Cee 15 10

Control, Instrumentation and Automation in the Process and Manufacturing Industries October 2015

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Industrial communications: Focus on PROFINET Improving accuracy of temperature measurement Future-proofing your HMI

When to calibrate in a workshop

New possibilities with Beamex workshop

The Beamex MCS200 Workshop offers a controlled environment enabling very accurate calibration and ergonomic ready-to-use equipment. Beamex has recently launched the product, MC6 Workstation, an advanced panel mounted documenting calibrator and communicator. MC6 Workstation offers calibration capabilities for pressure, temperature and various electrical signals. Full ďŹ eldbus communication for HART, FOUNDATION Fieldbus and ProďŹ bus PA instruments is available. MC6 Workstation communicates with pressure controllers and temperature blocks, enabling fully automatic calibration.

www.beamex.com info@beamex.com

CONTENTS

The times, they are a-changin...

Editor Suzanne Gill suzanne.gill@imlgroup.co.uk Sales Manager Lydia Harris lydia.harris@imlgroup.co.uk Production Tania Sykes tania.sykes@imlgroup.co.uk Business Development Manager Iain McLean iain.mclean@imlgroup.co.uk Dan Jago Group Publisher David May Production Manager Stuart Pritchard Studio Designer

In the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin – for vendors supplying both the process and factory sectors of industry.

Many of the recent conferences and interviews in which I have been involved, have addressed the issue of ‘services’.

As technology moves forward and products and systems become more integrated, end-users need more than just a product… they want lifetime support for their ever more complex, integrated products and systems to ensure optimium productivity and efficiency throughout the lifecycle of a plant.

To this end we are also seeing a plethora of acquisitions and mergers as vendors seek to complete their service offering to ensure they are able to offer what customers need as they start getting to grips with IIoT and Industry 4.0.

In the future it is expected that customers will want to deal with just one service provider who will have responsibility for entire systems. This does, of course, beg the question of where this leaves the system integrator? If you are a system integrator I am keen to get your views on how the changing market demands might affect you... Might systems integrators and vendors end up as competitors instead of partners?

In this issue a variety of automation vendors comment on the shifting automation landscape (page 33 onwards) and we will continue to address this in future issues too.

Suzanne Gill – Editor suzanne.gill@imlgroup.co.uk

INDUSTRY REPORT

SCADA & HMIs

4

26 It is important to ensure that HMIs have the capability to work with devices and platforms being used to implement the IoT and Industry 4.0.

Focus on recently announced oil & gas sector projects.

EDITOR’S CHOICE 6

Protecting plants from cyber-attacks; An industry-first line-scan camera and frame grabber pairing?

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS 12 We look at the functions and capabilities of PROFINET that meet process automation requirements, and highlight work being undertaken to a create a solution platform for process automation.

TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE CONTROL 30 We look at the problems that can result from inaccurate temperature measurement and outline some effective solutions.

EXECUTIVE COMMENT – ENTERING THE AGE OF SERVICES

16 Dr Christopher Anhaltt discusses the technical issues surrounding diagnosis of PROFINET networks.

Control Engineering Europe asked automation vendors for their views on the changing demands of end-users.

18 Standardised IO-Link technology makes communication with sensors and actuators simple and economical, achieving point-to-point connection without complex wiring and with minimal material requirements.

33 Dr. Peter Weckesser, r CEO Customer Services, Digital Factory Division, Siemens AG. 34 Slawomir Suchomski, vice president, Europe, Solutions and Lifecycle Services at Emerson Process Management.

35 Hartmut Pütz, president of Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation – European Business Group.

DRIVES & MOTORS 21 We find out why a motor controller is needed with a DC motor, and why developing your own may not be the best solution.

36 David Nicholl, l UK sales director for Rockwell Automation.

22 Control Engineering Europe looks at a selection of applications in which variable speed drives have offered production or energy saving efficiencies.

39 Jochem Herrmann, president of the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA), highlights his priorities and looks at the challenges facing the machine vision industry.

Control Engineering g g Europe p is a controlled circulation journal p published six times p per yyear byy IML Group pp plc under license from CFE Media LLC. Copyright py g in the contents of Control Engineering g g Europe is the property of the publisher.

FINAL WORD

Control Engineering (USA) Frank Bartos, Mark Hoske, Renee Robbins, Vance VanDoren, Peter Welander

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October 2015

3

INDUSTRY REPORTS – OIL & GAS FOCUS

Services and support for oil and gas success Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced a new multi-year agreement to provide services and support for Lundin Norway, an upstream oil and gas company.

Honeywell’s Assurance 360 program will be employed to help Lundin achieve continual and optimal performance of its automation system at the Edvard Grieg field in the Utsira High area of the central North Sea. HPS will provide all necessary technology, processes and support for the system over the next four years, including hardware refresh, software

Oil and gas still considered an attractive career field According to a recent industry-wide poll, conducted by Rigzone, the majority of oil and gas professionals would still recommend a career in the oil and gas industry to the next generation, despite recent market challenges associated with low oil prices.

Almost 1,000 skilled professionals from across 74 countries participated in the survey. A total of 84% said they would recommend the oil and gas industry as a career choice to school pupils or students, with wide career prospects, a long-term future and competitive salaries among the reasons cited most often.

Asked to rank areas of investment in a downturn in order of priority, oil and gas industry professionals ranked health and safety first, followed by workforce development. Graduate/ apprenticeship programmes also ranked as a high priority for professionals, despite over twothirds of respondents not having participated in such a programme themselves.

4

October 2015

updates and upgrades, and remote support. Key performance indicators in the contract will allow Lundin’s management to monitor delivery of the service, while dedicated program management provides a single point of accountability for performance.

“Lundin will benefit from the Assurance 360 services program,” said John Rudolph, vice president and general manager of HPS’s Lifecycle Solutions and Services business. “It takes workload for ongoing services, maintenance and upgrades off their plate so they can focus on core capabilities, while Honeywell focusses on the areas where we are experts, such as control systems, safety systems and operator training.”

“This contract forges a close partnership with Honeywell that gives us certainty in terms of both costs and performance of the automation system

at Edvard Grieg,” said Kari Nilsen, head of operations at Lundin Norway. “With Honeywell providing all the technology and people necessary, it allows us to maintain a lean operating structure, even as we grow and look to develop existing and new opportunities more fully.”

Honeywell’s technology on the Edvard Grieg platform will include the safety and automation system, operator training simulator, engineering simulator, and production control center.

The field’s reserves are estimated at 186 million barrels of oil equivalents. Gross plateau production is expected to be 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Honeywell’s Assurance 360 multiyear, flexible service programs provide outcome-focused services to improve business performance. Under the Assurance 360 Optima contract, Honeywell acts as a hands-on partner, taking responsibility for maintaining the process control system at peak performance, including all ongoing maintenance, upgrades to the latest technology, and active management of the system. Honeywell’s solution maximises customers’ return on their automation investments and delivers better business results.

P1 Alarm system upgrade for refinery Safety Instrumentation Systems provider, Hima-Sella, has received an order for the design, manufacture and installation of an upgrade to a large Norwegian oil and gas refinery’s P1 alarm system.

At the heart of the upgrade will be a HIMA HiQuad H51q Programmable Electronic System (PES) which will interface with the refinery’s digital control system and feed all alarm data to a new SCADA HMI which is based on a dual redundant server in separate locations. Each server will have two screens which can view data from either server. The screens will emulate the existing lamp-driven displays.

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The upgrade is being designed to meet the end-user’s alarm functionality requirements but also the refinery’s cyber-security needs. It is also compliant with IEC 62443-3-3.

Commenting on the project, Eddy Turnock, Hima-Sella’s sales & marketing director, said: “A category P1 alarm system protects plant personnel and buildings plus call out first responders.

As such, it needs to detect abnormal conditions quickly, in order to give operators the earliest possible notice. It is also important to avoid false alarms and for the system to be protected against cyber-attacks.”

Control Engineering Europe

visibly. better.

Discover Smart Operations with Seamless Visibility of Electrical Automation.

The latest Experion® PKS Orion delivers a unique electrical automation solution allowing direct communication between our Experion controller and intelligent electrical devices (IEDs). This solution complements Experion’s existing IEC 61850 SCADA interface. It avoids costly hardwired or PLC connections, reduces both capital and lifecycle costs, allows remote access of all IED parameters for faster maintenance of electrical equipment, and provides better diagnostic and predictive data for more reliability and safety. Sophisticated data visualization, analytics and processing capability with Experion HMI allows the system to become a “smart grid” to allow better decisions to optimize your power system.

www.hwll.co/controlroom ©2015 Honeywell International, Inc. All rights reserved.

EDITOR’S EDITOR S CHOICE

Industry-first line-scan camera and frame grabber pairing?

Teledyne DALSA has introduced a range of Camera Link HS-compatible Piranha XL CMOS TDI line scan cameras and Xtium CLHS frame grabbers.

With the CLHS interface, the Piranha XL 16k monochrome camera is said to offer the latest in multi-line CMOS TDI technology in a compact design.

Employing CMOS sensor architecture, the low-noise camera delivers 125 kHz line rate and up to 2 GByte/sec data throughput with a single CX4 cable.

Protecting plants from cyber-attacks The new 9202-ETS MTL security system is said to provide the highest level of network security for process automation applications. The Tofino security system is easy to install and includes the latest configurator

software to protect industrial networks from cyber-security vulnerabilities. This maximises plant uptime and process availability while protecting it from external network attack.

“The trend towards open standards such as Ethernet TCP/IP and web technologies has seen SCADA systems affected by a growing number of threats,” explained Roger Highton, product line manager at Eaton.

“Traditional firewalls are not designed for control systems or industrial threats. The MTL 9202-ETS gives process managers a cost-effective security protection.”

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October 2015

The PCIe frame grabbers are built for high-speed, high-bandwidth cameras.

Up to seven data lanes capture aggregate data rates of 2.1GB/sec and sustained host transfer bandwidth of over 3.2GB/sec (using Xtium-CLHS PX8). Fully supported me

by Sapera LT software the fram grabbers are said to be cost-efffective and easy to integrate.

“Built around our proprietary CMOS TDI technology, this latest high speed camera combined with our CLHS frame grabbers has exceeded performance expectations for light-starved applications where sensitivity, resolution n and high speed image capture and transffer are critical,” said Mark Butler, pro oduct marketing manager with Teledyne D DALSA.

ATEX intrinsically safe fail freeze valve IMI Precision Engineering has introduced what it believes to be the world’s first fail freeze proportional valve to be certified ATEX Intrinsically Safe (IS) for use in hazardous environments.

The 422IS Fail Freeze valve is ATEXaccredited to operate in certified areas and can also pilot flammable gases rather than compressed air, negating the need to generate compressed air at remote sites. Already regulating gas supply in the UK, the fail freeze capability of the valve ensures it is able to accurately pilot the gas regulator even in the event of a power outage or signal disruption. Upon loss of power the valve will continue to regulate at the last set output pressure with a high degree of accuracy.

The valve is able to operate across a temperature range of -10°C to +70°C with a supply pressure of 4 bar, using less than 0.15 watts of energy when adjusting pressure and actually uses no

power once in position.

Both the linearity and hysteresis are scaled to less than 0.5% of span for optimal performance, while in addition vibration and orientation have minimal effect on valve performance.

Commenting on the valve, Stephen Turner, product marketing manager at IMI Precision Engineering, said: “ATEX IS certification removes the need for a pneumatic system at remote sites, so designers have the option to pipe gas directly from the pipeline to control the system, which streamlines the initial installation and cuts both running and servicing costs over the life of the whole system.”

Updated load-sensing valve configurator A new version of the M4 Configurator for M4 load sensing valves has been introduced by Bosch Rexroth.

The new configurator gives users immediate access to a variety of valve components and the necessary design documents. In addition, the M4 configurator offers an enhanced procurement procedure.

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To aid the specification process, the configurator also allows users to navigate through a guided selection process. When a configuration is complete, documentation – including a schematic, dimensional drawings and 3D models – is made available and can be incorporated into the design process.

Control Engineering Europe

Unbeatable Control, Precision and Flexibility

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>> Accelerate your productivity at ni.com/industrial-control-platform Follow us on

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COVER STORY

When to calibrate in a workshop

Today, field instruments are often calibrated out in the field. However, there are still various reasons why it is sometimes more convenient and effective to undertake calibration in a workshop. A recent Whitepaper from Beamex explains further.

S

electing between field calibration and workshop calibration is not a black-andwhite situation. These two methods are not exclusive alternatives; instead, they complement each other.

One of the most common times to calibrate in a workshop is during the commissioning of a new plant, or some new parts of the plant. During commissioning, the field equipment is not yet installed. The process equipment has typically already been purchased and is in storage waiting for installation. At this point it is very efficient to calibrate all the process equipment in the workshop before it is taken out into the field and installed.

It is often faster and easier to calibrate all transmitters in the workshop prior to installation, than to calibrate them in the field after installation. It also saves time as the transmitters can be calibrated before they are installed.

When installing fieldbus, other aspects also need to be taken into account. If the plan is to calibrate fieldbus transmitters and loops in the field by reading the

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October 2015

control system readout, it is necessary to wait until the fieldbus and the process control system are up and running. If the equipment in the workshop is capable of calibrating fieldbus instruments, the fieldbus process instruments can be calibrated in the workshop before they are installed in the field.

Total uncertainty Accuracy of the field instrumentation has been getting better in recent years, and this sets more requirements for the calibration equipment and also for all of the calibration processes. When doing the calibration in the field, the most significant aspects of the total uncertainty often do not come from the calibration equipment but from the calibration processes and the human factors. These are more critical with some quantities than with others.

The situation changes when the calibrations are done in the workshop using equipment and conditions dedicated for calibration work. In the calibration workshop, the equipment does not have to be portable, but can be workshop equipment, which often

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has better performance than portable equipment. Also, the environmental conditions in the workshop can be controlled, so calibrations are always performed in similar, controlled conditions. The operating procedures in a workshop can also be more easily written so the calibrations are performed in a more consistent way.

As already mentioned, workshop calibration and field calibration complement each other. There may be higher-accuracy, non-portable calibration equipment in the workshop as the primary reference calibration equipment. With these workshop primary standards, the portable field calibrators – which are used out in the field and of which there is often a larger number – can be calibrated. This will save money and time as the calibration equipment does not need to be sent out for periodical recalibrations. Most of the recalibration can be done by the engineer and only the primary standards need to be sent out for recalibration.

Spare device calibration/ rotating spares In some cases it is more convenient to calibrate a spare device and then replace that into the process. That is especially the case when the calibration is difficult to do in the field, or the calibration takes a very long time to perform. Of course this is also the case when the device has to be sent out to a third party calibration laboratory for calibration. In case the spare device calibration is performed in-house, it is most effective to perform the calibration in a workshop that has a suitable setup always ready for use.

The spare device may also be installed in the process only for the time it takes to calibrate the original instrument.

Safety A professional calibration and service/ maintenance bench in a workshop can be equipped with proper safety facilities.

Control Engineering Europe

COVER STORY

This includes items such as isolation transformer, fault current protection, emergency switch, thermal overload protection, ESD protection, to name just a few. The same kind of safety mechanisms cannot be easily arranged for work performed out in the field.

Accreditation and quality system In some cases it is necessary to apply for accreditation for the in-house calibration service. It is easier to get accreditation for the calibration work performed in a dedicated workshop than it is for field calibration. Also, the uncertainty of the calibration can be lessened when it is done in the workshop. Even if an accreditation is not necessary, it is easier to build a quality system for calibration work done in the workshop.

Field conditions versus workshop conditions The field conditions may sometimes be challenging to work in. Often the field is a hazardous area that sets requirements for the calibration equipment to be used, and not all calibration equipment is suitable for hazardous areas. For example, a temperature dry block cannot be used in hazardous areas, but it is still needed for temperature sensor calibration.

Often, instead of carrying several items of calibration equipment out to the field, it is easier to take the small device to be calibrated to the workshop, where all calibration equipment is ready for use.

Going into the field may require the use of protective gear and may also require dedicated training to be completed. Typically, there are more mechanical maintenance personnel on the work site who can take the device to be calibrated to the workshop, where the calibration specialists can concentrate on the calibration work.

Efficiency and ergonomics When doing the calibration in a workshop, the work can be arranged to be easier and more ergonomic than Control Engineering Europe

work performed out in the field. Some of these considerations include: • Equipment is always in place and ready to be used.

• Panel-mounted, mains-operated equipment never has empty batteries that need to be charged before work.

• Equipment never gets lost; it is always where it should be.

• All the equipment is optimally located for an ergonomic workspace. The height of the bench tables can be motor controlled so it is easy to adjust ergonomic height for any work.

• Panel-mounted automatic or manual pressure generation modules are ready for use, so there is no need to use manual pressure e hand pumps.

• The workshop offerrs a more convenient work en nvironment for the workers. The field e conditions may sometimes be very harsh to work in.

In addition there is also some calibration and mainttenance work that cannot be performed out in the field. p with adequate A dedicated workshop equipment in place makes m the work easy and effective.

• •

•

•

process sensor to the control system reading.

The calibration is performed in actual process conditions.

It eliminates the need for removal and re-installation of the instrument to be calibrated.

