Automation World November 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 / www.AutomationWorld.com

34 TECHNOLOGY START-UP LAUNCHES TO WATCH Section

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3 Robotics Industry Predictions Mobile Robots Make an Impact on Omnichannel Fufillment Turbine Retrofit Reduces Startup Time, Increases Revenues Spitz Digitalizes Production with MES

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NOVEMBER 2021 | VOLUME 19 | NUMBER 11

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New Technology Start-Ups to Watch

The complexities of industrial automation are leading innovators to develop an array of new technologies aimed at improving production and supply chain issues. This article highlights eight companies helping manufacturers chart a path toward industry’s future.

Turbine Retrofit Reduces Hot Startup Time, Increases Revenues Replacing legacy steam turbine controls with Emerson’s Ovation distributed control system technology enabled a Middle River Power plant to better adapt to fluctuations in renewable energy generation.

Spitz Digitalizes Its Production with Manufacturing Execution System To future-proof its operations, which produce more than 1 million products a day, Spitz turned to Siemens Simatic IT Production Suite to increase process stability and product quality while connecting its business and process control systems.

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4 CONTENTS AW NOVEMBER 2021

EDITORIAL

ONLINE 6

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

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS 10 3 Robotics Industry Predictions

BATCH OF IDEAS 12

Mobile Robots Make an Impact on Omnichannel Fulfillment

PRODUCTION POINTS 14

Overcoming the Cultural Barriers to Digital Transformation

PERSPECTIVES 16

David Greenfield Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief dgreenfield@automationworld.com / 678 662 3322 Stephanie Neil Senior Editor sneil@automationworld.com / 781 378 1652 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@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1470 Kim Overstreet Senior Content Strategist, Alignment koverstreet@pmmimediagroup.com James R. Koelsch, Lauren Paul, Jeanne Schweder and Beth Stackpole Contributing Writers

ART & PRODUCTION

Is a Retrofit the Right Option?

3 Common Attack Vectors for Industrial Control Systems

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

NEWS 20

Georgia-Pacific Leverages its Digital Transformation to Bridge the Skills Gap PMMI News Registration Opens for PACK EXPO East 2022

ADVERTISING

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 Kelly Greeby Senior Director, Client Success & Media Operations Alicia Pettigrew Director, Product Strategy

INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGS 23

Connecting the Factories of Tomorrow, Today Building Secure Wastewater Management in the Cloud A Uniform Interface for Robots The Value of Power Control Rooms How Ultra Long-Life Lithium Batteries Expand the Use of WirelessHART

AUDIENCE & DIGITAL

NEW PRODUCTS 42

David Newcorn Executive Vice President Elizabeth Kachoris Senior Director, Digital & Data Jen Krepelka Director, Websites + UX/UI

Compact Industrial PC Soft Starter for Motors Motor Protection Circuit Breakers

PMMI MEDIA GROUP

Kurt Belisle Publisher kbelisle@pmmimediagroup.com / 815 549 1034 Jake Brock Brand Operations Manager jbrock@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1320 Sharon Taylor Director of Marketing staylor@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1710 Amber Miller Marketing Manager amiller@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1130 Janet Fabiano Financial Services Manager jfabiano@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1330

IT VIEW 44

A Tale of Three Clients and Their Journeys to MES By Tim Gellner

KEY INSIGHTS 46

All Automation World editorial is copyrighted by PMMI Media Group, Inc. including printed or electronic reproduction.

Magazine and Web site editorial may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

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 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

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6 ONLINE

AW NOVEMBER 2021

PODCAST SERIES What is MTTR and MTBF?

In this episode, we explore Meantime to Repair (MTTR) and Meantime Before/ Between Failure (MTBF) to better understand how these metrics are applied and calculated and how they can benefit manufacturers.

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AUTOMATION WORLD TV Robot Highlights from PACK EXPO 2021

In this Take Five video, we turn the spotlight on new robotic technologies from Festo, Honeywell, Universal Robots, and Robotiq showcased at PACK EXPO 2021.

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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.

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AUTOMATION WORLD E-BOOK

6 Key Robotics Trends in Packaging and Operations

The past few years have allowed for great leaps in robotics technology including improved sensors, easier programming, integrated unified controls, widening selection of end-of-arm tooling, and rapid enhancement in the power of artificial intelligence. Download the E-Book to learn more.

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SYSTEM INTEGRATOR BLOGS • A Step-by-Step Guide to Predictive Maintenance • Safeguarding Your Critical Systems • Modern Dashboard Benefits for Manufacturing Plants • Tips for Supply Chain Solutions in Uncertain Times • IoT Applied to Marketing

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10 EDITORIAL

AW NOVEMBER 2021

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS

3 Robotics Industry Predictions

By David Greenfield

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

I

n the manufacturing industries, TÜV Rheinland is recognized for its work promoting quality and safety standards, practices, and products. Founded in 1872, the testing, inspection, and certification services company addresses multiple business sectors, with its industrial services and cybersecurity unit representing more than 25% of the company’s revenues.

Considering its focus on so many different aspects of human life, technology, and the environment, TÜV Rheinland brings a unique perspective to the automation market—a viewpoint that can be helpful amid the changes still being wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The challenges of the pandemic only emphasized how necessary robotics technology is in addressing the needs of our world,” says Ryan Braman, U.S. director of commercial products at TÜV Rheinland and recognized robotics safety expert. “More than ever, consumers are stressing desires for immediacy and convenience. Manufacturers and retailers know that investment in tech will be key in keeping up with these demands.”

Given all the changes to business and personal life since early 2020, TÜV Rheinland recently released its top 3 predictions for the robotics industry. Those predictions are: Prediction 1: More automation in the supply chain. Shortages of numerous items early in the pandemic, most notably toilet paper and hand sanitizer, made it clear to most everyone that many supply chains could not handle a quick, significant increase in

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demand. This problem was only made worse by an ensuing labor shortage. That’s why TÜV Rheinland predicts that manufacturers will increasingly invest in traditional and collaborative robotics technologies. “While many production lines are already fairly automated, companies will still strive to improve efficiency in all stages of the production line—from handling raw materials at the start to warehousing at the end.”

TÜV Rheinland’s take on this is echoed in a recent report from Bloomberg on capex increases (awgo.to/1278), which stated: “Global companies from noodle makers to semiconductor giants are spending on new plants and machinery in ways they haven’t done for years.”

Prediction 2: Robots for order and delivery fulfillment. Consumer preferences for delivery services and convenient onsite pickup are driving retailers to invest in warehousing and order fulfillment automation technology. According to TÜV Rheinland, this means “there will be increasing demand for fleets of mobile robots and large-scale robotic order fulfillment machines. Mobile robots will soon become visible on retail floors, and even possibly driving down the sidewalk to deliver the item you ordered only hours before.”

Prediction 3: Sensing and communications technology. This last prediction from TÜV Rheinland won’t be surprising to automation industry professionals, considering the necessity of advanced sensing and communications technology to any automated technology. More specifically, TÜV Rheinland expects that manufacturers of Lidar, camera, radar, and other sensing equipment will see increased investment and implementation in the wake of expanded automation capex across industry. “These technologies will improve robot capability and efficiency,” said TÜV Rheinland. “Combined with the rollout of 5G and advanced fleet management systems, the boom in communications technology will enable significantly improved data transfer rates, connectability, and oversight.”

In addition to its top predictions for the robotics industry, TÜV Rheinland also pointed out that major robotics industry standards— such as UL 3300, UL 3100, ISO 10218-1, and ISO 10218-2—are currently undergoing significant revisions, and will likely be updated in the near future.

“More than ever, consumers are stressing desires for immediacy and convenience. Manufacturers and retailers know that investment in tech will be key in keeping up with these demands.”

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12 EDITORIAL

AW NOVEMBER 2021

BATCH OF IDEAS

Mobile Robots Make an Impact on Omnichannel Fulfillment

By Stephanie Neil

sneil@automationworld.com Senior Editor

E

-commerce is quickly becoming the preferred way to purchase merchandise as it allows products to be conveniently picked up at the store or delivered directly to the buyer’s doorstep. As more consumers buy products online, CPG manufacturers are forced to change the way they interact with the entire supply chain.

According to Bart van Dijk, a partner at management consulting firm Kearney, the need to recalibrate the supply chain as the direct-to-consumer model grows to mass scale requires new kinds of platforms and partnerships. To that end, key priorities moving forward include an efficient and responsive last mile and anticipating recycling, refurbishment, and return flows. That means maximizing the use of technology and automation to gain more flexibility and agility.

“CPGs are already anticipating this by building plug-and-play capabilities and creating an ecosystem with suppliers that creates a senseand-pivot capability, sensing what is going on upstream and downstream in the supply chain to pivot where they need to,” said van Dijk, who is a core member of Kearney’s operations and performance practice.

This observation, made during a recent ABB webcast, provided a big-picture view of how e-commerce and the omnichannel is impacting the current state of the supply chain. It was also meant to help position ABB’s latest acquisition.

In July, ABB announced the acquisition of ASTI Mobile Robotics Group, a global provider of autonomous mobile robot (AMR) vehicles

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and software. ASTI, based in Burgos, Spain, adds to ABB’s robotics and machine automation product portfolio.

“With this acquisition, ABB will be the only company to offer a full automation portfolio of AMRs, robots, and machine automation solutions, from production to logistics to point of consumption,” said Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics & Discrete Automation business.

“This is a gamechanger for our customers as they adapt to the individualized consumer and seize opportunities presented by significant changes in consumer demand.”

ASTI’s AMR portfolio includes autonomous towing vehicles, goods-to-person solutions, unit carriers and box movers, as well as software offerings ranging from vehicle navigation and control, fleet and order management, and cloud-based traceability systems. These will be integrated with ABB’s robots, B&R machine automation, and the software suite including RobotStudio, ABB Robotics’ simulation and programming tool.

“Stationary robots do palletizing, depalletizing, and sorting, but intelligent material flow is needed and that can’t happen with just conveyors,” said Marc Segura, managing director for ABB’s robotics consumer segments and service. “You need AMRs. And to bring this together in a real-time operation, you need fleet management software to orchestrate things. This is a unique portfolio we assembled to address the new challenge in the industry.”

The new challenge being omnichannel fulfillment. To that end, at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2021 in September, ABB demonstrated its technologies for automated omnichannel fulfillment that enable manufacturers to handle small, personalized batch orders in a direct-to-consumer model—something that is difficult for traditional warehouse distribution centers to manage. For its part, ABB brings together delta robots, collaborative robots, the B&R AcoposTrak flexible transport system, lane changing conveyors, palletizing robots, and AMRs. “The AMR plays an important role in flex-

ibility as different processes are automated through the AMR from the receiving of goods to the production line to the warehouses, with constant traceability to secure where the loads are located,” said ASTI CEO Veronica Pascual Boé. “The flexible automation concept is having a multiplier effect through the industrial and mobile robot combination. We are providing technology that is able to be redeployed in a scalable manner to support the new evolution of customer demands.”

ABB may have solved the manufacturing and warehouse part of the omnichannel with its latest acquisition. But to use logistics as a competitive advantage, Kearney’s van Dijk reiterates that the sense-and-pivot model is important. And that might mean changing the network model all together. Perhaps sourcing raw materials from supply partners that are logistically closer to the manufacturing facility. “Look at the big picture and longer term trends. There could be new pandemics, so know what’s going on and what the consequences are in the supply chain,” he said.

