We design, build, sustain and improve your operations, driving performance from the plant floor to the boardroom. As part of our sustaining services offering, we bring specialized operational knowledge required to monitor and maintain control systems. We help customers on an ongoing basis with continuous improvement that drives their sustainability and competitive position.

Primary Service Areas: Industrial Automation - Our automation engineering consultants provide complete automation solutions, manufacturing field services and advanced process control consulting, from initial control platform assessment to startup and commissioning to ongoing maintenance.

System Integration - We work with customers to integrate systems across their entire enterprise to collect, analyze and share critical system data.

Strategic Manufacturing Solutions - We help customers make strategic advances, reduce costs and unlock value across their entire organization with our platform-independent DCSNext® solution for DCS migration, our PlantFloor24® 24/7/365 global operations center for remote monitoring and management services and our OpCon Advantage™ for complete operational consulting.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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PLCs/PACs Motion Control Systems Robotics

Mitsubishi Electric Automation 500 Corporate Woods Parkway, Vernon Hills IL 60061 Phone: 847/478-2100 Email: Mitsubishi-Electric@meau.com https://us.mitsubishielectric.com/fa/en Mitsubishi Electric has a clear, defined goal behind its products and services: innovate smarter. With precision and performance-based servos and VFDs, advanced controllers, HMIs, and a complete line of smart factory robots, we can provide OEMs and end users with the most advanced machines or complete lines on a single automation platform.

Our commitment to quality and performance means machines built with our controls and drives run in top operating condition for a long lifetime. With real-time diagnostics, predictive maintenance analytics, and continuous tuning, producers are able to run for extended periods without unplanned stoppage. In addition, we offer services to keep your equipment running at peak performance and to upgrade machines to bring new life to older, outdated equipment.

We empower innovators to create superior solutions by providing products that have unmatched levels of precision and ease of integration. We care about the success of your business; combine that with our know-how, products, and services, and you have the foundation for a trusted partnership that values quality, performance, and compatibility.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Motion Control Systems

mk North America, Inc. 105-125 Highland Park Drive, Bloomfield, CT 06002 USA Phone: 860/769-5500 Email: Info@mknorthamerica.com www.mkNorthAmerica.com mk North America offers a wide range of automation products from t-slot aluminum extrusions to robotic guards, and piece-handling conveyors to complete conveyor systems. mk believes in offering not only a better product, but also a better solution. At mk we engineer and design our solutions with this credo in mind, ensuring that the mk products provided meet and exceed the customer’s expectations.

Conveyor Solutions—mk offers a wide range of piece-handling industrial conveyors for nearly any application in every industry. mk’s broad product offering includes flat belt and incline belt conveyors, curve belt conveyors, flexible flat top chain conveyors, as well as roller conveyors – powered and gravity, timing belt conveyors and a wide array of chain conveyors. mk also specializes in offering modified standard and truly unique one-of-a-kind conveyor solutions.

At mk we can provide single one-off conveyor solutions as well as an entire conveyor system capable to accumulating, singulating, transferring, rotating, and elevating products or pallets.

Aluminum Extrusion Solutions—mk’s conveyors are unique in that they are built using the company’s very own line of t-slot aluminum extrusion. This ensures that all conveyor designs and builds are the most rugged, durable and long lasting in the industry. mk’s t-slot aluminum extrusions are stand-alone products ideal for guards, workstations, planning boards, storage systems and so much more. With more than 270 different cross sections mk has an aluminum extrusion for just about every industrial application.

Working with mk—When you work with mk North America you are simply working with a conveyor or aluminum supplier, you are working with a partner. mk will work with you to develop the best possible solution and provide the best possible products for your unique application.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Robotics Drives Motion Control Systems

Motion Index Drives 1204 East Maple Rd Phone: 877-519-4639 Email: info@mid.us.com www.motionindexdrives.com Motion Index Drives has been a manufacturer of cam and servo indexing devices for over 45 years. We have been continually perfecting the automation process through engineering the highest precision rotary index tables and indexing machines through your customized specifications. Our devices are free of backlash allowing for smooth, continuous and maintenance free operation, eliminating the need for shot pins to get high accuracy and repeatability.

Motion Index Drives has built the most robust and reliable rotary indexers available designed to achieve the highest accuracy. We offer a wide range of fixed and programmable indexing devices from Rotary Index Tables, Pick and Place Units, Trunnion Index Drives, Right Angle and Parallel Index Drives. Our products include fixed and programmable rotary index tables, precision link conveyors, lift and rotate units, weld positioning systems, tool tray shuttles, robot transfer units and much more.

We are dedicated to customizing and engineering equipment to meet our customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s application needs. We offer additional options such as dial plates, machine bases, slip rings, backbones, tooling frames and VFD controllers. We design every product we make with special attention to safety, quality, versatility and value to ensure longevity and worry free operation for many years to come.

Our indexers have operated in various industries due to our unmatched reliability and flawless operation. Those include automotive, aerospace, medical, packaging, and consumer goods who all benefit from our 24/7 service and customer support.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Communication Protocols/Standards Edge Computing Networking & Connectivity

Moxa Americas Inc. Moxa Corporate Plaza, 601 Valencia Ave., Suite 100, Brea, CA, 92823 USA Phone: (714) 528-6777 Email: usa@moxa.com www.moxa.com Moxa is a leader in industrial networking and communications, enabling connectivity for the automated world of today and tomorrow and enhancing cybersecurity for industrial automation systems. We achieve this by collaborating with customers and partners to transform their unique ideas into feasible network solutions for mission-critical applications.

Enabling Connectivity for Automation Networks — Communications and networking within the industrial automation world have become increasingly sophisticated and complex.

This is because greater cross-system collaboration and integration can be achieved when networks are converged into a single-system architecture that is based on open standards and technologies. With distinctive technical capabilities and values that stand out from the competition, Moxa is uniquely positioned to deliver on this transformation towards converged automation networks. The value we bring with our connectivity solutions is building reliable and secure networks that connect all the requirements for automation and improving productivity and efficiency in many industrial applications.

Enabling Connectivity in Critical Environments — Moxa develops reliable connectivity solutions that enable devices to connect, communicate, and collaborate with systems, processes, and people, realizing critical connectivity for automation harsh environments and uninhabitable terrains — establishing connectivity from the ocean floor to the highest peak, as well as from earth to outer space. It helps make people’s lives better and properties more secure by addressing the challenges of withstanding extreme temperatures, hazardous gases, and intense radiation.

With over 30 years of industry experience, Moxa has connected more than 57 million devices worldwide and has a distribution and service network to serve customers in more than 70 countries.

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Motion Control Systems Hydraulics/Pneumatics Sensors, process

MTS Sensors 3001 Sheldon Drive, Cary, NC 27513 USA Phone: 800/328.2255 Email: info.us@mtssensors.com www.mtssensors.com MTS Sensors, a division of MTS Systems Corporation (NASDAQ: MTSC), is the pioneer of Temposonics® magnetostrictive technology and a worldwide manufacturer of non-contact linear position sensors and liquid level transmitters that enable reliable feedback control for automation and safety applications.

With a versatile and ever increasing product portfolio, MTS Sensors cooperates closely with customers, to optimize performance and reduce downtimes. Outstanding quality associated with practical know-how ensures that customers achieve utmost productivity and success. Continuous research, development and production of sensor systems constantly enable new solutions for measuring tasks in the industrial, mobile hydraulics as well as process technology fields to be created.

R-Series V (pictured) is the successor to our current fourth generation. The new sensors have higher resistance to vibration and high temperatures, are ready for Industry 4.0 and fit perfectly into existing applications.

The new sensors are even more powerful in use. They offer a sampling rate of up to 4 kHz with extrapolation.

They also feature Profinet with IRT (Isochronous Real Time) and EtherNet/IP™ with CIP Sync (Common Industrial Protocol) and a typical jitter of ±2 µm.