If the easy access for calibration has been taken into account in the installation of the process instrument, the calibration can be done quickly.

Modern portable documenting calibrators help to make the field calibration very effective.

A copy of the whitepaper can be downloaded now from the Whitepaper section at www.controlengeurope.com

Summary There are also many reasons to perform the calibration in the field. Some of the main arguments are listed below, as well as a simple comparison for the arguments for botth scenarios – workshop and field calibration.

In practice, workshop calibration and field calibration are not thiings that one chooses betw ween.

In most cases, depend ding on the case, both are used for effective results. Below, some of the most common arguments for doing d calibration in the field are presented: • It enables calibratio on of the whole measurement loop in one go from the

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October 20 015 0 15 5

9

SPONSORED ARTICLE

MACHINE VISION

Accelerated vision system development Using Design Assistant 4 vision software, it is possible to make major improvements in the time taken to develop machine vision applications.

K

eeping pace with evolving manufacturing inspection needs, vision software suppliers are finding ways to make the development of applications faster, simpler and more intuitive. Helping customers to meet these goals is Design Assistant 4 from Matrox, the first hardwareindependent integrated development environment (IDE) that allows users to easily create an application flowchart and HMI and take their projects from concept to completion in record time, without the need for conventional programming.

These applications can be deployed to any PC with GigE Vision or USB3 Vision cameras, to a Matrox 4Sight GPm vision system or a Matrox smart camera. Central to Design Assistant 4 are flowchart steps for calibrating, enhancing and transforming images; locating objects; extracting and measuring features; reading character strings; and decoding and verifying identification marks. Design Assistant is based on the Matrox Imaging Library, a vision library with a solid 20-year track record. A contextual guide provides assistance for every step in the flowchart. Results from image analysis and processing steps are immediately displayed to permit the quick tuning of parameters.

System integrators, machine builders and line integrators, who design customised project-based installations that will not be exactly duplicated at multiple sites, can benefit from a vision-specific integrated development environment

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October 2015

(IDE). They can move quickly and nimbly from one project to another, without sacrificing performance.

Commenting on his experience using Design Assistant 4, Dave Sexton, president of North Coast Technical, a machine vision distributor, said: “Design Assistant, being an IDE, shortens the time to develop an application by an order of magnitude. We are able to do proof of concept within a day for some projects and develop complete applications within a week!” Continuing to discuss the benefits of using Design Assistant 4, Sexton elaborated: “It gives us the ability to see immediate results and make changes quickly. We are able to use it without the need for programming. Skilled programmers are not needed, making machine vision attractive to a wider audience.

Hardware independence is possibly the biggest factor as it gives our customers greater choice. The price point of Design Assistant 4, together with Matrox 4Sight GPm industrial computers is also attractive and unbeatable.”

North Coast Technical recently supported their integrators and end users by developing around 15 machine vision applications using Matrox Design Assistant 4 along with Matrox 4Sight GPm industrial computers. Applications included verifying connector pins, inspecting pre-drilled holes for count, size, and alignment, inspecting printed material, verifying 2D codes, and a pick and place for large rolled

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sheets in a warehouse. Each of these applications typically took a week or less to develop.

Web-based operator interface In addition to flowchart design, Design Assistant 4 enables the creation of a custom, web-based operator interface to the application through an integrated HTML visual editor. Users alter an existing template using a choice of annotations, inputs and outputs. A filmstrip view is also available to keep track of, and navigate to, previously analysed images. The operator interface can also be customised further using a third-party HTML editor.

Versatile development System integrators benefit from this IDE by being able to quickly and easily create machine vision applications without writing program code. Hardware independence means that they can choose the best platform for the job, whether that is a PC with GigE Vision or USB3 Vision cameras or a Matrox vision system or smart camera. The fact that actions and results can be easily communicated to other automation and enterprise equipment through discrete Matrox I/Os, RS-232 and Ethernet (TCP/IP, EtherNet/IP, MODBUS, PROFINET and native robot interfaces) provides additional flexibility. Developer training time and cost are minimised because application logic and operator interface design tools are included in a single program.

Control Engineering Europe

Vision Software that’s hardware independent

Smart Camera

Standard computer with

Industriall computer with

Matrox Design Assistant 4 Lets you deploy your inspection project to the platform of your choice. Whether it’s a computer with GigE Vision® or USB3 Vision™ cameras, a Matrox smart camera, or a Matrox vision system, you’ll get the processing power you need.

www.matrox.com/da4/cee

M AT R O X I M A G I N G

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

PROFINET T – a solution platform for process automation?

A recent Whitepaper from PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI) details the functions and capabilities of PROFINET that meet the demands of the process automation industry, and highlights work being undertaken to a create a solution platform for process automation.

I

ndustrial communication is a key technology for modern automation – to control and monitor machines and systems in manufacturing and production processes. It also interconnects production islands and integrates adjacent tasks such as logistics, quality assurance, and system maintenance business systems.

In the future world of Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things, and Big Data, industrial communication is of even greater importance. Easy-tohandle solutions with high performance capability for real-time availability, flexible topologies, and integration – even over long distances – are needed to take advantage of the possibilities of the digital world.

Ethernet technology and IP-based communication are the current driving force behind interconnectivity and factory automation-related industries are already benefiting from this, with better products that can be produced more quickly and at lower cost.

Process-related systems, however, are typically complex in structure, consisting of different sub-systems with numerous devices and differing topologies, manufacturers and technologies.

It is important to harmonise this complexity and to fully integrate data and information systems to improve operational reliability. According to PI, PROFINET meets these demands.

It is 100% Ethernet, providing an environment for interoperability at all

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October 2015

levels of a plant, including IT. It is also precisely defined in its specifications, which is a requirement for full interoperability.

As a uniform technology in a plant, PROFINET can also affect personnel costs. There is less training expense, fewer specialists are needed, and plant operation is more transparent. Like PROFIBUS, PROFINET has a selection of application-oriented profiles for solving tasks. PROFIenergy, for example, enables energy-saving during process-related standby periods of plant segments.

Security is also an increasingly important consideration, particularly in the process industry. PROFINET already features a multi-level security concept and, because it is 100% Ethernet, it is able to share in future security developments from the IT world.

As an Industrial Ethernet standard, PROFINET offers plant operators and owners of process automation-related plants a step forward in terms of standardisation, integration, ease of use, security, and cost reduction. PI is also working intensively on the development of a comprehensive solution for process automation that includes existing and new PI technologies. The goal is for PROFINET to offer a complete solution platform for process automation. To this end, a working group has carried out a study to compare the range of demands of the process industry on communication technology with the performance offered by PROFINET.

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Based on this research, a gap analysis identified necessary developments of the technologies and specifications.

Special emphasis was put on the explicit specification of all functions needed to ensure interoperability between products of different manufacturers.

A new Whitepaper looks at the findings of the working group and goes into detail about existing functions and capabilities of PROFINET which already meet the demands of the process automation industry, as well as providing guidance as to specifications that are published, or under development, and which could be implemented and utilised in future products.

Special properties of Industrial Ethernet over and above standard Ethernet include robust, industrial-grade components and products as well as the development of protocols which fulfill industrial requirements, such as realtime capability.

PROFINET is standardised in IEC 61158 and IEC 61784 and, as a universal communication technology, covers all requirements of automation technology.

PROFINET is 100% Switched Ethernet, according to IEEE 802.3, so is open for application of all Ethernet technologies and parallel operation of multiple Ethernet protocols.

Control Engineering Europe

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS Process needs Compared to factory automation, process automation places additional demands on communication technology. Process plants, can extend over wide areas and have lifespans of up to 40 years. These often consist of continuous production processes where interruption or disturbance can pose a hazard for people and the environment. Unplanned stoppages can also result in large financial loss.

Plant owners want to achieve an integrated data and information flow both horizontally and vertically. This yields clear specifications for the communication technology, including: • Installation technology and field devices can be handled easily and by skilled staff.

• Application in hazardous areas, including intrinsically safe ignition protection.

• Long cable distances (up to 1,000m).

• Flexible topology design.

• Robust connection technology.

• Redundancy concepts for critical components.

PROFIBUS today PROFIBUS PA already enables long cable distances and explosion protection for the harsh environments of process automation and offers complete digital integration of field instrumentation in control and asset management systems.

The connection is made using a link/coupler, typically via PROFIBUS DP. The fieldbus combination of PROFIBUS DP with connected PA segment is found in many installations worldwide today.

Specifications and guidelines, such as the PA 3.02 device profile, provide the required standardisation, while the many field devices from various manufacturers provide users with choice when selecting instrumentation for their plants.

However, to date, some requirements have not been tackled, especially in connection with device replacement and device integration. Version 3.02 of the PA profile standardised the compatibility of devices to make device replacement, independent of manufacturer and software version, possible.

Duplication of integration tools will also soon end with the newly completed joint industry standard FDI (Field Device Integration), which also supports PROFIBUS PA. Process applications with PROFINET do already exist, especially in areas where PROFIBUS DP was previously used and Remote I/Os or motor management systems were connected.

However, this use case is subject to certain limitations because PROFINET functions, such as system-redundancy and configuration-in-run, are not yet implemented in all products.

PROFINET functions Proven PROFINET functions and technologies of importance to process automation and especially with field devices include network configuration, connection technology, network diagnostics, topology display, detection of neighbouring > p14 Control Engineering Europe

October 2015

13

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INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

devices, device replacement and diagnostics. These functions enable automatic address configuration during device replacement, as well as the display of a plant, which can be used, for example, to ensure that a replacement device was connected at the correct port. The replacement device receives the same name and parameters as the replaced device. In addition, the topology display is used for diagnostic purposes and shows, for example, a wire break graphically at the corresponding location.

The network configuration of PROFINET can be designed flexibly, and reflects the plant conditions. It supports line, star, ring and tree topologies.

Connection of devices is carried out exclusively using switches as network components, which are often already integrated in the device.

PROFINET field devices use the LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol),

according to IEEE 802.1AB, to exchange the available addressing information via each port. This allows the respective port neighbour to be explicitly identified and the physical structure of the network to be determined.

Status-oriented maintenance is also important for operation and maintenance of plants. It is based on the capability of devices and components to determine their status and to communicate using standardised mechanisms. PROFINET provides a system for signalling alarms and status messages from the devices to the controller. To ensure a uniform display of the different diagnostic messages, the results of the PROFINET diagnosis model have been assigned to the diagnostic display according to NAMUR NE 107, which ensures a uniform display for all devices in a plant.

Replacement of field devices can be performed easily and reliably,

PROFINET IO added to weighing terminal METTLER TOLEDO has introduced a PROFINET IO Interface option for its IND780 weighing terminal, to allow for seamless data exchange.

The flexible weighing terminal can support a wide range of weighing and control applications. With the addition of PROFINET IO it is now able to combine speed and performance with advanced communication options.

Most existing weighing installations using IND780 can be upgraded to Incorporate PROFINET IO connectivity which will allow many to extend the lifetime of their weighing equipment with the inclusion of modern network technology.

The IND780 with the PROFINET IO interface has received a conformance certificate from a PI test laboratory, ensuring conformance to the latest specification for PROFINET IO devices.

A General Station Description file, as a sample for Siemens Step 7 PLC interface code for use with IND780 PROFINET IO, is available to assist with weighing terminal implementation.

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October 2015

according to PI. The basis for this is the cyclic exchange of neighbourhood information of the devices. If a device fails, its neighbourhood is known. A replacement device that is ‘nameless’ is inserted, and the controller searches for the explicitly identifiable neighbour device of the defective device. The replacement device can therefore be assigned the same position in the network, the same address, and the same parameter set as the failed device.

For secure networking within a large factory or over the Internet, PROFINET provides a graduated security concept which can be adapted to the application through configurable upstream security zones. This frees devices from being overloaded with security mechanisms.

The concept can also be adapted to meet changing security requirements.

For safety-relevant applications a consistent communication path is vital. One possibility for this already exists today in the form of Safety with 4-20mA HART using Remote I/O or Proxy. A future solution is based on PROFIsafe, which is defined in IEC 61784-3-3 for implementing functional safety. PROFIsafe can be used with both PROFIBUS and PROFINET. Elements of a fail-safe controller can be transferred directly with the process control data on the same network without the need for additional wiring.

What’s next?

The IND780 provides interfaces for up to four independent measuring channels for scales or flow meters.

In addition, it provides a range of communication interfaces, including 4-20mA output, serial, Ethernet TCP/ IP, and USB. A simple operating system with an enhanced graphical display and SmartTrac, the IND780 improves the speed and accuracy of manual or semiautomatic operations with three display modes that relate weight status to target graphically. Further details about the weighing terminal can be found at www.mt.com/IND780

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Important and already released specifications for using PROFINET in process automation Include ‘Configuration in Run’ for disturbancefree changes during operation, ‘Media and system redundancy’ for very high system availability, ‘Proxy technology’ for investment protection through transparent integration of existing systems such as PROFIBUS PA and other communication technologies in PROFINET as well as exact ‘Time stamping’.

Configuration in Run refers to the feature based on redundant communication connections that enables problem-free interventions in the plant Control Engineering Europe

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

without affecting the communication in the network. This applies to actions taken on or with compact devices, as well as to modular devices and proxies.

Examples include change of device configuration, device replacement, addition or repair of components, and change of parameters.

High system availability is ensured through PROFINET redundancy solutions. Developed by PI, these include media and system redundancy, and have been standardised to ensure interoperable behaviour of devices from different manufacturers. In the case of media redundancy the PROFINET device has more than one physical connection path to the controller. If one communication path fails the second path is automatically used, so communication with the connected devices continues. In the case of system redundancy a PROFINET device establishes more than one communication relation with a redundant controller. A distinction is made between different ways of implementing system redundancy.

S2 system redundancy describes a compact PROFINET device, such as a field device, that can be operated on a system with high availability with no need of additional hardware. R1 and R2 system redundancy refers to the redundant realisation of the communication interface of a modular PROFINET device for example, with a Remote I/O. R2 system redundancy achieves maximum plant availability through its four paths between the controller and device.

With proxy technology, existing plant sections can be integrated into a PROFINET infrastructure. For process automation, this incorporates the existing fieldbus systems PROFIBUS DP/ PROFIBUS PA, FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1, HART and others.

Proxies are gateways that represent devices in a structured manner in the PROFINET network. The control systems can use them to access the field devices cyclically as well as acyclically.

Control Engineering Europe

PA Profile 4.0

diagnosis model is retained and is The current PA Profile – version PA being revised and adapted in dialogue 3.02 – is the generic device profile with all industry participants. of PI for process field devices which The transmission of large quantities ensures uniform behaviour of devices of data made possible by Industrial of various types and from different Ethernet, expands the former data manufacturers. exchange into an information Requirements and expertise of exchange. As a result, not only data manufacturers and users, including and keywords but also meaningful consideration of core parameters information from the entire plant is made available to the operator. for easy device commissioning and In the short- and medium-terms, replacement, are currently being PI sees two technologies as keys for incorporated into a revised profile process automation – PROFIBUS PA for version which will contain all useful elements of Version 3.02 and will, plants with long cable distances and additionally, be independent of hazardous areas and PROFINET devices with currently available interfaces in physical layer and protocol. The result compact plants and selected industry will be a PA 4.0 device profile that can sectors. be used uniformly with PROFIBUS and PROFINET systems.

A copy of the whitepaper ‘PROFINET This, says PI, will result in significantly easier and uniform – The Solution Platform for Process processes for engineering, installation, Automation’ can be downloaded from commissioning, and replacement of the Whitepaper section of devices. Profile devices, for example, www.controlengeurope.com will be commissioned according to a uniform procedure.

For vendorneutral configuration of field devices in the control system, devices with the PA profile offer a standard The new ACT350 weight transmitter was designed for use in interface in CWVQOCVKQP 2.% EQPPGEVKXKV[ KU UWRRQTVGF D[ RTG EQPĆ‚IWTGF the form of Device Description Files for easy integration. the ‘neutral www.mt.com/ind-act350 channel’, which represents the combined functions of the devices.

It provides these in an expanded GSD file for device integration.

NAMUR NE 107-based

Connectivity On Board For Fast and Accurate Weighing

October 2015

15

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

Blind flight or efficient maintenance?

Dr Christopher Anhaltt discusses the technical issues surrounding diagnosis of PROFINET networks.

P

ROFINET is an established communication standard in industrial automation. In the majority of cases, the development and installation of PROFINET networks present no problems. However, network diagnosis will be new to many users.

The plant commissioning procedure, for example, often does not include acceptance testing of the PROFINET networks, and plant operators and maintenance staff are looking for clear best practice guidance on how to monitor PROFINET networks during operation, how to reliably keep them up and running and how to react quickly and efficiently if problems occur. The reason for this lies in the profound changes brought about by the shift from traditional fieldbus systems to PROFINET or, more generally, to TCP/IP-based industrial communication.

The appropriate PROFINET diagnostic tasks, and therefore the requirements on the diagnostic tools employed, will differ depending on the phase of the plant life cycle and the users involved. These factors determine the required set of diagnostic tools and the necessary functionality.

The individual phases of a plant’s

life cycle require different diagnostic functionalities for PROFINET networks.

Cable validation A key task in the installation phase is to ensure correct cabling. However, testing every cable would involve too much effort. The focus, therefore must be on checking all important network cables – primarily cables that are used as the backbone and that are permanently integrated and difficult to replace, as well as custom cables.

