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April 2009

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MICA(P) 107/10/2008 | ISSN 0219/5615 | PPS 1561/06/2009 (028033)

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contents April 2009

ISSUES & INSIGHTS

CONTROL POINT

Safer, Easier, More Secure

The Ethernet standard is increasingly becoming the first choice for the automation of machines and installations. By Oliver Puls, Phoenix Contact

23 Industrial Networking: Are You IPv6 Ready?

Any organisation that runs its business, manages its facilities, and communicates via Internet will need to implement IPv6 on their networks eventually. By Ray Hsu, Moxa

Control Valve Technology: Online Diagnostics Companies are now trying to utilise diagnostics to reduce the maintenance cost of control valves. By Michio Suzuki, Yamatake Corp and Hiroshi Doi, Azbil Singapore

Safer, Easier, More Secure

Industrial Networking: Are You IPv6 Ready?

Control Valve Technology:

Online Diagnostics

SOFTWARE & NETWORKS

32 Integrated Bus Architecture: RemoVe-I/O

The architecture chosen for the control system I/O affects the price of the system, and the cost and ease of maintaining that system. By Jonas Berge, Emerson Process Management

Factory Automation Safety Networks: The New Differentiator

Factory automation safety networks are emerging as the next competitive battleground in the automation network wars. By Chantal Polsonetti, ARC Advisory Group

INSTRUMENTATION & MEASUREMENT

Stainless Record For Steel Mill

Process instrumentation fed by multiple 4–20mA loops enables mill operator to keep a watchful eye on pollutants. By Jim Shields, Fluke

Machine Vision: Networking Insight

GigE Vision is an interface standard based on Ethernet and made to meet the needs of the machine vision industry. By Henning Tiarks, Basler Vision Technologies

2 industrial automation asia | April 2009

ENQUIRY NO. 904

Fuji Electric Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

171 Chin Swee Road #12-01, San Centre, Singapore 169877 Tel: (65) 6533 0014 Fax: (65) 6533 0021 Email: Drive@fujielectric.com.sg Website: www.fujielectric.com.sg

contents APRIL 2009

Regulars 8 News 16 Profibus Association S E Asia 17 CAN in Automation 18 Fieldbus Foundation 19 EtherCAT Technology Group 58 Products & Services 67 Calendar of Events 68 Advertising Index / Ad Sales Office

52 55

68A Product Enquiry Card

Investing In Innovation

Refer to pg

SECTOR SPOTLIGHT

Sick: Sensor Intelligence

It's Crunch Time

Increased customer care and offering entry level machines are some methods automation providers are employing in order to help OEMs. By Abhishek Mehrotra

ENERGY

Going Green With Energy Harvesting

The environmental benefits of energy harvesting are proving to be greater and more widespread than originally realised. By Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx

FEATURES

Investing In Innovation

Jeff Ray speaks to IAA about SolidWorks’ new green offering and the company’s strategy in the trying economy. By Derek Rodriguez

Sick: Sensor Intelligence

for Advertisers’ Enquiry Numbers

Industrial Automation Asia (IAA) is published 8 issues per year by Eastern Trade Media Pte Ltd 1100 Lower Delta Road #04-02 EPL Building Singapore 169206. Tel: (65) 6379 2888 • Fax: (65) 6379 2805 Website: www.iaasiaonline.com Email: iaa@epl.com.sg Subscription Rates: IAA is available to readers on subscription in Singapore at S$60.00 per annum. Subscription by airmail to readers in Malaysia is also at S$60.00 per annum; and Asia Pacific, America, Europe and other regions at S$100. Refer to the subscription card in each issue for further details. For more subscription information Fax: (65) 6379 2806 Email: IreneTow@epl.com.sg

Despite the current economic turmoil, Sick is looking at growth numbers – and, even chalking up its market share. By Eileen Chan

Listening To Reason

contributors and advertisers are not necessarily those of the

No portion of this publication covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced in any form or means – graphic, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, taping, etc – without the written consent of the publisher. Opinions expressed by publisher and editor.

IPS’ Tony Ho believes in talking to customers in order to understand their what challenges are. By Derek Rodriguez

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Markus Paschmann, member of the executive board of Sick AG 4 industrial automation asia | Feb/Mar 2009

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EDITOR’s PAGE

Communicate.

Published by:

that's

EASTERN TRADE MEDIA PTE LTD

Sound

(A fully owned subsidiary of Eastern Holdings Ltd) Managing Director

Kenneth Tan Managing Editor

Eileen Chan eileenchan@epl.com.sg assistant editor

Derek Rodriguez derekrodriguez@epl.com.sg Editorial Assistant

Sharifah Atikah atikah@epl.com.sg Senior Art Director/Studio Manager

Pearl S Buck, a 20th century American writer, once wrote, ‘Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfillment.’ Although the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner was referring to communication between people, this famous phrase rings true for machine-to-machine communication as well. Machine-to-machine communication is, of course, a cornerstone of industrial automation. Industrial Ethernet is one ‘dialect’ used by machines ‘speak’ to other machines. And according to Phoenix Contact’s Oliver Puls, ‘the Ethernet standard is increasingly becoming the first choice for the automation of machines and installations.’ (pg 20) Another medium of communication is the Internet. The popularity of the Internet is so widespread that the depletion of unallocated IPv4 addresses is expected in some quarters to become a major problem within the next two to three years, leading to the need for affected companies to implement IPv6 on their networks eventually. (pg 23) Not to be marginalised, communication between people is also vital to the success of a project/organisation/initiative etc, especially in the current economic climate. Tony Ho of IPS believes that one way forward is to get face-to-face with customers to understand the challenges they are faced with, and then creating a solution based on what they want. (pg 57) Another advocate of communication between automation providers and clients is Sick’s Markus Paschmann, who talks about direct customer relationship and how this direct contact enables Sick to produce an intelligent solution. (pg 54) The concept of listening is not exactly groundbreaking. American writer Ernest Hemingway, who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953 wrote, ‘When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.’ Businessman or not, that’s sound advice. The prelude to customer satisfaction and delivering what customers want is knowing what they want, and what better way to find out than to ask?

Derek Rodriguez Assistant Editor

6 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Lawrence Lee lawrencelee@epl.com.sg Graphic Designer

Katherine Ching katherineching@epl.com.sg advertising sales Manager

Jeff Mak jeffmak@epl.com.sg CIRCULATION EXECUTIVE

Irene Tow irenetow@epl.com.sg Contributors

Oliver Puls, Ray Hsu, Michio Suzuki, Hiroshi Doi, Jonas Berge, Chantal Polsonetti, Jim Shields, Henning Tiarks, Abhishek Mehrotra, Dr Peter Harrop Editorial Consultants

Jim Pinto Industry Analyst

Alastair Ross Director, Codexx Associates Ltd

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Industry News Cable & Wireless Invests US$200 Million In Asia

Nick Lambert, MD worldwide and president of Asia Pacific

London, UK: Cable and Wireless Europe, Asia and US (EAUS) has invested US$200 million in Asia during the last two years to expand its network infrastructure and grow its portfolio of valueadded telecommunications solutions for customers across Asia. The investment has been made in key Asian markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and Bahrain.

The company has invested in a next-generation MultiService Platform (MSP) capability in Asia to drive accelerated growth across the region. The MSP capability has already been rolled out in Middle East Asia, Southeast Asia and North Asia. The MSP will enable the company to deliver innovative IP and Ethernet-based solutions and value-added com-munications applications to customers in 2009. A significant proportion of this investment has been

made in upgrading Cable and Wireless’ network in Asia to deliver nextgeneration Multi-Service Platform (MSP) capability in the region. Nick Lambert, MD worldwide and president of Asia Pacific at Cable and Wireless EAUS said: “We’ve made significant investment across Asia and the Middle East over the course of the last year which has seen our infrastructure and capabilities go from strength to strength.” ENQUIRY NO. 2101

DHL Global Forwarding Initiates Consolidation Movements

ABB Opens FPSO Engineering Centre

Singapore: DHL’s Global Forwarding business unit has initiated trial shipments with its own 45’ equipment. A handful of LCL (less than container load) customers are the first beneficiaries of this programme, with the trial containers scheduled from DHL’s LCL Gateway in Hong Kong to major European Gateways on a round trip basis. These customers will be able to track their shipments via the Internet as it journeys across its Westbound routes to Germany and the Netherlands. After this, more countries will be added to this trial. This programme was enabled by tagging the containers with GPS devices from Savi Networks. ‘Live’ actionable data of the cargo will be available through a webbased monitoring system accessible to customers, which enables them to monitor the security status of their shipments real-time and view the route of shipments through automatically generated maps. The sensor devices report on the security status of the shipments as well as environmental conditions inside the container such as temperature, humidity, shock, vibration and light. These sensing capabilities help to detect and alert incidences of cargo theft and damage, offering a higher level of security and product integrity.

Singapore: ABB is opening an engineering centre in Singapore to carry out engineering of FPSO projects in the marine and oil and gas industries. The company will be bringing expertise in Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO)/ Floating Storage Offloading (FSO) projects closer to customers in the expanding Asian market. ABB’s capabilities for the FPSO/FSO market include power generation and distribution, onboard drives, electric propulsion, automation and telecommunication, and project execution. They also include the supply of an E-house, which is a specially designed structure that houses a vessel’s entire electrical system, easily customisable for specific needs and built in advance at an inland location, to cut production time and cost. “As a high competence, high efficiency centre with capacity to operate globally, we are well positioned to benefit from the growth in this sector,” said James Foo, president and country manager, ABB Singapore.

ENQUIRY NO. 2102 8 industrial automation asia | April 2009

ENQUIRY NO. 2103

Industry News

CrimsonLogic eTrade Acquires GridNode Singapore: CrimsonLogic eTrade has acquired GridNode, a provider of business-to-business integration solutions and managed platforms. The acquisition expands CrimsonLogic eTrade’s presence in Malaysia with a sales office in Penang, targeting the manufacturing sector. Said Leong Peng Kiong, CEO, CrimsonLogic: “We are pleased to kick off 2009 with a key acquisition to enhance our offerings in the B2B integration and outsourcing marketplace. In view of the current economic situation, this is the time for us to leverage on our strengths, develop new competency areas and seize market opportunities through organic growth and acquisitions where appropriate.” ENQUIRY NO. 2104

SPRING Launches US$19.5 Million Incubator Development Singapore: Young companies that have better access to critical resources and support can grow faster and stronger. To help speed up their growth, SPRING Singapore is launching a S$30 million (US$19.5 million) Incubator Development Programme (IDP) to enable incubators and venture accelerators to enhance the services they provide to startups. Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Lee Yi Shyan announced the IDP at a news conference. He said: “The IDP will support high-quality incubators. Under this programme, incubators have financing support to provide management guidance and mentorship to startups, rental space with flexible leases, and shared business services and equipment.” Full-suite incubators and venture accelerators, who provide only a certain service, may apply for funding under

Maximize Throughput with Exceptional Data Transmission

the IDP if they have a unique value proposition or programme that caters specifically for innovative startups. The types of assistance to be provided to startups may range from access to local or international markets, platforms to raise funds, access to qualified management or mentors as well as infrastructure and shared services. The IDP provides up to 70 percent grant support to incubators and venture accelerators to enhance their programmes and services provided to innovative startups. So far, three incubators (NUS Enterprise Incubator, NTU Nanofrontier and iAxil Pte Ltd) and two venture accelerators (Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia and Microsoft Innovation Centre) have tapped the IDP. ENQUIRY NO. 2105

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April 2009 | industrial automation asia 9

Industry News

Turck Singapore Seminar Tour 2009 Sinagpore: Turck Singapore has launched a technical seminar tour in 2009 for all of Southeast Asia. Over 10 locations have been confirmed, and others are still being planned. The tour is open to all industrial automation professionals who want to learn more about Turck solutions and products for the Factory and Process Automation. The seminars will go through the company’s product solutions and services offering, pointing out the benefits and cost savings that can be achieved using Turck technology. Application examples and case studies will be used to demonstrate the different solutions, integration methods and advantages provided by the Turck product range. Attendees will also have the opportunity to experience and feel the products and technology through live demos, and are welcome to discuss with the engineers and local experts present at the seminars. The tour will offer two seminar recipes, focusing on different market and target audiences. The ‘Asset Management Enabled’ seminar will concentrate on process automation solutions for industries such as oil and gas, chemical, petrochemical, etc. The different presentations will cover interfaces and field barriers, Profibus and Foundation Fieldbus technology and solutions, hazardous area remote I/O and process wiring using quick connectivity and cabling. The ‘Full Range’ seminar will concentrate on PLC based solutions industries such as packaging, automotive, manufacturing and also food and beverages, water/waste water, cement, etc. The presentations will cover proximity and process sensors, Fieldbus remote I/O solutions in IP20 or IP67, quick connectivity and RFID. The seminars will be taking place in many locations throughout Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. ENQUIRY NO. 2106

10 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Wonderware Launches Facilities Management Solution

Singapore: Wonderware has introduced Industry Application for Facilities Management as part of its Wonderware Industry Solutions for Facilities Management offerings. The application enables more efficient management of facility operations and features a library of templates, graphics, faceplates and symbols for the development of consistent, open applications across the facility enterprise. Customer demands for a more sustainable architecture also have led to the development and adoption of open industry standards. All systems, devices and assets within facilities can be modeled as templates, enabling the development of an entire solution with approved standards that support a robust and sustainable model. Through partnerships with other leaders in the facilities management industry, Wonderware offers data access servers for BACnet, LonMark and the Echelon i.Lon SmartServer, with utilities specifically addressing application development and automatic network, device and object creation services built in for system integration simplicity. The Wonderware facilities management solution is provided through an open distribution model which is supported by multiple independent systems integrators. This approach provides an alternative to the market’s ‘locked’ distribution model currently available in the facilities management market space. ENQUIRY NO. 2107

IPS To Supply China’s Civil Nuclear Industry Singapore: Invensys Process Systems (IPS) has received its letter of confirmation on the registration in the People’s Republic of China of Overseas Organizations Associated with Civil Nuclear Safety Equipment, informally knows as an HAF604 Certification. The certification, issued by the National Nuclear Safety Administration of China, qualifies IPS to supply critical safety and control systems and technology for civil nuclear equipment in China. Under the authority of the State Council and according to the Ordinance on the Supervision and Management of Civil Nuclear Safety Equipment and the Regulations on Supervision and Management of Imported Civil Nuclear Safety Equipment, all overseas organisations that work or seek to work with civil nuclear facilities within China need to obtain HAF604 certification. Companies are prohibited from working on civil nuclear safety equipment without the Letter of Confirmation or without observing the categories or scopes of the activities regulated by it. ENQUIRY NO. 2108

Industry News

Air Liquide Invests In Singapore Asia Pacific Aerospace & Defense Industry To Maintain Growth

Singapore: Growth in manufacturing is expected to continue in Singapore, notably related to the petroleum, petrochemical and chemical industries. Air Liquide is making further investments in this key South-East Asian market, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Singapore Oxygen Air Liquide (Soxal). Soxal has completed its acquisition of all the shares of Island Pipeline Gases (IPG), a joint venture with Air Products Singapore. In doing so, IPG becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Soxal. The move enables Soxal to accelerate plans to make additional investments of around €20 million (US$25.8 million) in its extensive oxygen and nitrogen pipeline networks on Singapore’s Jurong Island and in its Industrial Park. SI-492-CF Vielfalt 85x114NEW

ENQUIRY NO. 2109Uhr 18.01.2006 9:14

Singapore: Frost and Sullivan hosted the inaugural Asia Pacific CEO Technology summit in Singapore. The main theme of the summit was technological best practices within the industry that contribute significantly to increasing productivity and efficiency in a bid to survive during these difficult times. Over 100 key industry leaders and C-level executives from the region’s corporations, along with government officials from the Airlines, Airports, Manufacturing, MRO, Information Technology, Finance, Aviation Training, Defense, General Aviation and Homeland security sectors, gathered at the summit. Topics emphasising the technological and financial play within the aviation market were widely discussed throughout the summit. Subhranshu Sekhar Das, director of Asia Pacific aerospace and defense at Frost and Sullivan, said: “The Asia Pacific region will be leading in aviation growth as compared to Europe and US. Major green-field airport developments shall continue to be pursued mainly in India, China and Middle East owing to domestic air travel markets. There will be continued demand for economical air travel and good customer service that will keep only the smarter airline thriving in times to come”. Se

83x110_out r1.pdf.pdf

3/16/09

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NO. 2110

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April 2009 | industrial automation asia 11

Industry News

Yokogawa Releases Real-time Production Organiser Production Performance to ERP

Production Schedule from ERP 2) Production Coordinator VP

Real-time Plant Constraints to scheduler

Production coordinator

1) Workflow Composer VP

Job Order 3) Production Instructor VP • Operation supervisor • Maintenance supervisor • Laboratory supervisor

Production people

Task Order

APPOINTMENTS & NOTICES Dr Schillinger Appointed Member Of Demea Board

5) Production Tracker VP Production management staff

4) Production Supervisor VP Production management staff

3) Production Instructor VP

Production Result

• Board/field operators • Maintenance technician • Laboratory technician

Tokyo, Japan: Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced the release of Realtime Production Organiser (RPO) on February 2. RPO is a suite of manufacturing execution system (MES) platform packages that integrate the vertical production execution workflow across departments and empower decision makers to organise their work quickly and efficiently. Based on the ISA-95 manufacturing execution model, RPO performs the definition, dispatch, execution, analysis, and tracking functions, thereby speeding up the PlanDo-Check-Act cycle. RPO consists of five platform packages. Each package supports a Web service, making RPO ready for a service oriented architecture (SOA). Users can introduce these packages in stages. The packages are Workflow Composer VP, Production Coordinator VP, Production Instructor VP, Production Supervisor VP, and Production Tracker VP.