The new Industry 4.0 features offer users great advantages, as they provide additional information about the process in addition to the pure process data (position/speed). Status and statistical data is recorded and processed during operation, and can be used to better understand the processes within the application.

In July 2016, MTS Systems Corporation (Eden Prairie, USA) purchased PCB Piezotronics Inc. (Depew, USA).

The acquisition will continue MTS’ and PCB’s long history of growth. Our customers benefit from an extended, complementary product portfolio, while relying on the unwavering competence and diligence of our support team. MTS Sensors has 1450 employees worldwide who serve our global customers with a focus on superior regional support.

Visit MTS Sensors at www.mtssensors.com and PCB Piezotronics, Inc. at www.pcb.com.

Additional information on MTS can be found at www.mts.com.

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Cables, Wiring & Connectors I/O Modules Power Supplies

Murrelektronik, Inc. 1327 Northbrook Parkway, Suwanee, GA, 30024 USA Phone: 770/497-9292 Email: 2info@murrinc.com www.murrinc.com Murrelektronik is your system partner: From the control cabinet via the interface, active or passive into the field.

We have a widely diversified product range and can supply you with well thought-out solutions that are made to fit your industrial automation applications - from a single source.

Murrelektronikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s U.S. office and warehouse are located in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. Our team is customer oriented and we strive to give our customers the very best in product, price, delivery and service. Backed up by a skilled technical support team and a distribution network across the country, we can provide detailed product and application advice from concept to completion.

Our success has been based on innovative products, a highly-developed market and customer orientation, effective logistics, teamwork and quality products. As a Murrelektronik customer, you are our main focus.

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Our â&#x20AC;&#x153;stay connectedâ&#x20AC;? claim has emerged from this philosophy. It underlines the fact that we consistently orient ourselves to market requirements with regard to products, performance, price, quality, logistics and service. We throw a great deal of innovation and flexibility into the mix to create an orientation that is supported by a cooperative management culture, flat hierarchies and short decision-making routes.

Murrelektronik is a globally operating company. With more than 3,000 employees around the world, your contact is never far away. Each Murrelektronik employee is competent, reliable and open to your suggestions and ideas.

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Maintenance/Reliability Test & Measurement Networking & Connectivity

Newark, An Avnet Company 300 S Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL, 60606 USA Phone: 800/463-9275 Email: order@newark.com www.newark.com Newark is a high-service distributor of technology products, services, and solutions for electronic system design, maintenance, and repair. We bring together the latest products, services, and development software, all connected with an innovative online engineering community where purchasers and engineers have access to peers and experts, a wide range of independent technical information, and helpful resources.

We make it easier to get the products you need, when you need them by offering fast access to the latest technology, local personal service, buying tools to simplify your work process, and engineering expertise and free technical support.

Newark has operations in the US, Canada, and Mexico, serviced from our regional distribution hub in Gaffney, SC. We are committed to supporting local language, currency, product, and shipment needs across North America and around the world. Additionally, as part of Premier Farnell and Avnet, our global reach provides greater access to stock and stronger relationships with suppliers, ultimately allowing us to better serve your needs with the latest technologies and a wider range of products.

Along with Premier Farnell, Newark has a history of innovation. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve developed many industry firsts that save precious time, like the first online community for engineers, customizable online catalogue, and the element14 TV engineering video library. This leadership can also be found in our Trust Agenda â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a unique focus on driving sustainability through our planet, our people, and our principles.

See all the Leaders in Automation at www.automationworld.com/leaders

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Drives Motors Motion Control Systems

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS 800 NORD Drive, Waunakee, WI 53597 USA Phone: 888/314-6673 Email: info.us@nord.com www.nord.com

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS designs and manufactures gear reducers, electric motors, and variable frequency drives (VFDs) engineered for adaptability. A recognized market leader, our innovative solutions are powering applications in nearly every industry worldwide.

NORD’s extensive product portfolio is continuously evolving to meet the needs of today’s fast-changing markets, but NORD does far more than manufacture the world’s finest drive components. Our modular design delivers versatility with more than 20,000,000 gear motor combinations that can be delivered quickly. This concept also gives customers complete freedom to specify a drive solution that’s perfect for their application without the need for costly custom components.

IE5+ Synchronous Motors – Designed for compatibility, IE5+ motors allow the number of variants to be reduced significantly, making systems easier to maintain and saving Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) costs. Additionally, these motors maintain their efficiency even at partial load or lower speeds, and their smooth, hygienic design makes them ideal for washdown applications.

Condition Monitoring for Predictive Maintenance – Condition monitoring is a sensor-based system that records real or near-real time status data to optimize the operational safety and efficiency of drive systems. It provides valuable information for predictive maintenance, identifying undesired operating conditions quickly to minimize wear on components, reduce service and materials costs, and anticipate maintenance needs before conditions result in costly downtime.

ECO Energy & Carbon Emissions Service – The right drive selection delivers long-term benefits to your bottom line. The NORD ECO Energy & Carbon Emission service helps you optimize your system to get the most value from your investment. This service evaluates your existing or planned drive system, analyzing installed drives with regards to energy efficiency, dimensioning, and number of variants to identify cost saving opportunities.

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Motion Control Systems Robotics Motors

NSK Automation 4200 Goss Rd., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105 USA Phone: 734/913-7110 Email: info@nsk-corp.com https://NSKAutomation.com At NSK, we enable you to pioneer new technology and increase your competitive advantage in key markets including Medical, Lab Automation, Semiconductor, Machine Tool, 3D Printing and Factory Automation.

NSK employs cutting-edge friction control technology and precision accuracy to ensure consistently reliable, smooth and precise movement and positioning in the most challenging applications. Products include: Ball Screws, Linear Guides, Monocarriers, Linear Actuators, Robot Modules, Motorized Ball Screw Actuators, and Direct Drive Megatorque Motors.

NSK offers full system solutions for motion and control of automation equipment and production assemblies, including: • S ste

design and integration

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earing ailure anal sis

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earing reconditioning

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elia ilit services

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Vision Robotics Safety, Machine

Omron Automation: Integrated, Intelligent and Interactive 2895 Greenspoint Parkway, Suite 200, Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 Phone: 800.556.6766 automation.omron.com Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketplace calls for flexible and scalable manufacturing solutions that are easy to design, maintain and optimize. More than ever, choosing the right automation partner is critical to your long-term success and competitiveness.

Omron offers integrated, intelligent and interactive solutions that can help you to achieve performance that you never thought was possible.

Our traceability solutions, such as the V275 in-line verifier and print quality label inspection system, provide valuable information for improving your processes while helping you protect your brand.

Our flexible manufacturing solutions, including the new, high payload HD-1500 mobile robot, support a modular approach to manufacturing that helps you respond quickly to market changes.

Our next-generation product portfolio, which includes patented AI anomaly detection algorithms, serves as a bridge between your current operations and the factory of the future.

Empower your operations with advanced and proven solutions that combine control, robotics, safety, vision and more from your trusted partner in automation.

About Omron Automation Omron Automation is an industrial automation partner that creates, sells and services fully integrated automation solutions that include sensing, control, safety, vision, motion, robotics and more. Established in 1933 and currently headed by President Yoshihito Yamada, Omronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 30,000 employees help businesses solve problems with creativity in more than 110 countries. Learn more at automation.omron.com.

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Edge Computing IoT Platforms PLCs/PACs

Opto 22 43044 Business Park Drive Temecula, California 92590 USA Phone: 951-695-3000 Email: info@opto22.com www.opto22.com Opto 22’s groov® family of industrial edge controllers and I/O is designed from the ground up with integrated control, connectivity, and security tools to help you connect automation, enterprise, and cloud data.

Develop real-time control programs in a language you know: ladder logic, function block diagram, flowcharts, Python, C/C++, and more.

Build dynamic operator HMI screens for embedded or external touchscreens, mobile devices, and browsers.

Collect, process, and publish operational data backed by fault-tolerant storage and store & forward capability.

Replace costly, high-maintenance Windows PCs for HMI, OPC, and data processing with Linux-based controllers.