Support during commissioning

When installation is complete, the next phase in the plant’s life cycle is the commissioning phase. Here, the diagnostic tasks are aimed at detecting general configuration and communication faults in the installed PROFINET network, and documenting the network and the acceptance test to minimise residual risk of network failure during operation of the plant.

Configuration faults that need to be detected can include device names that are used in the controller, but which are not assigned to any device in the network.

During acceptance testing, documents are issued that detail the current characteristics of the PROFINET installation and serve as evidence and as a basis for future comparisons. One of these documents is the network topology representing the nodes connected to the network. Selectable filter settings allow adjustment of the size, layout and level Figure 1: The graphical topology view with the different filters provides a quick overview of the examined PROFINET network. of detail (Figure 1).

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October 2015

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Another document in this phase is the inventory list which contains a detailed list of all devices. An acceptance test report summarises all the individual results of the acceptance test. The last step in this phase is the reference measurement with a record of the network status that was rated as ‘good’ in the acceptance test. This record provides a basis for future comparison with the current network status during operation of the plant, and is a useful aid in troubleshooting if network problems occur.

Depending on the situation, it may also be advisable to run a network load test as part of commissioning. This test examines the behaviour of the installed network under load and differs from load or stress tests for single devices, where the robustness and conformity with device standards are typically assessed in a laboratory environment.

Network diagnostics during operation While the plant is running, plant operators need an overview of the plant-wide status. Diagnostics in this phase are aimed in particular at ensuring a high plant productivity and avoiding downtime. The focus is on the continuous monitoring of the PROFINET communication and the efficient support of users in the event of emerging problems or network failure. During continuous monitoring, key characteristics such as the current network load and the number of error packets are monitored. In this way, negative influences on the PROFINET data exchange can be eliminated, for example, when replacing an Ethernet device or expanding a decentralised I/O system. If a specified limit value is exceeded on the monitored network, the user is automatically notified.

For many maintenance tasks and for finding typical faults users do not need special IT knowledge. The Control Engineering Europe

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

Figure 2: The results of continuous network monitoring can be accessed locally or remotely through a graphical user interface.

employed tools provide the necessary functionality, such as an aggregated view of the overall network, network communication statistics, and maintenance and troubleshooting advice. The tools also detect cable problems, device drop-outs and broken connections. An example of fault statistics can be seen in Figure 2.

During plant operation, users are also faced with ‘network management’ tasks. A typical task, for example, is to update the firmware in all versions of a particular device type. Using suitable tools, users can see at a glance if all devices are discovered after the update and if they have been updated to the correct firmware version.

For acceptance testing and network diagnostics in this phase the TH LINK PROFINET and TH SCOPE products from Softing Industrial Automation are designed for maintenance staff and plant operators, these tools can be used without the user having an in-depth IT or Ethernet knowledge (Figure 3).

The TH LINK PROFINET gateway provides access to the PROFINET network independently from the controller or control room. The gateway can be integrated at any time, and will not interfere with the operation of existing installations and requires no configuration or development work. The software application processes the data acquired by the gateway and displays it in the form of graphs, enabling local and remote access, and providing a browser interface.

Third-party tools can be integrated into the diagnostic solution through the SNMP or OPC standards. An Industrial Ethernet Tester can also be used to perform network load tests.

Troubleshooting During commissioning or operation complex faults can occur without any apparent cause, such as a large number of error frames on a particular port.

Troubleshooting usually requires indepth knowledge of communication

Figure 3: The solution architecture for plant-wide PROFINET analysis is based on Softing’s TH LINK PROFINET and TH SCOPE products.

and information technology, as well as special tools for locating, identifying and correcting the fault. Often users will need to perform a frame analysis of the communication. This can be achieved with additional tools, such as temporary taps in combination with the Wireshark software.

Summary The use of TCP/IP-based communication changes the character of industrial networks. The plant-wide planning of the diagnostic tasks to be performed provides key benefits to PROFINET users looking to minimise the failure risk of their plant and increase maintenance efficiency.

A thorough acceptance test for the PROFINET network will provide a sound basis for the future smooth operation of a plant Dr Christopher Anhalt is senior product manager Diagnostics, at Softing Industrial Automation GmbH

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

IO-Link: Getting straight to the point Standardised IO-Link technology makes communication with sensors and actuators simple and economical.

This low-cost connection technology, with three or five conductors, achieves point-to-point connection without the need for complex wiring and with minimal material requirements.

I

O-Link is not a new bus system but has been developed as a new kind of communications interface for fieldbus and Ethernet systems. It allows users to download parameter data from the control system to the sensor or actuator, and also to send diagnostic data in the other direction to the control system. Traditionally, integrating a fieldbus interface all the way down to the lowest field level was a costly task. Digital or analogue values and all parameters and diagnostic data can now be transmitted with only a simple 3-wire or 5-wire cable – with no special features required in terms of screening, twisting, impedance or

terminating resistance.

The gateway between the fieldbus and one or more IO-Link slaves is normally provided by a fieldbus device with multiple IO-Link master channels. In smaller machines or systems, which may not require a fieldbus due to their size, the PLC can act as the IO-Link master.

Increased security IO-Link provides a secure connection for analogue, binary and serial communication devices. Typical IOLink applications for complex sensor technology and terminals can be found in automotive body-in-white production and assembly, for personal protection

with safety fences, in heavy machinery construction and for machine tools, at manual workstations, assembly cells, input/output stations.

IO-Link is a uniform, standardised and therefore efficient technology for installation and wiring. Standardisation also means less investment risk. An international, open and fieldbusindependent IO-Link standard provides support for existing and future connection concepts. Devices can be parameterised simply and conveniently – and can be put back into operation immediately after replacement with no need for engineering software tools.

Software-supported parameterisation of intelligent sensors and actuators via the IO-Link master makes it extremely easy to set and reassign parameters. Simple sensor-actuator wiring combinations with standardised, unscreened cables reduces material costs, simplifies logistics and saves time. This makes installation much easier.

Festo can offer a range of products for IO-Link – from a single source – including several masters, pressure and flow sensors, displacement encoders/ position transmitters, five valve terminal series, proportional pressure regulators, stepper motor controllers and connecting cables. In addition, Festo has application

IO-Link – making an impression in the field IO-Link is the first standardised IO technology worldwide (IEC 61131-9) for communication with sensors and also actuators. The point-to-point communication standard is based around standard 3-wire sensor and actuator connection without the need for any special cabling requirements.

The majority of IO-Link devices are equipped with M12 connectors which can be used without any restrictions for IO-Link’s switching mode and communication mode. Each port of an IO-Link master is capable of processing binary switching signals and analogue values. Serial IO-Link communication takes place via the same port.

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As standard, two bytes of process data are available per cycle. The transmission between IO-Link master and device takes 400 µs at a speed of 230 kBaud.

The user can also choose larger frame types so greater process data with up to 32 bytes length can also be transmitted at a correspondingly lower cycle time.

To ensure that the parameter data of a device are not lost when replacing a device, they can be automatically stored directly in the IO-Link master. If a new, identical substitution device is connected, the parameters of the previous device are automatically transferred onto the new device.

Each IO-Link device has an IODD

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(IO Device Description) which contains information about the manufacturer, article number, functionality etc. Each device can be identified via the IODD, as well as via an internal device ID. Earlier this year the IO-Link Community commissioned statistics on the number of installed IO-Link nodes in the field.

The counting method used has already Control Engineering Europe

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

knowledge in both factory and process automation and can also offer basic and advanced training for industrial users.

Competent and consistent decentralisation of an installation can be achieved with Festo’s CECC compact controller with four IO-Link master ports. The compact controller operates with electric and pneumatic drives in small installations. It can help to reduce installation and networking costs for intelligent sensors and valve terminals and can also provide diagnostic options inside and outside the control cabinet.

Used as a remote I/O or in conjunction with the valve terminals MPA or VTSA, the CPX terminal allows the integration of one or more master interfaces for IO-Link devices.

Integrated solution Used as a remote-I/O or in conjunction with Festo’s MPA or VTSA valve terminals, it allows the integration of one or more master interfaces for IO-Link devices.

Because of its comprehensive function integration, control of pneumatic and electric drives with the CPX terminal is simplified. In combination with PROFINET or Sercos – the terminal has an I-Port interface with two channels for IO-Link.

Individual third-party IO-Link devices can therefore be connected in the near/direct vicinity of the valve terminal This solution offers a major gain in economic and efficient installation.

Multi-pin connecting cables for valve

been well-proven for many years for the PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) technologies, with members being surveyed regarding the number of devices sold.

The survey revealed that since 2009, over 2.19 million IO-Link nodes have been installed in the field and that IO-Link is distributed through many industry sectors including automotive, packaging, machine construction, solar industry, glass manufacturing, biogas production, and wood processing.

The IO-Link Community is also increasing. There are now more than 90 members, with 17 new members added in 2014. Since the start of this year, 11 companies became members.

Control Engineering Europe

terminals are replaced by standard M12 cables and IO-Link, reducing material costs and offering more flexible, easier installation, energy chain through-feed or adaptation to damp or particularly challenging or harsh operating conditions.

Festo’s CMMO-ST motor controller with integrated web server for configuration and diagnostics is now also equipped with an IO-Link interface. This closed-loop servo controller for stepper motors forms an important part of Festo’s Optimised Motion Series (OMS).

A package consisting of electric cylinder, stepper motor with servo functionality,

The success of the technology is said to be due to a variety of reasons. Besides the simplified installation, automated parameter assignment, and diagnostic capabilities, the fact that users can make use of a wide range of devices and technologies is also a recognised benefit.

IO-Link has now been implemented in all fieldbus systems established on the market and most well-known PLC manufacturers have integrated it into their systems. In doing so, the IO-Link master can undertake the crucial connection between the IO-Link devices and the automation system. All essential sensor and actuator technologies are already offered with an IO-Link interface today.

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motor controller and all the necessary cables offers a cost-effective solution when compared with conventional electric positioning systems.

The OMS with the electric cylinder can be configured in two ways – using Web Config and the parameter cloud on a server. The controller has its own IP address and a catalogue is available with all the necessary data for pre-defined and tested combinations.

Pressure regulation When using a Festo VPM proportional pressure regulator connected to IO-Link there is no need for a screened analogue cable, making the signal level less prone to interference. Parameters are set and data saved in the IO-Link master, offering a practical solution that allows for a quick restart after component replacement.

Because of its point-to-point connection IO-Link allows short cycle times.

The uniform interface within IO-Link replaces individual sensor connections, making complex sensors easier to integrate. That means that even position transmitters and parameterisable pressure and flow sensors can be integrated and installed at low cost.

Festo’s SDAT position transmitter, for example, detects a piston position with high repetition accuracy – no matter whether used for process monitoring for screwdriving, riveting, ultrasound welding, pressing and clamping or for object detection.

October 2015

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Impact of the Internet of Things (IoT)

CONTROL ENGINEERING RESEARCH

Has made a positive change

Cyber security study

O

reported that their companies have performed some type of vulnerability assessment within the past three months. The average facility has checked their vulnerabilities within the past five months.

ne in four respondents to the Control Engineering 2015 Cyber Security Study identified a high cyber security threat to control systems of respondents, while another 8% said their systems are severely threatened. Of these respondents, the most concerning threats to these at-risk control systems are attacks as part of a larger attempt to disrupt critical infrastructure (29%), malware from a random source with no specific connection to their company or industry (22%), and attacks through an unfamiliar yet vulnerable network device (18%). Below are four more findings from this study as they relate to highly or severely threatened control systems:

3. Cyber-related incidents: Fiftythree percent of respondents have experienced at least one malicious cyber attack on their control system networks and/or cyber assets – that they were aware of – within the past 24 months, with 24% being aware of five or more attacks. Thirty-two percent of these incidents were accidental infections, 14% were targeted in nature, and 50% were both accidental and targeted.

1. Vulnerable system components: The most vulnerable system components within respondents’ companies are computer assets (55%), connections to other internal systems (50%), network devices (49%), and wireless communication devices and protocols used in the automation system (46%).

4. Identifying cyber incidents: Seven in 10 respondents said that they were alerted about recent cyber incidents by members of their internal organisation, while 24% were disclosed by a third-party assessment, and 6% were notified by the government or other outside party.

2. Vulnerability assessments: Thirtyseven percent of respondents

View more information at www.controleng.com/2015CyberSecurity

Cyber security training received Identify things that may indicate a cyber incident or attack

59%

Know who to contact in the event of a cyber incident or attack

54%

Identify social engineering attacks None

41% 16%

The Control Engineering 2015 Cyber Security Study asked about training.

All graphics courtesy: Control Engineering, CFE Media.

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14% 45% 41%

Will make a positive change

Great potential for increasing productivity

3-in-10

end users said that a lack of training/ education and recognition of benefits are big challenges with adopting Ethernet technologies.

Source: Control Engineering 2014 Mobility, Ethernet, and Wireless Study

54%

of management teams were allowed to report on recent cyber-related incidents and actually followed through.

Source: Control Engineering 2015 Cyber Security Study

44%

of end users agree that automation system integration within their facilities is highly effective. Source: Control Engineering 2014 System Integration Study

More research Control Engineering surveys its audience on five topics each year: cyber security; career survey; system integration; information integration; and mobility, Ethernet, and wireless. All reports are available at www.controleng.com/ce-research.

Control Engineering Europe

INDUSTRY NEWS

PROFIBUS and PROFINET: growth in process automation At the end of 2014, nearly 51 million PROFIBUS devices were installed in industrial plants worldwide, about 3.5 million more than the previous year.

At the same time, PROFIBUS in process automation is also recording steady growth.

PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Today, over nine million PROFIBUS devices are now installed in the process automation sector.

The success of PROFIBUS PA is said to be based on three areas – its ease of installation and operation, the many possibilities resulting from uniform

diagnostics, according to NAMUR NE 107, and its performance with fast uploading and downloading of parameters.

The availability of a highperformance solution for hazardous areas also plays a major role in the process industry.

“Users appreciate its reliability, for instance, in that all versions are compatible with one another. It is now important to achieve the same result for PROFINET,” explained Karsten Schneider, chairman of PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation e.V. and Chairman of PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI).

“PROFINET has stood for reliable and sustainable communication technology in production automation for some years now and is doing so today in process automation.”

Raytek, Ircon, and Datapaq join forces

Industrial cybersecurity requires greater consideration

Fluke Corp. has announced that it is integrating its existing Raytek, Ircon, and Datapaq product lines into a single new brand – Fluke Process Instruments.

All three companies have been part of the Fluke Corporation portfolio for some time. Commenting on the announcement, Ankush Malhotra, general manager for Fluke Process Instruments, said: “By joining the three companies under a single brand we can improve our communications and accelerate our product innovation. We are proud of the legacy these brands bring and will continue to grow them as Fluke Process Instruments.”

Raytek, Ircon, and Datapaq branded products include a line of rugged infrared sensors, line scanners, thermal imagers, and temperature profiling systems for use in harsh, high-temperature industrial manufacturing environments.

The company has also launched a new website: www.flukeprocessinstruments.com

Manufacturing industries have not, traditionally, been designed with security in mind. However, the increasing proliferation of networks and devices, disparate communication channels, and the use of off-the-shelf software has highlighted an increasing need for cybersecurity.

Safety and security concerns associated with the high levels of connectivity and integration have been brought to the fore as the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) takes shape.

Analysis from Frost & Sullivan, The Safety-Security Argument: Expanding Needs in a Connected Enterprise, unsurprisingly predicts a growth global in the cybersecurity market for control systems. “Enterprises currently employ a broad, layered approach towards protecting cyber assets while industry organisations work on establishing suitable standards,” said Sonia Francisco, industrial automation and process control senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Partnerships among government, industry and research institutes will be vital in forming robust, industrybased standards that will speed up the

Control Engineering UK

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development of comprehensive security management solutions.”

As the IoT concept transforms plant architecture, defence-by-default security strategies will give way to defenceby-design solutions. In-built security solutions that can sense, adapt, modify and respond to threats based on various ecosystem parameterswill gain traction.

Creating industry- and applicationspecific solutions will also be crucial as IT solutions continue to stream into the operational technology (OT) space.

Solution providers in both ecosystems will need to work together to deploy end-toend cyber security solutions for industrial systems.

“Such extensive integration will require a new age workforce with both IT and OT expertise,” said Francisco. “Cybersecurity service providers can provide training and change management solutions that will bridge the knowledge gap.”

As a majority of industries upgrade to smart systems and processes, industrial cybersecurity will soon make the inevitable shift from being a reactive operating model into a proactive design philosophy.

October 2015

UK1

MACHINE VISION

Inspection system vision solution Pharma Packaging Systems wanted to be able to offer its pharmaceutical customers a useful inspection solution as part of its electronic tablet counting system.

Control Engineering UK K reports.

P

harma Packaging Systems (PPS) specialises in packaging systems for the pharmaceutical industry. It designs and manufactures electronic counting systems for tablets and capsules, either standalone, or as part of an integrated packaging line.

PPS identified an opportunity to offer its customers the benefits of machine vision by creating an inspection solution for its existing range of counting and packaging machines. To help it find a suitable machine vision solution PPS contacted Machine Vision Technology (MVT), an independent machine vision systems integrator.