Dr Frank Schillinger, board member production, logistics and material management at the Harting Technology Group has again been elected as member of the demea advisory board (Federal Material Efficiency Agency, Deutsche Materialeffizienzagentur (demea)). The organisation demea, established on the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, is tasked with bringing material efficiency issues more strongly to the awareness of the general public. ENQUIRY NO. 2113

Honeywell’s Asia Pacific Leader Honeywell has appointed Jon Lippin as VP and GM for the Process Solutions business in Asia Pacific. Lippin, formerly the vice president of global sales for Honeywell Process Solutions, replaces Desmond Teo. In his new role, Lippin will be based in Shanghai. ENQUIRY NO. 2114

ENQUIRY NO. 2111

Rockwell To Acquire Rutter Hinz Wisconsin, USA: Rockwell Automation has agreed to purchase the majority of the assets of Rutter Hinz, an engineering company headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada. The company’s management team and approximately 220 employees will join Rockwell Automation’s Systems & Solutions business unit. “This acquisition accelerates the growth of Rockwell Automation’s business and reach in Canada’s heavy industries and oil and gas market, enhances our Canadian oil sands opportunities, and establishes a robust delivery capability in a major market with critical expertise,” said Terry Gebert, VP and GM, Rockwell Automation Systems & Solutions. The acquisition includes Rutter Hinz’s engineering and automation businesses in Canada and the United States, but not its Newfoundland consulting engineering business or the assets of Rutter Technologies. These operations will continue as part of Rutter. Rutter Hinz has eight offices in Canada and two in the US. The acquisition is expected to close during the current quarter. ENQUIRY NO. 2112

12 industrial automation asia | April 2009

MD For Beijer Magnus Ekerot has been appointed managing director for Beijer Electronics Products AB. Conny Persson, who held the post before him is retiring, leaving the company after 26 years. ENQUIRY NO. 2115

Country CEO For Siemens Singapore Siemens has appointed Lothar Herrmann as country CEO for Siemens Singapore, cum president and CEO of Siemens, with effect from February 1, 2009. He will succeed Hans-Dieter Bott. ENQUIRY NO. 2116

Industry News

Igus Wins Supplier Of The Year Award

ExxonMobil Makes Investment in China Beijing, China: ExxonMobil Chemical Company will build a technology centre in Shanghai, China to provide product applications support for its growing business in the Chinese and Asian markets. The technology centre will be built and operated by ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Research & Development Company, and will be located in the Shanghai Zizhu Sciencebased Industrial Park. The technology centre is expected to be operational in 2010. ENQUIRY NO. 2118

Michael Blaß (left), receives the award from IMA purchasing management (Jörg Böhnke, Dieter Dresler).

Cologne, Germany: Cologne-based igus has been awarded the title ‘Supplier of the Year 2008’ in the category ‘Crisis Management’ by the machine and plant engineering company IMA Klessmann, Lübbeke. The energy chain and cable specialist has been a partner to the woodworking systems company for more than 18 years now, and equips CNC machining centres with energy chains and specialist cables. The company delivers both individual components and completely harnessed ‘Ready-Chain’ energy supply systems which include all cables, plugs and accessories and are ready to be installed. Michael Blaß, energy chains systems manager at igus, who received the certificate together with his colleague Wolfgang Bombeck said: “The year 2008 was an extremely challenging year in terms of delivery performance, with excellent growth rates month after month. This makes it all the more important to make sure that customer satisfaction is 100 percent, too.”

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April 2009 | industrial automation asia 13

Industry News

Practical Experience For Kids At Jetter Ludwigsburg, Germany: The NWT (science and technology) Group 1 of the Mörike Gymnasium (secondary school) in Ludwigsburg, comprising eight boys and eight girls, spent a morning at the premises of Jetter, the controller manufacturer. At the company’s own training centre, training manager Markus Friedrich introduced the students to the topics of automation, control technology and programming. After a brief induction phase and some theory, the group was able to try their hand at programming. The students enjoyed finding solutions to the assignments, which included programming a PID controller and a servo-controlled spindle axis. As a result of the success of the event, it will definitely be repeated. ENQUIRY NO. 2119

Honeywell Technology Enables Cell Phone Use During Flight Arizona, USA: Honeywell has provided upgraded satellite communications equipment to Malaysia Airlines to allow passengers to use mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) while on selected Malaysia Airlines flights as part of a pilot programme through mid-2009. Passengers can use their mobile and data phone services while the plane is in the cruise phase of flight without impacting aircraft systems and ground telecommunication networks. Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft are already outfitted with Honeywell’s SatCom communications systems to provide passenger and crew instant digital voice and data communications, as well as flight deck connectivity with air traffic control. Recent routine maintenance checks provided an opportunity to implement the new lightweight data services capability. The European Aviation Safety Agency and the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation provided aviation safety approvals. Honeywell’s HD710 High Speed Data SatCom unit replaces the High Power Amplifier (HPA) with a unit that contains both the HPA and a high-speed data unit. Currently, the unit will have two Swift64 High-Speed Data Channels, each channel with a capacity of 64Kbits/second. The same system is planned to be upgraded in the future to two Swift Broadband Channels with a total capacity of 864Kbits/second. ENQUIRY NO. 2120

14 industrial automation asia | April 2009

NCIA To Set Up Machine Vision Knowledge Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: The Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) has sealed a partnership with Coherix to collaborate on the establishment of a Machine Vision Knowledge Centre. Located in Penang, the centre will provide the missing link to bridge fundamental research and development, undertaken by various universities with the specific needs of industrial end users. This centre will not only provide technology commercialisation and application engineering support to the Asean and Far East regions, but will also expose fresh Malaysian engineering graduates with opportunities to develop expertise in the machine vision-based industry. NCIA's senior VP for corporate and investor services, Iruthaya Das Arulanadam said that with access to technology, Malaysian companies particularly the SMEs in the industrial automation sector, would be able to expand their business scope. "It will also provide local companies with the tools to develop and bring their solutions to market in the quickest manner possible," he added. ENQUIRY NO. 2121

Industry News

Cognex’s Online Cost Savings Calculation Tool Massachusetts, USA: Cognex has an online tool to help manufacturers understand the benefits that can be achieved through the use of machine vision and industrial identification. “In these difficult economic times, optimising product quality and reducing manufacturing costs are more important than ever. Our new Cost Savings Advisor makes it really easy for manufacturers to calculate the cost reductions they can achieve through using Cognex vision and ID systems,” says Ettore Cucchetti, Cognex’s VP of sales, marketing and support, Asia. He added: “It also acts as a great check list to ensure that all potential savings from using vision are identified.” The Cognex Cost Savings Advisor was designed to help customers evaluate a cost savings plan for vision inspection, automation or identification applications. Users are asked a few simple questions about each vision application. The tool then calculates the potential cost savings that could be achieved by implementing the company’s solutions on the customer’s production lines. Additionally, the results highlight other potential benefits that customers may not have previously considered. A wide range of cost savings opportunities can be estimated

within three main sections: product inspection applications, automation guidance applications and identification/traceability applications. Once the results are calculated, a record of the evaluation can be printed to share with colleagues. This tool is offered in these languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. ENQUIRY NO. 2122

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April 2009 | industrial automation asia 15

Industry Updates

Wireless Communication For

Sensors & Actuators

P I ( P ro f i b u s a n d P ro f i n e t International) has defined the upcoming work for wireless coupling of sensors and actuators in factory automation. Based on preliminary investigations, PI has decided to use radio technology compliant with IEEE 802.15.1 for manufacturing automation. The investigations showed that a series of different requirements exist for coupling sensors and actuators in factory and process automation. On the one hand, performance requirements differ, and on the other, the standardised protocols for HART sensors and actuators (for process automation) and IO-Link (for manufacturing automation) are optimised to the respective requirements.

WirelessHART uses radio technology compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for the transmission technology. Due to the higher requirements regarding response time, radio technology compliant with IEEE 802.15.1 will be used for manufacturing automation. PI has already decided for WirelessHART as the standard for process automation one year ago. To be able to offer an optimum solution for factory automation, PI decided to develop the specification for wireless sensors and actuators for factory automation based on WISA technology (IEEE 802.15.1). The question of coexistence is especially important. In addition

to coexistence with WirelessHART, it must also be guaranteed with WLAN, the standard for wireless transmission in Profinet systems. This is ensured by making corresponding settings in the wireless sensor networks for process and manufacturing automation. The specification work for the wireless communication of sensors and actuators in manufacturing automation has already begun. The target for completion of the corresponding documents is 2009. Alternative and integrated uses of the radio technology for process automation (IEEE 802.15.4) and factory automation are being left open for the future by PI. ENQUIRY NO. 2123

Profinet Supports Energy Management

PI is currently tackling the issue of energy management. This was initiated by a request of the AIDA (Automation Initiative of German Automobile Manufacturers). Companies active in the AIDA use Profinet in their systems. They have tasked PI with 16â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

providing functions and mechanisms for Profinet that support energy-efficient production. To implement an integrated open and userappropriate solution, the PI decided to define and standardise a manufacturer-independent energy saving profile based on Profinet. A special working group was formed and is already on the job. The used cases and requirements from the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective have already been defined. They form the basis for the specification work which begun in February 2009. The solution stipulates the definition of different energy saving modes for the devices. Using the energy saving profile, the energy saving modes of the devices can be addressed uniformly and easily by a controller and their responses can be evaluated. This allows a system controller to utilise optimum energy consumption during production and during the various break lengths. ENQUIRY NO. 2124

Newsdesk

Practice For Aerial Working Platforms The CAN in Automation (CiA) international users and manufacturers group has established a CANopen Special Interest Group (SIG), which will develop a recommended practice for CANopen-based aerial working platforms (AWP). The recommendation to be published will be suitable for different CANopen-based AWP

system architectures. It will describe dedicated CANopen device interfaces, eg for joysticks, pressure sensors, actuators, and power (diesel) engine. The recommended practice will cover self-propelled and truckmounted AWPs. It is intended to specify several classes of system architectures and device interfaces for simple and more

sophisticated AWPs. This will include scissor AWPs as well as boom AWPs. “The recommended practice will reduce system integration effort,” explained Holger Zeltwanger, CiA MD. “The benefit for suppliers is the limited number of device variations due to standardised functionalities by means of device classes.” The recommended practice is planned to be released in mid 2010. Interested parties are welcome to participate in this standardisation activity. ENQUIRY NO. 2125

CANopen Additional Functions CAN in Automation (CiA) has released the CiA 302 specification series of CANopen additional functions. This set of specifications comprises descriptions of CANopen manager including Flying NMT (network management) master, SDO (service data object) manager, configuration manager, bus-line redundancy, and CANopen-to-CANopen gateways. The CiA 302 series version 4.1 substitutes the CiA 302 version 3.3 published 2003. Part 1 contains some general definitions. Part 2 defines in detail the NMT boot-up procedure and the flying NMT master concept. Flying NMT masters are required in mission- or safety-critical network applications, where single failure should not lead to a complete network shutdown. In the case that the NMT master device fails, another NMT master capable device takes over. If the original NMT master device recovers from the failure situation, the actual redundant NMT master device gives the NMT master functions back to the original one. Part 3 of CiA 302 specifies the programme download and configuration manager. These additional functions are used in decentralised control systems, where one entity – the CANopen manager device – configures all devices after power-on. The software download is performed by means of segmented SDO communication.

In part 4, the use of network variables is described. Programmable devices have no predefined process data. For that reason, the object dictionary provides in the address range from A000h und AFFFh network variables. Part 5 specifies the SDO manager, an additional CANopen function for NMT master devices. The SDO manager is necessary, if a simple CANopen device with just the SDO default server should be configured on-line by an external tool. In this case, the tool rents the correspondent SDO client from the NMT master device. Part 6 defines bus-line redundancy as requested in marine and other mission-critical applications. There is a default bus-line and a redundant bus-line. If the default bus-line is corrupted, all connected devices will automatically switch to the redundant bus-line. Part 7 describes the CANopen-to-CANopen router and bridge functions. The original request comes from companies that use cascaded CANopen networks. SDO and Emergency communication is routed, while PDOs (process data object) are forwarded with the bridge functionality. The SDO router function requires an additional SDO command, which is sent before the normal or expedited SDO. ENQUIRY NO. 2126

April 2008 | industrial automation asia 17

2009 General Assembly Draws Capacity Crowd The Fieldbus Foundation conducted its 2009 General Assembly on March 4–5 in Yokohama, Japan. Held at the Pan Pacific Hotel, the event attracted a crowd of Foundation fieldbus end users, suppliers, system integrators, engineering firms and other industry stakeholders from around the world. Hideaki Miura, senior executive officer and GM, Engineering Division, JGC Corporation, was the keynote speaker at the General Assembly. Mr Miura’s keynote address offered valuable insights into the adoption of Foundation technology and provided an authoritative perspective on the growth in operational intelligence. The General Assembly programme included an overview of Fieldbus Foundation activities worldwide. The event was highlighted by presentations from Foundation technology experts focused on process integrity, open scalable integration, and business intelligence. It also featured presentations by major end users who have installed Foundation fieldbus in their industrial operations. Staff members provided updates on current Foundation technology developments such as wireless implementation, safety solutions, field device integration, Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and field diagnostics. The foundation also provided a briefing to the Asia Pacific automation trade press in attendance at the General Assembly. ENQUIRY NO. 2127

End Users To Host Demos The Fieldbus Foundation plans to conduct a series of end user demonstrations of its wireless and remote I/O (WIO) developments. The live technology demos will show how new wireless and remote I/O solutions tighten the integration of process instrumentation with the Foundation automation infrastructure. In addition, they will highlight the latest field diagnostics developments enhancing the WIO solution. The list of end user demonstration sites includes Brazil, Canada, Japan, The Netherlands and the United States. The foundation’s WIO development project involves leading suppliers of plant automation equipment from around the world. The project is intended to develop use cases and requirements for High Speed Ethernet (HSE) remote and wireless communications in monitoring and control that are interoperable using function blocks and Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL). Fieldbus Foundation director of technology development, Dave Glanzer, commented: “We are pleased with the progress of our WIO project and the support it has received from the industrial automation industry. WIO developments promise to advance the utilisation of an open, interoperable fieldbus automation infrastructure incorporating both HSE and industrial wireless applications.” ENQUIRY NO. 2128

18 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Asia ETG Expands EtherCAT Conformance Initiatives

Board Of Directors Re-Elected

The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) gives top priority to conformance and interoperability. In addition to the group’s successful plug fests – the 7th European EtherCAT Interoperability Meeting took place in March. The official ETG Conformance Test Tool was released in 2008 and has proven to be quite popular with members. In another recent development, the first ETG Test Center in Nuremberg, Germany, is now open. So far around 50 EtherCAT devices have been certified at the Test Center. Upcoming ETG plans in 2009 include device profile enhancements to the Test Tool, establishing a Test Center in Japan and hosting further plug fests in Europe, Asia and North America. ENQUIRY NO. 2129

More Than 200 Asian Members

The re-elected board of directors of the ETG (L-R): Dr Peter Heidrich, Erich Hutflesz, Martin Rostan

The Membership Assembly has re-elected the Board of Directors unanimously. With Dr Peter Heidrich (Baumüller), Erich Hutflesz (Schuler SMG) and Martin Rostan (Beckhoff) vendors of EtherCAT automation devices as well as their user companies are represented in the board. The membership assembly also approved the ETG conformance test policy, which governs the test and certification process. SG-741-E2-000 85x114

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The Asian EtherCAT Community is growing at a good pace: at the end of February the mark of 200 Asian ETG members was exceeded. This means that the Asian membership within the organisation has doubled within 16 months. Japan, China and South Korea – the countries with ETG offices - lead the Asian membership ranking, followed by Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. With seminar series in Taiwan and India the EtherCAT Technology Group will further expand the regional activities in Asia in 2009. Introductory seminars and implementation training classes are organised frequently by the regional ETG offices.

April 2009 | industrial automation asia 19

issues & insights

Safer, Easier,

More Secure The Ethernet standard is increasingly becoming the first choice for the automation of machines and installations. By Oliver Puls, Automation Systems Business Unit, Phoenix Contact

he availability of an industrialgrade Ethernet infrastructure has led to the vastly increased use of this protocol at field level. Nowadays, all newly developed automation components such as I/O peripherals or embedded controllers offer at least an Ethernet interface. As users become more experienced, they increasingly want the installation process to be made even easier. Security measures and Power over Ethernet (PoE) make this possible. The German term ‘Sicherheit’ can be translated both as ‘Safety’ and ‘Security’ and can consequently be interpreted differently. ‘Safety’ refers to the functional safety of communication systems, and mainly concerns the elimination of technical-based malfunctions. By contrast, ‘Security’ concerns the protection of components, machines or installation against unauthorised access. The two terms thus relate to two very different fields of activity. Safety solutions such as the safe 20 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Interbus Safety fieldbus system have been available for automation systems for some years now. The topic of ‘Security’ is also now gaining importance as the Ethernet protocol is used more and more. Controlled Security There are two important reasons why the use of an Ethernetbased automation system is recommended: • The data requirement of actuators and sensors is growing. • Cost savings can be made when one single company-wide communication technology is used. When a universally useable communication standard is used, and this standard is also based on a well-developed and cost-efficient mainstream technology, there is a risk that production networks and individual automation components can be the victims of unauthorised access.

The extent of this danger depends on how many connections exist to higher-level networks, remote maintenance access points, an Intranet or the Internet. Networks that are completely isolated and that operate independently are less vulnerable. Manageable Layer 2 switches, which are currently on the market, offer a host of different security functions that control access, prevent unwanted data traffic and hinder data interception. These functions include, for example, segmentation through switches, the implementation of VLANs (Virtual Local Area Network), special mechanisms for multicast filtering or access regulation via por t-based security. In order for these functions to be activated, however, the switches must first be parameterised

correctly using configuration tools or WBM (Web Based Management). Expert knowledge as well as solid network planning is a prerequisite here. Practical experience has shown that these basic conditions can often not be met, so that the security features of device technology are frequently not implemented.

anisms also provide equally effective protection against unauthorised or unintended access (Figure 2). In the simple and easy-touse mechanical solution each open RJ45 port is sealed with a sealing cap and the connected patch cable is prevented from being pulled out.

