The branch held its most recent technology evening at the Durban Country Club on 4 March. Neil Burger, a specialist in ifm’s industrial networking department, gave a presentation which started at process sensors and continued to look at the largely untapped potential of signal and information systems.
Hennie Prinsloo (left) thanks Neil Burger for the presentation.
IO-Link has been developed by leading sensor, actuator and control manufacturers, and many devices which are currently available have IO-Link capability, even if that feature is not always used yet. IO-Link is a standardised fieldbus and can offer much more information than just the measured parameter by using a field module that interfaces sensors with the fieldbus. It is a point to point bidirectional communication system that facilitates diagnostics and, subject to security safeguards, permits setting from the control room which simplifies sensor replacement. It can also help by using historical data to optimise spares holdings.
The Y-path allows process signals for monitoring and control to be split away from the mass of other useful information obtained from measuring devices, such as that which may be used by SAP or another external system; and the use of separate IP addresses, e.g. when connecting to the cloud, can enhance security.
Neil demonstrated an example of how a simple Excel spreadsheet may be used to show a sensor reading, by having a displacement sensor connected using IO-Link and moving the sensor to show values change in the spreadsheet. He encouraged people to visit http://www.io-link.com for more information.
The presentation concluded with a lively question and answer session, from which it became clear that use of IO-Link is expanding, particularly in the food and beverage industry. The simple and cost-effective cabling makes it particularly attractive to greenfield and some brownfield, projects. Future developments may allow it to be used in hazardous areas, and, potentially, in SIL rated applications.
Branch general manager, Hennie Prinsloo, closed off by thanking Neil for his presentation and ifm for co-sponsoring the meeting. The evening concluded with networking over drinks and dinner.
SAIMC: From the office of the CEO April 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
South Africa has experienced terrible crimes against humanity over the years and somehow survived them. The idea of this letter is not to discuss who murdered who first, or who took whose country – if ...
Read more...SAIMC: Vaal branch April 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
At the recent technology evening, Lloyd Townsend, product support specialist from Wika, presented on IIoT with a focus on digitalisation within our industries.
He said that there are many buzz words ...
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch April 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
Who would have thought that tubing could be such an interesting topic? Alan Aldum of Swagelok entertained a good turnout at the Johannesburg Branch meeting in February. He fascinated them with insights ...
Read more...SAIMC: Cape Town branch April 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC Cybersecurity for industrial control systems
At SAIMC Cape Town’s recent technology evening held at Aurecon conference centre, Adriaan van Wyk presented a short introduction to the ICS Practical Risk ...
Read more...SAIMC: From the office of the CEO March 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
Yes, you are at the right place – the president of the SAIMC position has been replaced by that of the CEO (yours truly).
I would like to thank Annemarie for the wonderful work she has done as president ...
Read more...SAIMC: Durban branch March 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
The Durban branch AGM was held as usual at the Durban Country Club on 5 February. As is sadly often the case for AGMs, attendance was lower than we have come to expect at our normal monthly meetings, ...
Read more...SAIMC: Secunda branch March 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
On 16 January, the Secunda branch held its AGM. The elected committee members for 2020 are as follows: Johan Maritz (general manager), Iddo Japhta (vice general manager), Gerhard Swarts (treasurer), Lezahn ...
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch March 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
At the technology evening of 22 January, Dewald Smit from Festo presented on the choice: ‘Pneumatic vs Electric Automation Energy Efficiency’.
In these tough economic times, all of us would like to ...
Read more...SAIMC: From the President's desk February 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
February marks the end of my 2-year term as elected president of the SAIMC, so it is a great time to reflect on what has happened in the past two years. Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 has been a continuous ...
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch February 2020, SAIMC
, SAIMC
When you are passionate about the industry that you work in you can achieve great things. The Johannesburg branch proudly achieved Gold Status for 2019. This was a team effort by all involved and included ...
printer friendly version