Automation World September 2022 by PMMIMediaGroup

The Machines-as-a-Service Trend Is Just Getting Started Anheuser-Busch Makes Beer, Seltzers, and Machines Enclosures: The Workhorse of Industrial Automation Supply Chains with Intelligent Visibility PLC Programming Language Decisions New Product Spotlight080628431036 24 CPG ROBOT USE EXPECTED TO DOUBLE SEPTEMBER 2022 / www.AutomationWorld.com

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AW SEPTEMBER 2022 CONTENTS

Enclosures: The Workhorse of Industrial Automation

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Often overlooked and under-considered, the right enclosure is critical to ensuring the healthy lifecycle of automation and industrial control applications.

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3 SEPTEMBER 2022 | VOLUME 20 | NUMBER 9

Enterprise Asset Management Helps CF Industries Streamline Operations

James R. Koelsch, Lauren Paul, Jeanne Schweder and Beth Stackpole Contributing Writers

PMMI The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies 12930 Worldgate Dr., Suite 200, Herndon VA, 20170 Phone: 571 612 3200 Fax: 703 243 8556 www.pmmi.org

David Newcorn Executive Vice President Elizabeth Kachoris Senior Director, Digital & Data Jen Krepelka Director, Websites + UX/UI

From automating workﬂows and minimizing vendor communications to reducing costs and increasing revenue, Aveva’s EAM software has proven its ability to broadly improve operations at CF Industries.

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ONLINE FEATURE4 28 CASE STUDY 34 INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS 6 BATCH OF IDEAS 8 NEWS PERSPECTIVES17 10 NEW PRODUCTS 36 KEY INSIGHTS 46 Exclusive content from AutomationWorld.com: videos, podcasts, webinars, and more The Machines-as-a-Service Trend Is Just Getting Started Anheuser-Busch Makes Beer, Seltzers, and Machines Artificial Intelligence Autonomously Controls JSR Chemical Plant Google Cloud and Litmus Co-Develop Data Connectivity Platform Connect Legacy Systems with Edge-as-a-Service GE Digital Amps Up Asset Performance Management Delphon Puts Robots-as-a-Service to Work PMMI News CPG Cobot Use Expected to At Least Double in Next Five Years PLC Programming Language Decisions Small Potato Producer Gets a Grip on Growth via Robotics The Transformational Impact of an Information Digital Twin Why Industrial Ethernet Protocols Will Remain Relevant NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: The ATRO Modular Robot Ethernet ElectromechanicalAssetEmbeddableSwitchThermocoupleTrackingActuators and more. FINANCE VIEW 42 Key Manufacturing CFO Responsibilities By Larry White ENTERPRISE VIEW 43 Strengthen Your Supply Chain with Intelligent Visibility By Brian R May INDUSTRY VIEW 44 How Advanced Simulation Drives Digital Twin Implementation By Dick Slansky

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AUDIENCE & DIGITAL

Learn about the di erent types of commonly available automated valves, valve sizing and performance issues, how piping and valve materials can impact valve choice, and deciding among electric, pneumatic, and hydraulic valve actuators.

MQTT Sparkplug: A Novel Solution to DataInteroperability in Industrial Automation

How to Select the Right Valve

How di erent types of robots can be used to streamline processes, improve productivity.

How edge, cloud, and automation hardware technology suppliers are working together to ease the process of collecting legacy equipment data for analysis.

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Next Level Productivity with Cobot Powered Automation

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Join Joe Campbell and Lisa Lanzilotti from Universal Robots as they explore multiple di erent collaborative robot applications, including welding, quality inspection, assembly, packaging & palletizing, and machine tending.

ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Join Dominik Obermaier, CTO and co-founder of HiveMQ, as he explains how MQTT Sparkplug can be a gamechanger for your industrial automation and digital transformation e orts.

4 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 ONLINE

FDA takes closer look at food safety in e-commerce models; Alitheon’s optical AI combats counterfeiting.