Remotely access, monitor, and maintain your systems at isolated locations or customer sites.

Secure existing PLCs, traditional I/O, and standalone equipment, then integrate it with databases, business systems, and cloud services.

Built on decades of field-proven experience, groov products are backed by lifetime guarantees on solid-state I/O, UL Hazardous Locations approval, ATEX compliance, and a wide -20 to 70 °C operating temperature range.

Count on free pre-sales engineering help and product support as well. All Opto 22 products are developed, manufactured, and supported in the U.S.A.

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Safety, Machine PLCs/PACs Services

Pilz Automation Safety, LP 7150 Commerce Blvd., Canton, MI, 48187 USA Phone: 734/354-0272 Email: info@pilzusa.com www.pilz.us Pilz is a leading, innovative automation technology company offering integrated safety management from the simplest safety sensor to a complete machinery safety audit for your plant. As experts in the safety of human, machine and the environment, Pilz provides worldwide, customer-oriented solutions for all industries. This includes innovative products and services in the areas of safe sensor technology, control technology, drive technology, operator and visualization systems, consulting, engineering and training.

Pilz provides solutions for your automation functions that are safe, economical and reliable.

We offer first-class components, which you can use individually or combine to form a system. Pilz develops environmentally-friendly products using ecological materials and energy-saving technologies. Our offices and production facilities are ecologically designed, environmentally-aware and energy-saving.

As a solution supplier, Pilz can help you to apply optimum safety strategies. Services encompass the whole machine lifecycle, including risk assessment, safety concept, safety design, system implementation and safety validation. Our training package with practical, up-to-date course content completes the range.

CMSE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Certified Machinery Safety Expert, taught by Pilz, is the international qualification in the field of machinery safety. Successful participants receive an internationally recognized certificate issued by TUV Nord.

For more information on Pilz, please visit www.pilz.us

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HMI Hardware HMI Software Industrial PCs

Pro-Face America 1050 Highland Drive, Suite D, Ann Arbor, MI, 48108 USA Phone: 734/477-0600 Email: customercare@profaceamerica.com www.profaceamerica.com

Pro-face is a leading global HMI supplier and offers the most reliable touchscreen operator interfaces and industrial computers in the automation solutions market.

Our core product offer includes Pro-face brand HMI software and hardware, and both panel and box style Industrial PCs. Pro-face offers dedicated and PC-based, open architecture, visualization and control systems. Our high powered, but easy to use software allows for a clear and functional operator interface.

An extensive connectivity to PLCs and industrial devices make Pro-face the best choice for your control solution. Our renowned product quality, start-to-finish support, and global reach are unsurpassed. Training, customization and solution design: our experience makes the difference.

Pro-face brand products have been installed on factory floors and in field operations worldwide. Today Pro-face still sets the HMI standard with state-of-the-art technology, efficient manufacturing, unparalleled testing, and global distribution and support.

We continually upgrade our offerings to help keep your HMI applications on the cutting edge.

Visit www.profaceamerica.com for more information.

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Communication Protocols/Standards Instrumentation Maintenance/Reliability

ProComSol 13001 Athens Ave, Suite 220, Lakewood, OH, 44107 USA Phone: 216/221-1550 Email: sales@procomsol.com www.procomsol.com ProComSol, Ltd (Process Communications Solutions) was founded in 2005 dedicated to providing products for users of HART technology. We established our reputation with reliable USB HART modems certified by the FieldComm Group. The HM-USB-ISO HART Modem is the most cost-effective certified USB HART Modem available.

We are known for several technical innovations. Among them is our Bluetooth HART modem which first appeared on the market in 2005. This makes us the first to offer wireless capabilities for HART users. We were also the first to offer products based on SDC-625 technology. Our DevComDroid Smart Communicator App for Android, released in 2014, is the first product to offer full DD capabilities on the Android platform. Our DevCom.iOS App for Apple products was released in 2017 - also an industry first.

Our HART Communicator software products (DevCom2000, DevComDroid, and DevCom. iOS) have established themselves as the only real alternatives to expensive communicators.

DevCom2000 was originally released in 2006. Constant and steady improvements over the years have made DevCom2000 reliable, convenient, and feature rich.

ProComSol has always been a member of the FieldComm Group. We are committed to improving the HART protocol and offering high quality, reliable, and innovative products using this robust technology. If you do not see products or features that you need, please contact us. We promise to work hard to meet your needs.

Thank you for your interest in our products, ProComSol, Ltd.

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Power Supplies IoT Platforms

PULS Power Supplies 2640 White Oak Circle Phone: (630) 587-9780 pulspower.us

Email: info@puls-us.com

PULS, the leading manufacturer of the most efficient DIN-Rail and machine mount switched mode power supplies dedicates 100% of company resources on the design, development, production, and sales of high quality, long lasting DC power products for the industrial market. This singular focus on the needs and requirements of the DC power market has resulted in PULS becoming the market leader in this demanding industry. Our broad product offering enables users to select the right PULS product for the application requirements without the need to oversize and/or purchase unnecessary features.

Efficiency - PULS products feature the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highest energy efficiency ratings. High efficiencies produce less heat which in turn provides for longer life expectancies of all components. High efficiencies also result in the lowest energy consumption for the user and reduce thermal management requirements.

Technology Leader - Since 1980, PULS has used advanced design techniques to bring product innovations to the industrial automation market, advancing quality and reliability for OEMs and end users throughout the world. Our commitment to use only the latest components & technologies ensures we remain at the forefront of ground breaking advancements in DC power supply technology. Two PULS factories utilize highly automated manufacturing and test lines allowing PULS to maintain reliability and consistency in our manufacturing process and for each product produced.

Lowest Total Cost of Ownership - Beginning with the engineering based design for optimum efficiencies and small power densities, to the quality of components used in every unit, PULS designs lead to lower heat generation, smaller footprint, longer service lifetimes and reduced replacement and energy costs. This results in PULS having the lowest total cost of ownership for OEMs and end users.

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Safety, Machine Safety, Process Services

Schmersal USA 15 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, NY 10532 USA Phone: 914/347-4775 Email: salesusa@schmersal.com www.schmersalusa.com Machine safety is a complex topic. Companies are increasingly calling on qualified specialists for support. For Schmersal, safety is in our genes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; our company is now managed by the third generation of the Schmersal family. But thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the only reason machine safety is part of our DNA: 75 years of competence and expertise allows us to develop excellent safety solutions for individual plants, for machine builders, and operators.

Since 1945, Schmersal has been industry leader in the design and manufacture of machine safety products, industrial switches, position sensors, and control accessories for a wide variety of applications. As safety requirements have changed over the years, Schmersal products have evolved as well. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re constantly adding new innovations to our range of products, such as: Electronic safety switches utilizing RFID technology, Programmable Safety Controllers, Installation architecture options with plug-in connections, and Bluetooth interface integrated into Safety Light Curtains.

Schmersal is your one-stop shop for developing safety solutions - combining the building blocks of safety rated components with control systems and software for customized and comprehensive safety systems.

Motivated by the vision of safe working environments and leveraging our vast experience in machine safety systems, Schmersal also offers machine builders and production facilities qualified services related to machine safety in support of our considerable range of safety products and system solutions. Through seminars and training, risk assessments, technical support, consultancy, and integration program services we support safety engineers with first-hand specialist knowledge.

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Drives Motion Control Systems Motors

SEW-EURODRIVE, Inc. 1295 Old Spartanburg Hwy, Lyman, SC 29365 USA Phone: 864/439-7537 Email: cslyman@seweurodrive.com www.seweurodrive.com Drive and Automation Expertise from SEW-EURODRIVE In addition to our industry-leading line of gearmotors and other components, our dedicated team of automation engineers provides the expertise, project planning, software, commissioning, and worldwide support for your most challenging motion control projects.

Our experts will provide a solution of perfectly matched SEW components that work together seamlessly — because we designed them that way!