The purpose of the inspection is to check for broken, partially formed or

Colour smart camera solution Multipix Imaging has introduced the P-Series Datalogic Colour Smart Camera, which includes colour image sensors.

The P-Series colour smart cameras, combined with IMPACT LITE software tools, are said to offer flexibility and ease of use to create the best solution to tackle machine vision applications in a variety of industries.

Typical application tasks using colour inspection could, for example, include bottle cap colour inspection, colour and shape detection of medical ta ablets, connector wiring w assembly verification and colour based package sorting.

UK2

October 2015

cross contamination (rogue tablets from another batch). Cross contamination can cause particular problems in the pharmaceutical sector. If left undetected it can cause the whole factory to be shut down for a period in addition to the company incurring costly fines.

The packing system requires the bulk product (tablets or capsules) to be fed from a hopper onto vibrating trays that feed and separate the product and guide them along the stainless steel trays. As the tablets leave the end of the feed trays they pass through high speed infrared optical sensors that count the products in free fall. The products are counted with high accuracy, at high speed, into bottles that are indexed on a conveyor by a scroll drive system.

The vision challenge

tablet length, width, area and colour, is to differentiate between actual product and its reflection.

Each camera positioned above the tray images six lanes of tablets. Each tablet is typically inspected ten or more times as it passes from top to bottom through the camera’s field of view (FOV).

The main problem that MVS needed to overcome was the product appearing to be either good or bad at any one instant in time depending on which face it was presenting to the camera as it feeds. MVT spent over a year developing sophisticated tablet tracking software that tracks each individual tablet.

As the tablets leave the tray and get counted into a bottle the vision system outputs the tablet inspection result.

Once the inspection returns a ‘good’ result for a tablet it is ‘locked-in’ as good, even if it then bounces onto an edge and so appears to be ‘bad’ in subsequent inspections. The tablet must be deemed ‘good’ in at least one image, otherwise it is ‘bad’, and when a bad tablet is detected the bottle will be rejected.

The vibratory feeders start and stop several times a minute and feed at varying rates to maximise the throughput into each bottle as the bottles index past. This continuous tracking of tablets, with their associated inspection results, is therefore a real

Cameras have been placed above the final feed tray to inspect the tablets just before they are counted and bottled. As the tablets are vibrating they are often touching and moving irregularly and the trays can therefore present the tablets to the camera in any possible orientation.

Another obstacle that needed to be overcome is that the bright and reflective finish of the stainless steel tablet feed trays causes the tablets to reflect in the channels of the tray. The vision system challenge, Main vision inspection screen used by the operator during production. when measuring the

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Control Engineering UK

MACHINE VISION

A typical PPS Pharmacount tablet counting system.

accomplishment.

The vision system has to find every tablet in each image, predict where it will be in the next image and match its new position and orientation in the new image to be able to identify it as the same tablet and so individually track it, building up its good / bad history.

The machines described above are

based on standard PPS machines with modifications that allow integration of machine vision and are basically still tablet counting machines.

The latest MVT/ PPS evolution has been designed as a machine vision inspection system with a flat belt tablet feeder between the last vibrating tray and the output of the machine. This means that the tablets are lying flat and are evenly separated and this system is designed to reject individual tablets as they leave the belt based on the good/ bad status of the tablet. This system will inspect the tablets for width, length, area and colour in addition to

thickness and will ensure only good product is discharged for further processing. This system can inspect up to 10,000 tablets per minute but is scalable to suit any application.

For lighting in this application, MVT chose to use multiple LED arrays and selected a Gigabit Ethernet for Machine Vision (GigE Vision) colour camera for the image acquisition into one industrial PC. GigE Vision is an interface standard for highperformance machine vision cameras.

MVTec’s Halcon image processing software forms the basis of MVTs customised C# application code.

Multipix Imaging, a distributor specialising in machine vision, has been working with MVT since 2003, offering advice, supply and support of machine vision components which include assisting with application evaluation and loaning equipment to MVT when necessary.

• Pressure • Temperature • Vibration Rugged, Reliable, Programmable

Turck Banner Ltd.

Blenheim House, Blenheim Court Wickford, Essex, SS11 8YT

www.turckbanner.co.uk

Tel: 01268 578888 process@turckbanner.co.uk

MACHINE VISION

USB3 progress Ian Alderton and members of the UK Industrial Vision Association (UKIVA), question the findings of a recent report looking into the use of machine vision cameras utilising USB2 and USB3 technology.

U

SB3 machine vision cameras have been available since around 2011, with the USB3 Vision standard being introduced in 2013. USB3 camera technology benefits from high bandwidth (around 350 MBytes/sec), low-cost and increasing availability of USB3 interfaces on PCs. However, a recent report from IHS Technology indicated that USB2 and USB3 combined accounted for 15.7% of the revenue for machine vision cameras in 2014 with numbers only predicted to grow to only 16.3% of the total revenue by 2019, with USB3 then accounting for one-quarter of the overall USB contribution, despite heavy promotion of the technology. The report concluded that users will only be motivated to upgrade to USB3 if a faster speed is necessary for their application.

But is this really a true picture? Many UKIVA members are involved in the supply and installation of USB3 cameras, and they put these figures into context.

Factors key to the adoption of USB3 cameras include bandwidth, application type, timescale, manufacturing cycles and unit costs. For USB3 camera sales to grow, they either have to take market share from the other camera types available or they need open up new market areas.

The first dedicated machine vision interface was CameraLink, followed by GigE Vision. Two consumer interfaces: IEEE1394 (Firewire) and USB 2.0 were used for lower end applications. Ian Alderton from Alrad Imaging observes: “Being a consumer interface, USB 2.0 does not have the control provided

by CameraLink. GigE also allows more control as well as longer cable lengths

UK4

October 2015

for data transmission. In addition, the availability of computers with the USB3 interface has been a little slow.”

Mark Williamson from STEMMER IMAGING is of a similar opinion: “USB2 was not generally adopted for factory automation and machine vision applications as there was not a software standard. USB2 has been used extensively in markets where real time asynchronous requirements were not significant but low power consumption, low-cost and small size were important.”

Many suppliers of USB2 cameras have not introduced USB3 versions of the lower resolution cameras where there is no advantage for the frame rate since USB2 cameras can also be used in a USB3 port. The focus has been on higher end USB3 cameras with better resolution and frame rates… and this sector will benefit further from the latest Sony and ON Semiconductor sensors, so as reported by IHS, natural upgrading from USB2 to USB3 is indeed most likely when improved performance is needed.

Paul Wilson, from Scorpion Vision, however, comments: “There are many advantages of using USB3 over USB2 – it’s not just about bandwidth. USB3 is able to handle multiple camera connections better than USB2.” Allan Anderson, from Clearview Imaging, adds: “Where there has been some hesitation is from customers who had bad experiences with USB2. We need to educate them on the differences USB3 Vision brings and how it meets the demands of serious machine vision applications.” Oliver Senghaas from IDS (Imaging Development Systems) also makes a valid point: “The IHS report quotes only revenues rather than unit

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numbers. GigE cameras are generally more expensive than USB cameras, so the volume share will actually be higher.

It would be interesting to compare the number of cameras sold.”

Establishing the standard It takes time for the industry to adopt a new standard. Williamson explains: “GigE Vision has become the interface of choice for all machine vision applications where it is fast enough although its adoption grew slowly. OEM system builders only revisit a design maybe once every five years, so if the kit is working and it is available, the design is unlikely to change unless there is a significant performance or price advantage. The CameraLink standard is also well-established and stable and the medium and full versions are still faster than USB3. So OEM applications specified more than a few years ago requiring bandwidth in excess of GigE Vision would probably have used CameraLink rather than USB3.”

Anderson has a similar view: “Although having a USB3 Vision standard is important for traditional machine vision OEM customers, we haven’t seen so many customers switch from GigE Vision cameras to USB3, unless the extra bandwidth is needed. We don’t see this changing in the short-term but the trend will flow more to USB3 Vision, when high resolution and frame rates are needed. We have, however, seen a lot of traditional machine vision OEM customers migrate from IEEE1394 and lower-end Camera Link cameras, to USB3. In addition, USB3 has created lots of new customers, in new markets.”

Ian Alderton is chairman of the UK Industrial Vision Association Control Engineering UK

The Ensenso stereo 3D camera from IDS represents a solution for 3D image capture that is impressively precise, cost-efficient and fast.

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MACHINE VISION

IP65/67 rated 3D stereo cameras The new N30 and N35 Ensenso 3D stereo cameras, available from IDS Imaging Development Systems, are said to be suited to use in demanding industrial environment applications.

The IP65/67 protected cameras feature a high-speed GigE interface and a choice of focal lengths and convergence angles, n for offering a flexible imaging solution both moving and static objects.

The N35 model offers the additional benefit of an enhanced pattern projector to give double the resolution in X, Y and Z for static objects.

The cameras are equipped with a Harting Push/Pull adapter and screw-on

GPIO connectors for trigger and flash, and have PoE (power over Ethernet) to minimise the cables required. The cameras feature two built-in 1.3 MP CMOS sensors which combine highresolution imaging with high frame rates and the GigE interface provides data transmission over 100m cable lengths.

Camera uses advanced CMOS sensing technology Scorpion Vision is now offering a range of PixeLINK industrial cameras which incorporate CMOS sensors for affordable superior image quality.

The CMOS sensor used in the camera is equipped with a global shutter which allows it to negate effects such as skew, wobble and smear.

The CMOS sensors in the USB3.0 camera range are also said to offer a high resolution and fast frame rate,

when compared to that available in traditional CCD sensors.

Surface inspection ssystem sees down to micron diameters m Th he Trevista surface inspection system frrom STEMMER IMAGING can be used to o identify foreign matter or surface im mperfections.

The system features patented ‘sh hape from shading’ technology, which allows for problem-free w in nspection of a wide range of materials, including those that m have varying reflections which are otherwise difficult to measure using traditional machine vision methods. The intrinsic dome-shaped illumination ensures optimum and even illumination of the material’s surface from different directions and also suppresses interfering ambient light.

Key to the performance of the system is the way image data are processed. The ‘shape from shading’ technology uses a special algorithm to analyse a series of four sequential images obtained at different angles of illumination to deduce information on the three-dimensional shape of an object from the shading of its surfaces. This allows defects of just a few microns diameter and depth to be detected on a variety of material surfaces.

The system is supplied complete with structured diffuse illumination, lens, software, PC and a high resolution Genie TS camera from Teledyne DALSA.

PROFINET interface for vision sensor The new VeriSens PROFINET gateway from Baumer is said to provide additional benefits for its vision sensing range through efficient interfacing over PROFINET with visualisation and FTP communication in parallel with realtime Ethernet.

The PROFINET gateway allows for interfacing of up to four sensors.

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October 2015

The integrated switch simplifies architecture of the typical linear network topology. The gateway allows for visualisation tasks to be carried out in parallel with PROFINET communication.

The VeriSens Ethernet port remains available for visualisation via configurable web interface and image saving on an FTP server.

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Control Engineering UK

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INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

An Ethernet-based field network solution for Honda An increase in efficiency of production and operation management has been achieved by Honda Motor Company at its Yorii plant in Japan since the introduction of an Ethernet-based CC-Link IE Field Network.

T

he CC-Link IE solution allows for communication within a unified network for control signals from factory automation devices such as PLCs, production management information, and safety signals. The success of this project is now leading to the expansion of the industrial communication solution into other Honda overseas factories, including a new plant in Mexico.

The Yorii plant was built with a view to increasing cost-competitiveness through the implementation of efficient production and energy management.

The plant fulfills the role of ‘mother

factory’, sharing its production technology and know-how throughout the global Honda enterprise.

As the construction of the Yorii Plant proceeded with this mission in mind, it was late 2011 when the design and selection of production line control devices began seriously.

Selecting control devices Taku Yokomukai, maintenance supervisor for vehicle body assembly production line facilities at the plant, was involved with the selection of control devices. He said: “We talked a lot about what kind of control devices and networks would be appropriate for

By introducing cutting-edge production technology, the Yorii plant has achieved a takt time of less than 50 seconds for the production of the Honda FIT.

UK8

October 2015

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a state-of-the-art factory.” The first issue that arose when constructing a control network for the vehicle body assembly line was how to handle the overall network architecture. “We did consider a flat construction linking the whole plant in a single network, but given the possibility that a single failure could stop the entire plant’s network, we decided we were better off with multiple networks.”

However, constructing individual networks by application would result in a more complex system as well as increasing introduction and operation costs. While considering the system architecture, the team also identified two functions essential for the network. One was the centralised ‘visualisation’ of factory automation control devices. The vehicle body assembly line alone uses many PLCs, making individual management inefficient. The target was an environment in which factory automation control device setup, monitoring, and failure detection could be centralised through the network.

The other essential function was the communication of safety signals through the use of interlocks, to detect when a worker enters a prohibited area or approaches a robot. The traditional practice of using relays to configure a hardware-based safety circuit presented the issue of serious time loss during line expansions and changes. A decision was made, therefore, to incorporate safety signals into the network as well, aiming for a structure that would allow flexible line changes.

Yokomukai focused on Mitsubishi Electric’s CC-Link IE Field Network solution whereby a single Ethernet cable allows communication of control information for PLCs and controllers as well as maintenance and safety information from the connected devices.

“When Mitsubishi Electric introduced the CC-Link IE Field Network to us, I discovered that it could handle maintenance and safety information as well, reflecting our various on-site needs.

I felt that it would allow us to build a Control Engineering UK

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS

simple and high-reliability network suitable for the plant,” said Yokomukai.

Compatibility Compatibility with the control devices was also an important point. “To fulfill the projected production numbers, the vehicle body assembly line was going to have to be maintained at a near constant 100% operating rate, requiring reliability and guaranteed performance from the control devices. Our in-house proposal was for control devices from Mitsubishi Electric. Because the CC-Link IE Field Network is compatible with Mitsubishi Electric control devices, we felt that we could construct an optimal system by combining the two,” continued Yokomukai.

Mitsubishi Electric’s PLC MELSEC-Q Series was used on the vehicle body assembly line.

The CC-Link IE Field Network is an Ethernet-based field network following the physical and data layers as defined by IEEE 802.3. As well as covering high-speed I/O and control of distributed controllers it offers flexible network topology options such as star and ring types, allowing freedom in the arrangement and configuration of connected devices. In addition, it supports management and maintenance of controller devices and features a safety communication function that allows for the sharing of safety information among multiple safety PLCs. The Honda Yorii plant began operation in July 2013, and moved to full operation with the introduction of a second shift in September 2013. Yokomukai “We really get a sense of the effect of the visualisation that we were aiming for originally, even the way that when there’s trouble with the equipment or control devices, the diagnostic functions of CC-Link IE Field help us locate the problem faster,” concluded Yokomakai. “The vehicle body assembly line uses as many as 50 PLCs. We are able to get a centralised overview of the line status, making operation management efficiency much higher. The recovery time has also been shortened.”

Line expansion and adding new safety functions is a simple matter of connecting a LAN cable to a vacant port on the CC-Link IE Field Network. An interlock can be added immediately in Mitsubishi Electric’s Safety PLC, reducing the workload considerably.

Control Engineering UK

October 2015

UK9

The easy is better principle for electronic differential pressure e-DP - no oil-filled capillaries, lower maintenance, better performance.

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MACHINE SAFETY

EN 61800-5-2: more than just safe torque off Ross Fenion offers an insight into the application of the safe motion standard EN 61800-5-2.

S

afety functions in the field of motion are often reduced to a single bullet point announcing that safe torque off (STO) is integrated into a drive. However, with the increase of electronically driven motion control it is important to consider the safety functions, and assess whether they are suitable for the application and the electronics being using.

Stop functions are found in both EN 60204 and ISO 13849 and define the same three stop functions with different titles: Stop Category 0 (Safe torque off), stop category 1 (safe stop 1), and stop category 2 (safe stop 2). Today technology enables these functions to be integrated into the drive and enables a large number of more flexible stop and safety limiting options. Servo amplifiers with integrated safety functions, in accordance with EN 61800-5-2 are now available, providing simpler solutions, even for complex safety requirements.

Safe stop functions on a typical line.

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October 2015

EN 61800-5-2 provides a systematic method to identify the safety function enabled by a motion control system and assists in the design and verification to ensure that it meets the required safety performance. The standard divides safety functions into stop functions, safe motion functions, and safe braking functions.

Safe stop functions Safe Torque Off (STO): The power to the motor is safely removed, so that no further movement is possible. It is not necessary to monitor standstill. If an external force effect is to be anticipated, additional measures should be provided to safely prevent any potential movement. This safety function corresponds to a category 0 stop (uncontrolled stop) in accordance with IEC 60204-1. If the function is triggered during operation, the motor will run down in an uncontrolled manner, which is why this function is generally used as a safe reset lock or in conjunction with the safety function SS1.

Modern servo amplifiers include an integrated safe shutdown path, so safe devices are now available that prevent unexpected start-up and shut down safely in the case of danger.

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Safe Stop 1 (SS1): Defined motor braking is part of the safety function.