Technologies for Traceability and Preventing Counterfeiting

Peer-to-Peer FAQ: Robotic Technology Use Across Industry

Tackle the Legacy Data Issue

EDITORS’ INSIGHTS ON VIDEO

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are redefining traditional machinery service as strategic care and designing new services that help customers perform better throughout the full life cycle of the installed machinery base.”

• Share the risk. A key aspect of outcome-based services for OEMs is that, while these services reduce customer risk, they also increase the OEM’s service revenues and profit. As Bain points out: “Instead of fixing equipment when it breaks down for a flat fee, the companies offering these services ask for a percentage of the guaranteed output. Similarly, contracts can focus on reducing energy use or boosting equipment efficiency.”

In fact, so much around this issue has changed so quickly that Bain & Company now expects that OEMs “will sell most equipment as part of bundled solutions” by 2030—including software and services, thereby reducing hardware’s share of total profits.

Four key steps

• Sell equipment as a service. Atlas Copco, a global manufacturer of compressors, now offers MaaS contracts that eliminate machinery downtime and ensure an uninterrupted supply of compressed air. Bain notes that, for Atlas Copco, the new contracts also minimize unnecessary customer maintenance visits and help secure aftermarket sales and service over a long period with one customer interaction.

To be successful in this new MaaS era, Bain says OEMs “now need to collaborate more closely with their customers. Advanced service contracts, for example, are broader in scope and may cover a full production line, all the equipment at a given site, multiple plants, or even an entire fleet. The most effective equipment makers compile data and insights from their installed base and use the information to build innovative service solutions. Companies leading the shift to advanced services and solutions understand that equipment and service are no longer two separate businesses but are deeply interconnected.”

DirectorEditor-In-Chief/ofContent dgreenfield@automationworld.comThe

• Digitize and connect the installed base. Bain says OEMs need to invest in connected equipment and cloud-based platforms to create a trove of information about customers and their equipment. Such digital tools allow

In its report, Bain outlined four steps OEMs should take to better position their operation amid the growing MaaS trend:

Though the MaaS trend may not yet be very visible here in the U.S., it has developed rapidly in China. According to Bain, “Chinese machinery companies…started innovating in services a decade ago to spur growth as equipment sales slowed. The [China] market is now a vibrant testbed for a future serviceand solutions-based industry. One Chinese OEM that has reinvented its service offering is heavy equipment maker XCMG. The company’s internet platform, which provides services such as machine analysis, average working time analysis, equipment utilization data, and connected plants, has generated massive growth since its launch eight years ago. At the end of 2021 it had connected more than 460,000 machines. XCMG says its services give companies a competitive edge: greater efficiency and faster decision making based on data.”

for most customer support to be managed remotely, reducing costs involved in servicing the installed base and dramatically improving overall efficiency.

• Develop digital service solutions. By using customers’ equipment data to derive insights and design innovative service models, OEMs can, for example, offer to guarantee the uptime or output of their machinery. Bain says performance-based contracts around remote monitoring and predictive maintenance can improve efficiency and reliability for an OEM’s clients while boosting the OEM’s service revenue.

Watch this video explaining the impact of SaaS and MaaS on industry.

What this means for OEMs

The reticence in some industry verticals to allow third parties to remotely access equipment in their plants has largely vanished in the wake of nearly every aspect of operations being remoteenabled to at least some degree.

TrendMachines-as-a-ServiceIsJustGettingStartedINDUSTRYDIRECTIONS

The Bain report notes that by “building on a deep knowledge base and decades of experience, OEMs

In its “Global Machinery & Equipment Report 2022: Thinking Outside the Machine,” Bain states: “Industry 4.0 technologies are reshaping the business from one built around machines to one focused on services and integrated solutions. In some sectors, individual companies already generate more than 50% of revenues and 100% of profits with services. That trend is accelerating and will become the norm across the industry over the next few years.”

By David Greenfield

Insights from China

6 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 EDITORIAL Director of Content

ndustrial manufacturing verticals that are well-recognized as early adopters of advanced technologies, such as automotive and aerospace, have made big strides with software- and machines-as-a-service (SaaS and MaaS) over the past several years. Until very recently however, the same could not be said of other industrial verticals. COVID changed that perception—dramatically and rapidly.