Our MOVI-C modular automation system is a one-software, one-hardware automation platform that combines fully integrated components, control electronics and automation software – like our MOVIKIT pre-built software modules. These simple to use modules benefit engineers of all experience levels by reducing time in automation programming.

MOVIGEAR is the mechatronic drive system that combines the gear unit, IE4 motor and electronics in one compact unit. Recent updates include fully integrated Ethernet/IP communications and digital motor integration. This advanced single-cable technology carries power, feedback information and control signals along a single hybrid cable between decentralized devices.

SEW-EURODRIVE now offers a full complement of drive maintenance and management services with our 24/7 online portal and complete overview of your drive components, the condition of your units, drive usage, and service details. Plus, our new on-site Pick-Up Box service frees up your maintenance team for other tasks. Just place your drives that need repair in the supplied box, and we’ll handle the pick-up and return of your drive units.

SEW-EURODRIVE sets the global standard for high performance and rugged reliability.

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HMI Software Industrial PCs PLCs/PACs

Siemens Industry 300 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001 USA Phone: 800/743-6367 Email: info.us@siemens.com http://www.usa.siemens.com/industry Today’s manufacturers, whether discreet or process-oriented, must find new and innovative ways to increase efficiency, flexibility and speed to market, while guaranteeing quality and safety. They need to be agile and digital — one step ahead of the curve and two steps ahead of the status quo.

And they need a future-focused automation partner that can help adapt to — and capitalize on — the furious pace of change in today’s global economy.

Sustainable, efficient and future-focused automation systems are critical to the success of their business. Determining how to leverage the latest automation technologies is a decision that can have an enormous impact on their competitive position, today and tomorrow.

The Internet of Things, Smart Manufacturing, Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence and Industrial Edge are solutions targeted at these growing challenges. At Siemens, we call it the Digital Enterprise Suite. Digitalization links together the five main phases of a product value chain: Product design • Production planning • Production engineering • Production execution • Services • Enter the Digital Enterprise Suite Siemens has developed an extensive suite of software products and can offer its customers a holistic automation solution covering all major digitalization requirements - the Digital Enterprise Suite.

For manufacturing, Siemens provides a complete portfolio of products, including manufacturing hardware, such as SIMATIC PLCs, I/O, HMIs, sensors, motion control and industrial networking devices. All these elements are tied together through the TIA Portal, enabling coordination and a common programming platform, which decreases engineering time up to 30%.

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Communication Protocols/Standards Networking & Connectivity Test & Measurement

Softing Inc. 7209 Chapman Highway, Knoxville, TN, 37920 USA Phone: 865/251-5252 Email: sales@softing.us http://industrial.softing.com/us/ Get Connected Softing provides OPC/OPC UA connectivity solutions on 9 different platforms including embedded, in-chassis, gateways, and software solutions.

Softing offers the only way to connect ControlLogix and CompactLogix PLCs to databases and cloud applications for industrial analytics at scale without writing software code, without a PC in the middle, and without protocol translation. For your PLC Ethernet networking infrastructure, checkout the Phoenix Digital PLC in-chassis modules and DIN rail mount modules. This is the only plug and play networking solution that is fiber, redundant, and in-chassis.

Softing provides connectivity solutions for Modbus, FOUNDATION Fieldbus, HART, PROBIFUS, PROFINET, Ethernet/IP, and IIoT solutions with SQL, MQTT, REST, Azure, and AWS. Stay Connected Troubleshoot, diagnose, and manage your PROFIBUS network in the field with the handheld PROFIBUS Tester 5. Monitor, troubleshoot, and configure HART, FF, and PROFIBUS smart valves and intelligent flow meters with mobiLink.

Know the health and prove the performance of your control network with the NetXpert XG cable tester and active network LAN manager. Test copper, fiber, and POE. Perform BERT, SNR, and delay skew in one test with speeds up to 10Gb/sec bit error rate test. Discover network devices and see connected devices. Check for duplicate IP addresses.

Softing is a leading global provider of products for Industrial Automation and IT Networks.

Get connected. Stay connected. Optimize your facility.

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Edge Computing HMI Hardware IoT Platforms

Stratus Technologies 5 Mill & Main Place, Suite 500; Maynard, MA 01754 USA Phone: 1-800-STRATUS Email: Angela.Poretti@stratus.com www.stratus.com Simple, Protected, and Autonomous Edge Computing for Smart Machines Stratus is the leader in zero-touch Edge Computing platforms that are simple, protected, and autonomous, enabling teams to develop smart machines and digitally transform operations to drive predictable, peak performance with minimal risk. Organizations rely on Stratus to run critical equipment at the operational edge – plant floors, distribution terminals, access control and monitoring points, stranded assets – to eliminate downtime, gain insight, and operate safely.

Stratus ztC Edge Reduces Downtime for Critical Equipment — ztC™ Edge is Stratus’s award-winning Edge platform that is secure, rugged, highly automated, and purpose-built for edge environments. ztC Edge reduces downtime for critical equipment and is built to integrate with existing infrastructure anywhere, carrying a Class 1 Division 2 UL certification for the most demanding environments. The Stratus ztC Edge platform can be quickly installed without needing specialized skills and enables teams to run multiple applications concurrently on a single platform through pre-configured virtualization.

Stratus Customers Innovate at the Edge — Stratus supports 25,000 customers worldwide, and ensures business-critical operations that treat 200 billion gallons of water, support 275,000 miles of pipeline, 200 million tons of beverage manufacturing, and rail transportation serving 45 million passengers annually. As organizations focus on operational excellence at the edge, they turn to Stratus to reliably, securely, and remotely turn data into actionable intelligence at the edge, cloud, and data center.

For more information, please visit www.stratus.com or follow on Twitter @StratusAlwaysOn and LinkedIn @StratusTechnologies

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Sensors, discrete Sensors, process Safety, Machine

Telemecanique Sensors 1875 Founders Drive, Dayton, OH, 45420 USA Phone: 800/435-2121 Email: customercare@tesensors.com www.tesensors.us For over 90 years, Telemecanique Sensors has provided quality sensing solutions through the Telemecanique Sensors and Square D brands, setting itself apart as a leader in sensor, limit switch, and safety technology.

The Telemecanique Sensors offer includes a comprehensive line of products with over 25,000 types of sensors, including limit switches, pressure switches, photoelectric, ultrasonic, inductive, and capacitive electronic sensors. In addition, we provide state of the art RFID systems that are tightly integrated with many PLC manufacturers.

Our line of limit and pressure switches include the Square D brand, a brand launched in 1902 by the Detroit Fuse and Manufacturing Company. To capitalize on the high recognition of the trademark on its switches (a capital D in a square), the company changed its name to Square D in 1917. By 1964, Square D had 10,000 employees and 22 plants. By 1991 (when it joined the Telemecanique Sensors team), it had 18,500 employees with operations in 23 countries.

In 1924, the French company Telemecanique invented the first contactor and quickly expanded its business to become a leading industrial control and automation specialist.

Telemecanique moved outside of France early in its history and, by 1988, had 14,500 employees, 32 subsidiaries outside of France, 4,100 sales outlets, and sales of 1.2 billion Euros.

The combination of these two brands gives Telemecanique Sensors a powerful and unparalleled sensor solutions offering. More importantly, the same commitment to safety, reliability, and innovation that launched and established the Telemecanique Sensors and Square D brands is still perpetuated today by those who have inherited and are building upon that rich, successful history. Telemecanique Sensors products continue to be known for high quality and superior performance, and conform to global standards such as: IEC, NEMA, CE, CCC, UL, and CSA.

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Cables, Wiring & Connectors PLCs/PACs Power Supplies

WAGO Corporation N120W19129 Freistadt Rd, Germantown, WI 53022 Phone: 262-255-6222 Email: info.us@wago.com www.wago.com/us WAGO Corporation provides North America with innovative Interconnect, Electronic Interface, and Automation solutions. Headquartered in Germantown, WI, WAGO features state-of-the art manufacturing and 75,000 square feet of storage capacity for 37,000 product locations. Extensive engineering resources, a 25,000+ product portfolio, custom manufacturing, and a global network of dedicated professionals ensure WAGO has the resources and expertise to help you get the job done. To see our capabilities in action, watch the video at www.wago.us/capabilities.

