Consumer technology on the factory floor?
January 2003
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Brian MacCleery, National Instruments
Ethernet technology has now become ubiquitous in the offices and cubes of commercial business enterprises, and high-speed networking is becoming increasingly common in the home through a variety of consumer devices such as PCs, routers, switches, and wireless hubs. Are these commercial and consumer devices suitable for the industrial environment of the factory floor? Should the plant engineer grab a corporate credit card and head to a discount PC outlet?
Absolutely not. No self respecting plant engineer would put consumer hardware on his factory floor. But what exactly is the difference between consumer/commercial technology and its industrial counterpart? After all - in some cases they are functionally equivalent. For instance, the behaviour of an Ethernet hub from the local PC and peripheral supplier is not functionally different from that of a more expensive industrial hub from an industrial automation supplier. So why is it so important to use industrially rated hardware when networking industrial enterprise?
Industrial ratings
Most industrial ratings can be broken down into three principal categories: environmental, safety, and electrical. To ensure long-term reliability, interoperability, and performance over all conditions, these ratings are critical. With heavy equipment producing electrical noise, vibration, and potentially hazardous voltages, hardware installed in an industrial environment must be designed from top to bottom to perform reliably in these adverse conditions.
Reformulated technology
The new generation of industrial hardware takes full advantage of technology that has origins in commercial and consumer applications. In fact, this is one key advantage of using Ethernet as an industrial automation network. However, for industrial applications these core technologies have been reformulated for the more extreme demands of industrial applications. Here are some examples:
* Industrial Ethernet connectors (IEC IP environmental ratings).
* Industrial compact flash (wide temperature rating).
* Industrial Ethernet switches (EMC immunity, vibration).
Industrial controller versus PC
A consumer PC has no place on the factory floor. To obtain mean time before failure (MTBF) in the hundreds of thousands of hours, every component in the circuit must be scrutinised before it is included in the design. Unnecessary luxuries such as keyboard, mouse, and spinning hard drive are usually discarded or replaced with industrial grade equivalents, such as industrial Compact Flash for non-volatile storage. The Ethernet port replaces the keyboard and mouse, and serves as a high-speed link for downloading application code, performing run-time debugging and probing, and transmitting control and indicator values to a graphical user interface (GUI) running on a networked PC.
Embedded control
Embedded applications may be developed on a Windows host computer using an intuitive development environment with built-in functions for control and datalogging. The completed application is then downloaded over the Ethernet network for realtime embedded execution on an industrial controller. Embedding the application on a reliable, industrially rated hardware target with realtime performance, ensures successful operation even during any interruption of the network link.
Intelligent control I/O
An example of this industrially rugged control architecture is National Instruments' Compact FieldPoint. With this industrial control and measurement system, users may connect their sensors and actuators directly to high-accuracy analog and discrete I/O modules. The I/O modules filter, calibrate, and scale raw sensor signals to engineering units. The intelligent controller interface automatically publishes measurements over a standard Ethernet network. Once deployed, users can access the realtime application through any Web browser by connecting to the embedded Web server of the industrial controller. (For more information, visit ni.com/info and enter incfp.)
Further reading:
Introduction to Part 2 loop signatures and process transfer functions
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The previous series of loop signature articles dealt with the basics of control loop optimisation, and concentrated on troubleshooting and ‘SWAG’ tuning of simple processes. In this new series, consideration will be given to dealing practically with more difficult issues like interactive processes, and with processes with much more complex dynamics.
Read more...
Siemens sets new standards in drive technology
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Siemens is setting new standards in industrial drive technology with the launch of its new high-performance drive system, Sinamics S220. This offers a seamless and innovative drive system with comprehensive simulation and analysis capabilities and advanced connectivity features that enable full integration into digital work processes.
Read more...
PC-based control in the plastics industry
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Nissei Plastic, an injection moulding machine manufacturer based in Japan is implementing a worldwide tend towards open automation systems from experienced specialists using PC and EtherCAT-based control technology from Beckhoff.
Read more...
Loop Signature 31: Non-linearity in control loops (Part 2)
Michael Brown Control Engineering
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
This article is a continuation of Loop Signature 30 published in the last issue in this series, exploring reasons for non-linearities which may be encountered in feedback control loops
Read more...
PC-based control optimises robotic parts handling on plastics machinery
Beckhoff Automation
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
NEO is a cartesian robot developed by INAUTOM Robótica in Portugal for parts removal on plastics machinery. Its aim is to increase system productivity. NAUTOM Robótica has entered into a strategic partnership with Bresimar Automação to increase the working speed of the cartesian robots using advanced control and motion solutions from Beckhoff. The result is a comprehensive, future-proof automation solution for its entire family of cartesian robots.
Read more...
PC-based control for flat wire motors for electric vehicles
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Special machine manufacturer, ruhlamat Huarui Automation Technologies unveiled the second generation of its mass production line for flexible stators with bar winding. This enables extremely short production cycle and line changeover times, supported by PC- and EtherCAT-based control technology from Beckhoff.
Read more...
Case History 200: The final case history – desuperheater control problem.
Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
For this final article I have chosen to relate a problem that existed in a desuperheater temperature control on a boiler in a petrochemical refinery.
Read more...
PC-based control technology in additive manufacturing
Beckhoff Automation
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
As an open control platform, PC-based control supports different engineering approaches, including low-code programming. The machine builder, Additive Industries uses this to create the code for the TwinCAT runtime of its 3D printers.
Read more...
Suppression and safety solutions for fire and gas in mission-critical industries
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
By representing world-leading brands and focusing on fully integrated, certified systems, HMA South Africa is positioning itself as a trusted partner in fire detection, suppression and explosion-proof safety solutions across the continent.
Read more...
Integrating fire alarm systems into building management systems
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Fire alarm systems work independently of the building automation system. Schrack Seconet has developed a flexible gateway using ultra-compact industrial PCs and TwinCAT from Beckhoff, which can be used to flexibly convert a customer-specific communication protocol to a wide range of transmission standards.
Read more...
printer friendly version