When the motor is at standstill, the STO function is triggered. This safety function corresponds to a category 1 stop (controlled stop) in accordance with IEC 60204-1. In many applications, drives cannot simply be shut down because they would then run down slowly, which could cause a hazard. Also, an uncontrolled run down of this type often takes considerably longer than controlled axis braking.

The safe stop 1 function (SS1) monitors controlled braking of the axis directly within the servo amplifier.

Once the set braking ramp has run its course, the drive is shut down safely. The reaction times are reduced compared with external monitoring solutions.

As a result, in many cases the safety distances to the danger points can also be reduced. This provides a number of benefits, such as improved ergonomics for the plant operator, space savings due to the reduced distance between the guards and the danger points and, last but not least, cost savings.

Safe Stop 2 (SS2): Defined motor braking is part of the safety function.

When the motor is at standstill, a safe operating stop (SOS) is triggered. The motor at standstill is in closed loop operations. The standstill position is held precisely. This safety function corresponds to a category 2 stop (controlled stop) in accordance with IEC 60204-1. If the axes no longer need to be shut down at standstill, they will actively hold their current position, so the synchronisation between axes and process is no longer lost.

As a result, the axes can be restarted immediately. The drive-integrated function leads to shorter reaction times, thereby minimising risk. The monitoring functions’ response times have a direct influence on the potential channels available until a safety shutdown occurs.

As the reaction times are used in the calculation of the safety distances, the benefits listed for the safe stop 1 function also apply here. > UK12 Control Engineering UK

READY

Our market leading Compact PLC now has even more built-in features With the launch of the FX5U compact PLC part of the iQ-F series, Mitsubishi Electric has made the world’s best selling PLC even better. Since the launch of the original FX over 30 years ago, Mitsubishi has sold over 13 million units across the globe.

Each generation of the FX has set new standards, and not only in the compact controllers class. Successive innovations and improvements have taken these compact controllers into another dimension, delivering performance that was previously the exclusive domain of larger control systems in a compact package.

Now, with the introduction of the FX5U, Mitsubishi has given these compact controllers a huge performance boost, focusing on processing power, expansion, built-in functionality and positioning & motion functions. At the same time, users benefit from simpler programming and reduced maintenance effort to greatly reduce the total cost of ownership.

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MACHINE SAFETY

of an error. When the safely limited speed (SLS) function is used for these jog functions, the solution provides the shortest possible reaction time in the event of an error.

Safe Torque Off is the most common type of stop and is typically used on conveyors and other nonposition specific applications.

Safe motion functions Modern drive solutions not only examine how axes are switched on and off, but also look at the potential risks that may arise during operation of the axes.

Safe Operating Stop (SOS): This monitors the standstill position while the motor is in a controlled loop status. Once the safety function has been lifted, the production or machining process can be continued with no loss of precision. This function is generally used in combination with a safe stop 2 (SS2) function, as standstill monitoring usually involves a braking process.

The limit value can be specified as both a speed threshold and a position window. Application of the SOS function is generally intended for the standstill phases of a process.

Safely Limited Speed (SLS): In practice, this safety function is often applied as safely reduced speed. Defined transition from the operating speed in automatic mode to the reduced speed in setup mode must be guaranteed. If the monitoring function detects that the limit value has been violated, the drive must be shut down safely.

Operators must be protected from any hazard that would lead to an uncontrolled axis start-up in the event

UK12

October 2015

Safe Speed Range (SSR): This can be used to monitor a safe minimum speed, as well as an upper limit Safe speed range. SSR can generally be used for permanent process monitoring. Risks cannot always be eliminated by limiting the capacity for speeds to suddenly increase.

Speeds that reduce suddenly due to an error can also present a risk. If axes are operating at a defined distance, a speed that drops abruptly on just one

detection is required for this safety function.

Safely Limited Increment (SLI): The motor is allowed to travel a permitted distance following a start command. A safe stop function must be triggered once the limit value is reached. If the permitted distance is exceeded, this must be detected and the drive must be safely brought to a standstill. Encoder systems with relative measurement are sufficient for this safety function.

Safe Direction (SDI): This prevents the motor from moving in an invalid direction. This safety function is

Operators must be protected from any hazard that would lead to an uncontrolled axis start-up in the event of an error. of the two axes may create a risk of crushing. SSR would be used to shut down the relevant axes, eliminating any hazard to the machine operator.

frequently used in combination with SLS in setup mode. Here too, the drive-integrated solution enables the fastest possible shutdown.

Safely Limited Torque (SLT) and Safe Torque Range (STR): Torque measuring systems are not widely used on standard drives, but servo drive technology provides the option for indirect measurement via the motor current. The motor current is proportional to the motor’s force or torque, so the hazard resulting from a hazardous movement is limited.

Safe Cam (SCA): A safe output signal indicates whether the motor is positioned inside a specified range.

These ranges are absolute position windows within a motor rotation.

The basic function involves safe monitoring of absolute positions, which is why appropriate sensor systems must be used.

Safely Limited Position (SLP): Safe position monitoring ensures that the motor does not exceed a preset position limit value. If a limit value is violated, the motor is braked using a safe stop. The stopping performance achievable from a technical point of view must be taken into account.

Below the limit value there are no restrictions in terms of acceleration or speed of the motor. Absolute position

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Safe Speed Monitoring (SSM): This is closely related to SLS. However, if a limit value is violated there is no functional reaction from the components that are monitored, merely a safe message that can be evaluated and processed by a higher level safety control system. On one side the control system can perform more complex reaction functions, while on the other; the safety function can be used for process monitoring.

Control Engineering UK

MACHINE SAFETY

The Perfect Fit

used to control the holding brake activated once an axis is at standstill.

Using the Safe Brake Test function can significantly increase safety and reduce maintenance work.

Safe Brake Test (SBT): In many cases, simply controlling a holding brake safely is not enough to make a vertical axis safe. If the wearing, mechanical part of the brake is not maintained regularly, it cannot be guaranteed that the holding brake will apply the designated braking action in the event of danger. The SBT function provides an automatic test which replaces previous measures that could only be implemented through organisational and manual operations.

Safely Limited Acceleration (SLA) and Safe Acceleration Range (SAR): Safety functions relating to acceleration monitoring are not widely used today.

In servo drive technology, Ferraris sensors are used to detect acceleration only in special applications of machine tools or printing machinery. Standard drives cannot process these signals in their control loops; monitoring of these acceleration signals is very complex in practice.

Safe brake functions Functions related to holding brakes and service brakes are summarised below.

/3:9

A typical application for SLS can be found in manufacturing processes where some element of the material needs the speed to be limited – for example in food production.

More than safe torque off Safe Brake Control (SBC): This supplies a safe output signal to drive an external mechanical brake. The brakes used must be ‘safety brakes,’ in which a quiescent current operates against a spring. If the current flow is interrupted, the brake will engage.

Control modules frequently include a power reduction feature when the brake is released to reduce energy consumption or brake heating.

A safe brake test will detect errors during operation, depending on the risk analysis. Holding brakes and service brakes are often used on axes with suspended loads. Along with the brake, the brake drive is another key component in terms of the safety function. The SBC function is generally Control Engineering UK

As more motion is electronically regulated, safe motion will play an increasing role in machinery safety where the advantages of safe working could be realised; not only benefiting workers through a safer working environment but also the overall company by increasing production and reducing down time.

It is important to note that while safety functions on drives can be of great benefit; they do not represent a complete safety solution and the entire system must be considered when assessing the overall safety.

Ross Fenion is business development manager for drives and motion control at Pilz.

October 2015

UK13

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SPONSORED PRODUCT ARTICLE

Cool running battery charger For applications requiring a high current output, the new 30 and 50 Amp Intelligent battery chargers from DSE have been designed to offer ultimate performance.

Designed and manufactured in the UK by Deep Sea Electronics plc (DSE) the battery chargers provide highly reliable and cool running operation. Expertly engineered, the 30A and 50A battery chargers have been designed to offer high factor and efficiency, resulting in minimal power losses to drive down energy consumption costs for the user.

Using sophisticated microprocessor technology the DSE9474 and DSE9484, together with the newly released DSE9450, are capable of applying a range of different charging currents depending on battery type and usage, and are ideal for a wide range of applications.

The chargers automatically monitor

the battery performance and apply the appropriate charge at the right time and in the right way, maximising the life of the battery and ensuring a reliable and consistent performance throughout the battery life.

The chargers come with a large choice of pre-set three-stage and optional four-stage charging curves for different battery types, which cover a wide range of application requirements. Small adjustments to these pre-set curves are possible, and for more unusual or specific battery requirements, the chargers have the capability for bespoke charging curves to be configured, making the products highly flexible.

The chargers are configured via the user-friendly DSE Configuration Suite PC software, making changes very simple to complete. A number of chargers can be linked together to provide even greater current outputs for high demand

Digital AVR control module A new digital AVR from DSE provides a simple and reliable solution when compared to traditional analogue AVR designs.

Traditional analogue AVR designs can be sensitive to changes in ambient temperature, which can contribute to unstable variances in parameter settings.

The new DSEA106 Digital Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) from DSE is designed to digitally regulate the output voltage of an AC alternator using sophisticated electronic engineering.

The compact design reduces the need for discreet components, making the product both heat efficient and able to cope with the demands of ambient temperature changes effectively, resulting in a much more stable and highly reliable method of voltage control.

Compatible with a wide range of alternators, the DSEA106 is powered by either a stator auxiliary winding or a shunt system taking the supply from the output windings. Changes to the settings are made via PC so are highly accurate and quick and easy to set up, making it ideal for OEMs and retro fit

applications.

Each unit comes with a full range of sophisticated built-in functions/ features and battery protections, and communication options are also available to suit a range of different requirements: • RS485 connectivity is included providing communications that use Modbus RTU to be integrated into Building Management Systems.

• The DSE2541 is a remote display allowing the battery charger to be monitored from up to 1.2 Km away, for example in a nearby office or control/maintenance room.

• CAN functionality on both 30/50A chargers. www.deepseaplc.com/power

solutions. Alternative manual adjustment is also provided for situations where PC connection is not available.

Digital AVR control ensures a smooth, stable, regulated AC output from the alternator and provides a number of desirable benefits: • The ramped or soft start feature helps to minimise voltage overshoot.

• Protection for the alternator and load is provided for loss of voltage by automatically monitoring the voltage sensing connections.

• Quadrature CT connection makes it suitable for synchronising and load sharing applications.

• DIP Switch selection provides voltage, frequency and stability selection.

• Potentiometer adjustment provides adjustments for voltage set points, droop, UFRO, proportional and integral gain.

• The DSEA106 is designed and manufactured by DSE in the UK. www.deepseaplc.com/AVR

UK14

October 2015

www.controlengeurope.com

Control Engineering UK

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Expertly engineered, the new Intelligent Battery Chargers from DSE offer high power output for the most demanding industrial applications.

• Sophisticated microprocessor technology • Chargers can be linked together to provide greater • Full range of built-in functions, features and battery current outputs protections • Configurable via the user-friendly, license-free DSE • Highly reliable and cool running operation Configuration Suite PC software • High factor and efficiency for minimal power losses • RS485 connectivity to allow integration into Building • Automatically monitors battery performance Management Systems using Modbus RTU • Automatically applies three-stage or four-stage • Remote display option. charging curves • CAN functionality • Designed to maximize battery life • Can be used as a charger or a power supply • Ensures consistent battery performance • Universal input voltage range 90-305VAC V • Suitable for a wide range of battery types • DSE9452 50 Amp 24 Volt AV AVAILABLE SOON • Adjustable pre-set charging curves • Designed and manufactured in the UK • Bespoke charging curves

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NEW PRODUCTS

Free current clamp p with installation testers Fluke (UK) is currently offering a free current clamp to end users purchasing a multifunction installation tester, plus free data management software with the higher end testers.

The Fluke 1650 series of multifunction installation testers are designed for high productivity testing and verification of domestic, commercial and industrial electrical installations.

The clamp meters are engineered to produce noise-free, reliable measurements even in tough

environments.

Featuring easy-to-read displays and with CAT III 600V/CAT IV 300V safety ratings, all models measure true-rms AC voltage to 600V and truerms AC current to 400A for accurate measurement of non-linear signals.

Safe busbar system for switchgear The safety of people working with electrical switchgear can only be achieved through the use of tested and standardised products and equipment.

However, switchgear components also need to be tailored to meet individual needs and must be simple and quick to make and assemble.

Rittal believes it has addressed all these considerations within the Ri4Power 185mm busbar system and Version 6.3 of the Rittal Power Engineering software.

The modular busbar system consists of standardised and tested products which all meet the requirements of IEC 61 439 for low-voltage switchgear assemblies with design verification. It is easy to assemble with a modular configuration

and is adapted for use within the Rittal TS 8 bayed enclosure.

The contact hazard protection of the busbar system, which protects the user from touching electrically live parts, is mounted before the switching and protective devices are attached. This uses standardised products, meaning individual and time-consuming preparation of cover plates is no longer necessary – offering cost and time savings for both the installer and end-user.

I/O system for IEC 61850 The robust Axioline F I/O system from Phoenix Contact is best suited to use in applications in the energy sector.

The bus coupler can be configured via the web interface. All parameters needed for the operation of the I/O station can be set without any programming knowledge. The bus coupler processes CID or SCD IEC 61850

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October 2015

configuration files directly. Implementing standard-compliant communication according to IEC 61850 ensures safe interoperable system behaviour.

Features of the new modules are said to include high immunity to interference up to 8 kV, a robust design that is able to withstand mechanical strain, and rapid signal acquisition.

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ATEX approved field-configurable vibration measurement system Metrix, an industrial condition monitoring systems producer, recently announced ATEX approval for its Digital Proximity System (DPS).

Available with full support in the UK from Ixthus Instrumentation, the Metrix DPS is a three-part fieldconfigurable measurement system for position, radial vibration and speed that comprises a digital proximity transducer, interfacing cable and a choice of signal conditioner – available as a driver for a machinery protection system or as a transmitter with a 4-20 mA signal to a PLC/DCS or SCADA system.

The Metrix DPS is field configurable for nearly any probe type, cable and targetmaterial combination. Features include custom field-generated curve, as well as pre-set calibrations for a variety of probe tip diameters, extension cable lengths, target materials, and linear ranges. The units are user-configurable to measure radial vibration, axial position, or rotational speed.

Ixthus Instrumentation provides complete technical and sales support for the range.

Control Engineering UK

DRIVES & MOTORS

Addressing DC motor control issues Mark Gibbonss explains why a motor controller is needed with a DC motor, and why developing your own controller many not be the best solution.

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or most applications involving a DC or brushless DC motor, use of a motor controller is advised.

Indeed, to fire the correct phase winding at the right time a controller is a necessity.

For all DC motor brushed types there are common reasons why: Motor protection: Most modern controllers have the following protections – under-voltage, overvoltage, short circuit protection, current limit protection, thermal protection and voltage transients. Without these protections the motor is exposed to threats that will possibly result in permanent electrical or mechanical damage.

Speed control: All DC motors will lose speed as they are loaded and increase in speed when they are unloaded, in a linear fashion, according to their speed/ torque gradient. For applications where a specific speed is required with an unknown load (so a final speed cannot be calculated), or a fluctuating load (conveyor belt, pump, grinding tool, reel/converter or cam) a controller is important. The resulting speed of a DC servo motor is defined by the equation shown in Figure 1.

In a cam application in particular, where the motor is operating as a ‘motor’, for half the cycle and a ‘generator’ for the other half, as the load pushes the motor a four-quadrant drive must be used. This provides dynamic breaking control, which ensures the motor remains under control and at a constant speed. It is not possible

to achieve this with a simple supply or a simple single quadrant controller. The controller must also cope with the varying load, yet maintain the motor at a constant speed, by varying the voltage to the motor as the load changes to compensate.

In fan and pump applications the power curve follows the ‘square law’ – for an incremental increase of the speed the power increase is to the second power. Using a speed controller to lower the speed of the motor to meet the demands of a system, in place of constricting the flow from the pump or fan while running the motor at full speed will reduce the power consumption. Despite this, there are losses across the controller – typically 1-5% – but these are minimal in comparison to the motor or the mechanics it is linked to.

Torque control: A DC motor’s current is proportional to the torque delivery.

Having control over the current to the motor will govern its torque delivery.

Without control of the DC motor torque/current, the motor is able to pull large currents that can result in torques delivered in excess of what is mechanically viable for the system, leading to imminent failure. Failure can also be in the form of burn out from stalling the motor. In this condition, unless the current is limited, the motor pulls the stall current. As shown in Figure 2, the stall current is far from the operating area of the motor and will cause a thermal failure, normally within a few seconds.

Figure 1

Control Engineering Europe

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Figure 2

Build or buy?

The true cost of developing a motor controller is often not realised and a great deal of effort is required to optimise the control algorithms, the power stage design and current measurement. The task is made more difficult when trying to control high dynamic, low inductance, coreless/slotless permanent magnet motors. Sensorless control of brushless motors is even more demanding and success will depend on the requirement of the application.

Developing a controller and power stage from scratch (based on a general application note) can take between six and 12 months of development time and will require management and liability insurance. The developed controller will also have to be inspected, and possibly certified (e.g. EMC, electrical safety, installation) to standards demanded by the application.

Engineering a controller to run a specialist motor is not simply a matter of selecting a microcontroller and copying the schematics of an application note. It is complex and there are often unforseen issues that can jeopardise project success.