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But there are other ways technology partners can help now. When new projects are planned, VonderHaar will ask supplier partners to come in early in the process to participate in the planning of how the machines should be made to maximize flexibility while minimizing complexity.

8 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 EDITORIAL

“Our vertical operations not only give us surety of supply for some of the commodities that are in tight supply, like a can or a bottle right now, but more importantly, it gives us the ability to manage our contract costs when we buy from other folks,” VonderHaar explained.

Anheuser-Busch Makes Beer, Seltzers, and Machines

“In the next year or so, you will see us introducing a completely new package for a machine that was developed in house by AnheuserBusch,” VonderHaar said, noting that it will be introduced into the market as a solution for secondary packaging of bottles.

ity. We would like all of the complexity under the hood. And we would like an operator interface that’s very easy to understand. Also, an interface that our younger employees are able to [use] with some type of video screens and setup procedures built into the [HMI] screen.”

In the next year or so, you will inwasmachinepackagecompletelyintroducingAnheuser-Buschseeanewforathatdevelopedhouse.

By Stephanie Neil Senior Editor

“So the whole business model of vertical operations is not to grow that as fast as the beer company grows. It’s to grow that with enough critical mass such that the other suppliers would say, hey, I need to be cost competitive on this otherwise Anheuser-Busch will build their own.”

recently visited the Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. Louis for a plant tour, a visit with the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales, a tutorial on the brewing process, and, of course, some taste testing of the many varieties of beer made on site. I was also able to sit down with Ken VonderHaar, the global director of the Can Division at Anheuser-Busch InBev, to discuss some of the innovations happening within his group. And, not surprisingly, the primary focus these days is on flexibility around the different types of packaging—especially with the addition of seltzers and variety packs in the product portfolio.

He’d also be willing to give machine builders more remote access, but noted it’s a continued challenge as the IT team will not allow that to happen due to the security risk to operations. However, he feels it is something the company, together with technology partners, must figure out how to do safely as business continues to grow.

Of course, I couldn’t leave without asking VonderHaar what the next big thing will be in Budweiser beverages—which, it turns out, is always tough to call. “The consumer defines the next trend,” he said. “We think that the seltzer market still has more legs to it—more flavors and that type of thing—but our innovations team is constantly working on all kinds of different brands and all kinds of different varieties to try to figure out what the next big thing is going to be. We’ll test market that and see what sticks.”

BATCH OF IDEAS

sneil@automationworld.comsneil@automationworld.com

Cans (vs. bottles) is the biggest area of growth moving forward, due in large part to the pandemic and people taking 30 packs of beer home instead of going out to the bars and restaurants. That trend seems to be continuing. And just as consumers are bringing activities “in-house,” there’s also a trend in manufacturing to do the Anheuser-Buschsame. has both can-making and bottle-making capabilities in its vertical operations, which was established in the early 1970s primarily as way to control cost and product quality. And it’s come in handy given supply chain woes of late.

Of course, Anheuser-Busch can’t make every machine on its own, and with evolving needs around sustainability and energy-efficiency, it’s turning to machine builders and automation suppliers for help, said VonderHaar. “We absolutely need our equipment suppliers to come in and help us figure out how to minimize compressed air usage, reduce gas usage, and reduce energy and electricity usage.”

And, having more than 150 years of business under its belt and being nimble enough to adapt to every curve ball—including 13 years of Prohibition in which the company switched to making the Bevo soft drink—the company is clearly not afraid to innovate on its own.

