Textbooks are great for building concepts, and would probably bombard you with a plethora of information that you might think is enough to strive in the practical world. The truth however uncovers itself the day you graduate and get an on-site job. Several graduates are surprised with the level of

The word “convergence” started gaining a foothold in the industrial world over the start of the 21st century when several trends shifted, with time-tested technologies such as PLCs taking over the new process automation markets and newer concepts such as PC-based controls taking over discrete autom

Energy efficiency within a plant can be improved drastically if the energy usage can be monitored reliably and displayed clearly. Human Machine Interfaces or HMIs can help make this a reality, as they can connect with the associated RTUs and controllers to provide a comprehensive energy usage summa

In recent years, the increased diversification of power generation has raised the complexity involved with its management and analysis. For example, the U.S. branch of a large-scale electrical utility company built a national control center in Portland, where it helps customers realize the risks as

An embedded system consists of a wide spectrum of definitions. It is widely understood as an engineering term that varies by application, usage, and context. These systems are likely to contain elements of communications, hardware, software, and control loops such as closed-loop or open-loop modes.

Manufacturers and machine builders are facing an ever-increasing demand for digitized solutions as more and more corporations adopt digital workflows to achieve higher efficiencies and production numbers. The Industrial Internet of Things serves as the perfect answer to all these problems and is ca

Industrial Equipment Manufacturers are the designers and developers of specific types of industrial equipment that doesn’t require much customization, such as plastic forming equipment and packaging machinery. These systems are often designed in a manner that makes them highly inflexible to customi

Downtime, quality control, and performance efficiency are some of the biggest concerns for manufacturers when it comes to their production lines. This, combined with harsh and variable work environments, makes the challenge of maintaining optimal throughout even more difficult. Variable Frequency

Engineers and technicians can face a lot of difficulty when configuring and wiring their control panel housings, even when following the instructions that come bundled with them. Usually, panels have to house an ever-increasing array of devices, giving wiggle room to uncertainties such as expansion

The steady advancement in sensory and control technology has allowed engineers to accumulate and display more information than necessary on human-machine-interfaces. For years, designers have used indicator lamps to alert operators and color-coded LEDs to indicate the status of vital assets. When i

Open-source libraries have been a hit throughout the technological world, outside of industrial automation of course. Open-source code from the very start has been a fundamental pillar of computing and is evident from the success of software such as Linux, mySQL, PHP, and so on. It has been reporte

The rapid momentum that Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 implementations have gained during the recent years has given rise to increased threat of cyber attacks. There is a vacuum between information technology and operations technology that needs to be filled by security mechanisms a

A process that is integrative in nature tends to produce an output that is proportional to the running total of input values that have been accumulated over time. If the input turns negative then the process would bring a proportional decrease in its amplitude, lowering the output. For instance, f

Manufacturers deal with ever-increasing stacks of information, both in structured and unstructured formats. The databases used for storing this information aren’t always interconnected, something that significantly reduces business value and customer expectations. In order to achieve innovatio

So, you’ve been assigned with the task of finding a comprehensive conference calling solution for your office. You contact various vendors and at the end of the day have various options to choose from. Some of them involve buying individual components such as camera, microphone, etc. and integratin

Linear motion is referred to as moving an object in a straight line, typically with a programmed speed and in a specific position. One of the most common linear-motion devices used within industries is a simple pneumatic cylinder. The appliance makes use of the pressure and flow of air within a cyl

Case in point: A major oil and gas company began routine inspections of its pipeline network, using the same physical device, i.e. “the pig. Instead of sending the raw data to human analysts and waiting for analysis, it was sent to a machine learning solution. The result was identification of a sev

It’s finally springtime and the sun is shining, birds are building nests, flowers are starting to bloom — oh, and your control panel is filthy. You probably already know why preventative maintenance as simple as cleaning your panels matters, but just in case you need to jumpstart your motivat

It’s a beautiful day outside. But the sun is high overhead and the temperature is going through the roof. As the air conditioning struggles to keep up, all the machinery, drives, panels are running, doing their job. Then, all of a sudden, everything shuts down. After investigation, you find that o

The 1970s saw the introduction of PLCs or Programmable Logic Controllers, which would forever change the way automation is achieved in industrial environments. Known for its rugged design and scalable implementation, the PLC was adapted by all major manufacturers and to this day is the norm for in