Clean, safe conveying

FlexLink’s high-performance production flow delivers results. Our solutions for the food and dairy industries are safe and modular with a one-week shorter ramp-up compared to the competition and reduced cleaning time by over 25%. The FlexLink offer, including conveying solutions, handling functions and line control, lowers your total cost of deployment, increasing your overall equipment effectiveness by one percent or more.

For more information call FlexLink on +1 610-973- associated with the server control panel, such as automation and control software, computers where the software is installed, UPS and power supplies, and networking equipment.”

Because the MDC comes with everything pre-installed and tested, it is easier for non-IT customers to deploy the automation and control systems, says David.

“OEMs can use the MDCs to develop repeatable automation and control systems; system integrators can create solutions that contain standardized code and applications, which they can then drop into a virtual image

SaaS Approach to Data Recording

The SaniTrend Cloud Lite online process data recording system from sanitary process cleaning systems provider Sani-Matic is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product (4) that provides automated, secure data acquisition of critical process or cleaning data for any cleaning system, including clean in place (CIP) and clean out of place (COP), in a customer’s facility. SaniTrend Cloud Lite captures continuous process data, while SaniTrend Cloud Lite+ uses running signals from equipment to consolidate the process data into individual reports.

Among the capabilities of SaniTrend Cloud Lite, it provides cloud access to all accessible data, via phone, tablet, or mobile; it allows for unlimited users; it has store and forward capabilities; it provides cloud documentation storage, live dashboard views, and email and SMS notifications; and it delivers analog and digital data trending information, with comments. SaniTrend Cloud Lite+ o ers all of these features, as well as cycle-based reporting, downloadable cycle reports, and cycle-based comments and approvals. Both Lite and Lite+ can handle up to eight analog input signals and up to 12 digital input signals.

Sani-Matic has partnered with Rockwell Automation and PTC to provide its SaniTrend Cloud line, which also includes SaniTrend Cloud and SaniTrend Cloud Pro, through PTC’s Cloud platform, using PTC’s ThingWorx product.

flexlink.com a related video at pfwgo.to/7864

All of PTC Cloud’s data and user security has been integrated into the SaniTrend Cloud o ering.

FlexLink is part of Coesia, a group of innovation-based industrial solutions companies operating globally headquartered in Bologna, Italy. www.coesia.com of the ftServer; and end users can use the MDCs to consolidate disparate applications in a single platform,” says Elliott Jepson, strategy and innovation manager for the Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric. “And thin clients can be used with the MDCs to enable monitoring and control outside of the control room via mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.”

Jepson adds that the EcoStruxure MDC with Stratus ftServer comes completely validated, pre-wired, and with the automation and control software pre-loaded. “This way, customers, integrators, and OEMs can focus on their key expertise,” he says. “Because everything is tested and prebuilt, the MDC can be commissioned by controls engineers or technicians who don’t have any IT experience.”

AI for predictive maintenance

Though it’s been discussed for years, and its capabilities are increasingly being incorporated into automation hardware and software of all types, artificial intelligence (AI) remains a bit of a mystery to many end users. The mystery is not necessarily created by a lack of understanding about AI—it’s the application of the technology that raises many questions, since it can be used for everything from machine control to cloud-based data analytics.

To demonstrate how AI can be used in consumer packaged goods (CPG) production operations, Festo introduced its Festo Automation Experience (AX) at PACK EXPO International (5). By using advanced analytics, Festo AX maps data to learn a component, machine, product, or system’s healthy state and provide information for the correction of anomalies when data begins trending out of the normal range. Festo AX can be operated directly on equipment at the edge of the network, on data center servers for general on-premises applications, or in the cloud.

Festo AX begins with condition monitoring and preventive maintenance calculations for components, machines, and complete systems. Data collected from the factory floor is used to make uptime-based maintenance suggestions, enabling maintenance to be more e cient. From this starting point, the capabilities of

Festo AX can be extended with AI. The AI technology used in Festo AX analyzes live data in real time, meaning that users are made aware as soon as an anomaly occurs.

According to Festo, Festo AX can lower waste by more than 50%, reduce product rejection costs by more than 45%, increase machine availability by more than 25%, and reduce unplanned downtime by more than 20%.