Mechanical Security Functions One of the most critical protective functions is the prevention of unauthorised access to networks and devices. Like all the security measures mentioned above, this protective function is also activated via the software for the manageable Layer 2 switches, which many users consider to be far too complicated. Mechanical locking mech-

Power Supply The international IEEE 802.3af ‘DTE Power via MDI’ standard, also known as Power over Ethernet (PoE), Power over LAN or Active Ethernet, was introduced in the middle of 2003. This technology allows power to be supplied and data to be transmitted over the same standardised LAN cable structure (Local Area Network). Network devices such as IP telephones and cameras, readers

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April 2009 | industrial automation asia 21

issues & insights

Figure 3a

Figure 3b

Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE)

Powered Device (PD)

4 5 1 TX

2 3

48V

Spare Pair

2 Single Pair

Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE)

DC/DC

3 TX

48V

1 2

Single Pair

Single Pair 7

5 Spare Pair

2 3

Converter

Powered Device (PD) 4

RX DC/DC

3 6

Converter

Single Pair 7

Spare Pair

7 8 Spare Pair

Power over Ethernet variants use free wire pairs (Figure 3a) or data pairs (Figure 3b) for transmitting power

necessary when installations are carried out at locations such as walls or ceilings that are hard to access. The investment costs for power supply units and the associated expenses involved in installing power sources for end devices can be eliminated. Furthermore, the use of a central uninterruptible power supply (UPS) further increases the reliability of the end devices. Operating Principle T h e I E E E 8 0 2 . 3 a f s t a n d a rd differentiates between power suppliers and power consumers. Power suppliers, also known as Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE),

feed the required power (48 V) to the LAN. Here, these are mostly active network components with direct PoE support. The power consumers, referred to as powered devices (PD), can be operated in DTE-Powervia-MDI mode as PoE-compatible devices. Power is supplied to these devices remotely over the data line and not, for the most part, via the optionally available external power supply connection (Figure 3a and Figure 3b). There are also two versions of the power-supplying PSE devices: • Endspan Insertion In the case of endspan insertion the PSE components supply power to the end devices (powered devices) directly via their ports and supply data to them at the same time. Switches

Figure 4: PoE connection between a switch and WLAN access point

are used almost exclusively as PSE components (Figure 4). • Midspan Insertion In midspan insertion devices convey the data belonging to the active components and simultaneously supply power to the Ethernet line (active patch fields). Midspan Insertion is usually used as an upgrade for existing network infrastructures, when only a few of the required ports need to be PoE-compatible. First Choice As a result of its consistent refinement and further development, the Ethernet standard is increasingly becoming the first choice for the automation of machines and installations. Infrastructure components have becomes as robust and reliable as more traditional automation devices. Security functions that can either be activated via the software or that are easily installed as mechanical solutions are available for protecting networks and devices against unauthorised access. When Power over Ethernet technology is used, installation costs are reduced considerably, particularly when it comes to wireless LANs. ENQUIRY NO. 2201

22 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Industrial Networking:

Are You IPv6 Ready? Any organisation that runs its business, manages its facilities, and communicates via Internet will need to implement IPv6 on their networks eventually. By Ray Hsu, supervisor, product marketing, Industrial Ethernet Infrastructure Division, Moxa

s of September 2007, nearly 80 percent of the world’s IPv4 address capacity was exhausted, leaving only 20 percent for future Internet users. In recent years, the demand for IPv4 addresses has steadily accelerated due to rapid population growth, broadband deployment, and global demand for unique addresses for communication applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP), mobile phones, and connecting sensors over the Internet. Exper ts foresee that the depletion of unallocated IPv4 addresses will become a major problem within the next two to

three years, unless an alternative solution is found. According to Geoff Huston, chief scientist, APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre), the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) will exhaust all available IPv4 addresses in the IANA pool by 2010 and the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) will run out of large unallocated contiguous blocks of IPv4 addresses in 2011 (Figures 1 and 2) if current allocation rates prevail. As a result, the coming exhaustion of IPv4 addresses has been the driving force in creating and adopting several

new technologies including Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) addressing, Network Address Translation (NAT) and a new version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6. The transition of the Internet to IPv6 is generally seen as the only practical and readily available long-term solution to IPv4 address exhaustion. Features Of IPv6 Even though NAT has given IPv4 a slightly longer life span, it only delays the world’s inevitable transition to IPv6. IT professionals will most likely encounter fierce April 2009 | industrial automation asia 23

issues & insights

debates over this issue in the coming years. Is this transition realistic and necessary? And what are the supporting arguments? Let us examine the advantages of using IPv6 over IPv4. These benefits include:

host can configure a link-local address for each interface. By using router discovery, a host can also determine the addresses of routers, additional addresses, and other configuration parameters.

• Large Address Capacity IPv6’s extremely large address capacity enables global connectivity to many more electronic devices such as IPTV, mobile phones, laptops, in-vehicle computers, cameras, building sensors, medical devices, and more.

• Multicast The ability to send a single packet to multiple destinations is a basic specification in IPv6, unlike IPv4 where it is optional.

• Enhanced Security Authentication and encryption are mandatory in IPv6 and provided through IPsec. The protocol defines authentication and encr yption extension headers separately so that higher layer applications can use either or both of these functions when required. • Address Auto-Configuration A highly valuable feature of IPv6 is its ability to automatically configure itself without the use of a stateful configuration protocol, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6). By default, an IPv6

• Better Support For QoS New fields in the IPv6 header define how traffic is identified and handled. Traffic identification, by using a Flow Label field in the IPv6 header, allows routers to identify and provide special handling for packets that belong to a flow. A flow is a series of packets between a source and destination. Because the traffic is identified in the IPv6 header, support for QoS can be easily achieved even when the packet payload is encrypted with IPsec. • Support For Mobile Devices IPv6 is designed to account for mobile networks, the ubiquitous networks of

IPv4 Consumption Model (IANA Pool) Data

150

The Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is the next generation protocol designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to replace Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). Most of today’s Internet and enterprise networks use IPv4, which is now more than 20 years old as it was first introduced in the 1980s. When IPv4 was originally developed, the sheer vastness of today’s Internet was beyond imagination. Although this protocol is still the standard for the Internet, its limitations have been surfacing for some time. The primary constraint is that IPv4 address space only allows up to four billion nodes on the network, and the number of free addresses is rapidly depleting due to the Internet’s continuous expansion. In contrast, IPv6 allows for 340 undecillion (340 x 1036) addresses, large enough to accommodate expansion of the Internet to include every electronic device in the world—now and in the future. ENQUIRY NO. 2202

IPv4 Consumption Model (RIR Pool)

Prediction

Data 200

Total address demand Address Count (/8ε)

Address Count (/8ε)

200

IANA Pool Assigned Advertised Unadvertised RIR Pool Projection Arin Pool RIPE Pool APNIC Pool Lacnic Pool Afrinic Pool Various Pool

What Is IPv6 & Why Now?

100 IANA Pool 50

150

IANA Pool Assigned Advertised Unadvertised RIR Pool Projection Arin Pool RIPE Pool APNIC Pool Lacnic Pool Afrinic Pool Various Pool

Prediction

Total address demand

100

50 RIR Pool

0 2000

2002

2004 Date

2006

Figure 1: IPv4 Address Exhaustion By IANA 24 industrial automation asia | April 2009

2008

0 2000

2002

2004 Date

2006

Figure 2: IPv4 Address Exhaustion By RIR

2008

the future that provide online connectivity, anytime and anywhere. IPv6 is considered to be the backbone of the future information society. The Transition From IPv4 To IPv6 Due to the time required for massive infrastructure deployment, IETF has been working on specific provisions to allow a smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6, as well as hardware and software interoperability solutions so new IPv6 devices can access IPv4 hosts. A technique was developed in IPv6 to allow administrators to embed IPv4 addresses within IPv6 addresses. Special solutions are defined to handle interoperability, including: • ‘Dual Stack’ Networking This approach requires hosts, routers and some other network devices to implement both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. This enables networks to support both IPv4 and IPv6 services and applications during the Preparation

transition period. The dualstack approach is a fundamental mechanism for introducing IPv6 in existing IPv4 architectures and will remain heavily used in the near future. • IPv4/IPv6 Translation When an IPv6 host needs to communicate with an IPv4 host, the IP address has to be translated. IPv4/IPv6 translation technology involves address mapping between IPv4 and IPv6, and the methods used to translate protocols. • IPv4 Tunneling Of IPv6 Tunneling enables the interconnection of different IP networks. For instance, separate IPv6 networks can be interconnected through a native IPv4 service by means of a tunnel. IPv6 packets are encapsulated by a border router before transportation across an IPv4 network and decapsulated at the border of the receiving IPv6 network.

Transition

Post-Transition

Present – December 2009

Jan 2010 – Dec 2011

Jan 2012 – Onwards

Service Providers:

• Polite test IPv6 network service.

• Offer production IPv6 and IPv4 services to Internet customers.

• Must offer IPv6-based Internet services to Internet customers. IPv6-based Internet service must be via native IPv6 network service.

Federal Agencies:

• Prepare to provide Internet-facing services via IPv6-based connectivity while continuing to provide Internet-facing services via IPv4 connectivity.

• Provide Internet-facing services in a production manner via IPv6-based connectivity in addition to IPv4-based connectivity.

• Provide all Internet-facing services via IPv6-based connectivity, thus allowing for new Internet customers connected solely by IPv6.

• Arrange for IPv6-based Internet connectivity for any Internet-facing servers (eg, web, email, and domain name servers).

• Provide IPv6-based Internet connectivity to Internal user communities. • Provide IPv6 internal supporting servers (eg DNS, DHCP).

Figure 3: IPv6 Transition Phases & Timeline In US Federal Agencies

Currently, there are no universal rules in place for the IPv4 to IPv6 transition process so each country must determine how to implement the migration. For instance, IPv6 can be enforced by government guidelines to provide sufficient IP addresses to sustain the economic growth. Another method is the large scale deployment of new IP architecture (such as mobile or home networking) to provide benchmark applications and innovative services. Worldwide Deployment Status It should be recognised that by the end of 2011, there will already be new clients and servers on the Internet with IPv6 addresses. Even if the rest of the world hasn’t made the full migration to IPv6 by that point, IPv4 computers and devices will still need to access IPv6 servers and provide services to IPv6 customers. In many cases, public procurement mandates play an important role in encouraging vendors to develop IPv6 solutions, which then speeds up deployment in the private sector. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has stated that by June 30, 2008, all network backbones for US federal agencies must adopt IPv6 and be able to interface with this infrastructure. According to OMB, agencies should focus on establishing secure, shared IPv6-enabled network services during their regular technology upgrade cycles. To date, the OMB has not allocated any special funding for federal agencies to implement the transition to IPv6 even though the estimated expenditure by federal agencies was about US$56.5 million in 2007, according to Shawn McCarthy, director of research for government vendor programmes for IDC’s Government Insights. April 2009 | industrial automation asia 25

issues & insights

A report by RTI International for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released in October 2005 estimates that federal agencies will incur nearly US$1.5 billion over the next five years, and US$4.6 billion over the coming two decades in the process of transitioning to IPv6. In addition, there has already been significant progress by international governments in attempting to take the advantages of early deployment of IPv6. For example: • The Next Generation Internet Project (CNGI) in China is a five-year plan with the objective of taking leadership in Internet and information technology. The core technology of CNGI is IPv6. China showcased CNGI and its IPv6 network infrastructure at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, networking ever ything from security cameras and taxis to the professional cameras covering Olympic events using IPv6. • In Europe, the mobile industry is a strong supporter of the transition to IPv6. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the IPv6 Forum have established a cooperation agreement. In addition to the agreement with ETSI, the IPv6 Forum has also partnered with UMTS Forum, GSM Association, and the 3GPP Group. • In the Asia Pacific Region, the Japanese Ministry of Internet Affairs and Communications released the Guideline for e-Government IPv6 Systems in April 2007 to help central ministries and agencies plan for IPv6 adoption and promote IPv6 for e-Government systems. NTT Communications has already launched the world’s largest 26 industrial automation asia | April 2009

IPv6’s large address capacity enables global connectivity to electronic devices such as IPTV, mobile phones, laptops, cameras, building sensors, etc.

tier one IPv6 backbone—the NTT Communications North American IPv6 Gateway Services. T h e ( S o u t h ) K o r e a n Ministry of Information and Communication has set targets to convert Internet equipment in public institutions to IPv6 by 2010. The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has also released its strategy for a threestage transition to IPv6 for Australian Government agencies to last from January 2008 to December 2015. IPv6 Ready Industrial Ethernet Switches Gradually, both public and private sector companies will migrate to IPv6-compatible switches, routers and operating systems in PCs and servers. H o w e v e r, t h e f e w I P v 6 compliant routers and switches available in the market today are mainly developed for office use. But industrial environments often involve unknown, hazardous factors that can interfere with the

continuous operation of Ethernet devices. In fact, some of these factors may even cause serious disasters or the loss of life and property. As a result, industrial-grade products are highly recommended for building a reliable and ruggedised communication network. Robust Ethernet Switches The criteria for network availability in industrial domains are substantially different from those for office environments. For applications where human life or property may be at risk—such as industrial automation and control, risk detection and prevention, or transportation network management—network equipment and devices deployed must be compliant with strict industrial standards and robust enough to withstand harsh environmental conditions. From the management perspective, the key challenge to operating mission-critical networks is ensuring reliable, secure, and easy-to-maintain communication. In order to operate effectively, the deployed

By the end of 2011, there will already be new clients and servers on the Internet with IPv6 addresses. networks should support services such as location determination of authorised and unauthorised entities, audio/video transmission, emergency calling and alerts, and remote monitoring and control in a secure and dependable manner. There are several criteria to consider when system integrators and solution providers select industrial-grade Ethernet switches for mission-critical applications and construct a reliable and robust communication network: • Network Redundancy Redundancy is one of the most important aspects of industrial automation networks used for applications such as power utilities, transportation, and surveillance. A basic redundancy re q u i re m e n t f o r c o n t ro l systems is that each part of the communication network should be equipped with a backup power supply for smooth operation even during a power outage. In addition to power redundancy, media redundancy is also a basic requirement for industrial applications. With this function, the communication network can form a backup path when part of the network fails. • Safety & Reliability System integrators and developers for mission-critical applications tend to look at either the MTBF (mean time before failure) or warranty

p e r i o d o f a p ro d u c t t o evaluate reliability. However, since the MTBF for general purpose products is not readily available, it is more common to use the warranty period as the barometer. Whereas general purpose devices tend to be warranted for only one or two years, the warranty period for products used in industrial applications should be at least three to five years to ensure system reliability and reduce the probability that devices will need to be changed frequently. • Ruggedness Industrial Ethernet components are designed to operate in harsh environments and withstand extreme conditions. The specifications of industrial Ethernet switches (wide operating temperature, immunity to electromagnetic i n t e r f e re n c e , a n t i - s h o c k , anti-vibration, etc) often exceed those of the connected devices (PLCs, HMIs, etc)

Industrial Ethernet components are designed to operate in harsh environments and withstand extreme conditions.

and can be much stronger compared to those of officegrade equipment. • Installation Flexibility A rugged and user-friendly DINRail mounting or panel mounting option is proven to better withstand stringent industrial vibration, freefall, and shock than most commercial devices for industrial applications. T h e s e e a s y a n d s e c u re installation options greatly ensure network stability. • Wide Operating Temperature For some industrial applications, especially applications located in factories or outdoors, network devices must be able to operate under extreme temperatures from –40 to 85 deg C. For these types of applications, it is critical to look for products with optimal heat dissipation or fan-free solutions. Inevitable Transition With a large number of appliances already functionally IPv6 networkready, the transition to IPv6 is inevitable. Fortunately, IPv6 offers a number of new features, advantages, and services for the Internet community. Even organisations and enterprises that have enough IPv4 address space and continue to operate their IPv4 networks will need to implement IPv6 on their networks eventually. Any organisation that runs its business, manages its facilities, and communicates via Internet will need to take steps to ensure that those services are visible over both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Over time, they too will migrate to IPv6-compatible switches, routers, and operating systems in computers and servers. ENQUIRY NO. 2203 April 2009 | industrial automation asia 27

control point

Control Valve Technology:

Online

Companies are now trying to utilise diagnostics to reduce the maintenance cost of control valves. By Michio Suzuki (L), product manager for Control Valves and Positioners, Yamatake Corporation and Hiroshi Doi (R), GM, Industrial Automation, Azbil Singapore

Diagnostics ffective maintenance of control valves is essential for safe and smooth plant operation. To make sure that valve maintenance is as effective and efficient as possible, it is worth considering the use of the latest control valve diagnostics technology. Good results have been obtained recently in this area, and we are hearing of successful cases from early adopters of the technology The Status Quo Currently there are two basic a p p ro a c h e s t o m a i n t a i n i n g 28â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

c o n t ro l v a l v e s : t i m e - b a s e d maintenance (TBM) and breakdown maintenance (BM). These approaches are applied to individual control valves based on the valveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s application and its importance ranking. If a TBM policy is applied, the valve i s o v e rh a u l e d d u r i n g t h e shutdown maintenance period. If a BM policy is applied, the valve is monitored by some indirect methodology, such as site patrol or electrical information from the distributed control system (DCS).