“The need to recalibrate the supply chain as the direct-toconsumer model grows to mass scale requires new kinds of platforms and partnerships. To that end, key priorities moving forward include an efficient and responsive last mile and anticipating recycling, refurbishment, and return flows. That means maximizing the use of technology and automation to gain more flexibility and agility.”

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14 EDITORIAL

AW NOVEMBER 2021

PRODUCTION POINTS

Overcoming the Cultural Barriers to Digital Transformation

By David Miller

dmiller@pmmimediagroup.com Senior Technical Writer

I

t’s often been observed that the biggest barriers holding back digital transformation are related to organizational culture, rather than technology itself. In a recent “State of Industry 4.0” survey from industrial electronics and connectivity technology supplier Molex, 44% of respondents indicated that organizational and cultural issues were the most severe impediments to their digital transformation goals, compared to just 33% who indicated business model issues and 22% who indicated technology issues.

This theme was echoed at Inductive Automation’s 2021 virtual Ignition Community Conference, where experts from Chevron, Stolle Machinery, Chobani, and Amazon Web Services weighed in on the difficulties encountered throughout the digital transformation process at their own companies.

According to Todd Anslinger, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and automation specialist at Chevron, reaching any group of stakeholders and convincing them to change their work processes can be challenging.

Some groups can be more difficult to sway than others, he said; in particular, information technology (IT) departments may be more conducive to implementing Industry 4.0 changes merely because digital and software-oriented workflows are more familiar to them. This can be true among younger operational technology (OT) professionals

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as well. By contrast, older OT engineers tend to be more reticent to change. Moreover, because older workers often serve as gatekeepers to the critical systems that need upgrading, achieving their buy-in is vital to a successful Industry 4.0 deployment.

“They’re doing it the same way they’ve been doing it for years, and in their mind there’s nothing wrong with it, so why change?” Anslinger says.

To shift these attitudes, Anslinger recommends leading them through specific, illustrative examples of how it will impact their day-to-day work processes. More importantly, he advises that, rather than telling them directly how they can do it better with newer technology, asking them questions and letting them come to the answers on their own may be more effective.

“I call it management 101,” Anslinger says.

“It’s really about asking the questions that lead them to the answer you want them to have of their own accord. That way it becomes their own answer, and they’re more likely to act on it.”

Corporate executives may also be hesitant, says Pugal Janakiraman, IIoT and automation specialist at Amazon Web Services.

In these cases, Janakiraman advises stressing use-cases that will yield the fastest results.

Even more importantly, those advocating for IIoT projects should let business outcomes drive technology choices, rather than the other way around.

“Do not look for a machine learning project, but look for a business outcome where something needs to be improved, and then bring in machine learning to drive that business outcome if it works,” Janakiraman says.

“Work backward from a business problem and pick a technology to solve that problem.”

Ultimately, those heading up digital transformation projects should be wary of declaring success early. According to

Anslinger, Chevron assumed that once all of its data had been moved to the cloud, decision-makers throughout the organization would build their own dashboards to monitor and act on the data points. However, when this didn’t occur, it became apparent that merely putting new technologies in place was not enough.

In response, Chevron has begun implementing low-code and no-code methodologies that allow standardized data objects to be defined and recognized automatically, so that they can be integrated into dashboards more easily. The result has been more scalability and greater alignment throughout the organization.

“Do not look for a machine learning project, but look for a business outcome where something needs to be improved and then bring in machine learning to drive that business outcome if it works.

Work backward from a business problem and pick a technology to solve that problem.”

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16 PERSPECTIVES AW NOVEMBER 2021

Is a Retrofit the Right Option?

By David Miller, Senior Technical Writer

W

ith many reporting that a timely return-on-investment can be difficult to achieve due to the large upfront costs Industry 4.0 initiatives sometimes require, retrofitting is often floated as a powerful first step toward digital transformation. Not only does retrofitting older equipment facilitate a “step approach,” to digital manufacturing—it also allows operators to develop small use cases that increase their familiarity and confidence with new technology. As a result, initiatives that begin with retrofits often evolve into larger, more wholesale transformations.

However, whether or not a retrofit is the right solution and what type of retrofit should be pursued is not always clear cut.

To help end users parse through the various considerations that need to be made, Automation World recently spoke with Brian St. Jean, presales system engineer at Paessler, and Markus Mediger, product manager at Paessler. Paessler provides monitoring software and partners with companies that carry out retrofits.

According to St. Jean, the first question operators should always ask is whether or not

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retrofitting a piece of equipment is the right approach to begin with. As an example, he references a glass manufacturer that was looking to measure the amount of materials being processed to improve throughput. However, on closer examination it became clear that, rather than retrofitting the equipment responsible for these tasks, merely monitoring the operational environment proved far more beneficial to the company’s bottom line.

“The questions you want to ask are where are you trying to go, where are you now, and what information do you need,” St. Jean says.

“Then you can start thinking about how to get there.”

For this reason, it’s important to conduct a careful cost-benefit analysis before rushing into a hasty retrofit that might not, ultimately, be worthwhile. For instance, pulling more sensor data from an isolated pick-and-place machine into a monitoring system may seem like a straight-forward prospect, but if the end-user needs to open up the equipment and add new sensor or data collection components, it could void the machine’s warranty and may cause confusion or other difficulties when mainte-

nance professionals service the machine.

In addition, St. Jean recommends weighing the degree to which an asset is mission critical when considering a retrofit.

“A lot of times a factory has multiple pieces of equipment that do the same thing,” he says. “In those cases, you don’t want to spend too much money monitoring them because if one goes down you have two or three others that can pick up the load. It’s not a bottleneck situation.”

And while identifying the appropriate business case for a retrofit should be end-users’ first priority, individual pieces of equipment may also face technology barriers. For example, some older machines may use proprietary systems that do not allow information to be shared through anything other than an onboard human machine interface (HMI).

“When we talk about machines that have proprietary maintenance interfaces that use some kind of serial data meant only for vendor-specific devices, we need to build a custom connector that can translate that serial data into some kind of information technology connectivity,” Mediger says. “It’s probably going to be very difficult for us to do.”

Ultimately, when the business case is correct and the technology affords it, a retrofit can be a highly advantageous option. Due to the increasing availability of intelligent sensors that allow multiple different process variables to be monitored simultaneously, more data can be attained at a lower cost. Still, according to Mediger, retrofits cannot serve as a substitute for more holistic digital transformation efforts.

“Before you get into these big, complicated investments that come with moving toward Industry 4.0 for flexibility and reconfigurability, retrofitting is a good start to optimize machine health or manufacturing processes.

You can gain a lot from a retrofit without a big investment,” Mediger says. “But once you start thinking about scaling to the entire shop floor or introducing a greater variety of products and flexibility, you’re going to need to make a more serious investment if you want to modernize.”

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10/27/21 2:27 PM

18 PERSPECTIVES AW NOVEMBER 2021

3 Common Attack Vectors for Industrial Control Systems

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

I

t’s been nearly impossible to miss all the news about the uptick in cyber-attacks on the manufacturing and processing industries over the past few years. This recent uptick is not a surprising development, however, even though most manufacturers have faced fewer attacks compared to more consumeroriented businesses.

One reason for the lag in attacks on industry was due to many hackers’ lack of familiarity with the industrial control systems (ICS) used in both the discrete manufacturing and processing industries. As a result, most business-focused cyber-attacks centered on breaches of enterprise IT systems, with which most hackers were already very familiar.

But when you consider the high profile and revenues of many industrial companies, coupled with the potential for significant business and community disruption made possible by attacking a company’s ICS, the incentive for hackers to become more familiar with ICSs was evident. Essentially, it was only a matter of time before industry became widely considered a target-rich environment for cyber criminals.

While plenty of advice exists for industrial companies around how to secure their ICSs, it’s also important for businesses to be aware of the principal types of cyber threats they’re most likely to face.

Prominent sources of attack

Craig Young, principal security researcher at Tripwire, a supplier of industrial cybersecurity, points to three sources of cyberattacks that industrial companies should be most aware of due to their potential to cause major disruption: A disgruntled insider: “The most critical threats often come from within an organization,” says Young. “This is especially true in ICS environments where employees have access to plant controls and deep knowledge of operational processes.” Young cites the Oldsmar, Fla., water treatment plant attack as an example of what is widely considered to have been a breach conducted by an employee.

This attack is considered to be an inside job

2111_Perspectives.indd 18

because the hacker(s) used “a legitimate company TeamViewer account, combined with apparent knowledge of the company’s humanmachine interface,” said Young.

To limit the threat of insider attacks, Young suggests enforcing access controls and limiting administrator access. He adds that practicing strong password hygiene—like requiring multi-factor authentication, forced password expiration, and forbidding password sharing— are also beneficial.

A ransomware gang: Young says ransomware is commonly introduced to an ICS network in one of three ways: a phishing attack that targets employees; compromising an industry website that users may frequently download from; or by targeting VPN portals or other externally exposed IT infrastructure.

“The best way to protect against a ransomware attack is to employ security best practices, including vulnerability management,” says Young. “Attackers often scan the internet for targets rather than identifying a specific target and evaluating its network space. Therefore, network administrators need to be aware of vulnerabilities in externally exposed systems such as VPN portals and mail gateways.”

He also noted that it’s important to strengthen internal security by limiting VPN access and restricting access between unre-

lated servers. And, as with the remedies suggested to prevent insider attacks, limited permissions are key in this instance as well.

“Users should not have access to a system unless there is a specific business need,” stresses Young.

Advanced persistent threat: Because several high-profile ICS disruptions have been attributed to malicious hackers working for foreign military or intelligence agencies— such as the Triton and NotPetya attacks—it is “hard to understate the potential impact of a wartime ICS cyber incident,” says Young. “In addition to impacting the physical safety of plant workers and local communities, attacks can lead to long-term failures, including disruption of electricity, water, fuel, and other municipal services.”

In addition to the best practice security controls noted above, Young recommends accessing resources like ATT&CK and D3FEND— organizations that help industrial companies learn about known adversaries and how they operate. “This is critical for making informed decisions on how to not only reduce the risk of intrusion but also impede an attacker’s lateral movement while increasing the defender’s chances for detection,” says Young.

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20 NEWS

AW NOVEMBER 2021

Georgia-Pacific Leverages its Digital Transformation to Bridge the Skills Gap

By David Miller, Senior Technical Writer

W

ith Deloitte predicting a shortage of more than 2.1 million manufacturing jobs by 2030, finding ways to address the skills gap is a priority for many in industry. Currently, manufacturers are faced with a dual-pronged issue: On the one hand, many older workers are nearing retirement age. At the same time, outmoded conceptions of what manufacturing entails has made it difficult to attract and retain new employees.

Recently, many companies have turned to digital transformation to address this issue. Not only can the introduction of digital workflows make careers in manufacturing more appealing to younger hires—it can also aid in capturing and maintaining the knowledge held by veteran employees who are preparing for retirement.

2111_News.indd 20

For instance, remote access and augmented reality (AR) have been used to allow retired workers, who are experts in a given plant’s systems, to easily shepherd new workers through difficult tasks, easing the training pipeline. Similarly, the aggregation of data into digital databases containing equipment schematics, computer-aided design (CAD) models, and multimedia content has made both the preservation and dissemination of vital knowledge much easier.

One recent example of a company taking this approach is Georgia-Pacific, a manufacturer of tissue, pulp, packaging, building products, and related chemicals.