With knowledge based on over 20 years of practical controller design in many different applications and environments maxon motor is able to offer customised controllers with fair development costs and reduced development times. Testing and certification can also be facilitated.

Mark Gibbons is technical sales engineer at Maxon Motor.

October 2015

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DRIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Driving forward with efficiencies Control Engineering Europe e looks at a selection of applications in which variable speed drives have offered production or energy saving efficiencies.

The cleaning and filling line at The Centre Vinicole - Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte runs at a rate of 4,000 to 6,000 bottles an hour and has to offer maximum availability in operation.

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he Centre Vinicole Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte (CV-CNF) - is the leading Champagne producers’ union.

It comprises 80 cooperatives and represents over 5,000 wine-growers.

Output from its highly automated plant can reach 23 million bottles every year.

As part of a project to update a production line the company needed to replace a series of drive systems.

Frédéric Lopez, automation manager at CV-CNF, explained: “We needed to replace them in a gradual process. We considered using the original supplier of the equipment, as well other leading firms in this sector. They were all able to supply equipment that would have met our expectations. However, we also wanted to establish a partnership with a company that would be able to deliver the level of service we needed, which is why we selected Emerson.”

The first step was to replace a conveyor drive system at the start of the line, which accurately positions empty bottles before cleaning and

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October 2015

filling. The bottles are loaded onto the conveyor from 1,200 x 1,200 pallets, and then lifted in rows of four to 12 onto a perpendicular conveyor.

The line runs at a rate of 4,000 to 6,000 bottles an hour and has to offer maximum availability in operation.

“Emerson designed the most appropriate solution for us as well as programming the variable-speed drives,” continued Lopez.

The existing drive system consisted of an automatic controller, an alignment controller, a variable speed drive and a motor. Emerson’s solution was able to reduce the overall complexity of the system by removing the need for the alignment controller. It consists of a Control Techniques Unidrive M700 variable speed drive, connected to the automatic controller and combined with a Leroy-Somer DYNABLOC Pjn1102 low backlash servo-gear. This solution can offer high overload tolerance, high torsion strength and good accuracy.

Emerson’s MCi200 machine control option module has been added to its

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Unidrive M to manage positioning. The Unidrive M700 drive has a cycle time of 250µs, synchronised communications through real-time Ethernet and an integrated PLC for controlling movement sequences.

In the final solution, 15 different configurations were defined to suit the various bottle shapes. Each cycle has a coarse pitch with a specific movement profile (position, speed, acceleration and deceleration), a fine pitch with a second movement profile (position, speed, acceleration and deceleration) and the number of short pitches to be carried out.

The required solution is selected using logic inputs, which automatically starts the chosen cycle. The coarse pitch is performed then the fine pitches are chained together while the path is free.

Signals for ‘end of long movement’ and ‘cycle completed’ are sent by the drive´s logic outputs to the client system. All programming and training was carried out on site by Emerson’s support teams.

“We have taken over the application completely so that we can make our own adaptations... Emerson has fully met our expectations and we are in the process of deploying their solutions across our entire site,” concluded Lopez.

Energy saving features Quintex Energy Management Systems, a developer and supplier of demand based ventilation control systems for commercial kitchens, employs variable speed drives (VSD) supplied by VACON, in its Cheetah range of energy management and safety control systems.

When developing the Cheetah system – which is designed to deliver energy savings and carbon footprint reductions – Quintex initially chose VACON NXL series VSDs after a detailed market analysis showed that, at the time, they offered the best combination of reliability, versatility and value for money.

However, for more recent installations Control Engineering Europe

DRIVE TECHNOLOGIES

maxon EC-i 40: Powerful motor for automation and robotics.

Variable speed drives from VACON are employed by Quintex Energy Management Systems in its Cheetah range of energy management and safety control systems.

the company has adopted the latest VACON 100 series VSDs, which offer higher standards for performance and value.

Primarily intended for use in professional kitchens and commercial food preparation areas, Quintex Cheetah systems monitor the cooking environment and, with the aid of the VSDs, they continuously regulate speeds of the extract and air supply fans to ensure that comfortable and safe conditions are maintained at all times with a minimum of energy usage.

In a typical installation, the fans will operate much of the time at around 40% of their maximum speed. At this reduced speed, they consume only 6% of the energy needed for full speed operation, which means that energy usage and costs are greatly reduced compared with conventional systems where the fans always run at full speed while the kitchen is operational.

“We have been using VACON drives for many years,” said Guy Madgwick, sales and marketing director at Quintex, “Reliability is also good and with over 6,000 VACON drives in daily use in our Control Engineering Europe

systems, reliability is an important issue.”

Quintex Cheetah systems are customised to meet the needs of each user and, depending on the application, the company uses VACON 100 drives with power ratings from 1.1 kW to 30 kW. In some applications, IP21 drives mounted within control panels are used, while in others IP54 types, which can be mounted without the need for additional protection, provide a convenient and cost-effective solution.

As standard, the drives provide many energy saving features that are useful to Quintex. These include a real-time clock, an integrated kWh energy meter, and a sleep function that automatically puts the drive into a standby condition during downtime so it uses almost no energy. Two integral PID loops are also provided and the drives offer support for the LonWorks networking protocol which Quintex has adopted for its larger installations.

Built-in RFI filters ensure interferencefree operation even in sensitive environments, and the drives comply fully with the requirements of EN 61000-3-12 for low current harmonics.

October 2015

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maxon EC-i 40

Compact yet powerful.

When space is limited but high torques and dynamics are required, the maxon EC-i 40 internal rotor motor is the right choice. It has a diameter of 40 mm and is available in two lengths: 26 mm (50 W), 36 mm (70 W). This economical brushless inner rotor motor is ideally suited for applications in automation and robotics. maxon motor is the world’s leading supplier of high-precision drives and systems of up to 500 watts power output. maxon motor stands for customer specific solutions, high quality, innovation, competitive prices and a worldwide distribution network. See what we can do for youwww. maxonmotor.com

SCADA & HMIs

Four reasons to upgrade an

HMI PLATFORM Human-machine interface (HMI) platforms are evolving as data and connectivity become more critical for end users. HMIs with newer features can go a long way to help engineers connect to machines.

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n the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), data and connectivity reign supreme, and updating a humanmachine interface (HMI) platform can augment information flow. This is especially true in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, where the rise of the connected enterprise is leading to converged networks and more Internetconnected devices that collect valuable machine data.

machine data and connectivity is putting new demands on HMI platforms to provide data in a context and format that best supports the end user. Machine builders are tasked to meet these demands while still designing and commissioning machines as efficiently and costeffectively as possible.

With this in mind, the following are four reasons for machine builders to

Plant managers and machine operators are increasingly reliant on machine data and are using mobile devices, cloud computing, and other technologies to improve connectivity and efficiency.

Plant managers and machine operators are increasingly reliant on machine data. They are gaining new insights into operations and making better decisions such as quickly pinpointing the source of blockages and machine failures and better understanding equipment utilization and response times. They also are using mobile devices, cloud computing, and other technologies to improve connectivity throughout their operations to become more efficient.

This greater dependence on

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upgrade an HMI platform for today’s more connected and data-driven industrial customers.

1. Advanced diagnostics Diagnostics are essential for tracking a machine’s real-time performance and identifying maintenance needs.

Most HMIs provide on-screen diagnostics, but few HMIs deliver comprehensive archived diagnostics.

For example, the archived diagnostics can be stored locally on the HMI or on a remote computer.

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Archived diagnostics enable operators and technicians to review a machine’s history of messages, alarms, and warnings. The ability to correlate the archived data against a machine’s performance can help plant personnel easily and quickly diagnose or troubleshoot downtime issues. The ability to analyse historical data also can help improve operator feedback about conditions over time, which can lead to downtime key performance indicators (KPIs) and better overall predictive maintenance.

The benefits of archived diagnostics extend beyond machine repairs and maintenance.

Diagnostic logs can be used for audit logging to track and reduce operator errors or to identify potential training improvements.

Actions such as personnel logins, value changes, and screen transitions can be tracked and analysed to help identify operator trends or errors.

2. Mobile capabilities Machine data is growing in quantity and becoming portable, because tablets and smartphones are emerging as a next-generation HMI platform as plant connectivity becomes more pervasive.

An HMI platform that can connect to mobile devices is an attractive option for plant operators who spend much of their time moving between machine-level HMIs and their work stations to access and enter data. Mobileenabled HMIs literally put the data at the operators’ fingertips, giving Control Engineering Europe

SCADA & HMIs

them immediate access to KPI data, alarming, maintenance schedules, and other information.

Mobile-enabled HMIs also offer direct benefits to the machine designer. When commissioning, setting up, or making repairs to a machine, engineers typically need to walk around the machine to inspect or adjust components. The engineer often cannot view the machine’s HMI while working, and as a result may need to make several adjustments before achieving the right speed, temperature, or other specification.

With a mobile device, engineers can view the machine data in real time from wherever they are working. They can also use the device to help guide them through their steps or to review the alarms while they work.

3. Faster commissioning Commissioning a machine can be extremely difficult, especially in the beginning. A team of engineers may have set up a machine, but they likely will still be inundated with changes, such as updated controller files, new tags and alarms, and additional connections.

The HMI platform can simplify these changes and save time.

Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus 7 HMI platform from Rockwell Automation Advanced HMI platforms offer improved diagnostics, increased connectivity to mobile devices, faster commissioning, and optimized hardware with larger, high-resolution screens. Courtesy: Rockwell Automation

one engineer are incorporated automatically for colleagues, eliminating the need to share updated files via e-mail or a network.

4. Optimised hardware The physical HMI display is more crucial than ever as manufacturers and industrial operators become

Online- and remote-editing capabilities, which are available in a development environment, allow engineers to make configurations and changes from anywhere on the network.

Specifically, online- and remoteediting capabilities, which are available in a development environment, allow engineers to make configurations and changes from anywhere on the network.

As a result, updates made by Control Engineering Europe

increasingly reliant on extensive data coming from multiple sources.

Widescreen options, higher resolutions, and larger screens help ensure plant–floor operators can more quickly and easily understand machine status information. These

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modernised displays also benefit machine builders. Because most engineers’ desktops or laptops are also widescreen, the development environment matches the run time environment to help streamline the design process.

The core capability for the end user remains: ruggedness for the industrial environment. The hardware still meets ratings for high shock, vibration, and temperature and is built to match the span of today’s machine life cycles.

The bigger picture The emergence of the connected enterprise in industrial automation has elevated the importance of HMI platforms. If end users want to make better decisions using their machine data, they need a more advanced HMI platform that provides greater connectivity and more functionality.

Scott Oakley is global EOI product manager at Rockwell Automation October 2015

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SCADA & HMIs

Future-proofing your HMIs It is important to ensure that HMIs have the capability to work with devices and platforms being used to implement the IoT and Industry 4.0, says Fabio Terezinho.

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ith the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0, the growth of connected devices will force changes in HMI technologies. In many applications, HMIs will be running on embedded operating system platforms, another major development.

With the arrival of IoT and Industry 4.0, the number of embedded devices connected to HMIs will grow exponentially, along with corresponding increased functionality requirements.

These requirements will include connection to any device, regardless of connection protocol or network, and the ability to handle very large numbers of connected devices and the data they will provide.

Interoperability is an essential characteristic for components of an efficient system based on IoT and Industry 4.0. In this context, the HMI software can assume a much broader role than it has in the past.

The HMI needs to be able to enable communication among devices operating on different protocols. These devices include, but are not limited to, smart sensors, controllers and remote I/O. Not only must the HMI software support multiple standards, such as OPC UA, it must also support the proprietary protocols often found in hybrid systems.

As the HMI will be connected to multiple device types, it must be able

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to manipulate the data, filter it and apply pre-defined rules in order to optimise overall communications.

The HMI will need to transform raw data into meaningful information, or possibly even provide advanced data analysis in systems with a higher level of sophistication.

In addition to communication among the devices (the things in the IoT) physically located on the plantfloor, pipeline, RTUs, etc, the HMI is also becoming the gateway between local devices and cloud-based systems.

These cloud-based systems consolidate information and typically run analytics to enable or positively influence decisionmaking. In many cases this interface requires an efficient way to send and retrieve data from remote databases – a part of a Big Data system.

Once these devices are connected, they will no longer be stranded on an island, but will instead be an integral part of the automation system and supply chain. This growing number of connected devices will need an HMI with the portability and small footprint to operate on any platform and operating system.

Most HMIs installed in industrial plants run on Windows-based PCs or Windows Embedded operating systems. While these host systems will continue to be important, other platforms are emerging due to their lower costs and reduced resource requirements.

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There are several operating systems that have a large piece of the pie.

Windows Embedded Compact, formerly known as Windows CE, has a strong position in the industrial HMI market.

VxWorks has nearly 40% market share in traditional real time operating system shipments. Linux has more than 25% of all embedded shipments, and it has even more when including Android, which is loosely based on Linux.

While each of these operating systems has specific niches, advantages and certifications, they are all suitable for embedded platforms running HMI software. These operating systems and their host platforms allow hardware manufacturers to create disk images with small footprints and the minimum components required for their specific purposes. This is different from traditional operating systems, such as the desktop/server market, that have a much larger footprint, and correspondingly high resource requirements such as processing power and memory.

In a high-volume market such as embedded platforms – cost, power consumption and reliability have substantially higher importance than in the desktop/server PC market. In these critical areas, embedded platforms often deliver substantial advantages as compared to industrial PCs. Consequently, your HMI software development package must provide the scalability, portability and footprint required for deployment on a wide variety of operating systems and platforms.

User experience The user experience when working with an HMI starts with development on a Windows-based PC, where a rapid application configuration environment is essential. During this phase, the ability to use the same development environment to create HMI applications for any operating system or platform should be available.

The HMI development software should also provide a high level of integration, and simple sharing of Control Engineering Europe

SCADA & HMIs

interfaces among all deployments, regardless of the platform or operating system. Many hardware manufacturers design proprietary HMI software for their specific hardware and operating system which holds customers hostage to their combined hardware/software solution, and imposes substantial constraints when applying standards across different platforms.

By contrast, platform-agnostic HMI software can be compiled to run on virtually any major embedded platform as designs are created in an open environment. This increases portability to different platforms and improves return on investment in both the short and the long term by integrating hybrid platforms in a seamless manner.

Another important characteristic of HMIs for IoT and Industry 4.0 systems is the ability to access information through rich graphical interfaces hosted in thin clients, usually web browsers. Many embedded platforms are ‘blind’ and do not include a local display, and even those with integral displays are often located in remote or difficult access areas, making remote browser-based access a necessity.

These browsers run in remote PCs, or on mobile platforms such as tablets, PDAs and smartphones. This browserbased remote access will typically be used for configuration and diagnostics, and for monitoring and control.

Conclusion Consider specifying an HMI package that can connect to and exchange data with devices in use today, and with those anticipated for the future. These devices will include wired and wireless sensors, and all manner of embedded platforms. Along with connection to these devices and platforms, handling the increased data they will provide is also important.

Today most HMIs run on PCs or embedded Windows platforms.

However this is rapidly changing with the widespread deployment of many different embedded operating systems.

Consequently, easy development for and Control Engineering Europe

Goals of the Fraunhofer HMI 4.0 joint project The HMI 4.0 project, created by Fraunhofer Institute for Labor Economics and Organization (Fraunhofer IAO), is focussing on what HMIs will look like in the future and how operators will be able to influence optimum use of systems through the use of user-generated operational aids.

In a study, Fraunhofer IAO has identified the most important areas to consider for a successful HMI in production. This provides insight into ergonomic HMI design and the integration of new technologies such as social media, interaction and recognition technology.

Project manager, Dr Matthias Peissner from Fraunhofer IAO explains: “In the future the meaning of HMIs will go over and beyond pure monitoring and operation. HMIs will become a platform for the team where cooperative decisions, knowledge building and problem solving can take place. We are developing tailor-made approaches in the innovation network HMI 4.0.”

The joint HMI 4.0 project runs until May 2016. Companies that work with complex production equipment, machine manufacturers as well as software and technology corporations such as COPA-DATA, are also involved.

Together they are developing how, in times of Industry 4.0, user-generated operational aids can be implemented in the HMIs of the future.

Production sites across the globe are confronted with similar machine operation problems. Only a limited number of employees have the know-how to repair a fault. Often the optimum settings of machines and equipment are also left to experts.

Their know-how is rarely systematically recorded, so is unavailable for other employees and also for the knowledge management of the company.

“Dealing with malfunctions is crucial deployment on all of these operating systems needs to be supported by the HMI software development package.

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for efficient production plants,” said Dr Peissner. Those who succeed in creating a solution for making faults accessible to all machine operators, are improving the performance of the entire system and will, in turn, increase plant productivity.

However, there is often insufficient documentation of the problem from the users themselves.

Uncovering these issues is what the participants of project HMI 4.0 are working on – which properties future interfaces must present in order to motivate employees to share their knowledge. As a result, HMIs of the future need to actively contribute to storing and distributing knowledge within a company, in a simpler and more reliable way.

Different concepts and solution approaches are being developed within the project. Findings from topics such as gamified design, psychology or awareness and learning are collected to bring together useful and necessary components from instructions.