If a problem or doubt about the valveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s condition is detected by these methodologies, troubleshooting activity begins and, if the valve is found to be the cause of the problem, it is repaired. Issues To Be Solved U n f o r t u n a t e l y, t h e c u r re n t approaches used for maintenance leave some issues unresolved. The most significant of these is the tendency toward overmaintenance of TBM valves. According to our records from overhaul inspections, serious

damage or deterioration was found in only 40 percent of all overhauled valves. That means that in 60 percent of the cases, the control valve was removed unnecessarily from the process line. When we consider the various activities and factors related to overhaul and inspection, such as maintenance shop logistics, there is clearly much room for improvement in the maintenance cost of TBM valves. How can we resolve this issue? One approach is to utilise online diagnostics technology for control valve maintenance. Recently the importance of this technology is increasing because of limited maintenance technician resources and newly constructed mega-plant complexes that are difficult to manage with existing resources. Not surprisingly, there are now

many products on the market featuring this type of system, with a smart/intelligent valve positioner that has diagnostics capabilities and is compatible with the digital control/information network. Such systems have the potential to reduce the maintenance cost of TBM control valves, because they allow us to decide whether or not a valve is in good condition by utilising a diagnostics function while the plant is operating, thus eliminating unnecessary overhaul and inspection of valves. Maintenance Support System A kind of system, consisting of a smart/intelligent valve positioner, its diagnostics function, and related PC software is called a control valve maintenance support system.

Table 1 Algorithm/ parameter for Valstaff on-line diagnostics

Description

Correlative failure/ deterioration of control valves Gland packing deterioration

Stick-slip algorithm

Refer to article.

Sticking of plug or actuator stem Plug sliding motion abnormality Bending or scratching of plug or plug guide

Travel histogram

Histogram of valve opening %. Time series comparison is available.

Clogging of process Severe seat erosion Gland packing deterioration

Total Stroke

Totalised stroke distance of stem movement.

Bellows seal life Actuator seal wear Actuator spring deterioration

Deviation alert

Notification of a deviation between set point and actual travel.

Zero point angle comparison

Comparison between zero point angle that positioner detects during operation and that of initial setting.

Max travel speed

Daily record of the maximum travel speed both upward and downward. Time series comparison is available.

Sticking of plug or actuator stem Air leak from pneumatic circuit Contamination on plug seat Severe seat erosion Gland packing deterioration Actuator seal wear Actuator spring deterioration Gland packing deterioration

Cycle count

The number of times the stem changes direction.

Total shutoff count

The number of times the valve closes.

Plug seat deterioration

Environmental temperature

Measurement of temperature around positioner by attached sensor.

Rubber parts deterioration

Actuator seal wear Actuator spring deterioration

Figure 1: A smart valve positioner

The key element of the control valve maintenance suppor t system is a smart valve positioner such as the one seen in Figure 1. In addition to its core function, namely controlling valve opening, the smar t valve positioner also gathers valve operating information and analyses the valve’s condition using a built-in diagnostics function. The positioner then transmits the diagnostic information by means of a digital communication protocol like Foundation Fieldbus to the control valve maintenance support system’s PC application software. Instrumentation engineers or maintenance technicians can obtain information on the control valve’s status from this software. Online Diagnostics Technology Table 1 is a list of online diagnostics algorithms and parameters that are handled by Yamatake’s Valstaff control valve maintenance support system. The stick-slip algorithm is a unique technology that detects if the valve stem has a tendency to stick. This algorithm works by examining the distribution of stem movement velocity. A valve that is in good condition exhibits smooth movement, and a plot of the stem movement velocity shows a normal distribution curve as shown on the left side of Figure 2. If we calculate the average and the root mean square (RMS) of the stem velocity of a healthy valve, we find that there is not a big difference between the two. April 2009 | industrial automation asia 29

control point

Large difference between average and RMS High

High

Small difference between average and RMS

Average Frequency

Frequency

Average

RMS

Low

RMS

Low

Stem velocity

High

(a) Normal condition

Low

Stem velocity

High

(b) Stick-slip condition

Figure 2: Stem velocity distribution graphs

30â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

Other diagnostics parameters in Table 1 are also noteworthy. Some are useful for determining the optimal maintenance period of consumable parts and some are good for detecting a trend toward clogging inside of valves. Recently early adopters of control valve diagnostics technology who are using a control valve maintenance support system are finding their own ways to monitor major valve deterioration trends using diagnostics algorithms and parameters. Case Study 1: Use Of The Stick-Slip Algorithm The first case is a good example of distinguishing valves with a tendency to stick from smoothly

Threshold 10-1 (b) Stick-slip condition Index of RMS of stem movement velocity (mm2)

On the other hand, if the valve is not in good condition, but exhibits sticky movement, the stem velocity distribution shows a peak at the zero point and a set of extreme stem velocity points, as seen on the right side of Figure 2. This distribution is caused by repeated sticking action of the stem followed by release (slipping) from the stuck position. Calculating the average and RMS of the stem velocity for a valve in this state, we find that there is a larger difference between these two figures than is the case for a healthy valve. The Valstaff stick-slip algorithm utilises this characteristic of stem velocity distribution to identify a tendency toward sticky movement, and to make that tendency apparent. Sampling of the stem velocity is carried out continuously inside the smart valve positioner. Once every 400 seconds, the average and RMS are calculated and the results are plotted as shown in Figure 3. The x-axis of this graph is the average and the y-axis is the RMS. For a valve that is in good condition, the plotted data will be close to the y = x line for reasons described above. But for a valve that sticks, the plotted data will be far from the y = x line. The tendency of a valve to stick can be learned by visual comparison of the data plots for specific periods, or by an alarm triggered by the algorithm.

operating valves, using the stickslip algorithm. This case was reported from a resin manufacturer in western Japan. This user chose Foundation Fieldbus for use. For its first trial, 11 valves were selected based on their application and importance for plant operation, and were connected to Valstaff. Continuous monitoring and online diagnostics using Valstaff began at the same time as plant start-up. There have been many findings from the online diagnostics parameters, but the most significant of these was the detection by the stick-slip algorithm of a tendency toward sticking. Figure 4 shows a comparison of the stick-slip graphs for two valves out of the above 11 valves over a five-month period. CV-Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s condition is good, because there is no significant change in its stickslip plot during the five months. But a look at CV-B reveals quite a different picture, in which the stickslip plot gradually moves up from the y = x centerline. As described above, this indicates a tendency toward stick-slip movement. This customer expects to be able to use the stick-slip algorithm in the near future as one of the criteria for deciding whether a valve needs overhaul/inspection or not.

10-2

Lower limit of the index

10-3 (a) Normal condition 10-4

10-5 10-5

10-4

10-3

10-2

10-1

Index of average stem movement velocity (mm2)

Figure 3: For a value that is in good condition, the plotted data will be close to the y=x line

CV-B

CV-A

necessary maintenance of control valves, based on analysis of the Valstaff data. We made a back-up copy July 2007 of all log and trend data and started the analysis. The most noteworthy finding to Aug. 2007 emerge from this analysis was the detection of a trim abnormality using zero point Sept. 2007 angle comparison. Zero point angle Oct. 2007 comparison is a diagnostic function that compares the initial zero point angle to Figure 4: Comparison of stick-slip valves over the zero point angle actually a five month period measured when the positioner Case Study 2: Detection Of receives a 0 percent signal. If Trim Parts Abnormality there is a plus direction deviation The other case is an example between the initial and actually in which an online diagnostics measured zero-point angle, there parameter detected a trim parts may be contamination of the abnormality. An analysis of this process fluid or some other foreign information was effectively used substance on the seat. If there is a for overhaul/inspection. minus direction deviation, seat This case was reported from a erosion is implied. petrochemical company in Japan. Usually the results of zero The user adopted Foundation point angle comparison are only Fieldbus in a new polymer plant. known by Valstaff alarm. But we Twelve valves out of more than combined trend data analysis with 100 were selected for continuous zero-point angle comparison alarm m o n i t o r i n g . S e t p o i n t a n d in this analysis. Figure 5 gives the actual valve opening data was results of this combined analysis. continuously saved (for future As shown in this graph, one valve analysis) to a PC using Valstaff’s experienced a sudden 3 percent trend data logging function. shift, but returned to normal after After a half year, shutdown a couple of days. maintenance was planned in order As the result of our analysis, to repair any plant equipment that we recommended an overhaul of had become faulty at this early this valve because of the abnormal stage. At that time the customer signal. The photographs in requested a recommendation for Figure 6 show results of the June 2007

→

Valve opening (%)

+3% Around a +3% shift, but returned to normal

–3%

→

Time

Figure 5: This analysis led to an overhaul of this valve due to the abnormal signal

inspection. Contamination of the process on the plug surface was found and a foreign substance, in this case a steel fibre, was stuck to the seat. This fibre was determined to be the cause of the above-mentioned shift, and it was safely removed.

Contamination on the seat and parabolic portion of the plug

Fibre stuck to the seat

Figure 6: Results of inspection

The customer viewed this case as a good example of how the need for control valve maintenance can be determined while the plant is operating and, somewhat paradoxically speaking, as supporting the expectation of reduced unnecessary overhaul inspection of control valves during shutdown maintenance. Making Progress These two cases show that progress is being made in realising optimised control valve maintenance. Many customers are now trying to utilise diagnostics to reduce the maintenance cost of control valves. In the current severe economic environment, the importance of reducing the maintenance cost of plant equipment is likely to increase. ENQUIRY NO. 2301 April 2009 | industrial automation asia 31

software & Networks

Local-I/O For local-I/O the I/O cards are mounted centrally indoors in the rack room providing good protection and making I/Osubsystem maintenance such as inspection and card replacement easy. Simple devices have one signal requiring one pair of wires. Cost includes price of multi-core cable and tray, cost of labour to lay the cable and install tray. Advanced devices with multiple signals, such as position feedback or auxiliary inputs, increase the wire and connection count. If separately powered safety barriers are used the connection count increases further. Some control systems have I/O cards with builtin safety barriers reducing the number of connections for some I/O types somewhat.

Integrated Bus Architecture

RemoVe-I/O The architecture chosen for the control system I/O affects the price of the system, and the cost and ease of maintaining that system. By Jonas Berge, director, PlantWeb Consulting, Emerson Process Management

lants have hundreds or thousands of transmitters, valves, discrete sensors and actuators etc. Running individual wires for each, the long distance from the field, is expensive. Alternate solutions include remote-I/O or distributed-I/O for conventional devices, and digital buses for networked devices. Architecture selection criteria include cable savings and if the solution enables new predictive maintenance practices. 32â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

30 m

Remote-I/O Architecture A plethora of different conventional signals exist: temperature input, pulse/frequency input, 4-20 mA input and output, plus a bewildering array of different discrete AC and DC input levels and many types of discrete outputs. Each signal needs an appropriate I/O card and safety barrier type. The gamut of signals from the field is marshalled to the right channel on the right type of I/O card. I/O card selection and assigning I/O signals is a project

Field Junction Box

Control Cabinet 500 m

Total: 4,240 m

Figure 1: Wire lengths for conventional local-I/O

Devices

Marshalling

Field Junction Box

I.S. Barrier

Multi-core cable

Total: 160 connections 16

Figure 2: Number of connection points for conventional local-I/O

engineering task. Verification is done at factory acceptance test and full loop check is done at site pre-commissioning to discover any signal marshalling mix-up. Systems that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t support digital communication cannot benefit from remote device configuration and diagnostics capabilities to distinguish between device problems and process upsets or get advance notice for predictive maintenance. The remote-I/O architecture mounts the I/O in panels scattered around the plant closer to the field devices. The number of individual wires is still large, albeit shorter distance than local-I/O. Digital bus technology connects the remote-I/O to the controller and should be redundant. Cabinets to 30 m

house remote-I/O are significantly larger than junction boxes for local-I/O architecture since the I/O cards need space. Power for the I/O subsystem must be provided and should be redundant. The conventional signaling prevents advantages of pure bus technology such as closed loop digital control, mult-channel and multi-variable devices, greater signal fidelity, increased device diagnostics, firmware download, and real-number data transmission. In the tough plant environment, often outdoor, I/O cards, backplane, power supply, and communication processor are, in spite of protective enclosures, exposed to environmental stress such as heat and vibration. Maintenance

Field Junction Box

Control Cabinet Bus

500 m

Power

Bus

Power Total: 2,240 m

Figure 3: Wire lengths for conventional remote-I/O

inspection and card replacement becomes more difficult because I/O panels in the field are not as accessible and should not be opened unnecessarily as dust, moisture, rain, water jet from washing, offshore sea spray, may enter. There is a tradeoff between using fewer remote-I/O panels requiring longer cable for each device, or using many panels for which the cost of the I/O-subsystems become substantial. Remote-I/O requires more engineering than local-I/O, for planning the location of the remote-I/O cabinets and defining which device connects where. Additionally, the bus system c o n n e c t i n g t h e re m o t e - I / O stations to the controller must be engineered. Heat dissipation must be calculated to comply with hazardous area requirements. The central controller accesses the input and outputs across the remote-I/O bus. The controller I/O scan time is limited by t h e re m o t e - I / O b u s s p e e d . Profibus-DP, Modbus/RTU, and other RS485-based devices run at 1.5 Mbit/s for short distances, but slower for remote-I/O due to the capacitance of long copper cables. The more I/O points sharing the same bus, the longer the update time will be. Remote-I/O changes the traditional demarcation between system and field, by placing I/O cards in the field. Remote-I/O has many intermediate connection points from field device to I/O card, including marshalling, and possibly safety barriers. Consider the labour cost for cutting, stripping, ferrule crimping, labeling, and screwing these wires at every point. Valve positioner feedback and electric actuators require more wire and connections. Separately powered safety barriers require more connections than loop powered April 2009 | industrial automation asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 33

software & Networks

Devices

Marshalling

I.S. Barrier

I/O Assembly

Scanner Scanner

Control Cabinet

that can fail, increasing reliability. The remote area can still continue to control totally autonomously even if there is a network failure between the controller and the operator stations.

and digital communication. Therefore, devices are combined freely on a communication interface card and safety barrier. For valve positioners the cable and connection reduction is even greater as additional wires for actual position feedback and limit switches are not required. All field devices in the plant do not sit on the same fieldbus. On average there are ten devices per fieldbus. Because few wires are used, the wiring cost is kept down even though wire is run all the way to the rack room allowing interface cards to mount indoors, protected from the harsh plant environment and easily accessible for service. A digital bus architecture enables both easy card access and wiring savings. The longer the distance, the greater the savings. Loading only a few devices per fieldbus ensures high performance updates.

Digital Bus Architecture The confusing competition b e t w e e n d i f f e re n t f i e l d b u s protocols in the past is subsiding as each bus technology finds its application niche. Many field devices are connected on the same fieldbus reducing the amount of wiring and connections by a factor of several times. In a digital bus architecture devices such as transmitters, control valves, and on/off valves have internal signal conditioning

Fieldbus For Control Loops The integral and derivative action in PID control requires a precisely periodic sampling interval, that is the communication cycle time must be constant for effective control. Modbus and Profibus originating from the factor y automation industry are good for on/off points and variable speed drives, but are not precisely periodic. Foundation fieldbus is designed for process control with timesynchronised and scheduled real-

Bus

Controller

2 2 16

Total: 104 connections

Power Power

Field Junction Box

Figure 4: Number of connection points for conventional remote-I/O

barriers. However, a remote-I/O subsystem with built-in barriers reduces connections somewhat. Distributed-I/O Architecture A solution ver y similar to remote-I/O offered by several manufacturers is distributedI/O. The difference is in how I/O and controllers are located. The remote architecture has one central controller accessing several underlying passive I/O subsystems in which the communication processor only scans I/O. The distributed-I/O architecture has several decentralised controllers, each located together with its I/O. That is, the distributed architecture has its intelligence at the I/O level in a controller designed to operate at full industrial temperature range, just like a remote-I/O station. In a distributed system each controller gets loaded less thus improving control response period. The additional communication latency associated with routing inputs and outputs up and down the intermediate remote-I/O bus is eliminated further improving control response. By having one bus tier less there are fewer pieces of hardware 34â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

30 m

500 m

Total: 740 m

Figure 5: Wire lengths for fieldbus

time communication ensuring precisely periodic sampling as required for PID control. Non-realtime communication is scheduled in separate slots ensuring closedloop dynamics are not affected by non-critical data. By eliminating analogue conversions the control loop enjoys digital fidelity endto-end. One reason plants chose a digital bus architecture is that new innovative devices like multichannel temperature transmitters for temperature profiling and machinery health transmitters for critical pump diagnostics are not possible with conventional signals. Fieldbus devices have advanced functionality not found in 4–20 mA devices, such as a valve positioner fall-back to I-to-P mode if the feedback mechanism fails, thus avoiding shutdown. In a bus architecture, communication is always on, providing a path for device diagnostics. An ‘OK’ signal means the device need not be removed, tested, and reinstalled on suspicion. Foundation fieldbus devices have more diagnostics than 4-20 mA devices. Only in a fieldbus temperature transmitter will you find Statistical Process Monitoring for Abnormal Situation Prevention, or predictive thermocouple

Devices

degradation diagnostics and timestamped extreme temperature tracking. A digital plant architecture use the power of field intelligence to improve plant performance. Foundation fieldbus combines intrinsically safe two-wire bus power with precisely periodic updates, prioritised communication, timestamped alerts, time synchronised execution, and automatic addressing etc. Discrete On/Off In a bus architecture, on/off valves are integrated using digital communication all the way to the valve. A valve coupler combine the solenoid and limit switches providing the interface to fieldbus. A fieldbus on/off actuator is the complete package. On/off valves connect directly to fieldbus to get the on/off command via communication and return the open/closed status. Whereas one on/off valve previously required three pairs of wires for control and feedback, one single pair of wire now handles multiple fieldbus on/off valves. Diagnostics include excessive travel time as well as reversal counters used to estimate wear