The company has 150 production facilities with 35,000 employees across the globe, making alignment no small task. All the same, in 2015, approximately 40% of its workforce was over the age of 55, creating the threat of labor shortages and a loss of critical knowledge. Not only that, but with new

investments in advanced analytical capabilities and other automation technologies such as robotics on the horizon, Georgia-Pacific feared it might lose its competitive edge.

Breaking down the information silos

One of the primary challenges for the company was that each business unit at GeorgiaPacific had separate systems, each of which had its own way of operating. As a result, knowledge transfer between the business units was either shaky or non-existent.

“Much of Georgia-Pacific’s technology needed to be upgraded, integrated, and secured, which presented a challenge since the IT (information technology) and OT (operations technology) organizations were siloed. There was a wide range of technology within each facility that provided just enough support to get by,” said Keith Higgins, vice president of digital transformation at Rockwell Automation. “Most

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NEWS 21

AW NOVEMBER 2021 internal capability groups attempted to predict problems based on experience and beliefs rather than leveraging concrete data. In addition, production and cost improvements were stagnant to negative year-over-year.”

To solve this problem, Georgia-Pacific partnered with Rockwell to form a digital transformation team composed of employees from a variety of different disciplines, including business strategists, software engineers, operational subject matter experts, security experts, and continuous improvement analysts. The group huddled with the goal of figuring out how best to capture, retain, and transmit knowledge from retiring employees to current and incoming staff. Their process began by focusing on small, scalable technology projects and goals to gain traction and show impact. Over time, the initiative grew to encompass the larger organization.

The importance of remote access

A key aspect of Georgia-Pacific’s strategy involved leveraging remote access technology to enable all employees and external

partners to connect to production facilities remotely. This allowed an environment to take shape wherein facilities, business units, and employees could be more easily aligned.

Simply put, the old siloes spoken of by Higgins where replaced with a more unified ecosystem driven by Rockwell’s FactoryTalk suite of software products, which provides a scalable collection of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications.

To support knowledge transfer via its new remote capabilities, Georgia-Pacific also created a new collaboration and support center designed to operate facilities remotely. This allows the company to provide support and enable collaboration through constant monitoring, predictive analytics, and sharing of subject matter expert insights. As a result, services and support from a unified pool of expertise—representing single source of truth for the company—can now be provided to specific areas of the business based on specific needs.

“By enabling the workforce with remote capabilities [to access information], organizations can overcome traditional differences,

create a more effective team and improve their capacity, much like Georgia-Pacific,” Higgins said. “Moving forward, GeorgiaPacific plans to strengthen resource optimization between facilities while creating a common, secure platform to bring real-time transparency to the customer at the center of its business ecosystem.”

Most internal capability groups attempted to predict problems based on experience and beliefs rather than leveraging concrete data.

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22 PMMI NEWS AW NOVEMBER 2021

Registration Opens for PACK EXPO East 2022

By Sean Riley

Senior Director, Media and Industry Communications, PMMI

A

ttendee registration for PACK EXPO East 2022 (March 21-23; Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia) is officially open, according to show producer, PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.

Now in its fifth edition, the three-day event comes on the heels of a successful PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO, the largest packaging and processing trade show in North America in 2021. PACK EXPO East returns to Philadelphia after a record-breaking 2020 that featured 7,100-plus attendees and its largest show floor to date.

Its Northeast location provides a convenient and rewarding opportunity for consumer packaged goods (CPG) and life sciences companies to explore packaging and processing technologies from 40+ vertical markets, connect with

suppliers, and find the solutions needed to adapt and compete in a changing marketplace.

Featuring 400 exhibitors, attendees get the best of both worlds—the ability to see a comprehensive range of packaging and processing technologies yet still have time for productive, in-depth discussions with vendors to solve pain points and address challenges.

“With booth sales already tracking higher than this far out in 2020, it is evident that solution suppliers are ready and excited to showcase their latest technologies,” says Laura Thompson, vice president of trade shows, PMMI. “Attendees are sure to find a multitude of solutions in one easily accessible location with so much to see and do in the larger Philly area too; that’s what makes this show so unique.”

PACK EXPO East also offers free educational sessions all conveniently located on the show floor along with extensive networking opportunities. With its convenient location, PACK EXPO East is a great opportunity for entire project

teams to make a day trip and discover the latest technologies and innovative crossover solutions to support capital investment decisions.

No other show on the East Coast offers such a wide range of state-of-the-art packaging and processing solutions.

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23

Connecting the Factories of Tomorrow, Today With the rise of the Industrial Internet of Things, production systems are driving toward a seamlessly connected future, in which all mechanical, electrical, and intelligent interfaces work together as one complete package.

By Sandro Quintero and Tom Worsnopp, product marketing managers, electric automation, Festo

I

f seamless connectivity is the future, then enhanced connectivity is the here and now. Technological developments are already underway at the field level of industrial automation, distributing intelligence among devices that formerly were unintelligent. At the same time, open interfaces like the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) are bringing us one step closer to true device interoperability. Together, these developments have vast implications for how we design, deploy, and maintain our production systems in an increasingly digital world.

With the right changes, technologies— such as smart pneumatic components, Internet of Things (IoT) gateways, and open communication standards—can be the stepping stones to a truly connected future.

Emerging intelligence at the field level

In a typical factory, the production floor consists of various electromechanical components like linear devices, rotary drives, servo drives, and grippers, as well as more complex mechanical systems like multi-axis cartesian handling systems. To realize the full vision of Industry 4.0, all relevant data from production processes, including the status of these unintelligent devices, must be made available in real time. Smart components are the prerequisite for real-time data availability and play a critical role in the consistent and uniform exchange of information within pro-

2111_IIOT.indd 23

duction processes.

A testament to enhanced connectivity, many formerly unintelligent components now incorporate IIoT functionality, data processing, and diagnostic capabilities, rendering them smart. These new local functionalities bring multiple performance benefits to the overall operation, especially where efficiency and maintenance are concerned.

One example of newly distributed intelligence at the field level is the Motion Terminal VTEM—the first valve that makes pneumatic functions available through motion apps. Designed with enhanced connectivity in mind, it enables users to easily adapt to changing process parameters in a way that improves production flexibility compared to hardwired technologies. It also integrates intelligent sensors for control, diagnostics, and self-learning tasks, eliminating the need for additional components.

The Motion Terminal VTEM provides the functionality of traditional 2/2-, 3/2-, 4/2-, or 4/3-way valves, as well as proportional technology and servo-pneumatic functions.

At the same time, users can perform motion tasks using a single valve type, integrating complex movements, variable positioning, and preset travel time—all in one device.

Other smart functions of the Motional Terminal VTEM include: • Energy-efficient apps. The Motion Terminal VTEM includes an ECO drive motion app that automatically reduces pneumatic energy to the level required for

movement. As a result, it keeps energy consumption to a minimum for simple motion tasks that don’t need additional end-position force.

• Leakage diagnostics. By detecting leaks at an early stage, the Motion Terminal VTEM increases process reliability and productivity. It also reduces unnecessary energy losses.

• Condition monitoring. Thanks to this capability, the Motion Terminal VTEM reduces the lifecycle costs of systems. It also facilitates a faster return on investment (ROI) and makes you more competitive in the market.

With its combination of traditional valve technology and digital motion apps, the Motion Terminal VTEM replaces more than 50 individual components—all while improving manufacturing flexibility, reducing system complexity, and enabling new data analysis and condition monitoring capabilities at the field level.

Component integration with IoT gateways

One of the biggest challenges to implementing seamless connectivity is the integration of networked components and systems. Traditionally, integrating servo drives and controllers from different manufacturers has been a complex and laborious task, driving up both engineering time and costs. In addition to changes in software and hardware platforms, software engineers face differ-

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AW NOVEMBER 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

ent fieldbus systems, software modules, and data protocols that require them to master several programming languages. They must also understand how individual components behave in relation to one another. In these situations, electromechanical drive systems can take a long time to de-bug, and any technical difficulties that arise during commissioning can cause unscheduled production delays.

IoT gateways, like the CPX-IOT, enable users to connect drives and other components for visibility into various operating parameters, including temperature, speed, voltage, and more. The gateway not only consolidates machine and production data, but it also makes this information easier to manage.

Depending on the complexity, users can connect up to 31 components and modules at the shop-floor level. They can then receive real-time, cloud-ready data via secure open interfaces. This capability opens up many data analysis options—from smarter maintenance practices to digital twins.

Open protocols for device interoperability

Whether for mechanical or control systems, an overwhelming number of products, components, and solutions are available from different manufacturers—each one with its own interface, hardware, programming language, and communication protocol. As mentioned earlier, machine builders and engineers often

spend a lot of time integrating these various components into their machines. Fortunately, new open communication protocols are paving the way for true device interoperability in connected environments.

One example, IO-Link, provides a new standardized I/O technology interface that expands fieldbus and industrial Ethernet systems. In addition to transmitting process data, it lets users download parameter data from the control system to the sensor or actuator, and then send diagnostic data back to the control system. Whereas integrating a fieldbus interface down to the lowest field level used to be a costly endeavor, IO-Link transmits digital or analog values with a simple three- or five-wire cable.

A second example, OPC UA, is a vendorneutral software interface that transports machine data, including process values and measurements, and then describes that data semantically in a machine-readable way.

Because OPC UA works independently of the operating system, it provides an open communication solution from front-end devices, sensors, actuators, and controllers up to the cloud.

In addition to bringing the industry closer to true plug-and-play functionality, this interface enables the seamless integration of components—allowing them to talk to each other, as well as gather and exchange data easily.

To reap these benefits, suppliers of factory automation solutions are increasingly adding open interface compatibility to their com-

ponents to provide seamless communication between front-end devices, controllers, and the cloud. For example, Festo has embedded OPC UA into its valve terminals, enabling plant managers, engineers, and operators to realize the benefits of smart manufacturing.

When paired with IoT gateways like the CPX platform, operators can quickly and easily collect device information and statuses via an Ethernet connection and OPC UA protocol. From there, the system can then send that information to the cloud via a second Ethernet connection and IoT protocols, such as Advanced Message Queueing Protocol (AMQP) or Message Queueing Telemetry Transport (MQTT).

The road ahead

As connected technologies continue to take off, factories are moving toward a future in which all components, controllers, and the industrial cloud are seamlessly integrated, yielding countless production benefits.

Although progress is well underway, we are not quite there yet. The last mile will require a continued drive to tie together formerly siloed systems, to embrace open communication standards, and to fully implement digital strategies from the shop floor to the enterprise level.

To learn more about putting IIoT into practice, please visit www.festo.com.

How IIoT Functionality Improves Maintenance Processes

I

mplementing components and machines with smart functionality goes a long way toward avoiding unwanted downtime. Picture a machine working on a Friday evening after everyone has clocked out. This machine detects an anomaly—an increase in friction, for example—on a pneumatic actuator and then calculates that the part will fail in the next three to four days. Without any human intervention, the machine communicates with the tool crib about inventory and places an order for a spare part after learning it’s not currently in stock. At this point, the purchasing man-

2111_IIOT.indd 24

ager receives an email alert on his smartphone, asking him to approve the order. Once Monday morning rolls around, the machine calculates that the actuator is now at 80% failure and automatically moves the maintenance appointment to earlier in the week after the part arrives.

This example demonstrates the power of machine visibility, especially during periods of unattended operation.

It also shows how the addition of simple IIoT functions can remedy the problem of planned, costly downtime with just a few clicks on a device.

10/27/21 1:49 PM

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AW NOVEMBER 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

Building Secure Wastewater Management in the Cloud System integrator Perceptive Controls helps one community make the leap into a MQTT Sparkplug-based SCADA infrastructure.