VonderHaar, who has been with the company for 34 years, noted that 40% of the company’s workforce is ready to retire at any time. So, as a new generation of operators hit the factory floor, VonderHaar is asking OEMs to make the machines easy to use. “We’re asking for simplic-

This deprecation of Instruction List in the IEC standard is happening because the language is seen as an “outdated, assembler-like language,” Yerger said. “And talking with my peers in our company, no one’s seen Instruction List utilized in any of our projects. We stick to Structured Text and the other languages.”

as a language, it’s a structure of the flow of the logic, because it allows for branching into parallel processes that are decision points based on conditions. Basically, with Sequential Function Chart, there’s an action item at each block and each action can have a series of events. These events are what happens in each of those action blocks. But the events will probably be programmed in Ladder Diagram from the Structured Text function blocks. Sequential Function Chart controls the flow [of operations] by saying, ‘do this and wait until this condition is met.’ It parses down the program flow this way by giving directions based on conditions being met. So that’s where it’s a little di erent from the other languages.”

PLC Programming Language Decisions

Yerger describes the Sequential Function Chart language as being “the oddball of the ﬁve [PLC programming] languages. We don’t view it

Explaining the principal di erences among the graphical PLC programming languages, Yerger started with Ladder Diagram, noting its development from relay logic. “It (Ladder Diagram) looks like old school hardware relay logic diagrams. It’s basically all Boolean math and Boolean decisions, for the most part,” he said. Meanwhile, the Function Block language allows programmers to arrange di erent blocks on a graphical screen that represent the inputs and outputs between the controller and the devices connected to it.

The demise of Instruction List?

Ladder Diagram example. Source: automationprimer.com

hough PLC (programmable logic controller) programming languages may not receive the attention that general computing programming languages, such as JavaScript, C#, or Python do, they remain critical to the manufacturing and processing industries. And while PLC programming languages have not been through as many changes or updates as general computing programming, these languages haven’t been static either.

10 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 PERSPECTIVES

By David Greenfield Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief

One thing that hasn’t changed recently with PLC programming languages is that there are still two basic types: textual programming using typed out commands and graphical programming where logic sequences are arranged by moving objects around in the programming environment. Beginning our discussion with a focus on the textual languages, Yerger noted that the Instruction List textual PLC programming language is “a very low-level, mnemonicbased language” whose days look to be numbered.

Instruction List has been “deprecated in IEC 61131-3 and will probably not be in the next version of the standard, according to the standard itself,” he said. “I think you’ll see controllers and programming software that support Instruction List now will continue to support it for quite a number of years, but I don’t think you’re going to see anyone put it into their [new] product lines if it’s a deprecated standard.”

Despite the grim outlook for Instruction List, Structured Text will be sticking around as it’s a high-level programming language. “If you’re coming from a computer science background, Structured Text is going to be very native ﬁeld for you. It’s also very good for looping and string manipula-

The programminggraphical realm

tion,” said Yerger. “And if you have to parse barcodes, strip out the ASCII characters, and things like that, it’s so much easier to do in a high-level textual language than in [a graphical programming language like] Ladder Diagram, where you’re going to be dealing with each byte individually.”

To check in on the status of PLC programming languages, we spoke with Doug Yerger, principal engineer at Grantek, an industrial automation system integrator, for a recent episode of the “Automation World Gets Your Questions Answered” podcast series.

This program ﬂow nature of Sequential Function Chart is why it’s so often used. “It’s great for stepped or discrete sequencing. A classic example would be a batching engine where you might have, say, three ingredients added together for a recipe and those ingredients are going to be three parallel branches in the programming language. But you’re not going to turn on the mixer’s agitator until all

11 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 PERSPECTIVES

The main takeaway when looking at the di erent PLC programming languages is that it’s rare for just one to be used. “Especially if it’s a large program, we’re going to have routines and programs in them that use a variety of languages,” Yerger said. “The majority might be in Ladder Diagram, but if we have a big array processing to do, we’re going to use Structured Text to handle those arrays. We’re not going to stick to just one [language] unless, of course, our customer has that requirement. And there are several customers that do say: Use Ladder only. But we usually try and talk them out of that and move them to a more modern philosophy of using the right tool for the job.”

world, such as C and C+.