Field Junction Box

Marshalling

I.S. Barrier

I/O Assembly

Total: 55 connections 16

Figure 6: Number of connection points for fieldbus

On/off valve coupler using Foundation fieldbus

and tear to more accurately predict need for maintenance, as well as temperature monitoring. Cable and connections are reduced and maintenance is improved. An electric actuator can have a total of four control signals including open/stop/close control, desired position, shut down, plus eleven feedback signals like limit switches, percentage open, local/ remote status, opening/closing, torque tripped, percentage torque, and temperature tripped etc. In the past, each actuator required one multi-core cable. With fieldbus, a single pair supports multiple actuators. Reduced Discrete I/O Points In a digital bus architecture with Foundation fieldbus and Profibus-DP used together, the number of auxiliary I/O points required to support complex devices such as valve positioners, electric actuators, and variable speed drives etc. is reduced. So few discrete points remain that there may not be any need for a discrete bus like AS-I or for remoteI/O. Local-I/O may be the best option for the balance. FF Removes Discrete Inputs Discrete I/O point-count is decimated by Foundation fieldbus and Profibus-DP. Switches for April 2009 | industrial automation asia 35

software & Networks

pressure, flow, and level are sometimes used to detect overpressure and high level etc. However, a system cannot tell if they fail because they lack diagnostics, which could be dangerous. A better practice is to use transmitters instead of switches, connected over Foundation fieldbus. This reduces the number of discrete I/O points. Profibus-DP Motor starters, variable speed drives, Motor Control Centres (MCC), and solenoid valve banks taking the place of individually wired solenoids are now integrated using Profibus-DP. Va r i a b l e s p e e d d r i v e commands for forward/stop/ reverse, jog, preset acceleration and deceleration, local/remote, preset speed selection, and more are sent using bus technology as is feedback such as fault, alarm, running, ‘at’ speed/frequency/ current/torque, overload, line loss, powered, ready, forward/reverse, breaking, and local/remote etc. As many as eleven pairs of wire and conventional I/O card channels, plus a phenomenal number of connection points per drive are eliminated with ProfibusDP. Multiplied by the number of drives in a plant, a lot of hardware and labour is saved. In the past, each drive required a dedicated multi-core cable. Now, a single pair connects multiple drives. Profibus-DP and Modbus/RTU connect to remote-I/O which in turn connect discrete sensors and actuators using conventional wiring, not direct to proximity switches or solenoids. Profibus-DP and Modbus/RTU are at a higherlevel than so-called ‘discrete buses’ like AS-i or CompoNet. There is no drive communicating Foundation fieldbus, thus a plant cannot be ‘pure’ fieldbus. Conversely, Profibus-DP and Modbus work very well for motor 36 industrial automation asia | April 2009

control such as drives, but are not ideal for PID control because their updates are not precisely periodic since these communication protocols are not synchronised. Hence a plant cannot be ‘pure’ Profibus either. The best available solution is to use both Foundation fieldbus and Profibus-DP. All Integrated Bus architecture with interface cards mounted indoors is the most effective way to reduce wire and connections while ensuring easy system maintenance, at the same time enabling remote setup and diagnostics. The reduction for remote-I/O and distributed-I/O are the same. The reductions using a fieldbus architecture exceeds that of remote-I/O.

control devices including those using HART and WirelessHART from the same device management software. That is, transmitters, analysers, valve positioners, and variable speed drives etc can be managed from the same single software application with a common look and feel, and are displayed with content and structure as intended by the device manufacturer. This is far easier to use than a dedicated software or driver for each device type. A distinct advantage of EDDL over other technologies is that it is a text file, not software, which makes it easy to load to keep the system up to date with new device types and versions. Moreover, the file does not become obsolete with new

Table 1: Summary of installation for different I/O architectures (per 8 devices)

Number of connection points Wire run

Local

Remote

Distributed

Fieldbus

160

104

4240 m

2240 m

740 m

Does not take into account additional savings from elimination of wiring for auxiliary points.

Table 2: Pros and cons of different I/O architect uses Local

Remote

Distributed

Fieldbus

Indoor

Field

Indoor

Cost

High

Low

Easy maintenance access

Yes

Some

Yes

Module location

Access to device intelligence

EDDL In a digital plant architecture, combining the strengths of Foundation fieldbus and ProfibusDP does not have to be difficult. An interoperable system based on the IEC 61804-3 international device integration standard for Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) provides support and guidance to fully configure, calibrate, and diagnose process control, process safety, and motor

versions of Windows, thus protecting investment. Since it is not software, the EDDL files are permitted on the control system itself, enabling integrated diagnostics from the operator console making diagnostics a natural part of daily work practices. EDDL graphics and wizards make setup and calibration of advanced devices easy. ENQUIRY NO. 2401

Market Report

Factory Automation Safety Networks: The New Differentiator Factory automation safety networks are emerging as the next competitive battleground in the automation network wars. By Chantal Polsonetti, VP, manufacturing advisory services, ARC Advisory Group

Cost Savings vs Hard Wiring Growth in the safety network

Factory Automation Safety Network Business (Thousands of Nodes)

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

4,000.0

2008

Drawing on legacy battles in areas such as serial-based device networks, process fieldbuses, and Ethernet-based automation networks, suppliers and network trade associations alike are ramping up their arsenals for competition in this increasingly important arena. This race will fuel growth in the worldwide market for factory automation safety networks at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.3 percent over the next five years. The market totaled less than 700 thousand nodes in 2008, a figure that is forecast to grow to over 3.6 million in 2013. The safety network market will benefit from the same quantifiable cost savings in areas such as wiring and installation that fueled adoption of standard device networks over hard wiring, plus they can deliver concrete business benefits in areas such as regulatory compliance and reduced shutdowns. The timing and impact of safety regulations remains a wild card in many parts of the world, but both existing suppliers and new entrants are lining up their safety network strategies as the technology increasingly emerges as a key differentiator.

market will parallel that of serialbased device networks from the perspective of the wiring savings a bus-based network can deliver relative to hard wiring of safety components. These savings are realised in areas such as reduced cable costs, smaller panels and cable trays, fewer components required, reduced cost of wire installation, and greater flexibility in reconfiguring the network as operations dictate. Increasing availability of light curtains, safety switches, and other safe components with a network interface will only further the potential cost savings in this area. Growth in interest in wireless safety devices will further fuel cabling and installation savings.

Isolated Or Controlled Shutdowns Limiting the operational impact of a safety event is another business benefit derived from use of safety networks. Ability to implement controlled or isolated shutdowns by decelerating motors or isolating emergency stops to specific zones has significant benefits relative to tripped E-stops or light curtains initiating complete system shutdowns and often timeconsuming restarts. Servo drive manufacturers have already recognised this trend and are moving toward integrated safety network components for their drive systems that allow controlled or limited shutdowns. Safe Motion Integration of safety functionality into ser vo drives and other motion control equipment is one of the most intriguing drivers in the factory automation safety marketplace. Embedding a safety controller and safe I/O right into a servo drive with a soft starter eliminates the need for a separate safety controller and I/O. Safety functions are integrated directly into the drive, eliminating the need for external power contactors and speed monitoring equipment and enabling local control. ENQUIRY NO. 2402 April 2009 | industrial automation asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 37

instrumentation & Measurement

Stainless Record For Steel Mill Process instrumentation fed by multiple 4–20mA loops enables mill operator to keep a watchful eye on pollutants. By Jim Shields, process tools marketing manager, Fluke

obert Applegate feels compelled to stay current with process control technology – especially when it may have a direct impact on controlling acid rain and other pollutants. Twenty weeks out of his year are devoted to a high-pressure boileremission monitoring system at a northeastern steel mill, where he is a consultant. At the mill, critical readings about system operations are taken from field instruments connected via 4–20mA loops to a central distributed-control system or DCS. Additional DCS loops send control information to the emission monitoring system, enabling the mill operator to verify continued compliance with EPA38 industrial automation asia | April 2009

mandated requirements. The DCS data, also used for proper/safe boiler operation, is not available for troubleshooting/calibration while operating the boiler. It’s In The Chemistry What role do low-current loops play in efficiently operating the mill and limiting pollutant levels to abide with the EPA-mandated standard? The mill contains five major boilers whose outputs feed into stacks. The emission-monitoring system extracts continuous stack samples, measuring the nitrous oxide and oxygen concentration levels. The idea, he says, is that by controlling the admission of NOx and sulfur dioxide, or SO2, mills

can lower the concentration of nitric acid and sulfuric acid, or H2SO4 (the result of SO2 combined with water). “That’s a major step toward reducing acid rain,” says Mr Applegate. “ T h i s i s w h e re 4 – 2 0 m A technology comes in and why it’s critical to derive what we call ‘emission factor.’ We look at all the fuels that flow into the boiler, the monitoring instruments that report the fuel flow rates. Then we take those rates, combine them with the amount of heat present in that fuel, and generate the heat input. Now we have a heat input to the boiler and a steam flow out of the boiler, and we have the concentration in the stack. From those three measurements, we develop the emission factor.” The system determines how much NOx went up the stack in that set of circumstances. Here Mr Applegate points to the critical need for ‘noninvasive’ testing. “The instruments reporting fuel flows are also used to control the boiler, and they have to be calibrated. I can’t go out there and say ‘I’ll just disconnect the oil flow meter and measure the flow.’ If I did that, the boiler would trip.” No More Shutdowns At one time, he says, the only way to troubleshoot those instruments was to shut the boilers down – which meant waiting for onceor twice-a year planned outages. “That meant there were long periods when I couldn’t verify what a process control instrument was actually doing – unless I had a tool like a milliamp process clamp meter. Now I can go out there and measure the circuit loop between the instrument and the DCS, and say ‘Alright, I’m at 55 percent.’ Now I look at what’s coming to the NOx system and verify that it’s also 55 percent. You can compare the input side to the output side without disconnecting anything.”

Pressure Indicator/Controller

4–20 mA Pressure Transmitter

Relief Valve Controller

Temperature Indicator/Controller

Relief Valve Measured Pressure

4–20 mA

Dual readings such as milliamps and percent of scale, he notes, give the technician another way to track critical indicators. For example: “A reading of 4mA equates to zero percent of scale, and a reading of 20mA equates to 100 percent,” he says. “In my case, 55 percent would give me a reading of 12.8mA.” And how do units of flow equate to currents and percentages? “When you set everything up, you pick a span number. You say the span is going to be full-scale. If it’s an oil flow meter, it might be zero to 30 gallons per minute. At 30gpm, you’d be generating 20mA, and you’d be looking for 100 percent at the DCS level.” He notes that, in the ‘DCS world,’ readings of all kinds are converted from absolute readings of current between 4mA and 20mA, to a percent of some factor. Working with percentages is often easier than keeping current values in mind, while achieving the same results. “We’re using the instrument for dual purposes: To monitor the boiler and ensure it’s safe for continuous operation, and to compare the amount of heat created by the boiler with the gas concentration in the stack. Those numbers calculate the emission factor, which tells us how much NOx the system is generating.”

Temperature Sensor Temperature Transmitter

Process Fluid

Totalizing Flowmeter

Flow Control Valve

Process Vessel

Natural Gas In

Burner/Heater

Figure 1: Standard 4-20mA measurement points in a boiler pressure control loop

All Loops Are Created Equal Applegate points out an inherent advantage of 4–20mA technology. “At the mill, a regulator device sources that current. Within limits, it doesn’t care whether that loop is 10 feet or 1,000 feet long. The current is the same everywhere in the loop. The longer it is, the higher the resistance. But, because it’s regulating current, the system just increases the voltage in order to drive the current to the level it wants to be. It’s a low-impedance circuit

that isn’t impacted by noise in the surrounding area. That’s because the current is high enough that any noise generated in the proximity of the circuit doesn’t compare with the strength of that low-impedance, relatively high-current circuit.” In a sense, 4–20mA technology is a great equaliser. And that is perhaps why the technology is still used in new industrial systems, even as newer bus technologies have been introduced. ENQUIRY NO. 2501

Fluke:

Process Clamp Meter

he jaws on the Fluke 771 Milliamp Process Clamp Meter detach from the body of the meter to allow for measurement in tight spaces, while allowing the user to read the screen in a less cramped or better lit area. The 771 also features a built-

in measurement spotlight to illuminate hard-to-see wires in tight locations or dark enclosures. Its hold function captures and displays changing measurements. With this function, users can make a measurement, remove the meter

from the circuit, and retain the reading for easy viewing and recording. In this mode, the technician can see not only the current reading, but also the percentage of the span represented by that reading. ENQUIRY NO. 2502

April 2009 | industrial automation asia 39

instrumentation & Measurement

Machine Vision:

GigE Vision is an interface standard based on Ethernet and made to meet the needs of the machine vision industry. By Henning Tiarks, product manager, Basler Vision Technologies

Networking Insight he GigE Vision standard was defined by a committee of the Automated Imaging Association (AIA). The committee included companies from all major product segments in the vision industry. The goal was to define a standard Gigabit Ethernet-based interface tuned to applications in the machine vision industry that would allow seamless interchangeability between cameras or software. The GigE Vision Standard The GigE Vision standard is built on Ethernet technology. Standard Ethernet hardware, architecture, and network structure can be used in any system that incorporates GigE Vision. This standard is based on UDP/IP, which consists of four major parts. The first part defines a mechanism that allows applications to detect and enumerate devices and defines how devices obtain a valid IP address. The second part defines a GigE Vision Control Protocol (GVCP) that allows the configuration of detected devices and guarantees transmission reliability. The third part defines a GigE Vision Streaming protocol (GVSP) that allows applications to receive information from devices. The last part defines bootstrap registers that describe the 40â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

device itself (eg: current IP address, serial number, manufacturer information, etc). Structure Comparison A comparison of GigE Vision structure and TCP/IP structure can be made by using the Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (also called OSI) as shown in Figure 1. OSI Model Application Layer

TCP/IP Model Application Layer

GigE Vision GVCP

GVSP

Presentation Layer Session Layer Transport Layer

Host-to-Host Transport Layer

UDP

Network Layer

Internet Layer

IP ARP

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Physical Layer

Figure 1: OSI Reference Model

Ethernet

ICMP

TCP/IP was developed as a message delivery system that establishes a host-to-host connection and ensures safe, reliable delivery of the messages. It avoids network overload and automatically detects lost data and corrects it. This makes TCP/IP a good protocol for the worldwide web and for email, but reduces its performance for machine vision cameras. The GigE Vision standard is based on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Instead of establishing a host-to-host connection as with TCP, UDP uses ports to allow application-to-application connections. This makes UDP less reliable than TCP. But it also increases performance and higher performance is absolutely necessary, especially for the high-speed image transfers required in machine vision. To overcome the unreliability of UDP, the GigE Vision standards committee introduced two extra protocols: the GigE Vision Control Protocol (GVCP) and the GigE Vision Streaming Protocol (GVSP). The GigE Vision Control Protocol (GVCP) The GVCP is an application layer protocol that relies on UDP. It adds mechanisms to UDP to guarantee the reliability of image transmission. In an application, after sending a command, the application waits for an acknowledge (when requested) as shown in Figure 2. The application also will implement a counter to signal timeout conditions and to determine if the message was not received by the device. Device

Application Sending Request req_id = 1

Control channel

Receiving Request req_id = 1

Executing Request

Receiving Acknowledge ack_id = 1

Control channel

Sending Acknowledge ack_id = 1

Increment req_id for next req_id (skip req_id = 0)

Figure 2: GVCP Acknowledge

GVCP allows the instantiation of one or more channels to transfer information between a device and an application. GVCP supports three types of channels: control channels, stream channels, and message channels. Different channels can be used in the same network interface when each channel is assigned a different UDP port. Channels are created dynamically by the application and the device. Except

for the standard GVCP port used by the device for the control channel, channels can use any available UDP port. Control Channel A control channel is used by an application to communicate with a device. GVCP defines two types of control channels: â&#x20AC;˘ Primary control channels: A primary control channel is created by the primary application. The primary application is the application that is allowed to write to the device registers. Only one application is allowed to be the primary application for a device. The primary application may have exclusive access to the device. In this case, no secondary channel can be established. â&#x20AC;˘ Secondary control channels: A secondary control channel is created by any secondary applications. Secondary applications can only read from the device registers (they cannot write to them). This capability can be used for monitoring or debugging (Monitor Access). A device may support no, one, or many secondary applications. Stream Channel The stream channel is instantiated by the primary application. When establishing a stream channel, the primary application dynamically specifies the UDP port for streaming. Message Channel A message channel allows a device to send asynchronous messages to the application (eg: the camera wants to signal the end of exposure to the application). A message channel is similar to a control channel, but requests are sent in the opposite direction: The device always initiates transactions on the message channel. Therefore, the message channel headers are identical to the control channel headers. The packet flow sequence on a message channel is: 1. Device sends a message packet. 2. Application receives the message packet. 3. Application processes the message. 4. Application sends the acknowledge packet (if acknowledge is requested). 5. Device receives the acknowledge packet (if acknowledge is requested). The req_id field on the message channel is incremented from one message to the next (except for retransmission). This allows the application to detect if a UDP message has been lost, even when no acknowledge is requested. April 2009 | industrial automation asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 41

instrumentation & Measurement

Command Acknowledge

Control Channel

Stream Channel 0

Stream 0

Stream Channel 0

Stream Channel 1

Stream 1

Stream Channel 1

Message Channel

Event Acknowledge

Message Channel

Figure 3: Control Channel Communication

GigE Vision Streaming Protocol (GVSP) The GVSP is an application layer protocol that relies on the UDP transport layer protocol. It allows an application to receive image data, image information, and other information from a device. Packets are always transmitted from a device to the application. GVSP provides mechanisms to guarantee the reliability of packet transmission (through GVCP) and to minimise the flow control required due to the unreliability of UDP. GVSP defines various payload types that can be streamed out of a device: • Image – data is output in raster-scan format. For multi-tap data to be sent on a single stream channel, the camera reconstructs the image internally so it can be sent using sequential packet_id. • Chunk Data – is used to stream chunks. Chunks are tagged blocks of data. Examples for chunks are: the image, data extracted from the image, AOI / pixel format information, state of the I/O-pins, and exposure time. GigE Vision CPU Load In the machine vision market, there are still some open questions regarding GigE Vision. Whenever Gigabit Ethernet is discussed in connection with machine vision, CPU usage in the PC is among the most interesting and controversial topics. Different players in the machine vision industry still must be convinced that the CPU load generated by the use of a GigE transmission mechanism is within acceptable limits. The main difference compared to other interfaces is that with GigE there is no CPU-independent incoming data management. This means that every incoming packet must be handled when arriving in the PC and copied afterwards. This process always 42 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Sending data packet N

Packet id=N

Sending data packet N+1

Packet id=N+1

Sending data packet N+2

Re-sending data packet N+1

Sending data packet N+3

Sending data packet N+4

Packet N+1 is missing, sending PACKETRESEND

Packet id=N+1

Packet id=N+3

Packet id=N+4

Processing data packet N

Processing data packet N+2

Re-sending data packet N+1

Sending data packet N+3

Application Side Streaming Channel

Control Channel

Camera Side Streaming Channel

Bootstrap and Device Registers

Sending data packet N+4

Figure 4: GVSP Acknowledge

requires CPU involvement. To keep the CPU load as low as possible, Basler, a Germany based vision technology company, offers two different GigE Vision drivers: a filter driver and a performance driver. Drivers Basler offers the pylon driver package for use with Gigabit Ethernet cameras. In addition to camera and network drivers, the pylon package includes: an advanced viewer, extensive documentation, the camera API, and many sample programmes. To keep the CPU load as low as possible, the pylon driver package also includes a filter driver and a performance driver. Filter Driver The Basler filter driver quickly separates incoming packets and transfers these packets directly to the application. The filter driver can be used with all network interface cards available on the market. The CPU load associated with the filter driver is generally attributable to the fact that packets must normally be copied two times. The filter driver is located below the Windows IP Stack. It detects any incoming GVSP packets and passes them directly to the Basler GigE Vision library

Gen <I > Cam TL

GigE Vision Library Gtrans.dll

GVCP

GigE Vision Library

GVSP

Gtrans.dll

GVCP

I OCTL

Socket Library

Kernel Mode

Data Stream

Socket Library Data Stream

User Mode

User Mode Kernel Mode

I P Stack

GVSP Grabber (NDIS I M Filter) pylnflt.sys

NDI S

GVSP

I P Stack

NDI S

Basler Performance Driver (Adapter Miniport)

Adapter Miniport (GigE card driver)

Hardware

WDM Interface Adapter (pynwagnt)

Hardware

Figure 5: Basler Filter Driver Model

Figure 6: Basler Performance Driver Model

(Gtrans.dll) in the User Mode. This reduces the CPU load significantly. GVCP packets take the standard route across the IP stack and the WinSock socket library.

processor, an Intel Pro 1000 GT network card, and has the Basler pylon SDK installed. The measurements were performed with one camera system and a 4000 byte packet size.