By Josh Eastburn, director of technical marketing, Opto 22

F

ormally organized in 1834, Waterford Township is located geographically in the center of Oakland County, Michigan, and is home to over 72,000 residents.

With 360 miles of water main and 355 miles of sanitary sewer, water management in Waterford is no small task. The Department of Public Works (DPW) operates and maintains 19 production wells, 3 storage tanks, 11 treatment plants, and 63 sewer lift stations.

To run all this, they invested years ago in integrating core applications, including geographic information systems (GIS), asset management systems (AMS), enterprise content management (ECM), and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA).

That system delivered a lot of value over the years, but nothing lasts forever.

Time to upgrade

In 2017, Russell Williams, director of public works, and Frank Fisher, engineering superintendent, at Waterford DPW started on a project to upgrade their core SCADA infrastructure. The next year, they attended a conference announcing the release of Opto 22’s groov EPIC and were excited by the potential of MQTT Sparkplug to eliminate some long-standing systemic limitations.

With more than 90 controllers on their network, the polling mechanism they used, combined with the limited bandwidth of their radio network, meant that data from each site would update only every 3-5 minutes.

Sometimes a lift station would run briefly in between polling cycles, creating gaps in their reporting and inhibiting operators’ ability to

2111_IIOT.indd 26

accurately detect issues until alarms eventually made their way through. And for each I/O point they added to the system, this latency only grew worse.

It seemed clear that MQTT’s report-byexception behavior could significantly reduce bandwidth usage and ensure delivery of important system actions.

“We have many lift stations that will spend most of their time sitting,” Williams explains, “[So] why transfer data all the time?”

And with no dependence on a central polling program, they saw the possibility to eliminate a systemic bottleneck and potential point of failure.

cols in a few key ways: 1. Each field device connects only to the broker, regardless of where its data needs to go.

2. When using Sparkplug payloads, each device publishes (sends) a list of its available data items, called topics, upon establishing a connection to the broker.

3. Other MQTT clients may also connect to the broker, see the available topics, and then subscribe to (request) updates on those topics when published by field devices.

From proofof-concept to production

To help them execute their vision, Waterford DPW engaged Perceptive Controls, a Michigan-based system integrator specializing in industrial and process control applications for the water/ wastewater, food and beverage, and oil and gas industries.

But building an MQTT system for the first time came with a learning curve, according to Kevin Finkler, software engineer at Perceptive.

MQTT’s publish-subscribe communication model is a definite departure from that of traditional industrial proto-

Waterford DPW’s legacy infrastructure relied on a network of RTUs and RF transmitters communicating to SCADA workstations in the office.

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SPONSORED CONTENT / AW NOVEMBER 2021

After experimenting with a few popular SCADA packages, Perceptive Controls decided on Ignition by Inductive Automation because it offered very tight MQTT integration, including the ability to serve as an MQTT broker itself.

Even though understanding the MQTT communication model took Finkler some work at first, establishing communication was straightforward in the end.

“It kind of happens automatically,” Finkler says. “You basically define a few parameters [in Ignition] to set up the broker. And each of the EPIC devices was pretty simple. You just point it at the broker and it starts sending tags.”

“I love that both of these sides have embraced MQTT,” adds Fisher. “It makes the connection seamless.”

Building defense in depth Seeing an opportunity to leverage cloud computing for greater fault tolerance and scalability, Fisher decided to deploy Ignition directly on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and he and Kevin began building out the mechanisms to secure the new infrastructure.

First, Fisher configured the firewall on AWS to accept traffic only from his groov EPIC controllers and specific Ignition clients in Waterford’s and Perceptive’s offices.

Firewalls on the cell modems and EPICs were also configured to accept only trusted IPs. He then installed a client SSL certificate on each EPIC so that Ignition could authenticate and encrypt the connection, protecting against man-in-the-middle attacks that could expose data or permit unauthorized control.

Every authorized user is required to create strong passwords to access any groov EPIC controller or Ignition client in the system. In addition, every user login is tracked and reported throughout the system as well.

Fisher and Finkler even integrated physical site security into Ignition. Each lift station is secured with an outer door under lock and key, and a physical switch on the door is connected to the local EPIC. Ignition monitors the switch state to detect when someone enters. If a user login is not registered within a specific time with access privileges for that specific room, Ignition then generates a global alarm.

2111_IIOT.indd 27

27

Return on investment

After completing upgrades on all 63 of its sewage lift stations and six of its clean water sites, the new groov EPIC/Ignition MQTT infrastructure has reduced field updates from multi-minute cycles to sub-second eventdriven publications. With that kind of speed, Waterford never misses a system action or alarm notification anymore, and with cellenabled tablets, operators can stay connected from anywhere through Ignition’s mobile-ready HMI client.

Because of MQTT’s report-by-exception behavior, in combination with analog I/O deadbanding in each Waterford DPW’s modernized infrastructure publishes data groov EPIC, the new infrafrom groov EPIC controllers to a cloud-hosted Ignition structure has also reduced SCADA and MQTT broker over a 4G LTE cellular network. bandwidth consumption, allowing Waterford to publish even more data than before. They have More to come access to communications and controller With huge increases in bandwidth, the low diagnostics—such as update latency, conadministrative overhead of MQTT Sparknection time stamps, message size, and firmplug, and EPICs providing spare data proware version—which simply wasn’t possible cessing at the edge, Waterford can continue in the old system. expanding its system for a very long time.

Waterford’s cloud-based infrastructure Each new device or application they add also enables greater flexibility and reliabilonly needs a connection to the MQTT broker ity. If there is ever an issue connecting to to produce or consume data for/from the the data center in Ohio that hosts the new whole system.

SCADA server, Fisher can have the entire “We are still trying to figure out what else system up and running in a different data we can do with this,” says Fisher. “We have center in 30 minutes. In time, he will likely a lot of other instrumentation that we want set up full server redundancy. to be able to pull data from out in the field In fact, a recent internet outage at the that wasn’t really feasible before… not just Department of Public Works offices provided at our lift stations and our treatment plants an unexpected test of their new system, but throughout the organization. Where can which kept on working without interruption. we use [MQTT] with flowmeters? Where can “We only lost the old system,” says we use it throughout all of our assets to give Fisher. “Our internal stuff couldn’t reach us a better overview? We’re just beginning out, of course, but our iPads could conthat journey.”

For more information, visit www.percepnect through Verizon... and I was able to get back in touch. In a situation like this, the old tivecontrols.com or contact Frank Fisher at system couldn’t send out alarms because it ffisher@waterfordmi.gov. depended on a local connection. The new system didn’t even notice or care because it’s not running anything local.”

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AW NOVEMBER 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

A Uniform Interface for Robots Once again, a group of companies has banded together to create a vendor-independent standard and found a home in Profibus International to promote, harmonize, and certify their technology. This time it’s a collection of the world’s foremost industrial robot manufacturers.

By Michael Bowne, executive director, PI North America

I

n today’s manufacturing plants, the presence of robots is increasing every day. They are often arranged, along with other machines, in cells, each for a different step in the manufacturing process. A robot cell will typically consist of a robot controller (RC), the robot arm itself, a dedicated human machine interface (HMI) pendant, and the engineering software employed to program the robot. A single vendor typically supplies all four components. Meanwhile the entire manufacturing line is orchestrated separately by one or more programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The PLC interacts with the RC to synchronize the whole process.

A problem with this setup is that an enduser will often have multiple robots from different vendors that need to interact with the PLC. This is quite challenging because each vendor has its own way of programming.

The programming is implemented via a library provided by the vendor. Each library is proprietary and different for each robot vendor.

Generally, this inhibits independence by pro-

Plant Automation

moting vendor lock-in and greatly increases the complexity of programming robots.

A solution based on standardization

The goal of the new “Uniform Robot Interface” is to have a single interface between the PLC and the RC. This would eliminate the unique libraries from each robot maker and standardize the programming across brands.

There are additional benefits beyond standardizing the motion commands between PLC and RC, such as the ability for an enduser to operate the robot arm via an HMI connected to the PLC in the same way as the dedicated HMI provided by the robot vendor. The interface could also allow for the gathering of diagnostic information from the RC and robot arm in a standardized manner.

Vendor and protocol independence

finet, the standard can run over any communication protocol. The interface can be implemented just as well over OPC UA or any other industrial Ethernet protocol. The effort is driven by a collection of the world’s largest robot makers: Stäubli, ABB, Fanuc, Comau, KUKA, Yaskawa, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Panasonic, Techman, and Epson.

PLC vendors are welcome to participate in this effort as well. As of Q3 2021, the specification is fully written and currently under review at Profibus International (PI) in preparation for public release. The Uniform Robot Interface is being incorporated and fits well into the broader PI technology portfolio of Profibus, Profinet, IO-Link, and omlox. It is another step in the organization’s evolution from one focused purely on data communication to one helping speed up digitalization across the industrial space.

While currently being implemented via Pro-

RobotProgram

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AW NOVEMBER 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

The Value of Power Control Rooms Powell, the creator of the Power Control Room, teams up with Wago to further improve its manufacturing quality and productivity.

Submitted by WAGO

Wago 831 series DIN-rail mounted wire-to-wire connector.

Powell Industry’s PCR onsite at customer facility.

S

ince first coming up with the idea of the Power Control Room (PCR) in 1968, Powell has been recognized as a market leader in modular electrical equipment design. By utilizing innovative products in the design and construction of these PCRs, they improve quality and productivity while lowering costs and reducing labor.

Used in a wide range of markets from utility substations to oil & gas projects to transportation systems, PCRs have been transported and installed in all 50 states and more than 70 countries.

The size of the PCRs created by Powell varies depending on the final application.

“Some are so large they need to be split apart and shipped in sections,” explained Rick Deiss, production designer at Powell.

When Powell assembles these larger PCR buildings, the sections (or rooms) are first physically joined together. Then the interconnected wiring between each building must be reliably terminated during the manufacturing phase and subsequently “de-

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terminated” before the buildings are split apart again so they can be shipped to the final job site. Each section typically includes shipping split boxes for wiring.

In the past, when these boxes were shipped, wires would sometimes become loose due to vibration or through installation errors, which created safety and reliability concerns. Therefore, upon delivery, prior to connecting the rooms together, engineers would need to enter each box, reconnect the wires, and re-tighten the screws that held the wires in place using calibrated torque screwdrivers. This made the process both costly and time consuming, as these specialty tools carry not only a high initial investment but require calibration annually.

For mounting connections, Powell had previously used an internally fabricated aluminum angle bracket modified with seven pre-punched square-mounting holes which would allow a third-party, two-piece pullapart terminal block assembly to snap into each square hole. This design was consid-

ered labor intensive and could cause reliability issues, as the connectors would sometimes become dislodged from the mounting bracket. As a result, Powell began to look for ways to improve their design while simultaneously gaining a higher-quality connection.

“We needed a terminal block for power connections that could be disconnected by pulling it apart,” Deiss said.

The Wago connection

In 2016, Ciarah Tapley-Smith of Future Electronics, Wago’s local distributor in Houston, Texas, along with Kevin Stevenson, Wago regional sales manager, introduced Powell to Wago’s Cage Clamp design technology.

Specifically, Powell was shown the 831 Series connectors and learned how they could improve their connections integrity while reducing production and labor costs.

