March 2003Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Access Control & Identity Management
As creators of one of the original fieldbus (CAN), which many others took as a base for their own fieldbus systems or customised versions, Bosch Rexroth has been active in the forefront of the developments in fieldbus communication technology since the very early stages. Not only has it improved its own fieldbus and adapted to the various demands of the different industries, but also incorporated other fieldbus systems into its products and been directly involved in the development of these other fieldbus systems. Today, Bosch Rexroth is known just as well for its range of Profibus and other fieldbus enabled products, as it was for the high-speed CAN bus it first developed in 1986 for the automotive industry.
The philosophy at Bosch Rexroth has always been to keep its products open to communication with other control systems and products, making them more universal and able to integrate with other automation products that may be the end users preference. This has proved itself as particularly practical in the fieldbus environment, where the company has adapted its fieldbus products to talk to almost all the other fieldbus protocols, making it easy to integrate its products into any control system. Bosch Rexroth PLCs for example, have been released for each major fieldbus (CANopen, Profibus-DP, Inter-BUS-S or DeviceNet), enabling the end user to integrate it into an existing system of that particular bus or choose the bus he prefers for a new installation. This has been taken a step further in the development of I/O gateways, which can translate from one fieldbus to another, enabling multi fieldbus communication within one system.
A good example of this was put into practice recently by Flexible Electronic Systems (FES). An existing diamond press system, using Alan Bradley PLCs, where the press was being fed manually, was upgraded through the installation of a Bosch Scara robot to pick and place the blank pellet as well as the finished product. "The Robot's controller, called Rho, uses Profibus-DP whereas the Alan Bradley PLCs use DeviceNet. In order to integrate the robot into the system the two had to exchange certain I/O information. "FES connected a Bosch I/O Gateway to the Alan Bradley DeviceNet chain, and then connected the same I/O Gateway to a Profibus-DP B~IO extension module on the Rho's node chain...and Voila the two were speaking to each other. The more languages you can speak, the better you can understand the world you are in and the easier it will be to succeed wherever you are. Man or PLC, the principle remains the same," said Guenter Schmitz, Director of FES.
Nice unveils MyNice Smartgo
News & Events Access Control & Identity Management
Nice SA has announced the release of MyNice Smartgo, a compact access automation solution, designed specifically for the South African market, combining an easy-to-install device with a user-friendly smartphone application.friendly smartphone application.
Read more...Beckhoff’s XPlanar boosts productivity in medical device assembly Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The intelligent transport system, XPlanar from Beckhoff provided the basis for an innovative system concept allowing the specialists at Automation NTH to reduce the space requirement of an assembly machine for medical diagnostic devices by a factor of 10.
Read more...Biometric security key for phishing-resistant MFA
Products & Solutions Access Control & Identity Management
New FIDO-compliant USB, Bluetooth, and NFC BioKeys with biometric login and centralised management for phishing-resistant, passwordless multifactor authentication (MFA) for enterprise users.
Read more...Comprehensive solutions for the food and beverage sector RS South Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
RS South Africa is reinforcing its commitment to the country’s dynamic food and beverage sector, backed by a comprehensive portfolio of over 800 000 products, extensive technical expertise and end-to-end service capabilities.
Read more...Gallagher Security releases OneLink Gallagher Animal Management
Products & Solutions Access Control & Identity Management
Gallagher Security has announced OneLink, a cloud-based solution that makes it faster, easier and more cost-effective to deploy security anywhere in the world, transforming how security can be delivered to remote sites and distributed infrastructure.
Read more...Case History 198: Cascade control overcomes valve problems Michael Brown Control Engineering
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
A large petrochemical refinery asked me to perform an audit on several critical base layer control loops. This article deals with a problem found on a valve controlling the flow of fuel to a heat exchanger.
Read more...Suprema unveils BioStar Air Suprema neaMetrics
News & Events Access Control & Identity Management Infrastructure
Suprema launches BioStar Air, the first cloud-based access control platform designed to natively support biometric authentication and feature true zero-on-premise architecture. BioStar Air simplifies deployment and scales effortlessly to secure SMBs, multi-branch companies, and mixed-use buildings.
Read more...Improved networking technology for fire and gas detection Omniflex Remote Monitoring Specialists
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Critical alarm and event management technology supplier, Omniflex has worked with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation to upgrade equipment providing digital and analogue signals for its safety critical fire and gas alarm systems.
Read more...PC-based control for fertiliser Beckhoff Automation
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
On a farm in the USA, valuable ammonia is extracted from slurry and processed into ammonium sulphate. NSI Byosis has transformed this complex process into a flexible modular system. This modular approach requires an automation solution with flexible scalability in both hardware and software, which this Dutch company has found in PC-based control from Beckhoff.
Read more...Loop signature 28: Things to consider when tuning. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
I was giving a course at a remote mine in the middle of the Namibian desert. We were discussing tuning responses, and as I always do on my courses, I mentioned that in my opinion ¼ amplitude damped tuning is not desirable, and is in fact not good.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.
printer friendly version