Performance Driver The Basler performance driver separates incoming packets and transfers these packets directly to the application. The CPU load associated with the performance driver is generally due to the need to make at least one copy of the incoming data. The performance driver is a hardware specific GigE Vision network driver and is compatible with network interface cards that use specific Intel chipsets. The main advantage of the performance driver is that it lowers the CPU load needed to service the network traffic between the PC and the camera(s) even more significantly than the filter driver.

GigE Vision Networking Capability GigE Vision networks work in a manner similar to common Ethernet networks. Devices are plugged into a Gigabit Ethernet network interface card. To connect multiple devices, hubs, switches or a router can be used. Basler recommends using cables with at least a category 6 rating. These cables are specified for Gigabit Ethernet and are tested for cable lengths up to 100 metres. For a network to operate at gigabit speed, every device in the network must be GigE compliant. If one device is only Fast Ethernet compliant, for example, the bandwidth of the entire network will be reduced to only Fast Ethernet speed (100 Mbit/s). Device recognition in a GigE Vision network also works in a fashion similar to Ethernet networks. Each device in the network must have an assigned IP address and subnet mask. For the devices to communicate properly within the network, all devices must be on the same subnet and each device must have a unique IP address.

Filter vs Performance Driver As described above, the filter driver and the performance driver use the CPU with different intensities. The following graph reflects typical results for a medium performance PC and a bandwidth situation comparable to IEEE 1394b. The PC is equipped with a Pentium D 2.7 GHz

April 2009 | industrial automation asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 43

instrumentation & Measurement

CPU Load [%] 10 8 6 4 2

15 MB/s

30 MB/s

45 MB/s

61 MB/s

Bandwidth

Pylon Filter Driver with Intel NIC Pylon Performance Driver with Intel NIC CPU Load

Comparison of GigE Vision, IEEE1394, Camera Link, & Analogue Interfaces GigE Vision

IEEE 1394a

IEEE 1394b

Camera Link

Analogue

100 metres

4.5 metres (up to 72 metres with repeaters)

Up to 15 metres (depending on the bandwidth)

Up to 100 metres (depending on the video signal and quality loss)

Bandwidth

100 MByte/s

32 Mbyte/s

64 Mbyte/s

255 Mbyte/s (base configuration) 680 Mbyte/s (full configuration)

Bit Rate

1000 Mbit/s

400 Mbit/s

800 Mbit/s

>2000 Mbit/s

Standards

GigE Vision Standard

IEEE1394 Trade Association DCAM Standard

AIA Camera Link Standard

Various standards for video signal timing. No standards for software or configuration.

Common Gigabit Ethernet board

Common IEEE 1394a board

Common IEEE 1394b board

Special frame grabber

Maximum Number of Cameras

Unlimited

16 (DCAM)

2 (per frame grabber)

6 (depending on the frame grabber)

Plug & Play Ability

Yes

Industrial and consumer

Industrial

Industrial and consumer

Cable Length

Interface Board

Cables

Table 1: Short Overview of Different Interface Technologies and Their Technical Specifications

There are three possible methods for assigning IP addresses to devices on the network: static IP Addressing, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) addressing, and Link Local Addressing (LLA – also known as AutoIP). All devices in a network share the available bandwidth. On a GigE network, 1000 Mbit/s of bandwidth is available and is shared by all 44 industrial automation asia | April 2009

of the connected devices, regardless of whether two, four, or more devices are connected. For cameras, for example, this typically means that as you attach more cameras, the maximum frame rate at which you can operate each camera will decrease. ENQUIRY NO. 2503

ADVERTORIAL

FA DOCTOR Early warning and prevention of potential problems on industrial buses helps companies avoid costly production stoppages. Preventive maintenance programmes, which include regular health checks at every station on the bus are essential. The Fluke 225C ScopeMeter ensures that all signals remain within specifications and there is no drift over time that could eventually lead to problems. While specific bus systems are supported by proprietary diagnostic tools usually developed by the bus manufacturers themselves, the Fluke 225C Color ScopeMeter is currently the only instrument to provide quick, easy assessment of signal quality on a range of buses and networks. Q What kind of influences

Q How can the 225C

ScopeMeter work in ensuring good bus health? The Fluke 225C and the 215C ScopeMeter have been designed for maintenance specialists who may have to deal with several different industrial buses and networks within a plant as well as general electronics. Based on the 200 MHz and 100 MHz 190C Series Color ScopeMeters, the instruments offer all functions found in the 190C Series, with added Bus Health Test capabilities. They can verify the electrical integrity of a range of buses and networks, performing ‘physical layer tests’ and getting answers quickly and easily. Industrial buses on which they can verify electrical signal quality include, among others, Profibus, Foundation, Ethernet, CAN-bus, AS-I bus and RS-485.

are Industrial fieldbus networks subjected to? There are two categories of influence that industrial fieldbus operate under; Disruptive environmental conditions and electrical disturbances. Disruptive environmental conditions include mechanical vibrations, extreme temperature changes, high humidity levels and poor air quality caused by chemicals, dust and other agents. These conditions can create loose or intermittent connections, corrosion in conductors and junction boxes and/or changes in impedance. Electrical disturbances come from a variety of sources. Breakers turn highenergy circuits on and off generating transients. Belt conveyors and mechanical drives discharge highvoltage static electricity into electric systems. Load changes on branch circuits create fluctuations in supply voltages. And there are still many other possible sources of electrical disturbances.

Q How can we use the

Fluke 225C ScopeMeter to improve the situation? Measurements are made with the standard probes supplied, and the instrument is also supplied with a set of breakout boards to facilitate electrical connection to specific bus systems. After selecting the Industrial Bus Health function, it is only necessary to select the bus type. The screen then displays a range of preset measurements relevant tothe selected bus as a table. Alternatively, the user may

switch over to the so-called ‘eye-pattern mode’ which gives a waveform display of successive pulses, displayed with selectable persistence, allowing for a visual inspection of the overall signal quality. The latter is particularly interesting for bus systems as these can be sensitive to external electromagnetic influences caused by, for example, electrical power lines or large electric motors placed in their vicinity, which may induce lots of noise on the bus wiring.

Left: The overshoot reading shows that an error in the network is likely . Right: Looking at the bus signals using the eye-pattern mode shows an aberration on the signal at this location.

These screen images of the Bus Health parameter screen (left) and the eye-pattern screen (right) show improved network performance.

Fluke.

n Do you face similar situations as mentioned in the article? tioWrite c a to FA Doctor to get all your queries answered by experts in the field. for The best response l will get to win a Fluke Laser Distance Meter! l a C For more information, log onto: http://sg.fluke.com/iaaapr09

52 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Keeping your world up and running.

Email: fadoctor@epl.com.sg or log on to: www.iaasiaonline.com

sector spotlight

crunch It’s

Time

Increased customer care and offering entry level machines are some methods automation providers are employing in order to help OEMs. By Abhishek Mehrotra s the sub-prime fuelled recession continues to burn massive holes in the global economy, the automation industry has seen stock prices drop, revenues erode and profits disappear under an avalanche of bad financial news. One of the main reasons that they are struggling is that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are tightening the purse strings and drastically reducing transactional activity. Danny Lee, the automation director of Southeast Asia for Schneider Electric said that markets in Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have been most affected by the slowdown. Quoting the results of a phone survey Mr Lee said that 50 OEMs have reported significant slowdowns in business. Of course, if the OEMs are suffering, the news has to be bad for automation providers. Schneider is a major player in the Heating Ventilating & AirConditioning (HVAC), hoisting and lift sectors - all of which are related to construction. Mr Lee says: “Demand for hoisting and lifts in the house, office and factories market is contracting as the banks tighten loans and foreclosures rise.” 46 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Building owners are “scaling down to include only the essentials, while some others are cancelling or delaying investments”. In addition, he says there is “an oversupply of tower cranes for construction, which is causing lift manufacturing plants to idle”. Similar scenarios are being played worldwide, with an unhappy confluence of awful economic news giving automation providers a massive headache. Executives have to tread the fine line between propping up the bottom line and making sure that whatever steps they take right now with regards to easing the pain of the OEMs do not undermine their companies when the economy recovers. Against Price Cuts One of the biggest dangers here is being trapped in price wars, a vicious cycle where if one company slashes prices on its products, others follow suit. This however is a dangerous short-term palliative solution that makes it difficult for the companies and economies to bounce back once the storm blows over. There seems to be some consensus in the industry on this note.

At Rockwell Automation’s first quarter fiscal 2009 earnings release conference call, as reported on Seeking Alpha, a financial website that records transcripts of the quarterly calls of over 3,000 public companies, Keith Nosbusch, CEO of Rockwell, said that they would “hold their price” even in the current environment. He further said that thus far there had been no significant price cuts by any of Rockwell’s major competitors, either in Asia or Europe. In fact, only second or third tier companies are using this strategy and that is simply because price is the sole tool for them to stay competitive right now. Bigger companies with a diversified product set do not need to go down that route. Not yet. But if cutting prices, the most intuitive step to counter decreasing demand, is out, then what exactly is it that these companies can offer to hold on to customers and perhaps even lure new ones? There are a few ways. Mr Nosbusch mentioned that companies like Rockwell have “lots of options to work with our customers”. These include the “ability to move them to different platforms, the ability to help them utilise perhaps

newer technology in replacing some of the older products and there’s more involved than just the initial purchase price, so we talk to them about productivity, we talk to them about being able to improve their outputs and yields with less input”. Less Is More Some companies have launched stripped down versions of their products to help out the OEMs. At ARC’s Thirteenth Annual Orlando Forum in early February called ‘Winning Strategies and Best Practices for Sustainable Manufacturing’, Honeywell launched its new Experion LS system which takes its larger Experion product and scales it down to fit the needs of the smaller manufacturers. Honeywell claims that this could help plants save up to US$20,000 per year. While this product is more suitable for emerging markets like India and China, both of which have a plethora of small manufacturers, claims of faster changeovers and increased production are bound to lure some big fish OEMs currently trying to stay afloat in the toxic economy. In late February 2009, Rockwell introduced the Factor yTalk AssetCentre Machine Edition, a software programme once again designed to help smaller manufacturers. With the help of this tool, Rockwell hopes to help machine builders maximise their automation development and minimise downtime - the bane of factory owners big and small.

“We talk to them (customers) about being able to improve their outputs and yields with less input.” Keith Nosbusch, CEO, Rockwell Automation

The emphasis on catering to the needs of smaller manufacturers as well as an increased focus on product modularity seems to be the way forward. Automation providers the world over are now looking to help clients streamline their purchases and provide them with exactly what they need; nothing more, nothing less. This goes a long way in convincing the client to look beyond the initial purchase price and at the entire lifecycle cost of their projects. If the client can be convinced to buy, the industry can perhaps start looking ahead to the road to recovery. Customer Focus Customer care, always crucial, assumes paramount importance during a severe recession such as this. Automation providers are doing all they can to make sure that customer demands are met promptly and satisfactorily. And after sales support forms a very important element of customer service. Mr Lee says: “Customer satisfaction is an important barometer for Schneider Electric”. To this end, Schneider has created the Customer International Support (CIS) system that, in addition to meeting the customer demands, also helps OEMs who export machines and their end users by providing service in both countries. For example, an OEM

“Slashing prices is definitely not a good idea.” Danny Lee, automation director, Southeast Asia, Schneider Electric

in Vietnam exporting a machine to Europe can leverage on the CIS system such that the end users in Europe will also be served by Schneider. Following suit in February 2009, Rockwell opened a customer briefing and competency centre in Singapore to serve the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of the centre is to provide OEMs with help on new applications, machine architecture as well as design recommendations. Clearly, automation providers are trying their level best to provide clients with incentives to come in even in this rotten economy. And the OEM industry is not quite moribund yet. Schneider’s OEM Initiative at Monaco in December 2008 was attended by more than 800 clients globally. The event aimed to highlight the latest market trends, solutions and technologies. A second such event held in Beijing in February 2009 was also “well attended” says Mr Lee. A strong client presence at these events shows that there is still some optimism in the industry. These are testing times. And perhaps the worst is yet to unfold, especially in Asia. There are no precedents to provide guidance, but there is still hope that the emerging markets of China and India, two of the few major countries that will see economic growth (albeit drastically slow compared to the previous year) can sustain the industry for some time. Whether these hopes come to fruition, only time will tell. ENQUIRY NO. 2601 1701 April 2009 | industrial automation asia 47

energy

he runaway use of small batteries is leading to uncontrolled disposal of poisons such as lithium and highly alkaline electrolytes and exposure of children to these chemicals as they are used in everyday items such as toys and disposables such as talking gift cards. In industry, replacing the increasingly vast number of batteries is extremely expensive in both labour cost and materials and energy harvesting is increasingly the only way forward.

Green Going

With

Energy Harvesting The environmental benefits of energy harvesting are proving to be greater and more widespread than originally realised. By Dr Peter Harrop, chairman, IDTechEx

48â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

Different Priorities North America leads the world in energy harvesting in aerospace and military applications, from piezoelectric vibration harvesting for sensors in helicopters to all those photovoltaic panels on satellites. Europe leads in industrial applications, using thermoelectrics, electrodynamics, photovoltaics and piezoelectrics. In the UK, the Freeplay wind-up radios for the third world need no battery. (Most wind up torches etc from East Asia have a battery that stays in for life but this adds cost and limits life). Freeplay radios also use photovoltaics. East Asia leads in consumer applications, wristwatches with photovoltaics and electrodynamics being particularly successful as well as the huge number of calculators, toys and so on with photovoltaics and bicycles with dynamos. Next they will learn how to prevent flat batteries in all the four billion mobile phones worldwide. Many people have two and, in East Asia, replacing them every six months is commonplace. In addition, much work is also directed towards affordable, compact renewable power for those troublesome laptops. The first offerings are underwhelming. As the ergonomics are improved, It is interesting that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology One Laptop Per Child project for Africa has concluded that a ripcord is better than a crank for generating the electricity. Another step forward will be tightly rolled photovoltaics for portable electronics that pulls out and springs back as required. An Elephant In The Room Energy har vesting for small electronic and electrical products can clearly become a business of tens of billions of dollars yearly. However, there is an elephant in the room because some energy harvesting devices employ toxic or rare materials subject to price hikes. Most thermoelectrics use bismuth as bismuth

telluride. Some proposed alternatives use lead. Most piezoelectrics use lead as lead zirconate titanate. The most efficient, lightest weight solar cells on all those satellites employ arsenic as gallium arsenide, and arsenic may be used as a dopant in nanosilicon inks for photovoltaics. Other forms of the new photovoltaics variously employ highly corrosive electrolyte dye sensitised solar cells (DSSC). In production, carcinogens are often used to make polymers employed as substrates and as the semiconductor in organic photovoltaics. Cadmium is used as cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor in that form of photovoltaics and it is an element also used in copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaics. Here it is in the form of cadmium sulfide buffer layers. The good news concerning the poisonous elements is that they are so tightly bound in compounds such as cadmium telluride and cadmium selenide that they are highly unlikely to be released in use or disposal. They are also encapsulated. Cadmium telluride photovoltaics, based on by products of zinc and copper mining, uses only 1-2 percent of the amount of semiconductor used by traditional photovoltaics and its lower resulting cost and better temperature tolerance has already resulted in billions of dollars of orders being placed. The European Commission Joint Research Center concluded, “...CdTe used in PV is in an environmental stable form that does not leak into the environment during normal use or unforeseen accidents, and therefore can be considered the environmental safest current use of cadmium”. First Solar PV Modules constitute one of the safest manners of deploying cadmium mining waste. They are even classified as ‘waste for recovery’ and non-hazardous in accordance with the German Waste Code, European Waste Legislation and US Environmental Protection Agency standards. Indeed, First Solar is able to argue that it binds up toxic waste to replace power stations and batteries and it is therefore doubly environmental. Huge orders from France and the USA have resulted. Arsenic dopant in semiconductors is only at trace levels. However, regulatory authorities will not allow all of the elements we have mentioned to be used in the human body - where energy harvesting is starting to be used for sensing, drug delivery and life support – or in items that children may chew. Yet we need energy harvesting on medical disposables, e-labels, e-packaging, toys, electronic greeting cards and much more in our homes. Silver that is employed in energy harvesting is both a precious metal and a biocide. Indium is more abundant than silver. Unfortunately, the huge

amounts needed for so called CIGS photovoltaics and for transparent electrodes on much of the new printed electronics, including all other forms of flexible, low cost photovoltaics, means that further huge price hikes are possible. It is only produced as a by product of zinc mining. Similar concerns have been expressed about tellurium used in CdTe solar cells and in thermoelectrics. Improved Energy Harvesting Another aspect will come to the fore as energy harvesting reaches more consumer products. Recycling of packaging can be inhibited even by non toxic substances. For example, parts per million of metals can colour glass when it is recycled, making it relatively useless. Fortunately, about 500 organisations, half of them academic, have major programmes to develop improved energy harvesting and there is massive market potential for what is available already, with no risk to humans. In addition, 650 organisations are developing photovoltaics beyond silicon that can be used for both energy harvesting and general production of power. Some are transparent and are of very low cost and are tightly rollable and very wide area versions are in prospect which even use heat as well as light. They may be followed by biodegradable, stretchable and even edible versions. IDTechEx forecasts that, despite the concerns about certain materials in certain forms of energy harvesting, the consumer applications will remain in