Beyond IEC 61131-3

In North America, more than 90% of control programming is done in Ladder Diagram, said Yerger. “It’s great for discrete logic systems that use a lot of Boolean algebra and have a lot of limit switches and on/o s,” he said. “It’s also very easy for experienced electricians to understand because they’re coming from the hardware reading (that Ladder Diagram is based on). Newer technicians that have learned C or other highlevel programming languages are probably going to lean toward Structured Text because it will be more familiar to them.”

Listen to the full podcast on PLC programming language decisions.

Function Block programming is preferred for continuous processes where you’re taking an ana-

Yerger said there was a big push several years ago to bring the “C” programming languages to the plant ﬂoor. But he said that push slowly faded away in favor of the IEC languages. However, he did note that IT programming languages are still prevalent with SCADA systems. “If we need to do high level C, Python processing, or even Java processing, we’re going to take it up to the SCADA level and do it on computer hardware that has the power designed speciﬁcally for those languages,” he said.

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three of them are added. So you’ll have this series of steps that need to happen—some parallel, some sequential—where the controller is going to wait for the conditions between them to be met before moving forward. When you get to the agitation step, control of the motors might be done in Ladder Diagram, which will trigger the Sequential Function Charts running in a separate process. When the Sequential Function Chart program sees the trigger of the agitations completed, it’s going to move on to the next action in the sequence.”

The introduction of programmable automation controllers (PACs) for more complex automation tasks expanded the realm of controller languages beyond the IEC 61131-3 languages, allowing for the use of languages more connected with the IT

log input and scaling it, said Yerger. That’s why it’s often used for PID loops. There are also several safety systems that use Function Blocks as their programming method, he added.

Shifting mesh bags of small potatoes presented handling challenges, ultimately tackled by Soft Robotics’ mGrip soft gripper. Source: Tasteful Selections

Tasteful Selections got its start in robotics with the help of Schneider Packaging Equipment, a Fanuc Authorized Systems Integrator. The potato company liked Schneider’s OptiStak, which creates recipes for the layers of boxes to be stacked on the pallets. Based on Fanuc software, OptiStak optimizes pallet conﬁgurations and enables operators to change patterns on the ﬂy.

12 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 PERSPECTIVES

By Aaron Hand Editor-in-Chief, ProFood World

he multi-generational potato farmers of Tasteful Selections began in Nebraska, relocating to Arvin, Calif., to take advantage of the rich farmland and year-round growing season. The journey since has been not only geographical but one of innovation as well. Always searching for business growth opportunities, the company pioneered the category of bite-sized potatoes to o er consumers a simpler and more convenient source of nutritious potatoes.

“We want to make sure our potatoes are the safest they can be from farm to fork,” says Lindsey Mebane, food safety manager for Tasteful Selections. “Before we had the robotics, everything was done by hand. For food safety, that is a little bit of a concern because there are more hands touching the product. Granted, they are wearing gloves, but there’s still human contact.”

Small Potato Producer Gets a Grip on Growth via Robotics

As the company increased the speed of the processing lines, manually packing the bags of potatoes in boxes became an issue. The packing space did not allow for additional line sta . Addition-

“They have been turnkey, out of the box, with minimal programming needed on our end, and super, super successful in creating consistencies throughout our plant,” Waldo says.

ally, the company wanted to minimize the human touch points to ensure the best food safety and quality practices.

Fanuc robots have been a big part of Tasteful Selections’ journey, including 11 Fanuc M-410iB palletizing robots and ﬁve Fanuc M-3iA delta robots for case packing. “What we’re trying to do is ﬂatten our curve of our costs, so we can provide a great service to our customers and keep our pricing down,” says Ernie Waldo, plant manager for Tasteful Selections. “As we’ve rolled out automation, it has been a real blessing to our employees to bring consistency to the line and bring consistency to our costs.”

In just a few years, Tasteful Selections has grown from 100 workers to close to 900. The robotic palletizers have also made a di erence in employee accidents and injuries. Previously, workers stacked 50-lb. boxes onto pallets up to 92 in. high, but now the robotic palletizers perform that task. “We were able to come up with a very modular, unique design for our palletizers,” says Justin McHenry, vice president of plant operations for Tasteful Selections. “It’s capable of picking up any one of our boxes in this facility, stacking a pallet as high as will ﬁt in the back of any refrigerated truck, and does all that without requiring any tooling change.”