RECENT INNOVATIONS: A Modern Approach to IP67 Rated Distributed I/O: IP67 rated I/O SYSTEM FIELD provides cabinet-free automation meeting the requirements of modern decentralized production facilities. The modules support popular IIoT protocols as well as industrial fieldbuses. With configurable DIO ports and innovative load management, one SYSTEM FIELD module can do it all. Learn more: www.wago.com/us/discover-io-systems/field Highly Efficient Power Supplies: Pro 2 Power Supplies include 6 units with up to 96.3% efficiency that incorporate an interface allowing them to be tailored to any application requirement. The Pro 2 also has an easy fieldbus connection with snap-on communication modules with our exclusive TopBoost and PowerBoost capabilities, maximizing system uptime and lowering hardware costs. Learn more: www.wago.us/pro2 Lean Managed Switches Optimized for Industrial Networking: Lean managed switches are engineered for use in industrial environments that are installed and maintained by control minded automation engineers. A graphical active topology map and diagnostic dashboards provide users information to easily monitor and troubleshoot any industrial network. Watch the video: www.wago.com/us/lean-managed-switches

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DCS SCADA Security

Winsted 10901 Hampshire Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN, 55438 USA Phone: 800/447-2257 Email: info@winsted.com www.winsted.com Winsted is a worldwide leader in control room console solutions. We create attractive, ergonomic consoles that work with your operators to improve comfort and optimize efficiency. We offer stock, customized and custom consoles suitable for any control room application. Whether you are building a state-of-the-art control room from the ground up, or simply need to upgrade your operations, Winsted can provide the ideal solution. Our experts combine the disciplines of industrial design, ergonomics and interior design to create solutions that are both efficient and eye-catching. We give special consideration to the ergonomic requirements of your operators to build consoles that reduce fatigue, improve productivity and inspire. Our commitment to customer service is second-to-none and your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Since its inception in 1963, Winsted has consistently been a pioneer in product design and development. Product concepts and designs are driven by industry needs and demands, with many product ideas suggested by customers and developed with their input. Our modular system approach, developed for the early broadcast industry, has become the industry standard for all markets, and our experience developing specialized custom products enables us to offer console and furniture solutions for any application.

A dominant factor in U.S. markets for many years, Winsted expanded into overseas markets in 1975, primarily in England. In 1976 the company began concentrated efforts to establish distribution in the Far East. Winstedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international distribution was firmly established in 1984 with the formation of Winsted, Ltd. in England. Since then, Winsted, Ltd. has become a successful marketing and manufacturing operation serving the European, Middle Eastern and African markets. In 1986, distributor agreements were established in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.

Our family of companies, broad range of capabilities and an ongoing commitment to Customers, Products and Service is why Winsted is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Preferred by Professionals Worldwide.â&#x20AC;?

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Services Robotics Enclosures

Xometry 7951 Cessna Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20855 USA Phone: 240/252-1138 Email: Support@xometry.com https://www.xometry.com At Xometry, we created a proprietary software platform to enable product designers and engineers to instantly access the capacity of a network of manufacturing facilities. Our platform makes it possible for customers to receive instant pricing, expected lead times and manufacturability feedback in seconds. At the push of a button, the network is able to deliver high-quality parts at consistently fast lead times while offering very low prices.

We make it easy for all customers — from startups to Fortune 100 companies — to access manufacturing on demand by providing the most efficient way to source high-quality custom parts. We’re dedicated to providing an innovative way for customers to easily work with a broad network of manufacturing facilities.

Xometry launched in 2014 and has grown rapidly, driven by the ease of our instant quoting platform, our manufacturing expertise, and our relentless devotion to helping customers with their project engineering needs. In 2018, Xometry acquired MakeTime, another leader in the manufacturing-on-demand space to create the single largest manufacturing partner network in the industry. In 2019, Xometry acquired Shift, Europe’s largest CNC manufacturing network. Our partner network now spans the globe to support the needs of customers and to help drive the business of local machine shops and manufacturing facilities. Partners do not pay to sign up for our network. Our algorithm sends jobs to a list of carefully vetted facilities with matched capabilities. Xometry’s Project Engineering team is always responsible for making sure the parts are done correctly and on time.

Our capabilities include CNC Machining, Sheet Metal Fabrication, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), HP Multi Jet Fusion, PolyJet 3D, Die Casting, Binder Jetting, Urethane Casting, Finishing Services, and Injection Molding. We produce a wide range of quantities, from single-use prototypes to hundreds of thousands of molded parts. Some of our top customers included NASA, BMW, GE, Bosch, and Dell Technologies. We are ITAR registered and AS9100 and ISO 9001:2015 certified and all our work is covered by the Xometry Quality Guarantee.

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Drives Motion Control Systems Robotics

Yaskawa America, Inc. 2121 Norman Drive South, Waukegan, IL 60085 U.S.A Phone: 1-800-YASKAWA Email: marcom@yaskawa.com https://www.yaskawa.com At Yaskawa, we help you explore what’s possible, and open new doors to opportunity.

Rather than accepting the status quo, we invite you to wonder, “What if …?” And then we make it possible. That dedication to engineering and innovation is what makes us different.

Experience is often the difference between solving a problem the right way and settling for “good enough.” Our global expertise is unmatched and unquestioned, with 100+ Years of manufacturing excellence, 30 countries with sales, service, and manufacturing locations, and $4.0 billion in global sales per year.

We provide both standard products and tailor-made solutions, all backed by proven quality and reliability. We continuously work to save you money, time, and energy, because we believe your machine can always run faster, smoother and more productively. It’s about making the correct diagnoses, creating the right automation machinery, and implementing it in the best way possible.

Yaskawa low and medium voltage AC Variable Frequency Drives cover every automation application need in the industrial plant, with power ranges from fractional HP to 16,000 HP and a legendary reputation for reliability and advanced technology.

Our Sigma-7 AC Servo Systems come to a precise position with a speed and consistency that is unmatched in the industry. Connect our rotary, linear, and direct drive motors to an advanced Yaskawa machine controller to achieve SINGULAR CONTROL: the ability to manage robots, servos and drives with a single controller and familiar IEC 61131-3 programming.

Over 400,000 Yaskawa Robots are at work worldwide, with 150+ models to choose from and the strength of decades of application expertise. Our robotic portfolio ranges from 4 to 15-axis industrial robots with load capacities of 2 to 800 kg to special machines, devices, and turnkey robotic systems.

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112 NEW PRODUCTS AW JANUARY 2021

Modular Electrohydrostatic Actuation System

Moog Industrial Group, mooginfo.com The Modular Electrohydrostatic Actuation System (EAS) features standardized modules with a number of customization options. The system’s smallest scope consists of a basic manifold and an electrohydrostatic pump unit, which Moog delivers as an assembled and tested unit.

To expand the system, the basic module can be combined with various options or adapted with additional standardized high-speed manifolds to build a complete motion control system.

With the Modular EAS System, the localized power allows for improved energy efficiency due to the elimination of the flow control valving and centralized piping, which reduces the amount of wasted energy commonly found on traditional hydraulic systems. The Modular EAS features: 90% lower oil requirement compared to standard systems and low noise emission for quiet machine operation; a decentralized system that eliminates the need for a large hydraulic power unit and reduces piping; four-quadrant operation technology; and low mass inertia.

3D Metal Printer

Velo3D, velo3d.com The new Sapphire XC is an extra capacity large-format printer that is said to increase production throughput by 5x and reduce cost-per-part by up to 75% compared to Velo3D’s existing Sapphire system. Features of the new Sapphire XC include: a larger build volume of 600mm x 550mm (compared to 315mm x 400mm in Sapphire); higher productivity with the aid of 8 lasers x 1,000W each (compared to 2 lasers x 1,000W in Sapphire); integration with Flow pre-print software and Assure quality control software; and compatibility with alloys such as Aluminum F357, Titanium 6AI-4V, Inconel 718, and Hastelloy X. Velo3D also announced plans to release Sapphire Gen 2, a software and hardware upgrade to the current Sapphire system. This upgrade will be available to retrofit on all installed systems in Q2 2021.