Replacing the increasingly vast number of batteries is extremely expensive in both labour cost and materials April 2009 | industrial automation asia 49

energy

Figure 1: Global market for energy harvesting devices for small electronic and electrical equipment 12000

Number million

longer than two years and there are many applications where they are thrown away in weeks or months. With 15 to 20 years life frequently offered for all the leading forms of energy harvesting, the environmental gain in saving disposal and - rarely even offered - recycling is considerable. Avoiding recharging batteries every few months also saves on the cost and pollution involved in visiting devices. The current

Figure 2: Performance of the favourite energy harvesting technologies

20 years

Electro dynamic

8000 Life 6000

Piezo

tovo

Pho

Number million

10000

Thermoelectric

the ascendant over the next 10 years, even moving to toys, labels and packaging at the end of that period. Industrial, military and aerospace applications will grow, with industrial applications becoming particularly important and widespread from wireless sensor networks to building controls. The number of energy harvesting devices will therefore grow as follows (Figure 1).

ltaic

4000 2000 1 year 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

This will be assisted by the advent of energy harvesting with more affordable, acceptable materials. For example, in stark contrast to traditional silicon, organic photovoltaics has the advantage of working optimally with only 15 nanometres thickness of semiconductor and it can be printed at high speed, which can keep cost well down. The thinness and flexibility opens up 10 times the market potential. It can even turn a broader spectrum of light into electricity than the conventional forms of photovoltaics. Lifetime is a problem, with barrier layers to extend life being rather expensive as yet. At least they consist of harmless inorganic oxides and nitrides alternating with harmless polymers. This will be solved within a few years with energy harvesting for disposable, low cost products of limited life being feasible in a few years with little or no use of rare elements and no toxic materials. Use of the new electroactive polymers, zinc oxide and organic piezoelectrics, carbon nanowire semiconductors, harmless compounds as quantum dot semiconductors and other options also promise further safety and environmental dividends. Meanwhile, energy harvesting is providing at least 10 years longer life than batteries used on their own. Indeed, batteries in electronic products rarely last 50â&#x20AC;&#x192; industrial automation asia | April 2009

High

Cost per watt

Low

state of play is shown in Figure 2, though the actual figures are contentious. Those technologies with no moving parts are shown in red. Biodegradability There is too little work on biodegradable energy harvesting devices for disposable products. There is a strong move towards printing which means much less material is used. For example, with photovoltaics, Dye Sensitised Solar Cells, Copper Indium Gallium Arsenide and organic photovoltaics are all printed by ink jet or something similar by some suppliers. Piezoelectrics are sometimes screen printed and the best performing thermoelectrics are in thin film form at about five to twenty micrometres thick. Commendably, substrates used when printing energy harvesting devices cause no chemical pollution. In the main, they consist of polyester or polyethylene naphthalate film or stainless steel foil where high temperatures are involved. However, for medical, consumer and other disposable products such as e-labels and e-packaging there should be more attention paid to biodegradable forms and the small number of developers using paper should be encouraged. ENQUIRY NO. 2701

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features

ith the introduction of ‘Sage’, SolidWorks’ newly introduced green software, the company has once again set a technological milestone. Said Jeff Ray, CEO, SolidWorks: “It makes natural sense for us to do this. We’ve captured the materials, the material properties and because we used analysis, we can define a product from a design integrity standpoint so the next step would be to test the carbon footprint of the design and that should be the same degree of

process as analysis.” He continued: “This is a challenge for us because our goal is not to be blazing a trail. We try to keep things simple. We’re venturing into unchartered lands here. Our goal is not to pat ourselves on the back or talk about how green we are. Our goal is to get tools into the hands of engineers that help them deal with the kind of pressure they’re facing.”

“We’re not going to charge for it, it’s going to be embedded in the product. I don’t think it makes sense to charge for it because it’s early generation technology. If we charge people for it, it’s going to put a lot of people off because the justification hasn’t really been rationalised yet. Right now we want to get down there and get people to start using it,” he added.

Not For The Money Although the software helps to differentiate the company from the rest of the competition, Mr Ray quashed the suggestion that this or financial motivation are reasons behind its development.

No Dark Clouds As for the future of SolidWorks, Mr Ray is in no doubt that the recession will not have too much of an adverse effect on the company. He declared: “In terms of the overall state of the business, we’re a

Investing In

Innovation Jeff Ray speaks to IAA about SolidWorks’ new green offering and the company’s strategy in the trying economy. By Derek Rodriguez

Jeff Ray, CEO, SolidWorks

52 industrial automation asia | April 2009

He discloses: “We’re doing it because of our own obligation to do it. It’s a ver y natural next step. If we were trying to sell a 2D product or some simple 3D products, you couldn’t do these kinds of things, you wouldn’t have the information you needed, the materials at hand. If that’s why we’re doing it, then I think we would make the wrong decisions up front with the interest in trying to get as much financial gain as possible. I rather take a longer view, take out time to get it right.”

financially well managed company. We have a generally high amount of free cash flow. We’re fortunate in that we’re in virtually every major countr y in the world and we’re not reliant on any one industr y. We’re spread pretty evenly. Machinery and machine tools are our number one industry; consumer goods, medical, mechatronics, all of those are generating significant sources of money so we have a pretty balanced portfolio of industries.” “And I think that we have the right strategy in place for growth. Our sources of income are two: license revenue and subscription revenue. Our subscription revenue base is extremely healthy, our

renewal rates are the envy of the market and that’s helping us right now in these tough times, and it’s helping our resellers too,” continued Mr Ray. Technology: The Key As with all successful companies, SolidWorks has a strategy in place during the economic crisis and emerge from it in an even better position. Revealed Mr Ray: “While we’re really watching our base right now, we are also expanding our investment in R&D. As we come out of this market, we’re going to have even more technology out there that customers are looking for. We’re investing in our people and their skills to come out of this (recession).” “You get your skills or your capabilities built while things are quiet because when things are busy you don’t have time,” he mused. Indeed, the world of 3D designing is one of constant advancement. Being at the helm of the largest 3D design company in terms of market share, Mr Ray is in the best position to foresee

what users can expect in time to come. “Somewhere out there in the future you’re going to be running from a web appliance that will have ‘predictive intelligence’ much like a video game,” he predicts. “When you play a video game it’s actually loading the next scene ahead of time based on what you’re doing.” “One thing that drives an engineer nuts is having to create something that has already been

created. Don’t ask me to make a universal joint when we have banks and banks of universal joint files stored up somewhere. I want to go find it with the proper geometry and integrity and I want to yank it in there, snap it in and keep going. The more you can put out there ‘in the cloud’ with the kind of ‘cloud search technology’ you take for granted everyday the better for the engineer,” he added. ENQUIRY NO. 2702

SolidWorks Unveils green Software

assault Systèmes SolidWorks (DS SolidWorks) has introduced software that details, in real time, the environmental impact of parts, assemblies, and the design decisions that go into them. DS SolidWorks demonstrated an early version of the software at SolidWorks World 2009. “We’re providing designers and engineers with valuable information for making good decisions that significantly reduce the environmental impact of

the products they create,” said Rick Chin, director of product and marketing innovation for DS SolidWorks. The software, code-named ‘Sage’, will be available in two product forms with this fall’s release of SolidWorks 2010: an ‘Xpress’ version included with every license of SolidWorks and a ‘Professional’ version. Both the Xpress and Professional products will display a dashboard at the bottom of the SolidWorks user

interface that provides information about a design’s prospective carbon footprint, air impact, water impact, and energy consumed in manufacturing. The Professional version will roll up the impact of an entire designed product across its environmental life cycle and also include information on energy consumption throughout a product’s usage phase. ENQUIRY NO. 2703

April 2009 | industrial automation asia 53

features

Sick:

Sensor

Intelligence. Despite the current economic turmoil, Sick is looking at growth numbers – and, even chalking up its market share. By Eileen Chan ick AG will launch a new product every week for a full year, offering no less than a total of 52 new products for the year. Called Sick Innovation Marathon 2009, the product campaign undoubtedly represents a major milestone for this specialist in the production of sensors and sensor solutions. The Germany-headquartered company can be commended for its new campaign; while bold it does however, raise the sceptics’ eyebrows especially when seen against a backdrop imposed by the current economic turmoil. To address these reservations, IAA had a chance to speak to Markus Paschmann, a member of the executive board of Sick AG who was in town for the February opening of Sick’s 1,000 sq m application centre in Singapore. During the 2007 fiscal year, the highest yearon-year growth rate for all of Sick was achieved in the Asian-Pacific region. “Asia and Australia contributed 11 percent of global sales worth some €80 million (US$109 million) in 2007 and last year, and these two territories ploughed in double-digit growth numbers again,” said the 42-year-old Mr Paschmann.

Markus Paschmann, a member of the executive board of Sick AG 54 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Chalking Up The Figures Up to date Sick remains focussed on sensor technology and offers a broad spectrum of sensor products. Its product portfolio bundles extend through six clearly defined divisions: from industrial sensors, advanced industry sensors, industrial safety systems, auto identity, encoders, analyses and processors.

“Process automation will continue to grow all over Asia – as they usually they have a longer investment cycle so the slow down currently will be in factory automation side, but when it recovers, the first positive impact will be felt on factory automation side,” says Mr Paschmann. Despite the current economic turmoil, Sick is counting on growth numbers in the countries of China, India and South-east Asia to move its latest product offerings, and even gain market share. Already strong machine consumption patterns for the packaging industry in the food & beverage sector are propelling the countries of Thailand and China. Mr Paschmann adds: “I think the automotive industry in Asia will not suffer as much as the US and Europe as investments into automation technology will remain.” Automotive and commercial goods remain one of the biggest positive segment movers for Sick and growth figures are expected from the countries of Thailand, China and India.

We deliver what we promise – that’s the key point – we are here to solve the customers problems. – Markus Paschmann Logistics automation was the propeller of growth in 2008 chalking in the strongest numbers for Asia. Mr Paschmann expects the infrastructure projects will continue to push the figures this year. He adds: “Logistics efforts will remain strong as investment cycle remains strong in Asia.” In the process automation segment, Sick covers everything related to gas analysers and flow analysers. In this area, the markets of Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Singapore will play a vital part in the overall scheme of things. He adds: “This market remains strong and as our headquarters is located here in Singapore, we envisage more distribution will be done from here.” Investment Opportunities According to Mr Paschmann, 10 percent (of turnover) is spent on R&D annually and “Sick will continue to invest in this area during this time in order to send a strong message to the market.” In addition, the

Sick remains focussed on sensor technology and offers a broad spectrum of sensor products.

company spends more than half of its R&D in software development. Sick has also been hard at work in the mergers and acquisition trail. The most recent include Amko Systems Toronto, Canada in January this year. Amko, a distributor and project service provider is also a supplier of environmental measurement technology on the Canadian market. Says Mr Paschmann: “We will continue to acquire for purely technical purposes and to complete our portfolio. We have a strategic alliance team at the headquarters taking care of this subject alone.” As to what makes Sick stand apart from its competitors, Mr Paschmann has this to say: “We deliver what we promise – that’s the key point – we are here to solve the customers problems. It is not enough to use the sensors; we have to provide more intelligence to the system while using sensors. During this downturn, Mr Paschmann is of the opinion that customers have time to think – how to make their machines more productive or more reliable, but also about using the right technology for the right purpose. He says: “We have direct customer relationship and we are looking for this direct contact to the customer to work with him together to make the solution more intelligent.” Being in Singapore for the opening of its latest application centre, Mr Paschmann is obviously proud of the Group’s achievements thus far. In many ways, the opening of the centre too serves as a milestone for the company, marking its optimism for all in this region. ENQUIRY NO. 2704 April 2009 | industrial automation asia 55

features

SICK Opens Application Centre In Singapore

s a result its strong growth in Asia, Sick AG has added a new application centre (ACA) in Singapore. Opened in February this year, the 1,000 sq m centre will be able to offer its customers in the region specialised technical support and application solutions. With the centre, the privately owned German company with a 60-year history, will also be able to

complement the activities of its sales subsidiaries in this region. Thomas Lim, Manager for ACA adds: “The centre will replicate the role of our HQ technology centres in the US and Europe.” The facility will enable system solutions for factory and logistics automation to set up, tested and optimised for subsequent use under realistic conditions. Here, Sick will also use the premises to

conduct seminars, organise training sessions and to keep their customers informed eg: in development of new technologies. “We will provide training for our customers and our people and even lend support during Asian exhibitions.” But there is more to the ACA than just that. Mr Lim says: “We can provide second level technical support. At the end of any

product installation, we will also include a training session for customers – so they can manage the product management part.” All current technologies and applications in factory and logistics automation are covered, such as highend vision based barcode reading systems or image processing. ENQUIRY NO. 2705

An orientation of the ACA during the soft opening.

The ICR890 camera tunnel solution: From simple bar code reading to complex identifications with data archiving, used in logistics automation processes.

ACA offers product trainings on complex systems installed on ‘live’ operational conditions.

3D image capture with the Ruler camera used for parcel singulation in logistics applications.

A vision solution for detecting the presence of capsules in blister packs.

The Vision Lab provides feasibility studies for challenging applications.

56 industrial automation asia | April 2009

uoting Invensys Group CEO Ulf Henriksson’s philosophy of continuously learning from customers, Tony Ho, VP, sales, Asia Pacific, Invensys Process Systems (IPS) believes that now is as good a time as ever to follow this vision. Says Mr Ho: “This economic environment presents to us a very unique opportunity to go back to our customers and help them be more efficient in terms of their operations thus reducing costs or increasing production in areas their customers or clients require, primarily in terms of products.”

re-engineering in terms of within the control automation and safety arena. Basically work with them to tweak new processes; with new technology you need new processes.” “And another aspect that we are working in an intensified way is with what we call operator training systems. So we are involved in the technology, the processes and the people. With the combination of these three, we are able to demonstrate the ability to help meet sustainability targets ahead of time. It’s not like we put in a

Listening To

the customers in mind.” “So being a solution oriented company, we will continue to focus continuously on talking to the customer to understand their challenges not only for current state of affairs but for the future as well, how we can address those challenges with our solutions. We will continue to do that very aggressively not only in the brownfields but also in the greenfields. Greenfields more so because of this environment in Asia Pacific. That would be the main strategy,” he adds. ENQUIRY NO. 2706

Reason

IPS’ Tony Ho believes in talking to customers in order to understand their what challenges are. By Derek Rodriguez 3-Pronged Approach One of the challenges, he reveals, is the regulatory requirement on reducing carbon footprint and carbon emissions. “Typically in old facilities, old process plants, the technology they use is dated and as such the inefficiencies are demonstrated through the emissions. Upgrading the technologies to the latest would help them be able to reduce some of these emissions,” explains Mr Ho. Citing an example of a power plant environment, Mr Ho says: “We go in as a solutions provider to look at first upgrading their technology to digital technology, that will raise the productivity levels. We also work with our customers in terms of process

system to reduce emissions, it’s an integrated solution. You have to have a holistic approach when you talk about operations and plants of this scale,” he continues. Customer Focus For IPS’ strategies for this year, the focus will be on what their customers require. Mr Ho discloses: “As you probably would have envisaged, for a company moving from a product f o c u s e d e n v i ro n m e n t to a solution focused environment, you can’t move there internally, you have to move Tony Ho, there with VP, sales, Asia Pacific, IPS April 2009 | industrial automation asia 57

products & Services ABB: Safety Integrated System

Advantech: Industrial Computer

ABB’s SIL 3 rated System 800xA High Integrity safety integrated system utilises embedded hardware and software diversity in the logic solver and I/0 subsystem, with diverse execution paths to detect any potential random failures. It includes additional SIL 3 libraries for shut-down applications, and provides combined non-SIL, SIL 2 and SIL 3 applications for increased safety protection and process efficiency. The system was designed at the outset to be able to operate as a stand-alone safety system, or can also be integrated with the process control system while it maintains physical separation of control and safety functions.

Advantech’s ARK-3420 is a fanless industrial computer that supports Intel Core2 Duo processors, and has the Intel GME965 chipset built in. Featuring PCI/PCIe expansion and dual SATA HDD support, the ARK-3420 facilitates image processing, surveillance, automatic optical inspection (AOI), flight information display systems (FIDS), kiosks, as well as automation, embedded control, etc. The ARK-3420 offers five expansion slots selections: two PCIs; two PCIe x1; two PCIe x4; one PCI + one PCIe x1; one PCI + one PCIe x4. There are six front-panel function keys, all programmable to perform management, upgrade, networking, maintenance, display, or reporting functions.