In the second step the workshop participants implement their solutions in concrete prototypes in reference to specific use cases. Here, COPADATA’s automation software zenon serves as a basis for the development of interactive and motivational HMI operation aids. “Ergonomic HMIs is one of our core competencies. For us, the human in the Smart Factory of Industry 4.0 plays a significant role.

With an ergonomic software and know-how, they will have competitive advantage,” said Phillip Werr, marketing manager at COPA-DATA. Fabio Terezinho is InduSoft director of consulting services/product manager at Wonderware by Schneider Electric.

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INDUSTRIAL ETHERNET

Connector solutions for high speed data transfer Sebastian Richter and Alexander Hornauerr explain the importance of specifying the right Industrial Ethernet connection solutions to ensure they can cope with harsh industrial environments.

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raditionally, factory automation communication systems used fieldbus technologies, while office communication used Ethernet.

For many years their incompatibility prevented the incorporation of a standard communication structure from office to field level. Transferring Ethernet standards from the office level into the world of automation, via Industrial Ethernet, was therefore a significant step.

High data transfer rates of 100 Mbit/ sec (CAT 5 ISO/IEC 11801 Class D) and a transfer method with no collisions make Fast Ethernet real-time possible.

Management, control and field level communicate without any perceivable delay. Remote maintenance of complete installations and systems via company networks or the web are now possible.

The harsh industrial environment at device level, however, requires

X-coded connectors are used for high speed vision systems, while Y-coded connectors transfer power and signal in one cable.

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Industrial Ethernet system components to be robust. While IP20 protection (standard RJ45 connectors) is sufficient for components at the office level, the industrial level requires IP65/IP67 protection. Especially important is the high quality of the plug connections: these have to operate reliably against shock, vibration, humidity, EMC problems, temperature fluctuations and at times aggressive media.

D-coded M12 connectors, according to DIN EN 61076-2-101, meet these requirements. With 100 mating cycles, IP65/ IP67 and a shock resistance of 50g it became a standard in Industrial Ethernet. Murrelektronik’s prewired and moulded M12 connectors, for example, are able to prevent wiring errors and are tamper-proof. The d-coded pin design prevents mistakes caused by wrong connections. A 15° locking mechanism gives protection against shock and vibration and the 360° shielding of the M12 connectors ensure reliable data transfer, even under extreme conditions.

If the data quantity is higher, for example with High Speed Vision systems, X-coded M12 connectors according to E DIN EN 61076-2-109 offer a good solution. Four separately shielded data pairs, separated by an X-shaped metal cross, ensure proper data transfer up to 10Gbit (ISO/IEC 11801 Cat. 6A).

Murrelektronik offers the X-coded M12 connectors with a flexible PUR cable which makes it suitable for use in moving applications. Combining RJ45 connections in the office and X-coded M12 connections in the field makes it possible to establish a consistent

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gigabyte communication company wide.

With the Y-coded M12 round plug connector, Murrelektronik can provide another solution for Industrial Ethernet applications. This hybrid connector allows for the transfer of power and signal together in a single connector.

The metal Y-coding separates the four power contacts from the four signal contacts in the pin design. This makes it possible to transfer 100Mbit/sec while at the same time providing 2 x 6A power connections. To meet all requirements of the field level, Murrelektronik relies on a PUR cable that is suitable for C-track applications.

Selecting a suitable cable material is as important as choosing the right connector. For each application, a specially designed cable is available. For static applications, we recommend type A cables with a PVC jacket. For flexible applications, type B cables with a PUR jacket. For dynamic applications, where cables are exposed to constant torsion or continuously moving drag chains, a flexible type C PUR cable is required.

To ensure a maximum lifetime, decisive criteria regarding the application has been defined such as minimum bend radius, degree of torsion, bend cycles and other parameters, and have been confirmed in many tests. Murrelektronik’s Industrial Ethernet cables are resistant to external interference which is ensured by the visual shielding of at least 85% together with the connector’s 360° shielding concept, ensuring stable data transfer.

Sebastian Richter is product manager Connectors at Murrelektronik GmbH; Alexander Hornauer is corporate marketing at Murrelektronik GmbH Control Engineering Europe

The Jan/Feb issue will include a brand new supplement ‘Whats New in Drives and Industrial Control’

This supplement will bring you highlights from the SPS IPC Drives 2015 Event’ For more information contact Lydia Harris on

01732 359990 or email lydia.harris@imlgroup.co.uk

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TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE CONTROL

Temperature measurement:

improving accuracy Gary Prentice, national sales manager at Moore Industries, discusses the problems that can result from inaccurate temperature measurement and outlines some effective solutions.

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here are times when a temperature sensor is selected based on convenience and it is not uncommon to see a Type J or K thermocouple measuring a temperature that should be measured with a Platinum RTD. ASTM and IEC temperature standards result in sensor measurement uncertainty. If a sample temperature of 260°C is picked, the uncertainty of a standard grade J or K thermocouple is ±2.2°C while a Class A 100Ω Pt RTD has an uncertainty of ±0.67°C. Selecting the best sensor for an application will affect accuracy of the measurement and an RTD is the most accurate sensor to use when the process temperature is within its measuring range. However, less accurate thermocouples will be required when measuring temperatures that are hotter than the RTD’s upper measuring limits, when it is necessary to take specific steps to improve the accuracy of the measurement results.

Sensor accuracy can be improved by using thermocouples constructed with special tolerance (premium grade) wire.

The reduced error is achieved by using wire with higher purity alloys. At 260°C, the uncertainty of a special tolerance thermocouple is about ±1.1°C. A Class A Pt RTD uncertainty is about ±0.67°C at the same operating temperature. Changing from a standard grade thermocouple to a premium grade thermocouple will cut the error rate in half; changing from a premium

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grade thermocouple to a Class A RTD will cut the error in half again.

Thermocouple extension wires

needs to be replaced. If the extension wire is replaced with a new one, the same problems are perpetuated by reintroducing the error and drift it causes. There are, however, alternatives.

Two options are temperature transmitters and remote I/O hardware.

Both use copper wire to transport their signals back to the control system. Copper would be expected to last the life of the plant. Modern I/O products have performance characteristics similar to transmitters and can offer cost savings. Short sections of extension wire are still required when using these transmitters or I/O products. The use of special grade thermocouple wire instead of standard extension wire will further minimise error.

Thermocouples wired back to a PLC or DCS should use thermocouple extension wire. Unfortunately, this is another source of measurement error. Using standard grade J or K extension wire will add ±2.2°C error. This can be reduced by using premium grade extension wire, which has half the error rate of standard extension wire, just as with premium thermocouples.

Over time the error will get worse as the wire becomes contaminated and is exposed to temperature extremes.

If the uncertainty caused by thermocouples was Figure 1: Three-wire RTD diagram. a fixed offset, it could be calibrated out. However, when the error is in Compensating for RTD lead wire inaccuracies the form of drift that changes over Copper wire is used for RTD lead wires. time, calibration becomes a preventive With three-wire RTDs one lead is called maintenance program that few want to tackle. the compensating lead. Between copper and a compensating lead many believe So, how can these problems be solved? Start by determining how much that RTD lead wire does not contribute error is caused by the thermocouple to measurement error. Unfortunately, extension wire. Most people overlook this is not true. Copper wire can cause significant error in an RTD measurement this option until there is a problem or a because RTDs are resistors and copper catastrophic measurement failure occurs.

Thermocouple extension wires can, wire is resistance. There are many and do, fail and when this happens it contaminants in a typical process plant

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Control Engineering Europe

TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE CONTROL

that cause corrosion and this changes the resistance of the copper lead wires, causing errors. To eliminate lead wire error the solution is to use four-wire RTDs. When a third lead wire is added to the RTD, the measurement is made by taking two voltage measurements (as shown, V1 and V2 in Figure 1). It must be remembered that these are high impedance voltage measurements. For all practical purposes, there is no current flow through the third lead; so R2 never enters into the equation.

V1 gives the value of the lead wire resistance R1. V2 gives the value of the RTD + R4 lead resistance. Subtract V1 from V2 and as long as the lead resistances R1 = R4, only the value of the RTD remains. This is an accurate measurement.

Many things work against making R1 and R4 identical when accuracy is the primary concern. Wire gauge intolerance and work hardening varies

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the resistance.

Corrosion constantly works against the measurement and is the main reason R1 never equals R4. So what happens if the Figure 2: Four-wire RTD diagram. lead’s resistances are not equal?

If the resistance imbalance is as little and an error. When using four-wire as 1 ohm, a 100Ω Pt RTD has an error of RTDs, for all practical purposes, there is about ±2.6°C. If you are trying to achieve no error caused by the lead wire.

Four-wire RTDs can have a lead wire a ±.55°C measurement accuracy, this of any length and the leads can undergo corrosion is standing between you and success. The only way to eliminate the constant resistance change and still error totally is with a four-wire RTD. cause no measurement error. It is still The voltage measurement is high important to ensure that total resistance impedance so, for all practical purposes, does not exceed the drive capacity of there is no current flow thru R2 and constant current source.

Typically modern day temperature R3 (Figure 2) and no voltage drop. The voltage is only measured across the transmitters offer enough current drive to support RTD circuits that have up RTD. R1 and R4 are never measured, so cannot create a differential resistance to 4K ohms of total resistance. With > p32

8 Zone Temperature Scanner/ Alarm/ On-Off Controller with 10A Switching

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8 thermocouple ( type J, K, T, E, N, R, S,& B) or Pt100 inputs O Built-in display O

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TEMPERATURE & PRESSURE CONTROL

lead wire error eliminated it is possible to focus on the sensor and measuring device to further reduce error.

If the only objection to using the four-Wire RTD is that the existing legacy input card only accepts three-wire RTDs then replacement should be considered.

There is another option to consider if it is not possible to use four-wire RTDs – switch from 100Ω Pt RTDs to 1000Ω Pt RTDs. 1Ω of resistance imbalance in the current carrying legs of a 100Ω Pt element produces about ±2.6°C error.

Changing to a 1000Ω sensor the same 1Ω of imbalance will have one-tenth of the effect. The 1Ω of imbalance error drops to about ±0.26°C. While the use of the 1000Ω three-wire RTD is an improvement over the use of a 100 three-wire RTD, it is not a panacea.

When the lead wire resistance imbalance changes, the measurement accuracy also changes so a calibration program is still needed to temporarily eliminate the error.

Plant noise VFDs and motors create normal levels

of EMI and RFI which can cause errors on temperature measurements.

Thermocouple and RTD signals are very low level mV signals. It does not take much noise to cause significant distortion of the measurements. If wiring low level signals back to the control system it is important to use best practices to keep noise off these signal wires by using drain wires, proper grounding and physical separation.

A good solution is to convert the low level signals to high level signals as close to the temperature sensor as possible.

The same amount of noise will affect high signals less than low level signals.

Signals like 4-20mA, HART or RS-485 survive most typical levels of noise.

For those pursuing the very highest accuracy, it is necessary to deal with the final ‘as built’ error in the RTD. The transmitter can be used to calibrate out that final offset error and match to the ideal curve. Such a process delivers a typical transmitter and sensor combined accuracy of less than 0.05% of span.

Putting a temperature transmitter or remote I/O near the sensor will digitise

the temperature measurement. Two more errors are created if the signal is sent straight back to the control or data acquisition system using 4-20mA: 1. D/A error occurs when creating the 4-20mA. 2. At the control system, an A/D error occurs when turning the signal back to digital.

Using the HART digital signal can avoid conversion errors, while MODBUS serial or MODBUS over Ethernet is another option to keep the measured value digital.

Modern remote I/O instrumentation can actually save money on instrumentation and wiring. It has the same accuracy, ambient temperature specifications and sometimes similar hazardous area certifications found on temperature transmitters at less cost. The remote I/O digitises all the temperatures and can deliver them as 32-bit floats to the DCS or PLC MODBUS port. Remote I/O will also eliminate thermocouple extension wire and all the associated drift, errors and replacement costs.

Eddy current principle applied to high temperature measuring applications The Technology Partnership (TTP), a technology and product development company, has devised a non-contact solution to the measurement of high temperatures.

The patent-pending inductive technique has been used over temperature ranges of several hundred degrees Celsius with an accuracy of 1°C and could replace existing contact methods such as thermocouples and the use of infrared.

Researchers at TTP applied the traditional principle that applying an alternating current to a coil will induce eddy currents in nearby metallic objects; an effect commonly used in proximity sensors and non-destructive testing, looking for cracks or voids in material, for example. However, it has exploited the fact that the flow of eddy currents is also dependent on the material’s

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temperature and can be used to provide a new approach to noncontact temperature sensing.

Using a special coil arrangement, sensing methodology and algorithm to detect and measure the induced eddy currents, TTP researchers have been able to implement inductive temperature sensing of targets in a range of challenging environments, through metal barriers and even in applications where the geometry of the target material is unknown.

“Inductive temperature sensing is ideal for applications where contact methods are not reliable and where lack of line-of-sight access, variable emissivity or high cost limit the use of infrared techniques,” said Dr David Pooley, senior consultant at TTP. “Because of the

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simplicity of applying the technology in practical environments, it could also be used in low-cost consumer applications.

“We are continuing with practical trials to refine the process and explore new applications and are already seeing interest from potential partners to commercialise the technology and take it to market.”

Control Engineering Europe

EXECUTIVE COMMENT – MOVING TOWARDS AN AGE OF SERVICES

The road to the Smart Service World Dr. Peter Weckesser, r CEO Customer Services, Digital Factory Division, Siemens AG, comments on how the company is addressing the changes in business activities of its customers due to digitalisation.

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xcellent products will always be a strong pillar for our success and our customers’ successful businesses.

Nevertheless, digitalisation is changing business activities in all industries, globally. Digitalisation, for example, enables the holistic approach of an integrated Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) which extends from product design, development and production to service and also includes the seamless data integration of suppliers’ networks.

Digitalisation will trigger a significant paradigm shift: From the pure ‘productfocused approach’ to the ‘user/customercentered approach’ in which added value is sold through what are known as smart services. This type of added value could, for example, take the form of more intensive use of, or better capacity utilisation of, machines resulting in associated cost benefits.

This is driving successful industrial companies to devise innovative business models which will set them apart from their competitors.

Against this backdrop, IT and industrial companies are all now developing global platforms which are designed to pave the way to the Smart Service World. While different companies may adopt a different approach, the way in which they work is usually very similar: The first step is to make assets (factories/plants/products/ sensors) digitally connectable, to allow them to be subsequently linked to service platforms. These platforms Control Engineering Europe

enable unprecedented access to data, information and knowledge. Smart analysis transforms big data into smart data – which, in turn, forms the basis for new business models.

So, along with excellent prroducts, in the coming years service and service al role, platforms will also play a vita offering output and availability of ations. products, systems and applica

availability and performance of their machine over its entire lifecycle or even committing to the production output of their machines. The second pillar takes the form of Plant Analytics Services.

Here, Siemens will support customers endeavouring to optimise their systems by providing data analysis. This is based not only on intelligent algorithms but also on our comprehensive product and domain expertise – for example in the field of energy data management. In this way, predictive maintenance can enhance the availability and service life of drive systems.

The third pillar is Plant Security Services. Here, Siemens uses a multiplestep concept to support companies keen to enhance the IT security y of their factories and facilities – an aspect of crucial importance in the age of increasing digitalisation.

Three pillars It is for this reason that Siemens is now driving forward the development of its business with data-driven serrvices for industrial corporations. This is based around three pillars. Firstly, Plant Cloud ng a cloud Services. Here, we are creatin ysis of large platform to permit the analy volumes of data in industry. Siemens will create an open IT ecosysttem which will allow OEMs and application developers to access the plattform via or their own open interfaces and use it fo services and analytics. Appliccations could include, for example, online monitoring of machine tools, industrial robots h as or industrial equipment such d production machines located anywhere around the world.

This paves the way for the type of business model which h envisages, for example, an OEM not only selling their machine but optimising their service he processes – committing to th

Dr Peter Weckesser is CEO Customer Services, Digital Factory Division for Siemens AG.

www.controlengeuro ope e.com

October 2015

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EXECUTIVE COMMENT – MOVING TOWARDS AN AGE OF SERVICES

Becoming a trusted advisor Slawomir Suchomski, vice president, Europe, Solutions and Lifecycle Services at Emerson Process Management, comments on how the company is meeting changing customer requirements for the provision of services.

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rocess plants need to be able to adapt to fast changing markets and cope with tough economic challenges such as fluctuating energy prices, while continuously improving productivity and profitability. As a result plants have become ever more complex, which is especially problematic when skilled personnel are being lost within the industry. Because of this, plant operators are now looking for greater support from automation vendors to help solve a range of problems.

A decade ago, customers would only require suppliers to provide them with products and perhaps some aftercare services. Today they are turning to vendors to solve a range of issues relating to plant safety, energy efficiency, reliability and productivity.

Emerson is increasingly able to combine its product portfolio with a broad range of services to help customers meet these issues and it aims to be the customer’s trusted advisor by being able to solve the challenges they face with a complete solution.

