Panel Builder & Systems Integrator was given the opportunity to ask Steve Loftus, President and co-founder of Innovative Automation, about himself, the company and what continues to drive its success.
Recently, while doing research, I came across an interesting article that forced me to stop and consider how insightful the article was when we consider the current application of automation on the manufacturing industry. The article titled “The Scope of Automation” by S. Moos was originally published in the Economic Journal in 1957.
Packaging and palletizing has become a large part of the control and automation industry, particularly in general manufacturing and the food and beverage industry. This is not surprising as automation of packaging and palletizing can reduce labour costs and save time while increasing productivity. Further, and particular to the food and beverage industry, automation ensures safe and uncontaminated packaging and as we will see can cut costs in other areas of the production process through system integration.
Wherever pumping systems are present–in environments such as buildings and water / wastewater and oil and gas facilities–energy consumption exerts a major influence on cost. Despite the fact that electrical energy cost represents 40% of the total cost of ownership of pumping systems, many organizations fail to introduce the proper steps to leverage cost reduction through efficiency improvements. To solve this dilemma, the following major barriers need to be recognized and addressed: Lack of proper metrics – Energy efficiency has traditionally not been used in assessing performance.
Employees from AL-KO THERM GMBH were visiting an EPLAN stand at a trade fair and by chance came across EPLAN Engineering Configuration (EEC) – the system that enables simple and consistent configuration of mechatronics systems. They now use EEC worldwide as a configurator and benefit from significantly simpler instrumentation and control (I&C) engineering.
Bürkert Fluid Control Systems is a manufacturer of control and measuring systems for fluids and gases. The company’s products have a wide variety of applications and are used in a number of industries such as water treatment, hygienic processing, gas handling and microfluidics. Bürkert products and systems can be used wherever fluid media and gases need to be measured, controlled and regulated.
The prevailing trend in Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) networking is the convergence of technology, specifically IACS operational technology (OT) with information technology (IT). Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) helps to enable IACS network technology convergence through the use of standard Ethernet, Internet Protocol (IP), network services, security services and EtherNet/IP. A converged IACS network technology helps to enable the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Safety standards in the electrical industry are constantly evolving and requiring that contractors adapt to changes as fast as they occur. H.J. Bartlett Electric Inc. has evolved along with the changes to ensure it provides the most update to date protection for its workers.
Intermatic is a North American family-owned energy control company celebrating its 125th year in business. Founded in 1891, the firm has achieved success owing to their unrelenting dedication to forward-thinking, high-calibre employees and reliable products.
The needs of system operators have changed drastically – there is a trend for higher packing density in the control cabinet and consequently ever narrower components. With “Termitrab complete”, Phoenix Contact is now launching the world’s narrowest surge protection for MCR technology (measurement, control, and regulation) – the narrowest devices are just 3.5 mm wide (Figure 1 High safety for persons and the environment – ensured by a comprehensive surge protection with minimal space requirements).
Fewer than two percent of executives at large organizations say their companies have a clear vision of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), with implementation well underway. That is according to a new report by consultancy Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network, working in partnership with The CMO Council, Penton’s IoT Institute, and The Nerdery.
Floyd Lau founded Amptek Technologies in 2002 as an end to end engineering design company, but it has since grown to produce its own product brand that is now entering the IoT and lighting market.
Part 1 of this 4-part series introduced ways in which increasing digitization might improve plant operations. Here in Part 2: how IIoT can improve the productivity of reactive, preventive, predictive and proactive maintenance.
Part 1 of this 4-part series introduced ways in which increasing digitization might improve plant operations.
If you had researched the Industrial Internet of Things online in the mid-1990s, there might have been a handful of results. But if you searched on terms like asset performance management, predictive maintenance, and computerized maintenance management, you would have found thousands of entries. While such maintenance automation is finally gaining a foothold in industry, realizing its full potential has been hampered by limited access to the contextual data related to things like system wear and performance degradation.
North America dominates the global market for automation and control system in pharmaceutical and biotech industry due to large number of aging population and accelerates investment in the industry.
This project is funded [in part] by the Government of Canada.
Ce projet est financé [en partie] par le gouvernement du Canada.