Powell then requested samples to see if the connectors could indeed fit their company’s specific application needs. Deiss pointed out that he and his colleagues were

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Deiss noted that the 832 terminal blocks have larger ampacity ratings, allowing for pull-apart connections on up to #4 gauge wire. “Currently wiring larger than #8 requires lugs, screw terminations, and torquing,” said Deiss. “With the help of these prod-

ucts, Powell will continue to work on speeding up and simplifying the wiring process, all while remaining the standard bearer for electrical equipment design.”

| AT11-18USA |

also able to visit Wago’s manufacturing and testing facilities in Minden, Germany, to learn more. “The 831 Series connectors are just what we needed,” stated Deiss, “while touring the Wago factory in Germany, I saw parts being manufactured as well as many tests performed on their products. I was amazed by the quality of their products and how well they held up to the grueling testing.”

Powell soon realized that the 831 series would prove to be an innovative component in the manufacturing of their PCRs. This would empower them to offer more value to their customers and remain an industry leader.

“It was evident by their implementation of our original tool-operated, DIN-rail mounted 831 Series that they value our connection technology and form-factor, not only for its time and labor savings, but also for the improved connection integrity it provides,” said Cory Thiel, Wago’s PCB interconnect product manager.

Since its partnership with Wago, Powell has eliminated the cost of lugs and the labor for crimping as well as the need for the pre-fabricated aluminum mounting bracket.

With the use of spring pressure connection technology, there are no screws, thus eliminating loose connections and the need for torqueing. These products have sped up the process of manufacturing, connecting, and disconnecting the shipping splits, ultimately reducing labor costs.

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The distributed servo system with One Cable Automation: AMP8000

Keeping up with technology

Over the last four years, both Powell and Wago have developed more innovative solutions to help with the production and shipping of Powell’s Power Control Rooms. Currently, Wago is producing a new version of the 831 series with tool-free lever actuation.

Powell is also looking at using Wago’s new 832 Series connectors to replace additional competitive devices and some old connections that need larger wire connectors.

“Powell is looking to implement more of our products in their design and are very excited to hear that we will soon have the 832 Series connectors coming out later this year with a DIN Rail-mount capability,” Stevenson says, “which will allow them to use our Cage Clamp technology on larger wiring circuits ranging up to 4 AWG.”

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Eliminate and shrink control cabinets while expanding dynamic motion control: The AMP8000 Distributed Servo Drive System from Beckhoff integrates a servo drive directly into a servomotor.

A unique benefit of the AMP8000 series is that servomotor power ratings* and installation sizes remain virtually unchanged. Proven One-Cable Automation in the EtherCAT P standard delivers real time communication and industrial power on one cable, and an innovative IP65-rated supply module powers multiple motors in the field. As such, the AMP8000 minimizes space requirements, installation effort, material costs and motion system footprint in a big way. sizes remain almost identical to standard AM8000 servomotors from Beckhoff no changes in existing machine designs required same high power ratings as before despite drive integration* TwinSAFE drive safety technology built into every servomotor *Compared with a combination of servo drive and servomotor

Scan to discover all the benefits of the AMP8000 at a glance

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AW NOVEMBER 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

How Ultra Long-Life Lithium Batteries Expand the Use of WirelessHART Lithium battery-powered remote wireless sensors enable WirelessHART communications to reach increasingly remote locations, even in extreme environments.

By Sol Jacobs, vice president and general manager, Tadiran Batteries

T

he HART communications protocol continues to provide a critical link to nearly 30 million intelligent field instruments and host systems used in SCADA, process control, asset management, safety systems, M2M (machine to machine), AI (artificial intelligence), wireless mesh networks, and numerous other applications.

HART-driven network control systems have been adopted globally to monitor and control field instruments across process industries and manufacturing facilities, as well as in power generation plants. These industrial control systems consist of a single instrument or a group of instruments that form a single- or multiple-loop network based on their design and deployment.

Amid the wide implementation of HARTenabled devices, millions of these devices remain un-networked due to the exorbitantly high cost of hard-wiring them to the electrical grid, with is especially problematic in remote locations and extreme environments.

To address this problem, Linear/Dust Networks developed WirelessHART, a lowpower communications protocol specifically designed for use in tandem with bobbin-type lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCl2) batteries.

Choosing lithium batteries

Low-power wireless devices extend battery life by operating predominantly in a standby state, awakening only to query or transmit data on a predetermined schedule or if cer-

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tain data thresholds are exceeded. As a result, more energy is typically expended by annual self-discharge than actual battery use.

Since a wireless device is only as reliable as the batteries that power it, product designers must prioritize between desired attributes, including: energy consumed in active mode (including the size, duration, and frequency of pulses); energy consumed in dormant mode (the base current); storage time (as normal self-discharge during storage diminishes capacity); thermal environments (including storage and in-field operation); equipment cut-off voltage (as battery capacity is exhausted or when operating in extreme temperatures, voltage can drop to a point too low for the sensor to operate); cost considerations; and, most importantly, by the battery’s self-discharge rate (which often exceeds the amount of the current consumed annually by a low-power device).

Lithium battery chemistry supports longterm deployments based on having an intrinsic negative potential that exceeds all other metals. As the lightest non-gaseous metal, lithium delivers the highest specific energy (energy per unit weight), highest energy density (energy per unit volume), along with a normal operating current voltage between 2.7 and 3.6V. All lithium chemistries are nonaqueous, making them better adapted to frigid temperatures.

Numerous primary lithium battery chemistries are available. However, bobbin-type lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCl2) chemis-

try is overwhelmingly preferred for use in low-power devices that require periodic high pulses to power two-way wireless communications, including protocols such as WirelessHART, ZigBee, and LoRA, to name a few.

Bobbin-type LiSOCl2 chemistry delivers the highest capacity and highest energy density, along with an extremely low annual self-discharge rate as low as 0.7% per year, enabling certain devices to operate continuously for up to 40 years. Bobbin-type LiSOCL2 batteries deliver the following unique benefits: • Higher reliability—which is ideal for inaccessible locations where battery replacement is difficult or impossible, and data continuity is essential.

• Long operating life—as the self-discharge rate of the battery often exceeds actual energy usage, requiring high initial capacity.

• The widest possible temperature range— from -80°C to 125°C, providing a more reliable power source in extreme environments.

• Smaller size—a space-saving form factor is possible with higher energy density.

• Higher voltage—can result in the need for fewer cells.

• Lower lifetime costs—considering that the expense to replace a battery far exceeds its original cost.

Bobbin-type LiSOCl2 cells commonly power WirelessHART applications such as

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SPONSORED CONTENT / AW NOVEMBER 2021

tank level monitoring, asset tracking, and environmental sensors that must endure extreme temperature cycling. A prime example of this can be found in the medical cold chain, where wireless data loggers are used to continously monitor the safe transport of frozen pharmaceuticals, tissue samples, and transplant organs at carefully controlled temperatures as low as -80°C. When specifying a bobbin-type LiSOCl2 battery, be aware that a battery’s annual selfdischarge can vary significantly based on how the cell was manufactured and its raw materials, affecting its ability to harness the passivation effect.

Passivation is affected by the cell’s current discharge capacity, the length of storage, storage temperature, discharge temperature, and prior discharge conditions, as partially discharging a cell and then removing the load increases the level of passivation over time. Passivation serves to minimize selfdischarge, but too much of it overly restricts energy flow.

Self-discharge occurs with all batteries as chemical reactions draw current even while the cell is unused or disconnected. Self-discharge can be minimized by controlling the passivation effect, as a thin film of lithium chloride (LiCl) forms on the surface of the lithium anode, separating it from the electrode to reduce chemical reactions that cause self-discharge. Whenever a load is placed on the cell, the passivation layer causes initial high resistance and a temporary drop in voltage until the discharge reaction start to dissipate the passivation layer: a process that repeats continuously.

The highest quality bobbin-type LiSOCl2 cell features a self-discharge rate as low as 0.7% annually, retaining nearly 70% of its original capacity after 40 years. By contrast, a lower quality cell can have a self-discharge rate of up to 3% per year, exhausting nearly 30% of available capacity every 10 years solely due to self-discharge, limiting its operating life to a maximum of 10-15 years.

is easily overcome by combining a standard bobbin-type LiSOCl2 cell with a patented hybrid layer capacitor (HLC). The standard LiSOCl2 cell delivers low level background current while in standby mode with the HLC delivering high pulses to support brief periods of data interrogation and transmission.

Supercapacitors perform a similar function within consumer products but are generally ill suited for industrial applications because of inherent limitations, including short-duration power, linear discharge qualities that do not allow for use of all the available energy, low capacity, low-energy density, and very high self-discharge rates of up to 60% per year.

In addition, supercapacitors linked in series require the use of bulky cell-balancing circuits that add expense and draw additional current.

33

enabled devices.

When designing for deployment in a remote location or extreme environment, it generally pays to go the extra mile to specify a superior quality battery that can last for the entire lifetime of the device. Unfortunately, choosing among competing batteries can be a challenge, as high self-discharge could take years to become fully apparent and theoretical life cycle models tend to underestimate the effects of both passivation and extreme temperatures.

The key is to gain valuable insight by demanding fully documented, long-term test results along with historic in-field performance data under similar environmental conditions. Gaining this knowledge will serve to reduce your cost of ownership.

Lowering your cost of ownership

Industrial grade applications require selfcontained power supplies that can perform reliably even in extreme environments. The future of industrial automation will be driven largely by electronic devices that are truly wireless with bobbin-type LiSOCl2 cells and, in certain instances, industrial grade Li-Ion rechargeable batteries supporting technology convergence and interoperability between a growing number of HART-

High pulse requirements

WirelessHART-enabled devices demand periodic pulses of up to 15 A to actuate two-way wireless communications. Unfortunately, standard bobbin-type LiSOCl2 cells are not designed to deliver high pulses. This challenge

2111_IIOT.indd 33

The variety of applications suitable for remote wireless sensors.

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34 AUTOMATION START-UPS AW NOVEMBER 2021

NEW TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES TO WATCH The complexities of industrial automation are leading innovators to develop an array of new technologies aimed at improving production and supply chain issues. This article highlights eight companies helping manufacturers chart a path toward industry’s future.

By David Greenfield, Director of Content, and Stephanie Neil, Senior Editor

I

n the world of automation, many technology providers are well-known names—at least to purchasers in the manufacturing and processing industries. But the rise of industrial digitalization has led to a large number of new companies entering the automation technology scene. These companies are targeting analytics and other software-related issues, developing new hardware devices, and increasingly combining hardware and software technologies to create smart devices.

As a follow-up to our last article exploring new technology start-ups to watch (awgo. to/1274), we give you the lowdown on eight new start-up companies to keep your eye on.

ADISRA’s name is inspired by the six concepts of resilience outlined in Judith Rodin's book, "The Resilience Dividend": Aware, Diverse, Integrated, Self-Regulating, and Adaptive.

ADISRA was started by serial entrepreneurs who wanted to address the void they saw in the market for cost-effective digital transformation technologies targeted at smaller companies. Ernest Roland is chairman and Marcia Gadbois is president and general manager.

Roland has been involved in the founding of several successful start-ups, such as CRISP Factory Automation software based on the OpenVMS operating system and InduSoft HMI and SCADA for mobile and web devices. Gadbois

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was the president of InduSoft, which was acquired by Invensys in 2013 before Invensys was acquired by Aveva in 2014.