Edge Computing and AI Platform

Lanner, lannerinc.com The configure-to-order LEC-2290 edge computing artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are engineered for compute-intensive, AI-powered video analytics at the network edge. Powered by the 8th Gen Core processor, PoE connectivity, and GPU expansion, LEC-2290 can run a variety of computer vision algorithms to improve AI-based video applications, such as machine vision, predictive maintenance for object flow and motor defect detection, and facial recognition for machine operator monitoring and access control. Features include an Intel Core i7-8700T/i7-8700 (CFL) and UHD graphics 630; 4x PoE ports to support multi-video streams; 2x RJ45 GbE LAN, 4x USB3.0, 6x COM Ports, 8x DI/DO; and expansion with PCI-E for add-on GPU accelerator.

Plug-and-Play Servo Motion Control Package

Trio Motion Technology, triomotion.uk The new DX4 servo drive and MX servo motor series makes it faster and easier for OEMs to utilize the high-performance motion control available from Trio’s range of motion coordinators. The DX4 servo drive has plug-and-play compatibility with Trio’s controllers and slice I/O systems, all programmed within Motion Perfect 5, a single software application. This increases the speed of application development and commissioning for OEMs in industries including packaging, medical, metal, CNC, robotics, and electronics. The DX4 servo drive operates at 200V AC and power extends from 50W to 3kW. The motion coordinator uses high-speed EtherCAT communications, and its range can control up to 128 axes with precision accuracy.

2101_Products.indd 112

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NEW PRODUCTS 113 AW JANUARY 2021

TEAMWORK IS OUR SECRET WEAPON Aerotech’s mechanical, electrical and software engineers collaborate to give you the perfect motion control solution – whether that is a standard or custom product, subsystem or completely integrated system.

Edge-Enabled I/O Module

Learn more at automationworld.com/leaders and cast your Leadership in Automation vote.

Opto22, opto22.com Following the initial launch of groov RIO in early 2020, Opto 22 has further expanded the remote I/O, connectivity, and security features of its edge I/O module with the release of its version 3.0 firmware. This version introduces stand-alone proportionalintegral-derivative (PID) control, thermistor support, and centralized user management via lightweight directory access protocol. PID control is one of the most widely used control methods, applicable to a multitude of process variables, including temperature, pressure, feed/flow rate, position, speed, weight, and concentration. Opto 22’s groov RIO aims to support distributed automation by simplifying the process of specifying, configuring, installing, and communicating remote I/O signals.

Custom-Constructed DC Motors

Menzel Elektromotoren, menzel-motors.com Menzel Elektromotoren specializes in building replicas of old motors ranging from electrically and mechanically suitable replacements to exact copies. Its new motor was designed as a reserve for two site applications, a roller motor and a coiler drive. This flexible configuration saves the customer money and storage space, while protecting the rolling mill against downtime in the event of either existing motor suffering damage.

Menzel manufactured a special construction with two shaft ends, foot dimensions matching both installation sites, as well as provision for a special encoder including an insulated coupling. The positions of the terminal box and the air inlet opening were adapted to the existing connections on site. The DC motor, featuring 450 kW rated power and 530 V rated voltage, is also characterized by a high field-weakening range.

aerotech.com • 412-963-7470

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114 NEW PRODUCTS AW JANUARY 2021

Programmable Embedded Vision System

Vision Components, vision-components.com Vision Components based its new VC DragonCam on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor.

The company uses the computing power and price efficiency of a quad-core processor. The VC DragonCam board camera integrates an image sensor, various customary interfaces, and the processor, which runs a Debian-based operating system, on a small 65 x 40 mm footprint. This makes the programmable embedded vision system suitable for OEM designs. VC DragonCam features twelve GPIOs, 1 GB memory, and up to 32 GB flash memory, with standard interfaces such as GBit Ethernet and RS-232 integrated onboard. Two adapter boards with additional interfaces provided as conventional sockets enable connection of peripherals for fast prototyping.

Enterprise-Wide Metering Software

Honeywell, honeywellprocess.com Measurement IQ (MIQ) Optimize enterprise software is designed for monitoring meters, gas chromatographs and other measurement assets. It collects and analyzes diagnostic information from devices across different sites for a real-time overview of metering health. MIQ Optimize can provide an early warning of measurement concerns, so that operators can prioritize and address meter issues having the most impact on their business. The software enables users to detect increasing measurement uncertainty quicker, helping avoid failures and downtime, reducing engineer site visits and extending calibration periods. The software also includes recommended actions to ease troubleshooting and maintenanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;identifying the most likely causes of meter issues and suggesting remedies. MIQ Optimize supports Honeywell meters and gas chromatographs as well as devices from other major manufacturers.

PROComSol Process Communications Solutions

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Electromate, electromate.com The VLX-60 is a new member of the VLX series of electric encoders, a product line based on Netzer Precision Motion Sensor proprietary technology. This series of electric encoders is characterized by features such as: low profile (<10mm); hollow shaft (stator/rotor); no bearings or other contact elements; high resolution and precision; holistic signal detection; digital interfaces for absolute position; low profile and weight; automatic calibration option; hollow floating shaft; and high tolerance to temperature extremes, shock, moisture, EMI, RFI, and magnetic fields.

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NEW PRODUCTS 115 AW JANUARY 2021

Integrated Servo Drive for Distributed Installation

Beckhoff, beckhoff.com The new AMI812x series of integrated servo drives expands the Beckhoff compact drive technology portfolio (up to 48 V DC) with devices for distributed installation in the field. The integration of servomotor, output stage and fieldbus connection in a spacesaving design makes the drives suitable for automation outside of control cabinets in the motion power range up to 400 W. As an EtherCAT device, the AMI812x integrated servo drive can be placed directly on the machine without a control cabinet and without upstream I/O, enabling the implementation of highly compact machines without control cabinets. The AMI812x series includes three overall lengths in the F2 flange code with standstill torques from 0.5 to 1.1 Nm. The AMI812x is optionally available with a multiturn absolute encoder without battery backup and with a backlash-free holding brake.

High-Power Ethernet Switches

Antaira Technologies, antaira.com Antaira Technologies is proud to announce the expansion of its industrial 802.3bt PoE Ethernet family with the introduction of the LMP-0702G-SFP-bt(-T)-V2 and LMP-0702G-SFP-bt-24(T)-V2 series. These seven-port managed Ethernet switches are designed to address the need for high-power 802.3bt PoE++ connectivity solutions for industrial applications.

The rugged LMP-0702G-SFPbt(-T)-V2 Ethernet switch is designed for applications that require up to 90 Watts of PoE power. When applied in automation, the LMP-0702GSFP-bt-24(-T)-V2 provides the same high power PoE++ with a wider range of input voltage to power the switch. Both the LMP-0702G-SFP-bt-V2 and LMP-0702G-SFP-bt-24-V2 series are light layer 3 industrial managed Ethernet switches, with 48 to 55V DC high voltage power input (LMP-0702G-SFP-bt-V2) and a 12 to 55V DC wide voltage power input (LMP-0702G-SFP-bt-24-V2).

Your Problems, Our Solutions With 164 different modules that connect to create a Cube67+ system, Murrelektronik can turn your problems into solutions. Cube67+ allows for absolute flexibility in system design while our One Cable Technology for bus & power saves time & money during installation.