Take, for example, the issue of plant reliability and specifically the developments the company has made surrounding turnarounds. These regular events are organised to address, among other things, plant reliability. These turnarounds are facing an increasing amount of pressure to be faster, within budget and less frequent. This means that scope determination, as well as control, is very important. Emerson supports its customers with specific diagnostics-based services to better decide what needs to be included in the scope (and what not). This, in turn, helps

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to control both scope and risk during the execution of the turnaround.

Asset monitoring Essential Asset Monitoring solutions is another new approach to problem solving. Here, instead of simply supplying instrumentation, Emerson designs and sets up complete health monitoring solutions for pumps, compressors, heat exchangers and other assets that lead to significant reliability and profitability gains.

Energy use Energy use is another important area for plant operators. Cost pressures as well as the European Energy Directive are driving the need to reduce plant energy inefficiencies. To meet these requirements Emerson is now being asked to help by performing energy audits, delivering energy stream measurements and steam integrity solutions as well as providing Energy Management Systems and Boiler and Burner Management Optimisation.

Supporting its aim to be a trusted advisor, Emerson is operating as close to its customer plants as possible, which allows it to offer advice from industry experts and consultants, and simplifies all necessary steps a customer would need to make to do business with the company.

Being close to the customer and improving ‘customer proximity’ is also about ensuring that Emerson understands what the customers’ values and critical priorities are. The company continues to invest heavily in its service organisation. An example of this is the opening of a number of new service

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centres over the last few years which allows Emerson to perform faster repairs, quick shipping of inventory, training and calibration.

We have also added a lot of new engineers in close proximity to the customers’ production sites to provide these services. In addition, Emerson industry experts and consultants are trained to talk the same language as customers. This means working closely with the customer to understand their specific issues and identifying the right solution – this could be a single instrument or a whole package of products, different work practices and technical support services.

Our focus is also on perfect execution.

Emerson has business and supply chain processes in place in order to match all customer and industry needs. We continue to make investments in Europe with regards to additional production capacity, on the basis that the closer we produce to our customers, the quicker we can deliver the solutions they need.

Customers no longer want to be sold ‘products’, they require much more from their automation vendors. By offering expert advice, complete solutions and a range of support services that help solve the toughest problems, we know that we will meet our customers’ expectations and they will see and treat us as a trusted advisor.

Control Engineering Europe

EXECUTIVE COMMENT – MOVING TOWARDS AN AGE OF SERVICES

Products and services integration Hartmut Pütz, president of Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation - European Business Group, discusses the companies experience of the increasing demand for services alongside products.

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imple selling of hardware products is happening less often as components become more interconnected and automation manufacturers provide increasing levels of system design, development and software support to end users, machine builders and system integrators. There is no doubt that demand for services to be provided alongside an automation vendors’ product portfolio is increasing.

The sale of individual products in process industries is already being subsumed by the need to supply a service.

Companies that have traditionally supplied only products are increasingly looking at strategies to provide complementary services. For example, in 2013 Mitsubishi Electric acquired KH-Automation Projects GmbH. Specialising in automating process plants, it has since been renamed MEAutomation Projects GmbH and has become a fully integrated part of the Mitsubishi Electric Group.

This move enabled the company to step-up its capabilities as a turnkey provider and address projects that were previously closed to it. Further, it has strengthened the Mitsubishi Electric offering by providing greater control of risk and by reducing the probability of unexpected extra costs for the end users during the project.

The trend of adding services to hardware provision will also continue to gain importance within the manufacturing industries over the coming years. As end users start to implement connected manufacturing projects, they will increasingly need an automation supplier providing project management, system integration and engineering. But in many cases – Control Engineering Europe

probably the majority of cases – the variety of automation products and services needed for such projects goes far beyond the portfolio of one single supplier.

Mitsubishi Electric itself has a comprehensive range of factory automation equipment. It also has a long history in the field, so the products have been developed over many generations of technology and represent the state-ofthe-art in the automation of production and processes.

To use these powerful products as productively as possible, manufacturing companies need to have them integrated into bespoke systems that precisely meet their needs. The expertise required for this stage alone is considerable because identifying the needs and developing appropriate solutions requires considerable co-operation between the end user and the supplier.

There is also an increasing requirement to connect the shopfloor control system with the company’s IT and enterprise management systems. There is also a growing trend to connect with the IT systems of customers, distributors and suppliers, to create a seamless connection between all elements of the supply/value chain.

This change does have some clear potential benefits for the customer.

It gives them increased business performance. For example it maximises organisation transparency, which delivers an improved base for decision making, makes the purchase and operation model more predictable so margins can be calculated more effectively allowing the business to increase its competitiveness. This results in reduced cost of production, increased productivity and reduced time-to-market.

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Hartmut Pütz is president of Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation - European Business Group.

Greater integration There are many indicators to suggest that products and services are becoming more integrated. These include: the advance of Smart Manufacturing, the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0; the rise of big data and cloud computing; increasingly stringent control of emissions to reduce climate change; end users expecting guaranteed performance levels from their plant for long periods of time; and reduced time to market expectations.

Therefore, expecting to rely on one single partner will become impractical.

What will be needed is an approach that combines expertise from several suppliers, but with one partner taking the lead and being responsible for coordinating all aspects of both equipment and service.

This is the approach chosen by Mitsubishi Electric, which has been implemented through its e-F@ctory partners. The project started in 2003 and there are now over 3,000 e-F@ctory partners. Each is an expert in their market sector with products, engineering, systems integration, maintenance or management expertise.

The goal of the e-F@ctory concept is to offer customers a best-in-class solution and does clearly illustrate a move towards ‘the age of service’ for automation companies.

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EXECUTIVE COMMENT – MOVING TOWARDS AN AGE OF SERVICES

The future is about more than product spec David Nicholl,l UK sales director for Rockwell Automation, believes that vendor competition, based on product specification alone, is now a thing of the past.

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here is no doubt in my mind that there will be a continued and perhaps steepening curve towards solutions involving extended service arrangements in the future, and there are several reasons for this.

Recently a Frost & Sullivan analyst said that ‘the age of products is coming to an end and we are entering an age of services’. I don’t believe that this comment was meant to be taken too literally – certainly in the manufacturing and automation environments – as products are at the core of the solutions needed to make things. However, there are plenty of reasons to think that what can already be observed as a trend, is likely to be a genuine paradigm shift in years to come.

Rockwell Automation has been working hard to build and develop its services offering across its portfolio of automation solutions. This comes much more as a response to the needs of the market and the potential and convergence of new technologies than as a stated business development objective. Manufacturers need to be assured that the solutions they are buying will improve efficiency or productivity. This often involves migrating from a discrete, off-the-shelf approach to purchasing to a connected, integrated, highly visible solution that helps manufacturers better visualise the process and supply chain.

Such systems offer numerous advantages, including the ability to perform real-time condition monitoring, to deliver remote support, to implement fast and customisable changes to the

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product line, to aid product traceability, or develop virtualisation and bestpractice modelling. In many cases, elements of this, not to mention the complex safety ramifications of this new manufacturing environment, are best achieved through an extended relationship with the companies who develop and maintain the solutions – the vendors, systems integrators and even the OEMs, who can also offer various other benefits such as the initial system design, maintenance, spares holding and rapid response issues management – services by any other name.

What does seem to be firmly in the past is the age of technology competing on product specifications alone – such

are now sold on what they offer the user in terms of benefits to the way the consumer lives life; efficiency and data benefits that allow them to make better decisions. The huge uptake of integrated health related apps and peripherals are a good example of this, as is the convergence of functionality across platforms.

It’s now entirely possible (if still mostly in the domain of early adopters) to use a smartphone to operate the central heating at home; then use it to check if you should expect delays on the journey home; then to watch a video during the

There will be a continued and perhaps steepening curve towards solutions involving extended service arrangements in the future. is the rate of progress that vendors are able to offer high levels of product and control system specification throughout their ranges. Competition for the fastest processors or most memory, for example, is fairly moot today. In the same way as it’s moot in much consumer technology – the level of performance of even small devices such as a mobile phone vastly outstrips the performance possible in much more expensive (and far bigger) devices of 15-20 years ago.

Integration and convergence To continue the analogy, smart phones

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commute, while perhaps answering a few work emails; then to arrive home and continue watching the same media without interruption on your Smart TV (in your pre-warmed house) while ‘second screening’ with your phone to see how many footsteps the integrated pedometer recorded and decide if you deserve that second slice of cake after your calorie calculated dinner.

While the product (the mobile phone) is integral to this, it is the vision and benefit of a connected lifestyle that makes the consumer buy it and drives the reality of the experience. What’s Control Engineering Europe

EXECUTIVE COMMENT – MOVING TOWARDS AN AGE OF SERVICES

more, the services element is clear to see. Your Netflix subscription and your central heating provider are offering intelligent services across your platforms and across your life, while your health app is promising you more control and visibility to live a healthier lifestyle. Bring this model back into the manufacturing environment and those early adopters are reaping extensive profitability or sustainability benefits along similar lines.

By centralising and harmonising the data involved in the manufacturing process, intelligent decisions can be made in real time. Functions can be appraised and operated remotely in real time, while operational data – not the amount of footsteps you take, but perhaps the amount of energy being used, or the amount of actual wear on a moving part – can be used to manage maintenance and reduce unplanned downtime.

designed in partnership with the specific needs of the end user in mind. This in itself is an example of the transition from product to product + services that is shaping the way that companies are working together to unlock the potential of technology.

The changes in the way manufacturing facilities work also have ramifications for other manufacturer pressure points, such as safety and security. With more complex machinery interacting with other parts of the process, safety is now an area of specialism which manufacturers of all sizes look to safety vendors for help

was. Rockwell Automation has been working closely with leading security bodies around the world to develop best practises and to offer services to our customers to help them develop a ‘defence-in-depth’ approach including high-tech and low-tech procedures, safeguards and practices that helps make their data much safer.

Welcoming the Age of Services The rapid growth of the world’s consumers means that supplying the future needs of people presents an opportunity for manufacturers. This is set against the finite resources of

Safety is now an area of specialism which manufacturers of all sizes look to safety vendors for help with.

Adapting to the future The so-called Internet of Things is based upon the idea that more and more ‘things’ (components/machines/devices) are connected to the internet. This gives rise to grand visions for the future of manufacturing and initiatives such as Industry 4.0 which herald an industrial revolution in how this connectivity will transform manufacturing to new levels of efficiency, product customisation, serialisation and traceability. Rockwell Automation can see that the reality and boundless possibility of Industry 4.0 is still some way into the future for many manufacturers, but much of the technology that will enable it is already available. Through its Connected Enterprise initiative, which leverages strategic alliances with communication leaders such as Cisco and software/analytics experts such as Microsoft, Rockwell Automation can offer customers a clear roadmap to integrating the Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) which allows them to make more informed decisions in every aspect of their process. As all enterprises are different, each connected enterprise solution is unique and should be Control Engineering Europe

with. Designing production processes with safety equipment and procedures which meet the standards needed to adhere to safety legislation is an area that Rockwell Automation has long been a leader in. Far beyond the many safety products available, it offers a range of training, consultancy and global services. In fact, in this way, safety is perhaps ahead of the general curve in the so called ‘servitisation’ trend.

Security is another area affected by the uptake of connectivity and visualisation. With data now being transferred internally, via the internet and in many cases being stored ‘on the cloud’, sensitive, business critical information is no longer only behind the factory gates. It would be wrong to suggest that this is a new issue – any manufacturer that keeps business critical information on a computer networked to the internet – which is nearly all manufacturers operating today – is potentially at risk of being hacked. What is developing however, is the amount of data which needs to be deliberately made available to partners and service providers. Again, the solution is not as simple as a firewall – if it ever

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the planet and means that efficiency and sustainability are vital to making it possible. Automation technology is, perhaps, the most important single enabler and those manufacturers who are left behind will not survive. But there are very few, if any, manufacturers that can make it alone. The benefits to working closely with companies who provide the technology and equipment that they use to create products give those who embrace the age of services, data and connectivity a competitive edge. It is the stated objective of Rockwell Automation to make its customers more productive and the world more sustainable – and its offering now includes more services than ever before.

Is the age of products coming to an end? No, it is part of a new age where where technology and IP enabled products are facilitating more services from the experts allowing companies to focus on their core values and hence making the use of products more profitable, safer, more intuitive and better integrated to drive shareholder value – the ultimate aim of any enterprise.

October 2015

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PRODUCT FORUM •

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THE NEXT GENERATION: NEW MULTIFUNCTIONAL POWER AMPLIFIER With the new development of the power amplifier PAM-199-P the company W.E.St. Elektronik has released an advancement of the well-known power amplifiers which is technically and cost optimized. The essential advantages are the USB-interface (no special programming cable needed) and the joining of the functions of the former PAM-195, PAM-196 and PAM-197 in one unit. This leads to an easy and economical stock keeping both for W.E.St. and the customer.

Additionally, the costs of the module could be reduced by many small optimizations without cuts in the technique. Now it offers an advanced adaption to the valves by a stepless adjustment of the nominal solenoid current and a very robust current control. Due to the higher power of the microcontroller, the secure storing with automatic fault corrections, a higher MTTFd-value and the better signal resolution, a general use with proportional valves of all different manufacturers is possible. This effects further cost reductions because a study of different amplifiers is no longer necessary.

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Designed for professional integration directly into machine systems, the new LHS series enables a wide variety of applications including those such as sterilisation, drying, welding, cleaning, shrinking, shaping, curing, de-burring and activation.

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Additionally the System range of new industrial heaters has a digital temperature display on the tool itself, excellent for immediate visibility of air temperature at the point of process, or if required purely as a standalone unit.

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The MicroMark® Spray Marking Valve System is ideal for inks and paints that do not require recirculation. Low-maintenance spray marking valve system produces neat circles and stripes between .2” to 1.2” wide. The combination of adjustable fluid flow, adjustable nozzle air and post-air cutoff provides excellent spray control The system includes compact spray valve, ValveMate™ controller and tank. The controller is set for length of time and air pressure required for precise coverage. A programmable air delay after each cycle prevents clogging, which greatly reduces maintenance and downtime.

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FINAL WORD

Supporting machine vision for success Jochem Herrmann, president of the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA), highlights what he believes are the priorities during his presidency and looks at the challenges facing the machine vision industry.

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hrough the last three decades machine vision technology has conquered most fields of industrial production and can be found in numerous nonindustrial applications. In the course of this advance the machine vision industry in Europe has achieved a leading position worldwide. Since its founding in 2003, the EMVA has built a strong network and has supported the success of the machine vision industry.

The EMVA will continue to support machine vision technology by offering and expanding the range of member benefits and acting as the European industry voice of the machine vision community. For example, we will further increase networking opportunities by setting up local/regional groups in cooperation with national associations so that members can locally meet and exchange ideas in their local language, while at the same time being part of a large European machine vision community. This is already taking place in France and will be evaluated elsewhere in Europe.

The EMVA will sharpen its profile as an interface between academia and industry. We will promote cooperation between EMVA member companies and European universities and institutes.

This can, for example, take place in European R&D programs but also in smaller projects. We will also encourage continuous education of our members.

One of the strengths of EMVA today is the high number of component suppliers that are members. In future EMVA intends to broaden the membership among system suppliers, integrators and academia, as there are topics that address the industry as a whole. One of Control Engineering Europe

them clearly is standardisation. EMVA is hosting two important standards that are being used worldwide: GenICam and EMVA1288. Because machine vision standards can only be a success when they are accepted worldwide, EMVA is a strong promoter of cooperation between the associations in the international G3 initiative on standardisation. A specific focus will be set in the coming three years to intensify the worldwide cooperation with other machine vision associations. Already, the cooperation of five associations (EMVA, AIA, JIIA, VDMA and CMVU) within G3 and the Future Standards Forum proves how beneficial this is.

Another area where EMVA will intensify cooperation will be in terms of aligning the methodology of generating market data to offer more qualified market data from more geographic sources. This happens in addition to the market reports EMVA provides on specific European countries and regions.

Industry trends A big trend that affects all industry players is the future cross-linked industrial production in the intelligent factory or ‘Smart Factory’ which is part of the Industry 4.0 megatrend. Here, firstly it is important to understand the context: Industry 4.0 is about linking production technology with information technology; and machine vision is one of the most important basic technologies to supply Industry 4.0 with information.

Secondly, Industry 4.0 is not a long way off. The big industry groups are already driving the topic forward globally, and the first implications of Industry 4.0 are already visible: There is an increasing trend towards traceability along the

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value chain even down to the end consumer who wants to know the detailed pedigree of a product. Linked to this development, embedded systems will play a more significant role in future machine vision systems. They allow for smaller and more compact solutions while they meet most image processing requirements; and they are integrated into the factory processes to a much higher degree than standalone PC-based systems. Moreover, many people are already working on embedded vision solutions which are not yet connected to machine vision applications. So in future we may see new players with a completely different, non-industrial background.

Industry 4.0 will expand the classic model of selling products only towards a combination of product and service selling, as customers demand simplified use of complex technologies. All these developments offer opportunities for the machine vision industry. It is of great importance that within all processes arising in the course of Industry 4.0, such as setting new standards, the machine vision community in Europe speaks with one voice and communicates the needs and interests of its industry to all relevant stakeholders. EMVA is taking on this responsibility.

Jochem Herrmann is co-founder and chief scientist of the Dutch camera manufacturer Adimec and joined the EMVA Board of Directors in 2013.

October 2015

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