ADISRA offers a building block approach to digital transformation via its ADISRA SmartView HMI and SCADA package designed for data collection and real-time analytics on edge devices. Gadbois said HMI and SCADA packages are evolving to offer users not just visualization and traditional HMI/SCADA functions, but analytics as well. “This added capability enables plant personnel to quickly and accurately make decisions about their process, helping them improve product quality, production rates, and safety, while addressing regulatory and compliance issues,” she said.

In addition to SmartView, ADISRA offers InsightView, a cloud-based OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) and analytics platform, which can be accessed via mobile, web, HMI, and desktop devices; and ADISRA KnowledgeView, a cloud-based proactive approach to quality and maintenance. Gadbois said KnowledgeView uses “advanced analytics and machine learning to localize potential equipment or quality malfunctions as early as possible to avoid the need for more reactive and complex maintenance or quality activities.”

ADISRA is a selffunded, privately held company. Gadbois said the company’s principal investors are the founders and its customers. The company focuses on small-to-mid-market discrete manufacturers with customers in industries ranging from automotive manufacturing to machinery OEMs to food and beverage and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Gadbois said ADISRA focuses on companies “looking for cost-effective solutions that are easy-to-deploy without the burden of an expansive IT support staff.”

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do repetitive tasks. Companies like Fizyr support human operators by taking on repetitive activities and letting the humans focus on value-adding tasks.

In 2016, Delft Robotics (founded

by Professor Martijn Wisse in 2014 as a spin-off from the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology) participated as a robotics integrator in the Amazon Picking challenge and won the competition—mainly due to its ability to apply deep learning. This led the company to pivot towards developing a deeplearning computer vision software product

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and re-branding as Fizyr in 2017.

According to the company, Fizyr means “scope” in Dutch, and the deep learning software the company provides has a broad scope of capabilities when it comes to picking up a variety of parcels. The Fizyr software enables robots to react to different packages as well as how they are stacked via a neural network of images.

Fizyr designs, builds, and installs the standardized computer vision software which is licensed to system integrators who build pick-and-place robotic cells to install in end user facilities. “Just as the camera and gripper are the eyes and arms of a robot, the vision software is the brain that analyzes the image and enables the robot to move accordingly,” said Fizyr CEO Herbert ten Have. “Fizyr’s cutting-edge software is a plug-and-play modular product providing picking-and-placing solutions in harsh logistics environments.”

Among other uses, this software can be targeted for e-commerce applications, in which the items to be picked can have great variation in terms of size, material, color, and placement—all of which are attributes for which traditional logistics systems often cannot account. That’s why the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning have the potential to alleviate common picking difficulties. Fizyr’s neural network is trained to classify an item, strategize the pressure required to pick the object, and propose the best possible grasp poses to select the item.

This capability also helps solve another challenge faced by industry—the labor shortage and heavy reliance on human pickers to

After learning that many companies manage their robots with various, cobbled-together technologies, Florian Pestoni, CEO, and Julian Cerruti, chief technology officer, founded InOrbit to address the common barriers to growth in robot operations.

InOrbit offers an artificial intelligencepowered, cloud-based, robot management platform that enables robotics companies and operators to develop, deploy, and orchestrate autonomous robots at global scale. According to InOrbit, its platform provides tools for effective fleet management observability, data analytics, and robot operations at scale. The goal of InOrbit is to help companies manage and optimize their robot fleet, whether it’s a handful of robots at a single site, or thousands of robots from various vendors across multiple locations.

Cerruti worked with robotics at Willow Garage, Savioke, and Clearpath, while Pestoni is a software engineer who transitioned to product responsibility at Microsoft and Facebook. Pestoni is also the organizer of the Robot Operations Working Group, a non-profit expert-driven community group dedicated to promoting effective robot operations.

The company’s latest funding round of $2.6 million was led by Animo Ventures, with participation by Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, and Kärcher New Venture.

Pestoni said InOrbit has “numerous customers to date and serves a variety of industries in the emerging robotics space—ranging from supply chain and logistics to cleaning, retail, agriculture, and food services.

Digitized industrial data is extremely valuable. The problem is, there’s too much data to collect and clean to quickly digitize it and enable its value-creating potential. Creating a business search engine for machine data to streamline this process is what senseering is doing. The idea for a data sharing platform took place in 2016 following the Ph.D. thesis

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of senseering founder Dr. Daniel Trauth, who explored the limits of an AI algorithm developed on a machine. In 2018, Trauth created senseering, a company dedicated to capture the missing machine data needed for effective data analyses.

“We have developed a platform for highfrequency IoT (Internet of Things) data based on Gaia-X and IOTA,” explained Trauth. Gaia-X is a project initiated by European representatives of business, science, and politics to create the next-generation data infrastructure. The IOTA Foundation is a non-profit organization developing the next-generation secure protocol layer for IoT. Senseering's platform looks at IoT data like a search engine. It is designed to find and access the right IoT data at the right time.

“Our IoT platform allows data to be found, shared, aggregated, and monetized across the globe so that every data scientist has access to the best data at any given time,” said Trauth.

According to Trauth, senseering's roots are in mid-sized B2B manufacturing companies.

Recently, however, companies in the smart cities, smart building, supply chain, chemistry, and food sectors have also become interested in cross-silo data exchange and global collaboration on shared data. To that end, senseering has now processed more than 100 billion high-frequency datasets from more than 15 industrial clients.

In 2020, the German federal government's largest and first AI innovation competition awarded senseering with equity-free funding of more than $910,000.

Noodle.ai was launched with a vision of combining advanced artificial machine intelligence with the best of human intelligence to create a world without waste. About $2 trillion is lost every year in the supply chain and 94% of the world's waste comes from industry in the form of excess inventory, product defects, unplanned downtime, and unfilled orders. The company has spent five years of R&D and invested $110 million developing its portfolio of artificial intelligence software to enable supply chains and manufacturers to eliminate waste before it happens through the use of AI-powered predictions and recommendations.

Noodle.ai's FlowOps technology product portfolio consists of five applications: Asset

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Flow, Quality Flow, Demand Flow, Inventory Flow, and Production Flow. The applications look for patterns in a company's operations, predict possible scenarios, continuously learn, and make recommendations that improve the smooth flow of goods from raw materials to factories to shelf. The technology is designed to address the problem of waste caused by operational inefficiency, otherwise known as operations entropy.

FlowOps helps users see and understand the most perilous hidden patterns that can disrupt their operations. The software provides a view into near-term risks with the context to understand the impact to the business measured in dollars. The software predicts problems before they happen and provides recommended actions for how to correct and prevent the issue from recurring.

It also explains each of the recommended actions and simulates scenarios to help decision-makers as it continually learns and improves with every decision made.

“This new category of software is a tango between machine and human intelligence— each doing what they do best,” said Stephen Pratt, Noodle.ai’s founder and CEO. “FlowOps applications synthesize data, identify patterns, and provide recommendations that augment the supply chain and the manufacturing professional’s ability to analyze the information and make the best data-informed decisions.”

Pratt founded Noodle.ai in 2016 after working at IBM as global leader for IBM Watson Services. The company has received funding from TPG Growth and Dell Technologies.

Noodle.ai has customers in the food and beverage, household goods, cosmetics, chemicals, steel, specialty metals, and automotive industries.

Recognizing that electric motors are one of the most common and inefficient machines that consume the most electricity globally, Turntide’s goal is the modernization of the world’s electric motors to reduce our global carbon footprint and avoid the worst of climate change.

Turntide founder Mark Johnson said, “Over 90% of the world’s motors are disconnected AC induction motors. These motors account for over 50% of global electricity consumption—more than lighting, heating, and electronics combined. The modernization of the

world’s motors is essential to driving down our demand for energy, ultimately reducing our carbon footprint, pollution, and business energy expenses.”

“Turntide’s Smart Motor System has a fundamentally different architecture,” said Johnson, “only using energy when needed. By incorporating patented control software, the motor optimizes efficiency at all speeds. And a cloud dashboard delivers real-time data on operating conditions and energy use to predict maintenance issues before they occur.”

Piyush Desai is Turntide’s current vice president of motor design, who came up with the idea of using a switch rotor positioned backwards to make it more power dense and efficient. Of course, this idea isn’t entirely new, as switched reluctance technology was developed in the 19th century. The problem is that switched reluctance motors (SRM) aren’t known for having much control precision.

Turntide’s development of HR-SRM (high rotor pole SRM), combined with control capabilities and software, led to the creation of what Turntide calls “the world’s most efficient and highly reliable smart motor.”

In 2021, Turntide announced $80 million in funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Robert Downey Jr.’s Footprint Coalition Ventures, the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Keyframe Capital, Fifth Wall’s Climate Technology Fund, and Captain Planet LP. Also in 2021, the company received another $225 million in convertible note financing, with investments from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Monashee Investment Management, JLL Spark, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Captain Planet LP, and Suvretta Capital Management.

This second investment in 2021 brought Turntide’s total funding to $400 million.

Turntide’s growing customer base includes more than 600 companies, including Amazon, which uses millions of motors in its distribution centers and corporate buildings, and BMW, which is piloting Turntide’s Smart Motor System at its plant in Spartanburg, S.C., to drive efficiency and significantly reduce the cost of electricity.

San Francisco-based Ware was formed to reduce the time-consuming manual labor associated with warehouse inventory management. The company was founded in 2019

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AUTOMATION START-UPS 37 AW NOVEMBER 2021

by Ian Smith, CEO, and Joseph Moster, chief technology officer. The two have more than 20 years of combined experience in the use of drones in the enterprise and have assembled a team of logistics and technology professionals.

Ware is an enterprise-level supply chain digitization platform positioned at the intersection of robotics and machine learning. The company’s first product uses drones to transform how the $1.9 trillion global warehousing and distribution center market tracks inventory. Ware deploys fleets of smart, self-flying drones from partner Skydio inside customers' facilities to help them track their inventory up to 40 times faster, with 50% fewer dedicated people.

“We help them realize savings of $1 million or more per year by helping reduce losses and spoilage,” said Smith.

According to Smith and Moster, automating warehouse cycle counts with Ware is a 3-step process: • Data capture: Self-flying, autonomous drones operate inside the warehouse, avoiding obstacles and capturing images of inventory.

• Data processing: Images are uploaded from the facility to Ware for analysis, barcodes are scanned, and inventory locations are identified.

• Report Delivery: Inventory reports are delivered in Ware Cloud. The software’s dashboard displays an artificial intelligence-assisted visual audit log of the warehouse’s inventory, prioritizing issues that require attention.

Ware’s most recent venture funding round was $2.5 million led by UP.Partners, including participation from Bloomberg Beta, 2048 Ventures, and Adam Bry, CEO of Skydio.

Focusing on automation providers, machine builders, and industrial end users, Zededa offers what it calls a “simple and scalable cloud-based orchestration solution that delivers visibility, control, and security for distributed edge computing.” The company says this gives “customers the freedom to deploy and manage any app on any hardware at hyperscale while connecting to any cloud or on-premises systems.”

Zededa’s system use the open-source EVE-OS from the Linux Foundation’s LF Edge

2111_F1.indd 37

organization to provide an open, flexible, and secure foundation and eliminate vendor lock-in. The company says its infrastructure foundation provides a “consistent experience when deploying edge applications for use cases such as OEE, predictive maintenance, quality control, and logistics. Its support for applications deployed in virtual machines enables operators to consolidate workloads by running legacy Windows-based apps (e.g., SCADA, HMI, historian) alongside modern applications (e.g., artificial intelligence/ machine learning) in containers.”