Digital Input

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IO-Link Master

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murrinc.com

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1/14/21 2:46 PM

116 FINANCE VIEW AW JANUARY 2021

W at inancial Metrics Drive Manufacturing ompany alue Larry White

CMA, CFM, CPA, CGFM lwhite@rcaininstitute.org

Executive Director, Resource Consumption Accounting Institute (www.rcainstitute.org)

M

anufacturing company value is complex because there are many stakeholders —owners/investors, employees, customers, communities, society, government, and the environment. However, the initial hurdle is nearly always profitability and an economic return for owners and investors measured by stock price growth. Stock price growth has two primary elements: the company’s profit growth potential and overall economic conditions. Naturally, management focus is on profit growth since the economy is uncontrollable. What metrics should manufacturer’s use to help drive their stock price?

The obvious answer is financial accounting and financial statements created with financial reporting standards. However, financial reporting standards result in “general” financial statements for investors and creditors who cannot demand more specific information. Even though the media publicizes quarterly earnings as a stock price driver, it is widely known that financial statement information on its own is only marginally usable in its original form for predicting long-term capital market value. Sophisticated financial analysts and investors use this information as a starting and confirmation point for much more in-depth analytics. Accounting standards treat many investments that contribute to long-term value as period expenses, such as research and development and brand advertising, and ignore most intangible assets.

Today, balance sheet net assets represent only about 15% of the capital market value.

Many companies adjust for the shortcomings of regulated financial statements using tools such as Earned Value Added (EVA), Economic Profit (EP), Return on Total Capi-

2101_FinanceView.indd 116

tal (ROTC), and similar analytics that have better track records for predicting stock price growth. They adjust R&D, advertising expenses, capital investments, and other non-capitalized investments to treat them as value creating investments over an appropriate time. These analytics reconfigure financial statement categories, incorporate a capital charge, and provide estimates of the impact on the future market value of the company. In short, they modify traditional financial statements to better reflect economic reality and value creation capability.

Companies that sell major capital improvements such as digital manufacturing equipment, systems, and software often use these analytics to show the return to companies of making these investments.

Another critical challenge is to create information and metrics throughout the company that ensure all managers and employees are looking for solutions and improvements and making decisions that will drive long-term financial performance. Techniques such as EVA, EP, and ROTC are usually applied at the entity level and do not readily translate deeper in the organization. For example, EVA may show that a company’s R&D spending is lagging compared to a group of similar companies and that investing more in R&D would likely create a positive stock return, but EVA cannot identify the resources and work activities included in a company’s R&D or the causal impact on process, products, and customers R&D supports. The solution is to use an advanced managerial costing approach that creates operational and cost information that improves internal decision support, shows causal relationships clearly, and better reflects the economic reality of decisions.

Advanced managerial costing models include approaches like Resource Consumption Accounting (RCA), “pull” oriented Activity Based Costing (ABC), and other approaches that comprehensively apply the principles of the Institute of Management Accounting’s Conceptual Framework for Managerial Costing. These approaches provide clear, decision-oriented insight into processes, resource quantities, and monetary metrics. They operate free from finan-

cial statement standards to create information that reflects the causal relationships of resources and processes on products/services and customers. Information from these models looks like the resources and process in your company. For example, RCA clearly shows capacity information, the fixed and proportional amounts of resources used, and the monetary implications providing clear visibility of incremental and marginal cost.

Not limited by accounting rules, RCA models can include any resource’s cost with a causal relationship to product/service or customer cost. Items such as sales commissions, collection cost for receivables, R&D expense, or amortization can be included in product cost or customer cost if they have a strong causal relationship. Additionally, RCA eliminates weak or non-causal allocations of overhead, assigning resources and costs based on strong causal relationships.

Companies need a more economically relevant view of their performance than routine financial statement-oriented accounting systems can provide. This is important for executive management and boards of directors, but also throughout the entire organization to ensure they make all decisions with longterm value creation in mind, not distorting, short-term financial statement metrics.

Another critical challenge is to create information and metrics throughout the company that ensure all employees are loo ing for solutions and improvements ma ing decisions that will drive long term financial performance.

1/14/21 2:24 PM

IT VIEW 117

AW JANUARY 2021

A Refined Smart Manufacturing Definition for 2021 Conrad Leiva Chairman of the Smart Manufacturing Working Group, MESA International

O

ver the past few years, the concept of smart manufacturing has been evolving among early adopters, expert practitioners, and industry strategists.

Organizations where leaders collaborate on this work—including The U.S. Smart Manufacturing Institute (CESMII), The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and MESA International—have been providing guidelines and documenting the progress of manufacturers.

They have all agreed on key ingredients for smart manufacturing including real-time integration and information-driven collaboration for a highly efficient digital manufacturing ecosystem. However, we are at a point in the smart manufacturing journey where it’s time to converge on a concrete set of guiding principles to help accelerate the next phase— democratization of smart manufacturing.

According to a 2016 report by NIST, “Smart manufacturing systems are ‘fully-integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs.’”

Rik Geerts, member of several MESA International working groups and the International Board of Directors, wrote, “Smart manufacturing is the intelligent, real-time orchestration and optimization of business, physical and digital processes within factories and across the entire value chain.”

Democratization of technology happens when it becomes available for mass adoption because it’s practical to implement for the average manufacturer. Many of the technologies required for smart manufacturing are now affordable, yet the cost of implementation and integration continues to be a barrier to wide adoption. The next step is to remove the

2101_ITView.indd 117

barriers for adoption in an ecosystem that includes many small- and medium-sized manufacturers.

It’s necessary to provide wide access to the knowledge required to implement the strategies and leverage the solutions. Smart manufacturing researchers, architects, and practitioners in the CESMII community have been focused on developing, implementing, and refining the methodologies. CESMII is releasing an updated definition of smart manufacturing, which is very similar to MESA International’s definition, and is providing additional guidance to help industry and educators accelerate adoption. Their 2020 release states, “Smart manufacturing is the information-driven, event-driven, efficient, and collaborative orchestration of business, physical and digital processes within plants, factories, and across the entire value chain.”

Resources and processes are integrated, monitored, and continuously evaluated with the sensing, information, process modeling, predictive analytics, and workflows needed to automate routine actions and prescribe actions for non-routine situations.

In smart manufacturing, organizations, people, and technology work in synergy via business and manufacturing processes and technology-based solutions that strive to be: • secure, • scalable, • flat and real-time, • open and interoperable, • proactive and semi-autonomous, • orchestrated and resilient, and • sustainable and energy efficient.

When all these design imperatives are considered in smart manufacturing initiatives, the organization realizes not only traditional performance improvement benefits like higher levels of productivity, asset reliability, and product quality—they also realize more strategic benefits like transparency, speed, collaboration, agility, innovation, and resiliency.

Transparency, speed, and collaboration are all linked in smart manufacturing. Information flow must be designed so that raw data can be contextualized into information and analyzed for insights which are provided back to multiple systems in the manufactur-

ing ecosystem. Insights drive event-driven autonomous actions for routine situations and enhanced human decisions for non-routine situations with higher levels of transparency and speed.

Higher levels of connectivity and information enable an organization to: enhance operating models, provide more personalized product and service offerings, and innovate partner ecosystems to drive higher revenue and customer value.

Smart manufacturing solutions use modular systems and are integrated with open interoperable APIs that can easily reconfigure to scale production up or down, introduce new products, and create one-off production runs or high-mix manufacturing opportunities. This agility makes the organization adaptable to changes in demand and more resilient to market disruptions.

We encourage everyone to learn more and get involved with these organizations. MESA International is creating guidance on how to apply smart manufacturing standards as well as justify and architect solutions. CESMII is using their unique ecosystem to accelerate the democratization of smart manufacturing, to provide a platform for development and testing and drive implementation by manufacturers through co-funded innovation projects.

We are at a point in the smart manufacturing journey where it’s time to converge on a concrete set of guiding principles to help accelerate the next phase—democratization of smart manufacturing.

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118 ENTERPRISE VIEW AW JANUARY 2021

Get Connected to Protect Frontline Workforce and Increase Operational Agility Diane Sacra Director of Marketing, LNS Research

With COVID-19 only adding to the stress on manufacturers, organizations struggle to respond to rapidly changing information, confusion, and concern.