Enquiry no. 2801

Enquiry no. 2803

Adlink: 16-bit PXI Digitisers

Baumer: Positioning Drives

Adlink Technology’s PXI-9816, PXI-9826, and PXI-9846 are a series of high-resolution 16-bit PXI digitisers offering sampling rates of 10 MS/s, 20 MS/s, and 40 MS/s, respectively. This combination of high resolution and sampling rate enables monitoring of high-speed transient signals while maintaining very high accuracy. Furthermore, each digitiser of the PXI-98x6 series supports up to 512 MB of onboard memory sustain the continuous transfer of data between the digitiser and the system for an increased acquisition time. The PXI-98x6 series also utilises the PXI trigger bus to synchronise multiple modules without external routing or cabling.

Baumer FlexiDrive compact drives consist of a motor, a drive, an absolute multi-turn position measurement combined with integrated power electronics for control and bus communication. The optimised positioning and speed controllers relieve the PLC, increase overall equipment performance and thus save costs. In addition, the amount of cabling required is also reduced. The absolute position measurement eliminates any referencing requirement. This increases equipment availability once it has been switched on. In critical situations, for example during an overrun after an emergency stop, position measurement is active and the application remains under control.

Enquiry no. 2802 58 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Enquiry no. 2804

products & Services

Beckhoff: EtherCAT I/O Modules

Festo: Electrical Rotary Drive Module

All modules from Beckhoff’s IP 67-rated EtherCAT box series feature an integrated direct interface to EtherCAT, so that the system’s performance is retained down to each I/O module. This enables fast process data communication with eXtreme Fast Control technology (XFC), high-precision measurement technology and integrated drive functions directly in the field. They measure 126 x 30 x 26.5 mm (H x W x D). The EtherCAT connection is established via screened M8 screw connectors. Communication via standard Ethernet cables permits networking of the EtherCAT Box modules over distances of up to 100 m.

Festo’s ERMB electric rotary modular with hollow shaft is is able to handle the dynamic and flexible turning of moving masses of up to 15kg. Its lower weight makes it ideal for front-end use as well as a small fixed rotary table. Its technology is suitable for handling applications which require rotation with free position capability of 360° or infinite rotation. The rotary module provides smooth motion and freelydefinable acceleration ramps, thus efficiently minimising vibration within the axis and helping boost the performance of the overall system.

Enquiry no. 2805

Enquiry no. 2807

Cognex: Vision Sensor

Hioki: Power Quality Analyser

Cognex has added the Checker 3G series to its Checker vision sensor product line. With simple setup, integrated part detection, lighting, I/O and job change all in a rugged IP67 housing, Checker 3G is able to verify all products or parts on the line. The user chooses whether to configure the sensor as a presence sensor or measurement sensor. Presence sensors verify that features are present. Measurement sensors verify that features are the correct height, width and/or diameter. In either mode, there is no limit to the number of part features that a single Checker can ‘check’.

The Hioki 3196 monitors and records the quality of power to analyse the cause of trouble when it occurs. You can capture a variety of power anomalies by setting the individual trigger levels on the event setting screen. Captured data is displayed in the event list. This enables you to quickly confirm detailed data for phenomena (such as date/time, waveforms, RMS values, and harmonics) that are the source of problems, and effectively assess the cause of the problem. The view screen displays voltage/current waveforms, vector diagrams, DMM values (voltage, current, and power), and harmonic data.

Enquiry no. 2806

Enquiry no. 2808 April 2009 | industrial automation asia 59

products & Services

HollySys: Programmable Logic Controller

Opto 22: 3-Phase Power Monitoring Module

The LK series PLC by HollySys is applicable for medium to high performance distributed I/O controls. It is suited for logic control, sequence control, process control, transmission control, and motion control. The LK PLC consists of the integration of various modules, such as CPU, communication, I/O, or special function on the backplane forming a complete working unit. The controller and I/Os are modular and the system architecture is expandable. They are designed with redundancy in mind, from the Profibus-DP fieldbus communications network, to the I/O modules, CPU controller modules, power supply, and industrial Ethernet communication.

Part of Opto 22’s flagship Snap I/O system family, the Snap-A IPM-3 analogue input module monitors up to 14 parameters of dat a relating to power generation and consumption. The module simultaneously measures voltage and current for each of the three phases and calculates true power and volt-amps for each phase. The module also calculates true power sums for all three phases. Calculations are executed within the module and are sent to the SnapPAC brain or controller. From these figures, other variables, such as power factor, can be easily determined.

Enquiry no. 2809

Enquiry no. 2811

Igus: Twistable Optical Fbre Cable

Parker: Pneumatic Valves

The twistable TPE fibre optic cable ‘Chainflex CF Robot-LWL’ from igus makes high data rates possible and can be routed directly alongside high-capacity electrical power cables. It uses twist-optimised compensating elements, and is absolutely robust even with rotary angles of +180°. The fibre optic cable has a 2-fibre optic core, is resistant to oil, bio-oil and UV light and remains flexible in the cold. The FOC wires with high-tensile aramid fibres and dampers are stranded firmly around a GRP core. The pressure-extruded outer sheath is made of a halogen-free TPE mixture. The cable can be used for indoor and outdoor applications at temperatures from -20 to +60°C.

Parker’s IsysNet valve modules are compact, with a low profile and are available as single or double solenoid modules, with internal or external pilots, Cv ratings of 0.6 to 6.0 and a choice of NPT or BSpp G standard ports. The solenoid valves use up to 20 pecent less power than conventional ISO devices of the same size, while the spool seals have a far lower breakaway force, or level of sticktion. In addition, the spool seals feature a wear compensation system, providing in excess of 90 million cycle life. The new IsysNet valves are CE marked and CSA/C-US approved, with NEMA 4 and IP65 certification.

Enquiry no. 2810 60 industrial automation asia | April 2009

Enquiry no. 2812

products & Services products & Services

Piab: High-Friction Suction Cups

Siemens: Industrial PC

Piab’s Duraflex Friction Cups enables operators to safely and reliably move slippery metal goods without slowing production lines. This product allows manufacturers to reduce product droppage and lower scrap rates. The cups feature a rough cleat surface and sharp cleat edges and channels. This design creates greater friction and a stronger hold compared to traditional traction suction cups. Normal cup abrasion resulting from handling oily sheets does not degrade the shear force performance of Piab’s friction cups over time. The added durability of the cups extends use life for long-term reliability.

Siemens’ Simatic IPC547C rack PC’s small housing allows it to be mounted in 19-inch control cabinets with a minimum depth of 500 mm. The PC can be flexibly expanded by means of a free PCIe x16 (2.0) slot, a PCIe x8 (1 lane) slot and a PCIe x1 slot as well as four free PCI slots for long expansion cards. For dual-monitoring purposes, a PCI Express x16 graphics card can be supplied. Nine USB 2.0 interfaces are provided, two on the front and one inside. Two teaming-capable gigabit Ethernet interfaces offer redundancy and high data transfer rates.

Enquiry no. 2813

Enquiry no. 2815

Sensortechnics: Pressure Transmitters

Yokogawa Electric: Universal Cabinet

Sensortechnics’ flowthrough transmitters feat ure minimised internal dead volumes for precise pressure me a s ur eme n t a n d handling of very small sample quantities. The wetted sensor parts can be passivated to provide excellent resistance aga in s t aggr e s si ve a nd c o r r o si ve liquid s a s well as disinfectants. These custom designs offer optimised flow paths which are also easy to flush and clean. Teflon coatings to prevent particulate adhesion and possible blockages are also available. Additionally, in some designs, the sensor head can be separated from the sensor to expose the inner flow channels. Special sensor materials with high thermal resistance ensure compatibility with autoclaving cycles.

Yokogawa Electric Asia’s (YAS) Universal Cabinet aims to give users more flexibility during installation and higher functionality per unit space. It is fully manufactured and assembled in Singapore Factory. The initial launch model of the New Yokogawa Cabinet (NYC) measures 800(W) X 800(D) X 2000(H). The NYC has achieved the I P5 5 rating for Ingres sion P rotec tion by pa s sing the industrial IEC 60529 test for Dus tproof and Waterproof capability. It has undergone a series of standard industrial tests by international certification body representative TÜV SÜD PSB, and has successfully obtained CE marking as well as cCSAus certification.

Enquiry no. 2814

Enquiry no. 2816 April 2009 | industrial automation asia 61

EVENT PREVIEW

Automex M a l ay s i a ’ s A u t o m a t i o n Technology Exhibition 2009 or in short Automex 2009 is scheduled to be held from 6 –10 May 2009 at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Automex 2009 is a showcase of automation technologies focused on specific industry and commercial applications. The exhibition covers c o m p o n e n t s r a n g i n g f ro m complete systems to integrated automation solutions, as well as motion control technology and associated technologies. The event brings together all branches of the robotics and automation industry under the same roof in a single event. The exhibition is focused on the following industries; namely Instrumentation and Calibration, Pumps, Valves and Motors, Industrial Automation and Robotics, Measurement and Testing Equipments, Hydraulics and Pneumatics and Process Control and Systems. Held in conjunction with Metaltech 2009, the collective companies that have confirmed its participation in the exhibition is poised to have new solutions and equipments to assist the manufacturers of various industries in these trying times. Automex has also received the full endorsement of the Singapore Industrial Automation Association. Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 6 – 10, 2009 ENQUIRY NO. 2901 62 industrial automation asia | April 2009

ENQUIRY NO. 021

EVENT PREVIEW

MTA Malaysia 2009

Returning for its 6th edition, MTA Malaysia is the definitive machine tools, precision engineering and metalworking technology event in Malaysia. An estimated 24,000 trade visitors from all various related industries will be visiting the 5-day event. Last year’s show saw a turnout of 23,942 trade visitors from 69 countries. Facilitating its role as the one stop hub that provides multiple solutions for the manufacturing industry, MTA Malaysia 2009

64 industrial automation asia | April 2009

incorporates Metrology Malaysia, Subcon Malaysia and ToolTec Malaysia making it the platform that allows industry players to gain access to the latest technology, equipment and services in the market. An event of international importance, the last show in 2008 saw: 1,500 companies from 33 countries and seven national groups. Countries like Austria, China, Germany, India, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan made up the national groups. Exhibitors closed over RM 720 million (US$196 million) in sales over a brief 5-day period. Backed with firm endorsements and support from various relevant government and trade associations namely, the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA), the Federation of Malaysian Foundry and Engineering Industries Association (FOMFEIA), the Malaysia Mould & Die Association (MMADA), the Singapore Precision Engineering and Tooling

Association (SPETA), the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), Taiwan Machine Tool Builders’ Association (TMBA), the German Machine Tool Builders Association (VDW) and endorsed by MATRADE Int’l Pavilions This year’s MTA Malaysia 2009 remains a vital platform for the German companies to show their products to the ASEAN market. The German companies have the most modern machine tools and manufacturing systems for metalworking processes in the field of metal cutting and metal forming, cutting tools, clamping and measuring devices. Other nations like Singapore and Taiwan are also having pavilions at the event. Putra World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia May 6 – 10, 2009 ENQUIRY NO. 2902

ENQUIRY NO. 012

Ref: IAA

EVENT review

SolidWorks World 2009 More than 4,400 SolidWorks customers, partners, resellers, and employees attended SolidWorks World 2009, where Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder and philanthropist, was a special guest speaker. The conference included a sneak preview of SolidWorks 2010 3D CAD software, working directly with the designs of Terrafugia and Magenn Power. These SolidWorks customers revealed their flying car and next-generation wind turbine, respectively, on the main stage. Also, in one of the general sessions, New Balance and Sony Ericsson representatives took to the stage with DS SolidWorks co-founder and group executive Jon Hirschtick to describe their challenges and successes in designing householdname products. Mr Hirschtick, detailing his vision for the future of computer-aided design, said: “Most of our work is

still in front of us.” He predicted that touchscreen interfaces, Internetbased applications, video game graphics, and 3D printing will have a major impact on 3D CAD. S o l i d Wo r k s Wo r l d 2 0 1 0 , scheduled for Januar y 31 – February 3, 2010, will be held at

the Anaheim Convention Center, in Anaheim, California. Swan & Dolphin Hotel Orlando, Florida February 8 – 11, 2009 ENQUIRY NO. 2903

Timtos 2009 The 14th Taipei International Machine Tool Show (Timtos 2009) came to an end on March 7. The event received nearly 39,000 domestic visitors, up 37 percent compared to 2008. In addition, the show also received a total of 4,232 overseas participants, up 1.2 percent from last year. The largest contingents of overseas participants were from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the US respectively; buyers from emerging markets accounted for around 30 percent of the total. To encourage manufacturers to focus on ongoing innovation and the development of new products, an

66 industrial automation asia | April 2009

award for excellence in research and innovation was included in this year’s event. A total of 14 products received awards. The next Timtos, which will be held in March 2011, is expected to take the exhibition to a higher level of perfection, stimulating the creation of business opportunities. TWTC Exhibition Hall 1, 2, 3 & Nanyang Exhibition Hall Taipei, Taiwan March 2 – 7, 2009

ENQUIRY NO. 2904

CalendarOf Events2009 April 20 – 24 Hannover Messe 2009

Hannover Fair Grounds Deutsche Messe Email: info@hf-singapore.com Web: www.hannovermesse.de

22 – 24 RFID World Asia 2009

Suntec, Singapore Terrapinn Email: sylwin.and@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com

23 – 25 China EPower 2009

Intex Shanghai China MP Zhongmao International (Shanghai) Email: helen@zhongmao.com.cn Web: www.china-epower.com

May 6 – 10 MetalTech 2009

PWTC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Trade-Link Exhibition Services Email: info@tradelink.com.my Web: www.tradelink.com.my

6 – 10 Automex 2009

PWTC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Premier Exhibition Services Email: info@tradelink.com.my Web: www.tradelink.com.my/automex

6 – 10 MTA Malaysia 2009

PWTC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Malaysian Exhibition Services Email: enquiry@mesallworld.com Web: www.mta-asia.com

12 – 13 World Engineering Congress 2009

Bangkok, Thailand Marcus Evans Email: Cindyc@marcusevanskl.com Web: www.worldengineeringcongress. com

13 – 17 Intermach 2009

BITEC Bangkok, Thailand CMP Media (Thailand) Email: intermach@cmpthailand.com Web: www.thai-exhibition.com

20 – 22 Semicon Singapore 2009

Suntec, Singapore Semi Email: cchan@semi.org Web: www.semiconsingapore.org

20 – 23 Renewable Energy Asia

BITEC Bangkok, Thailand CMP Media (Thailand) Email: naowarat@cmpthailand.com Web: www.thai-exhibition.com

JUNE 10 – 12 OGA 2009

KLCC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Malasia Exhibition Services Email: ajones@mesallworld.com Web: www.oilandgas-asia.com

16 – 19 Communicasia 2009

Singapore Expo Singapore Exhibition Services Email: pin@sesallworld.com Web: www.communicasia.com

17 – 20 ProPak Asia 2009

BITEC Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok Exhibition Services Email: propak@besallworld.com Web: www.propakasia.com

18 – 20 E5 The Engineering Series

15 – 18 Industrial Automation 2009

Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Malaysian Exhibition Services Email: enquiry@mesallworld.com Web: www.asean-ia.com

September 16 – 18 Industrial Automation Vietnam 2009

Saigon Exhibition & Convention Centre Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Hong Kong Exhibition Services Email: exhibit@hkesallworld.com Web: www.iavietnam.com

16 – 18 Clean Energy Expo Asia

Suntec Singapore Koelnmesse Email: c.hor@koelnmesse.com.sg Web: www.cleanenergyexpoasia.com

october 7 – 10 Manufacturing Technology World SMX Convention Center Pasay City, Philippines Global-Link MP Email: info@globallinkph.com Web: www.globallinkph.com

BITEC Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok Exhibition Services Email: elenex@besallworld.com Web: www.e5thailand.com

25 – 28 Assembly Technology

BITEC Bangkok, Thailand Reed Tradex Email: assemblytech@reedtradex.co.th Web: www.assemblytechexpo.com

july 8 – 10 Wind Power Asia

China International Exhibition Centre Beijing, China Koelnmesse Email: marcowang@windpowerasia.com Web: www.windpowerasia.com

NOTES To be considered for inclusion in the Calendar of Events, send details of event (name, date, venue, organiser contact) to: The Assistant Editor IAA. Eastern Trade Media Pte Ltd. 1100 Lower Delta Road, EPL Building #04-02, Singapore 169206 Tel: (65) 6379 2888 Fax: (65) 6379 2805 Email: derekrodriguez@epl.com.sg

April 2009 | industrial automation asia 67

Advertising Index

IndustrialAutomationAsia

ADVERTISING I N D E X

ADVERTISER

PAGE NO

ENQ NO

IBC

024

ADVANTECH CO. SINGAPORE PTE LTD

018

ASEAN CC-LINK PROMOTION CENTRE

OBC

007

BANGKOK EXHIBITION SERVICES LTD

021

FUJI ELECTRIC ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

904

FLUKE SOUTH EAST ASIA PTE LTD

025

HITACHI ASIA LTD

827

11 / 19

002 / 003

MALAYSIAN EXHIBITION SERVICES SDN BHD

020

Ted Asoshina Echo Japan Corporation Tel: 81-3-32635065 Fax: 81-3-32342064 aso@echo-japan.co.jp

MALAYSIAN EXHIBITION SERVICES SDN BHD

897

KOREA:

MALAYSIAN EXHIBITION SERVICES SDN BHD

012

MOXA INC

023

MOOG

014

N-TRON

017

PANASONIC ELECTRIC WORKS ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD

019

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION SOUTHEAST ASIA PTE LTD

IFC

022

ABB INDUSTRY PTE LTD

IGUS SINGAPORE PTE LTD

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