A key aspect of Zededa’s edge technology is its use of the zero-trust security model to segment layered OT (operations technology) control networks from IT systems with distributed firewall capabilities. The technology reportedly supports any edge hardware and application format, compared to others that typically only support Docker containers. The zero-trust security model features siliconbased root of trust, a crypto-based ID that eliminates local device login credentials, measured boot, remote attestation, and full disk encryption. This combination of capabilities is said to ensure device integrity, detect anomalies in the software stack, and govern data flow from edge to cloud with a policy-based distributed firewall. Compliance requirements are met via centralized management with rolebased access control.

Zededa’s founders—Said Ouissal, Roman Shaposhnik, and Erik Nordmark—founded the company to help users deal with the unprecedented amount of data now generated at the edge of the network and via the internet.

They determined that the only way companies could reasonably deal with all this data would be to move the analytics and inference to the edge where the data are generated, as it would be too expensive and time consuming to upload all of this data to the cloud and analyze it there.

To date, Zededa has raised $31.5 million from principal investors such as Lux Capital, Energize Ventures, Almaz Capital, Rockwell Automation, Juniper Networks, EDF North Amer-

ica Ventures, and HBAM. Zededa currently has more than 20 customers in the manufacturing, oil and gas, and energy industries.

10/27/21 1:43 PM

38 CASE STUDY AW NOVEMBER 2021

Middle River Power’s Tracy, Calif., plant.

Turbine Retrofit Reduces Hot Startup Time, Increases Revenues

Replacing legacy steam turbine controls with Emerson’s Ovation distributed control system technology enabled a Middle River Power plant to better adapt to fluctuations in renewable energy generation.

By Jeanne Schweder, Contributing Writer

A

ny competition runner will tell you that being the fastest off the block is a big boost if you want to be the first to break the tape at the finish line. The Middle River Power plant in Tracy, Calif., took the same approach to producing megawatts of additional power more quickly. The plant’s combustion turbine purge credit retrofit project, managed by Emerson, reduced the plant’s hot startup time by 30%. As a result, it’s expected to generate an additional $170,000 in annual revenue.

A combined-cycle power plant, like Middle River Power’s Tracy plant, combines two thermodynamic cycles to improve the overall

2111_F2.indd 38

efficiency of gas-fired generation. The first cycle (Brayton) is completed in the gas turbine engine. The resulting thermal mass in the exhaust, which might otherwise be vented into the atmosphere, is captured in a heat exchanger called a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) where steam is produced and sent to a steam turbine (Rankine Cycle) to produce many more megawatts per unit of fuel burned with a significantly reduced heat rate.

The Tracy plant, located 80 miles southeast of San Francisco, is owned by Middle River Power LLC and operated by NAES Corporation. The retrofit project was initiated in response to fluctuations in renewable energy generation, which was causing the 323MW, 2x1 combined cycle plant to start frequently— typically 250 to 300 times per year. Wind and solar assets are typically placed into the power grid whenever they are available, but

since they are intermittent, power plants are cycled in to balance the grid.

“Many combined cycle plants were designed for baseload or traditional generation. Cyclic operation increases the thermal stresses on plant equipment, which can lead to premature failures and forced outages,” explains Emerson’s Brett Benson. “Market changes necessitate the need to bring units online faster to balance the variability of renewable, intermittent energy sources. The ability to rapidly bring a unit online can mean the difference between being dispatched or left idle by the system operator.”

Making the change

Unless it is addressed, cycling can both reduce unit availability and increase costs.

According to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “A major root cause of

10/27/21 1:11 PM

CASE STUDY 39 AW NOVEMBER 2021

increased operations and maintenance costs for many fossil units is cycling.”

Prior to the retrofit project, the gasfired Tracy plant was required to perform a 20-minute, fresh air pre-start purge cycle to remove potentially explosive residual fuels from the combustion system. The purge cycle extended overall startup times, putting the plant at greater risk of a delayed or failed start and missing its power purchase agreement (PPA) dispatch obligations, which could potentially trigger substantial financial penalties.

To reduce that risk, NAES took advantage of a change to the National Fire Protection Association’s “NFPA 85: Boiler and Combustion Systems Hazard Code,” which gave them the option to eliminate the prestart purge by modifying fuel and monitoring systems. Emerson’s turnkey project scope included mechanical, electrical, and control system design, as well as installation and commissioning.

While replacing steam turbine controls and the excitation system at the Tracy plant with its Ovation distributed control system technology, Emerson also made National Fire Protection Association-compliant mechanical modifications to the fuel train in addition to related changes to the combustion turbine and duct burner control logic. “[The] Tracy [plant] has seen immediate results following the implementation of the purge credit project, most notably significantly reduced startup time. Emerson’s technology and engineering resources got this project across the line for us, and we are extremely pleased with the results,” says Nick van Haeften, maintenance manager, NAES Corporation.

years, which is beyond the timeframe of the utility’s current PPA. All told, this project is expected to result in a return on investment in only two to three years.

“Today’s power market is more competitive than ever,” says Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water business. “NAES

is a forward-thinking organization that recognized how the purge credit can boost reliability and revenue, thereby putting the Tracy plant in an excellent position to capitalize on future market opportunities.”

Additional benefits

Reducing the plant’s startup time may also help the Tracy plant avoid the expense of PPA failed-start penalties, which can exceed $300,000 per incident. Within the first two weeks after the project was completed, one failed start was avoided due to the ability to re-start after a trip and still meet the dispatch.

Other expected economic and operational benefits include eliminating the 20-minute purge of ambient temperature air through the turbine and reducing the thermal stress on the heat recovery steam generation. This is expected to extend the life of the unit by deferring maintenance costs for three to six

2111_F2.indd 39

10/27/21 1:11 PM

40 CASE STUDY AW NOVEMBER 2021

Spitz Digitalizes Its Production with Manufacturing Execution System To future-proof its operations, which produce more than 1 million products a day, Spitz turned to Siemens Simatic IT Production Suite to increase process stability and product quality while connecting its business and process control systems.

By Jeanne Schweder, Contributing Writer

I

f you’re charged with making small batches of many different products, ensuring consistency from batch to batch is a daunting task, one requiring precise control of every aspect of the manufacturing process At the Spitz factory in Attnang-Puchheim, Austria, they’ve turned to digitalization to provide the flexibility, efficiency, and quality required to make a broad spectrum of products.

Every day, roughly 1.2 million products leave the Spitz factory. The company operates 30 process lines and 35 filling and packaging plants. Its automated manufacturing processes make everything from liqueurs, iced tea, and mineral water to wafers, sliced bread, sauces, jams, and honey.

“Automation and digitalization are extremely important for Spitz,” says Walter Scherb, Jr., CEO of the Spitz Group. “The goal is to manufacture new products even more quickly in the future. To achieve that, we’re relying on developing our own recipes as a decisive competitive advantage.”

To make production as efficient and economical as possible, Spitz uses Siemens digitalization technology to convert information from every process used in the factory to a digital format. “Our existing system for production control was no longer able to handle the demands of digitalization,” says Scherb. “We wanted to implement a new, future-ready system that could be expanded over the long term. It was important for us that we be able to control all production processes via one system and process them in real time.”

The end-to-end, integrated system—Siemens Simatic IT Production Suite manufacturing execution system (MES)—not only increases process stability and product quality, according to Scherb, it also minimizes potential sources of error. This software

2111_F3.indd 40

controls production and manufacturing systems, matches the production processes to the delivery chain, and closes the gap between business systems and process control systems. Materials management and operating data acquisition are both integrated in the software.

A production line can be switched to another product practically at the push of a button, and each product changeover is optimized to minimize losses and delays.

Although setup time for certain machines must be reckoned with, the actual process control is performed automatically, as is the retrieval of the specified amounts of raw materials required for the particular product and of the materials necessary for the subsequent packaging.

Specific benefits

Order data is linked directly to the ongoing process. At the same time, production and consumption data are supplied to the higherlevel system. Thanks to digitalization, the procedure is the same at all the plants, meaning that the data from all production processes is complete, consistent, and comparable.

All silo filling levels are also recorded in the new system on a batch-specific basis, along with the type and quality of raw materials. After a specific raw material has been removed from a silo or pallet, its amount and the path it follows in the individual production lines are precisely documented.

In addition, Scherb says it will soon be possible to adapt the individual recipes to the properties of the raw materials used, such as

Product changeovers at the push of a button. Source: Siemens

10/27/21 1:32 PM

CASE STUDY 41 AW NOVEMBER 2021

sugar content. The recipe can then be automatically recalculated and modified so that the end product always has the same flavor, texture, and appearance.

A welcome side effect is that there’s no possibility of using the wrong raw material because the system verifies whether the material being supplied should be part of the order. If an error occurs, the system immediately sounds an alarm.

ing maintenance cycles easier and ensures high machine availability.

“When it comes to digitalization,” explains Scherb, “I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘whether’ but of ‘when.’ We’ve simply taken early action. We see many opportunities for digitalization, both to improve product qual-

ity and consistency and to increase sustainability. It’s making us more flexible. It supports product safety and quality as well as uniformity in production.”

Energy and maintenance applications

To optimize the process in terms of both operation and energy, Spitz also uses the Siemens energy management system. This system shows how much energy is being used as well as where, and whether, unused energy is being lost.

In the future, condition monitoring could also play an important role at Spitz.

In this case, sensors will be used to monitor each individual motor for temperature, acoustics, and vibration. Determining the motor condition in this way makes schedul-

2111_F3.indd 41

Bottling line at Spitz factory in upper Austria. Source: Siemens

10/27/21 1:32 PM

42 NEW PRODUCTS AW NOVEMBER 2021

Compact Industrial PC

Beckhoff, beckhoff.com With the C7015 ultra-compact Industrial PC, Beckhoff combines its expertise with PC-based machine control and IP65/67rated components. The result is an industrial PC (IPC) designed with IP65/67 protection for direct installation on machines or other equipment. The Microsoft Azure certified and Amazon Web Store qualified edge device is suitable for decentralized installation and provides multi-core computing performance. As a control computer, the device also reduces control cabinet space requirements, optimizes machine design, and simplifies subsequent system expansions. The C7015 measures 85x167x43 mm.

Soft Starter for Motors

Danfoss, danfoss.us The VLT Soft Starter MCD 600 offers a variety of Ethernet and serial-based communication option cards, application-dedicated smart cards, and support for eight languages. It provides the latest in soft start motor control and protection for superior performance in fixed-speed applications wherever drives are used. The product provides all the features and functions of a standard MCD 600 Soft Starter in a compact NEMA12 or NEMA3R enclosure, with circuit breaker, keypad, and operators on the door. Other standard features include: Mains voltage range 3 x 480V AC; inbuilt impeller cleaning assistance with pump clean functionality; advanced start, stop, and protection features; DC injection braking; and multiple programming setup menus.

ROUTING ALL KINDS OF CABLES AND CONNECTORS THROUGH 1 KNOCK-OUT WITH IMAS-CONNECT™ www.icotek.com

Motor Protection Circuit Breakers

Rockwell Automation, rockwellautomation.com The Allen-Bradley Bulletin 140MT motor protection circuit breakers from Rockwell Automation offer enhanced Type F combination motor controller ratings when used with Bulletin 100-C and 100-E contactors, enabling assembled starters to be applied without additional branch circuit protection. Tap conductor protection ratings mean these devices can be wired with smaller conductors in group motor installations to save costs. The products are available as motor circuit protectors for three-component starters and motor protection circuit breakers for two-component starters. Special 140MT product variants also address specific applications, like providing protection at output of variable frequency drive (VFD) in multi-motor applications or protection of high-inrush, high-efficiency motors.

