“Without automation, further improvement in living standards around the world becomes hard to imagine and even more difficult to achieve,” states Beckhoff Automation managing director, Hans Beckhoff. “Automation technology affects many areas of human life, since any increase in the well-being of society is closely related to industrial productivity gains.”
This dynamic provides compelling reasons to undertake constructive technology assessments – from both positive and negative standpoints. “Particularly due to the fact that since automation technology stimulates progress, it requires serious self-analysis,” he explains.
As an example, he mentions Nobilia, the world’s largest kitchen manufacturer, where Beckhoff technology plays a key role in advanced production methodologies. The number of production stages per custom kitchen was reduced significantly, despite the fact that manufacturing in batch size 1 has been around for years through the integration of Industry 4.0 concepts. However, increased productivity highlights only one benefit of automation. Many modern products could not be produced at all without the aid of advanced control technology, due to their nearly endless variety of dimensions and formats, or due to stringent precision and quality requirements. Through its open, fully-integrated product range based on PC-based control technology, Beckhoff benefits tremendously from this development.
Data-based applications for even greater progress
Data-based applications create new opportunities for society to progress. In the B2C sector, this can go as far as transforming lives. “Whole professions can change for the better and new ones can rise up,” says Beckhoff. “Cloud databases make this possible, and many new applications will emerge as a result. One example, outside the realm of automation, is cloud-based diagnostics in the medical industry.”
Further significant growth is also expected in the manufacturing sector. “Automation has always been the driver for productivity improvements,” says Beckhoff. “With Industry 4.0, this trend is accelerating further. Batch size 1 manufacturing is becoming increasingly common in many applications, both in mass production and in smaller, decentralised production facilities. PC-based control has established itself as an ideal platform for both production models, and the use of highly connected systems and devices will continue to grow. On the production side, new business models will emerge to access and capitalise on the additional production data.”
Today’s industry trends, such as batch size 1 manufacturing and 3D printing, as well as new business models for Industry 4.0, require data-intensive automation. The question is: How will the large volumes of data be managed? TwinCAT Analytics technology is the answer. “This exciting new software enables TwinCAT 3 automation software to store process data in a cycle-synchronous manner and record it in a standardised data model. This is a true Industry 4.0 technology that is beneficial for all industries,” says Beckhoff. “The result is a full ‘transcript’ of the process image and the production data. This is similar to a data recorder, where all data is logged and serves as the basis for a wide range of useful analytical functions.”
Analysis can be performed easily for service tasks. For the purpose of optimisation, the cycle times and/or the energy consumption of each individual module can be analysed, for instance, the duty cycle of pump motors or the number of switching cycles of a solenoid valve. Another example is how the machine ‘transcript’ can be used to analyse malfunctions that may have occurred during the night, without the need for new measurements. The recorded production data, with corresponding context, is ideally suited to such analysis. Error messages are stored and process variations can be precisely traced. In the context of batch size 1, TwinCAT Analytics enables complete documentation for each individual work-piece. TwinCAT Analytics also enables the compacting of cyclically logged data.
Controllers and services communicate directly with each other
Another highlight from Beckhoff relates to provisions for data in IoT and Industry 4.0 applications. “With new TwinCAT IoT Communication, we present an easy-to-use software library for IoT applications,” says Beckhoff. “The library supports widely-used protocols for cloud communication, including AMQP and MQTT for push messages to smart devices. By fully-leveraging these standard protocols, each industrial controller can communicate with cloud-based services. One service may deliver alarm and status messages to smartwatches, for example. The software is quick and easy to configure and, together with an Embedded PC as the IoT controller, TwinCAT IoT enables seamless connection between the Internet of Things and the Internet of Services.”
Both software products are examples of the convergence of information and automation technology. “Our convergence effort started as early as 1985 with the beginnings of PC-based control,” says Beckhoff. “This has continued consistently, right up to the introduction of TwinCAT 3 with Visual Studio integrated and the newest products to use production data for IoT and Industry 4.0. At Beckhoff, new product innovations quite often emerge from technological observations of IT trends, in some cases even from studying consumer products such as data glasses for use as a wearable HMI.
From a historical perspective on IT trends, first there was the Internet, followed by all the innovative ideas about what to do with it. Similarly, for data mining, Beckhoff expects the emergence of many other good ideas on how to utilise stored production data, noting that machine controllers will provide the corresponding information.
High-performance Web-based user interfaces
An important prerequisite for highly flexible manufacturing is a high-performance process visualisation that provides users with an overview of production, anywhere and at any time. In order to save engineering time and avoid multiple data entries, control and visualisation are “cast into one piece” today.
With the new TwinCAT HMI solution, Beckhoff now presents its own HMI software system, based on pure web development technology via HTML5 and JavaScript – yet another example of the increasing convergence of automation technology with IT. “TwinCAT HMI has a high-performance, yet basic structure which is completely modular and quick and easy to configure,” emphasises Beckhoff. “The platform-independent system offers multi-client, multi-runtime and server capability. Any device with an integrated web browser can be used as a display for the HMI system, which offers many exciting new possibilities.”
Based on the ‘What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get’ programming philosophy, users can assemble pages intuitively. In other words, a document is displayed on the monitor during editing exactly as it appears when it is output on another device. It is also possible to incorporate cameras and related devices. Additionally, software specialists can write their own programs in high-level languages and integrate them in TwinCAT HMI. Seamless connectivity is ensured through a wide range of common or industry-specific protocols, including OPC UA, TwinCAT ADS or BACnet. As the software is further expanded, TwinCAT HMI is certain to become one of the main product lines from Beckhoff.
For more information contact Kenneth McPherson, Beckhoff Automation, +27 (0)11 795 2898, kennethm@beckhoff.com, www.beckhoff.co.za
| Tel: | +27 11 795 2898 |
| Email: | info@beckhoff.co.za |
| www: | www.beckhoff.com |
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