2101_EnterpriseView.indd 118

P

rior to the most uttered topic this year—COVID-19—things were already challenging enough for industrial organizations. For manufacturers, their “normal” included complexity, change, and uncertainty, creating an evolving risk environment to be dealt with daily. In response, companies embraced industrial transformation.

“Industrial transformation or what we call IX is the digital transformation of industrial operations. Companies utilize IX as a strategic framework to drive step-change improvement and competitive advantage,” said Peter Bussey, research analyst at LNS Research. LNS Research is a Boston-based firm focused on industrial transformation research and analysis.

As part of industrial transformation initiatives, manufacturers have been increasingly building into their strategy the use of a connected workforce; using technology to improve productivity, increase communication, share real-time knowledge, address issues faster, and improve their bottom-line performance. Now, with the addition of a global pandemic, a digitally connected workforce is more important than ever before.

“Frontline workforce issues are among the top strategic priorities in industrial operations, specifically addressing a severe talent and skills shortage, and improvement of safety and EHS performance,” Bussey said. “The pandemic has preferentially accelerated these initiatives.”

In LNS Research’s recent report that focuses on enabling operational agility with a digitally connected workforce, Bussey points out that workplace safety is a prerequisite to smooth-running, profitable operations. This priority seems especially punctuated this year with a global health crisis and much strategizing on how to keep workers safe while keeping organizations open and working.

According to Bussey’s research, though safety is certainly an organizational concern, when it comes to safety and risk management on the frontlines, there’s a gap

between strategy and actual execution. LNS Research shows that capabilities for safety and risk programs and processes are most often deficient. In a survey of 300 industrial organizational leaders/personnel conducted

by LNS, 63% of respondents reported that they don’t have capabilities in place to effectively manage risk and safety.

With COVID-19 only adding to this stress on manufacturers, organizations struggled to respond to rapidly changing information, confusion, and concern. At the start of the pandemic, industrial organizations responded most commonly with the updating and addition of more personal protective equipment (PPE). However, as the crisis unfolded, greater emphasis has been placed on more permanent engineering and operational controls, such as re-configuring production process flows to improve physical distancing of personnel.

“Certainly, we’ve seen increased focus on digital technologies that include tools for remote expert access, better use of alreadyavailable collaboration tools, rapid development of new apps, vision systems, cobots, automated guided vehicles, and specialized connected worker tech, such as smart wearables to maintain distancing,” Bussey said.

Connected worker initiatives were already being explored and implemented by manufacturers as part of their industrial transformation. With the “new normal” created by a worldwide pandemic, Bussey believes this trend will only continue at an accelerated rate. Bussey recommends, “Connected worker initiatives should be a key pillar of operational strategy, directly contributing to the development of a safe, engaged, informed workforce, with the collaboration and agility needed to meet fast-changing requirements and new risks.”

1/14/21 2:25 PM

ADVERTISER INDEX 119 AW JANUARY 2021

COMPANY

TELEPHONE

WEBSITE

PAGE

Aerotech, Inc.

412.963.7470

www.aerotech.com

AutomationDirect

800.633.0405

www.CLICKPLCs.com

Cov-2

AVEVA

+44(0)1223-556655

www.aveva.com/UOC

8

Beckhoff Automation

952.890.0000

www.beckhoff.us/Industrie40

1

CIMON

800.300.9916

www.CIMON.com

Digi-Key Electronics

800.344.4539

www.digikey.com/automation

2

Dorner

800.397.8664

www.dornerconveyors.com/aw

21

Endress+Hauser

8800.ENDRESS

www.us.endress.com

52

352.373.3578

www.fabco-air.com

41

Festo Corporation

800.99-FESTO

www.Festo.us/stars

14

Hammond Manufacturing

716.630.7030

www.hammondmfg.com

37

HMS Networks

312.829.0601

www.HMS-networks.com

25

L&T Technology Services

226.752.5656

www.LTTS.com/Industry4_Now

11

Lenze

800.217.9100

www.Lenze.com

29

888.917.9109

www.mavtechglobal.com

mk North America, Inc.

860.769.5500

www.mkversafl ex.com/pmmi

27

Motion Index Drives

877.978.1830

www.mid.us.com

51

Moxa Americas Inc.

714.528.6777

www.moxa.com/us/cybersecurity

13

Murrelektronik, Inc.

770.497.9292

www.murrinc.com

NSK Automation

734.913.7110

www.nskautomation.com

Opto 22

951.695.3000

www.Opto22.com

ProComSol

216.221.1550

www.ProComSol.com

PACK EXPO CONNECTS

312.222.1010

www.packexpoconnects.com

26

312.222.1010

www.automationworld.com

57

Schmersal USA

888.496.5143

www.schmersalusa.com

5

Siemens Industry

800.743.6367

www.usa.siemens.com/tia-portal

7

Telemecanique Sensors

800.435.2121

www.tesensors.com

19

WAGO Corporation

262.255.6222

www.wago.us/iosystem

43

Winsted

800.447.2257

www.winsted.com/WELS

47

Yaskawa America, Inc.

800-YASKAWA

www.Yaskawa.com

48

113

17

Fabco-Air, Inc., A member of Festo Group

Maverick Technologies, LLC, A Rockwell Automation Company

Cov-4

115 22 Cov-3 114

Automation World Editor Dave Greenfield

Automation World ® (ISSN # 15531244, USPS 22435) is a registered trademark of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.

Automation World ® is published 14x a year by PMMI with its publishing office, PMMI Media Group, located at 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611; 312.222.1010; Fax: 312.222.1310. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. Copyright 2021 by PMMI. All rights reserved. Materials in this publication must not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Applications for a free subscription may be made online at www.packworld.com/subscribe. Paid subscription rates per year are $105 in the U.S., $147 Canada and Mexico by surface mail; $250 Europe, South America. $325 Far East and Australia by air mail. To subscribe or manage your subscription to Automation World, visit AutomationWorld.com/subscribe.

Free digital edition available to qualified individuals outside the United States. POSTMASTER; Send address changes to Automation World®, 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611. PRINTED IN USA by Quad Graphics. The opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of PMMI. Comments, questions and letters to the editor are welcome and can be sent to: editors@automationworld.com. We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable firms. If you would prefer that we don’t include your name, please write us at the Chicago, IL address. Volume 19, Number 1.

January2021_AW_AdIndex.indd 119

1/22/21 9:34 AM

120 KEY INSIGHTS AW JANUARY 2021

While the data necessary to construct a digital twin can be stored locally, it is far more common for centralized cloud storage to be used to grant stakeholders across an organization a single source of truth comprised of the best quality data available.

David Miller on Shell’s management of global company data. awgo.to/VjKRF

While it may have taken a global pandemic to push organizations to find new ways to work virtually, the folks living in this new normal say the real revelation is not how technology can create a connected factory, but how people use the technology and how it can standardize processes.

Stephanie Neil on the how the connected factory idea is changing. awgo.to/oZIfW

Robotic pick-and-place systems have been gaining acceptance in pharmaceutical and medical device packaging because these robots enable a more compact, efficient line design as well as a higher level of cleanliness, high reliability, durability, and accuracy.

Aaron Hand on the integration of robotics in end-of-line packaging. awgo.to/UJSxc

Emerson is combining these technologies into one edge computing platform because the reality of sending large amounts of machine data to the cloud is neither practical nor affordable…especially when you consider that one piece of equipment can generate more data in one day than Twitter does in a full year.

David Greenfield on Emerson Automation Solutions’ forthcoming PACEdge IIoT controller. awgo.to/TsFge

Industrial companies will need to retool their approach to growth.

This means shifting from B2B to B2C, using direct-to-customer and digital-go-to-market models. According to Accenture research, by 2025 online sales alone are expected to reach 20% to 25%, an increase from 10% today, with up to 50% of sales being online induced.

Brian R. May of Accenture on the value of cloud computing for OEMs. awgo.to/imZAT

2101_KeyInsights.indd 120

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