2111_Products.indd 42

10/27/21 1:36 PM

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44 IT VIEW

AW NOVEMBER 2021

A Tale of T�ree Clients and T�eir Journeys to MES

By Tim Gellner Systems Integration Consultant, Rockwell Automation

T�ey assumed that all of the machines could be connected and integrated into the MES as they were, and therefore made no attempt to validate the assumption leading up to the MES engagement. T�is approach proved to be problematic in that it became necessary to perform a detailed survey of the machines to determine if a data interface could be accomplished in the older machines.

T

his is a short story about three clients, each in the early stages of an MES (manufacturing execution system) implementation. These clients are in different businesses, but their production processes and shop floor equipment are very similar.

They each employ CNC machines and other related equipment to produce their respective products, and each client has plans to connect that equipment to the MES to provide an automated means of gathering critical production data that is, at present, either being recorded manually or not at all.

While each of the three clients face differing challenges in getting their production equipment connected, they each have chosen a different approach to achieve it.

category. This client is also adding new machines to their facility. They currently do not have an automated means of gathering data from the machines they have; they rely on manual collection of production data.

They knew up front that they needed production data from their machines to support the MES project. They also knew that it made sense to break up the MES implementation into three phases—essentially a crawl, walk, run approach. The decision was made that as part of the first phase, we would conduct a proof of concept of machine connectivity on a small cross section of their machines. Once the interfaces were proven, the remainder of the machines could be brought online in the second phase of the project.

Client #1

Client #3

This client has tens of machines from which they want to gather data. The machines range in age from 10 to 30+ years old, over half of which fall into the latter category. They have data interfaces to the newer machines and collect a limited amount of data from them. Their approach to the integration and the MES implementation was to eat the elephant in one bite. They assumed that all of the machines could be connected and integrated into the MES as they were, and therefore made no concerted attempt to validate the assumption leading up to the MES engagement. This approach proved to be problematic in that it became necessary to perform a detailed survey of the machines to determine if a data interface could be accomplished in the older machines. The client will have the ability to access machine production data via OPC on the newer machines. For the older machines they are limited to hardwired I/O connections to the controllers which provide running, stopped, and trouble indications to a small PLC which the MES can access. This additional exercise delayed the MES definition phase of the project and added cost.

The third client is primarily installing new equipment. They knew that they would need to get data from the machines for the MES implementation and, based on that knowledge, they engaged early with both the OEMs and the MES team to determine how best to get the interfaces defined. This early engagement resulted in machines being delivered to the facility with an essentially plug-and-play data interface preconfigured by the OEMs. The takeaway from these stories is that, regardless of the approach taken to machine connectivity, it can always be done to one degree or another. The client’s conditions, expectations, and assumptions play a large part in easing the pain and cost of implementation of a MES/IIoT application.

Client #2

The second client has fewer machines that generally fall into the 20 years old and newer

2111_ITView.indd 44

10/27/21 1:41 PM

ADVERTISER INDEX 45

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (Requester Publications Only) 1. Publication Title

2. Publication N umber

4. Issue Frequency

5. N umber of Issues Published A nnually

Automation World

1 5 5 3

Monthly

_

AW NOVEMBER 2021

COMPANY

TELEPHONE

WEBSITE

PAGE

Automation Direct

800.633.0405

www.ProductivityPLCs.com

Automation24 Inc.

800.250.6772

www.automation24.com

Beckhoff Automation

952.890.0000

www.beckhoff.com

CIMON

800.300.9916

www.Cimon.com

Digi-Key Electronics

800.344.4539

www.digikey.com/automation

Endress + Hauser USA

888.363.7377

www.us.endress.com/calibration-usa 19

Galco Industrial Electronics

888.526.0909

www.Galco.com

Hammond Manufacturing

716.630.7030

www.hammondmfg.com

41

icotek North America

312.643.2315

www.icotek.com

42

Inductive Automation

800.266.0909

demo.ia.io/automation

888.917.9109

www.mavtechglobal.com

48

PACK EXPO East 2022

www.packexpoeast.com

43

ROKLive, A Rockwell Automation Event

www.rok.auto/roklive

13

Telemecanique Sensors

www.tesensors.com/XCMW

21

www.winsted.com

39

3 . Filing Date

Oct 1, 2021

1 2 2 4

12

6. A nnual Subscription Price (if any)

N/A

7. Complete Mailing A ddress of K nown Office of Publication (Not printer) (Street, city, county, state, and Z IP+ 4 ®)

2

Contact Person

George Shurtleff

PMMI Media Group, 401 North Michigan Ave., Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60601

Telephone (Include area code)

312-205-7890

8. Complete Mailing A ddress of H eadquarters or G eneral Business Office of Publisher (Not printer)

36-A

PMMI Media Group, 401 North Michigan Ave., Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60601 9 . Full N ames and Complete Mailing A ddresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor (D o not leave blank) Publisher (Name and complete mailing address)

Kurt Belisle, PMMI Media Group, 401 North Michigan Ave., Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60601

17, 31

Editor (Name and complete mailing address)

David Greenfield, PMMI Media Group, 401 North Michigan Ave., Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60601 Managing Editor (Name and complete mailing address)

10. Owner (D o not leave blank. If the publication is owned by a corporation, give the name and address of the corporation immediately followed by the names and addresses of all stockholders owning or holding 1 percent or more of the total amount of stock. If not owned by a corporation, give the names and addresses of the individual owners. If owned by a partnership or other unincorporated firm, give its name and address as well as those of each individual owner. If the publication is published by a nonprofit organiz ation, give its name and address.)

Complete Mailing Address Full Name

PMMI

12-A, 1 (select issues) 7

11911 Worldgate Drive, #200, Herndon VA 20170

11. K nown Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security H olders Owning or H olding 1 Percent or More of Total A mount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities. If none, check box .

N one Full Name

Complete Mailing Address

12. Tax Status (For completion by nonprofit organiz ations authoriz ed to mail at nonprofit rates) (Check one) The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organiz ation and the ex empt status for federal income tax purposes: H as N ot Changed During Preceding 12 Months H as Changed During Preceding 12 Months (Publisher must submit explanation of change with this statement.)

PS Form 3526-R, July 2014 [Page 1 of 4 (See instructions page 4)] PSN : 753 0- 09 - 000- 8855

8-9

PRIVACY NOTICE: See our privacy policy on www.usps.com.

5

MAVERICK Technologies, 13 . Publication Title

14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below

Automation World

September 2021

15. Ex tent and Nature of Circulation

Average No. Copies No. Copies of Single Each Issue During Issue Published Preceding 12 Months Nearest to Filing Date

49,843

a. Total N umber of Copies (Net press run) Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3 541.

(Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing, and Internet (1) requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) b. Legitimate Paid and/or In- County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3 541.

Requested (Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing, and Internet Distribution (2) requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, (By mail employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) and outside Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street V endors, Counter the mail) (3 ) Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside U SPS® (4)

35,860

35,601

0

0

20

d. N onrequested (2) Distribution (By mail and outside the mail) (3 )

(4)

Outside County N onrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3 541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources) In- County N onrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3 541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources) N onrequested Copies Distributed Through the U SPS by Other Classes of Mail (e.g., First-Class Mail, nonrequestor copies mailed in excess of 10% limit mailed at Standard Mail ® or Package Services rates)

Total N onrequested Distribution [Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)]

f.

Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and e)

g.

Copies not Distributed (See Instructions to Publishers #4, (page #3))

h.

Total (Sum of 15f and g)

i.

Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15c divided by 15f times 100)

35,621

13,416

13,780

0

0

0

0

350

N onrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail (Include pickup stands, trade shows, showrooms, and other sources)

e.

0

35,881

c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4))

(1)

20

0

Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the U SPS (e.g., First- Class Mail®)

Winsted World Headquarters 800.447.2257 15,180 50,801 639 51,440 70%

* If you are claiming electronic copies, go to line 16 on page 3 . If you are not claiming electronic copies, sk ip to line 17 on page 3 .

PS Form 3526-R, July 2014 (Page 2 of 4)

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (Requester Publications Only)

Automation World Magazine a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) c. Total Requested Copy Distribution (Line 15f) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c Í 100)

800.435.2121

1,400

13,766 49,647 150 49,797 72%

16. Electronic Copy Circulation

a Rockwell Company

52,840

Average No. Copies Each Issue During Previous 12 Months

No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date

4,744 40,625 54,391 75%

4,796 40,417 55,597 73%

NOVEMBER 2021 INDUSTRIAL ETHERNET OF THINGS Fabco-Air

352.373.3578

www.fabco-air.com

22

Festo Corporation

866.GO.FESTO

www.festo.com/VTEM

29

Opto 22

800.321.6786

www.opto22.com

47

PI North America

480.483.2456

www.us.profinet.com/go-digital

25

Tadiran Batteries

800.537.1368

www.tadiranbat.com

11

Wago Corporation

800.DIN-RAIL

www.wago.us/systemfield

15

I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies.

17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the issue of this publication.

18. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner

George Shurtleff PMMI Media Group Production Manager 630-329-1967

November 2021 Date

10/1/2021

I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

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 11.

3526-R, PS Form

July 2014 (Page 3 of 4)

November2021_AW_AdIndex.indd 119

PRIVACY NOTICE: See our privacy policy on www.usps.com.

11/2/21 3:31 PM

46 KEY INSIGHTS AW NOVEMBER 2021

The machine learning and motion planning used in Honeywell’s Smart Flexible Depalletizer optimize the movements of the robotic arm to ensure maximum picking speed. The system’s control logic senses the weight of each item as the robot lifts it and automatically updates its gripping response to transfer each product securely.

Because the system uses machine learning to operate, the more picks the robot performs, the more it learns and continues to improve in unloading pallets.

David Greenfield on the introduction of Honeywell’s Smart Flexible Depalletizer at PACK EXPO 2021. awgo.to/1270

What this means is that RoBex can build a custom-designed, integrated robotic system based on a manufacturer’s unique needs that RoBex ultimately owns and is responsible for. For example, a palletizing application that typically takes six people to manually operate across multiple shifts can be replaced with an automated robotic palletizing system that creates a significant cost savings on the line—estimated at up to 50% savings—while allowing organizations to redistribute valuable talent to other areas of the factory where they are needed most.

Stephanie Neil on the RoBex Flexx technology licensing program. awgo.to/1271

Once a dashboard is designed and deployed, key performance indicators and other information are available at your fingertips. The hassle of manually extracting raw data from a system, manipulating it in Excel, and creating charts for that data is a thing of the past. The dashboard will collect and transform all the necessary data for you.

Ed Miller of Avanceon on the benefits of modern dashboards. awgo.to/1272

Bosch Rexroth’s ctrlX Store features applications from Bosch Rexroth as well as third-party providers. According to the company, the primary goal of the marketplace is to help manufacturers speed time-to-market while maintaining the ability to customize their offerings and differentiate themselves from their competitors. By making an ecosystem of turnkey applications available, the challenges that come along with configuration, programming, and design when setting up a line or engaging in product changeover can be greatly reduced.

David Miller on Bosch Rexroth’s new ctrlX Store, featured at PACK EXPO 2021. awgo.to/1269

A system failure is the wrong time to realize that you don’t have the internal capability to diagnose and repair the issue.

A risk reduction strategy should involve planning a response to incidents and, if the capability isn’t the best it could be within your team, outsourcing can be the best solution.

Levi Martins of Nukon on the importance of safeguarding your critical systems. awgo.to/1273

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