“We are constantly planting, harvesting, and picking the freshest product for our customers,” says Nathan Bender, chief operating o cer for Tasteful Selections. “We’re growing so fast that, without automation, we can’t keep up.”

Robots handling the potatoes, however, was cause for concern as well, since they could potentially cause more bumps and bruises than human handling. Having not only a food-safe but also gentle robotic solution was of utmost importance.

Tasteful Selections approached Soft Robotics to ﬁnd a robotic gripper that could reliably grab a shifting bag of potatoes while easing the positioning tolerance requirements of the robot and the

Tasteful Selections also employs state-of-theart production technology. To maintain high standards of quality, ﬂavor, freshness, size uniformity, and best practices for sustainability, the company owns the entire planting, growing, harvesting, and packaging process. When it wanted to expand and optimize its potato production, robotic automation was seen as the key.

Finding the right robotic gripper

machine vision system guiding it. The technology chosen was Soft Robotics’ mGrip soft gripper.

13 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 PERSPECTIVES

well as maintain the quality of its small potatoes for customers. And it’s all been done at an attractive price point.

The pneumatic actuated tool allows the operators to control the air pressure to either tighten or loosen the grip on the bags of potatoes. It also knows the correct number of bags to ﬁll a box as well as where to place them in the box.

Plus, the unique gripper material allows the bags to be grabbed without any concern of damaging the product by applying too much force or using a rigid gripping tool. “We chose Soft Robotics because of the softness of the plastic and its integration with the Fanuc robot,” says Emilio Lemus, automation manager for Tasteful Selections. “It speeds up the process a lot and, at the same time, takes care of our product the way we want it to.”

Innovation gets results

With the investment in automation, Tasteful Selections has been able to grow very quickly as

As a result of the mGrip-enabled robotic work cell, Tasteful Selections was able to exceed a packing rate of 45 bags per minute and increase its packing line’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 15%, achieving 100% return on investment (ROI) within nine months.

Adding robotics also enabled the company to achieve another advantage in 2020—a way to easily social distance employees on the production line. “Because of the robotics, we had less people on the line, so that really helped with the social distancing,” Mebane says. “It allows people to be farther apart because the person putting the bags in boxes isn’t standing right next to the person putting boxes on the pallet.”

“If we don’t innovate, we’re not going to be competitive. Our prices will go up,” McHenry says. “We haven’t taken a price increase in 10 years on our product. We’re able to maintain that through automation.”

See more about the explosive growth of robots across industry.

“The end-of-arm tooling for this application needed to be able to handle a lot of variability,” explains Ben Gibson, applications engineering manager of packaging solutions for Soft Robotics. “These are mesh bags of baby potatoes. Depending on how the product settles on the belt, it can end up in lots of di erent shapes or sizes. We were able to handle all of this with a single end-of-arm tool.”

“It helps with the quality—hands aren’t being harsh on them—and it helps with the overall efﬁciency because we are sending out what we are supposed to be sending out; so it eliminates a lot of human error,” Mebane says.

Data democratization

• Test equipment/system capabilities under dif fering operational parameters before imple menting changes on the plant ﬂoor;

As a result, people at all levels of industrial busi ness operations “still struggle to ﬁnd the information they need to make timely, informed, and accurate decisions [which contributes to] asset failures, an in ability to always deliver on commitments to custom ers, loss of proﬁts, and safety incidents,” he said.

• Apply insights for research and development.

igital twin technology has garnered a great deal of attention recently for its ability to digitally render all the components in a ma chine, device, or component based on direct data in puts from the real-world physical device. Beneﬁts of digital twin technology include the ability to:

A term closely associated with the information digi tal twin and Industry 4.0 in general is data democ ratization. Referencing recent research on industrial data, Gregerson said 50% of all the industrial data available today has been created in the last two years. And researchers estimate that 96 zettabytes worth of data has been captured, copied, and con sumed in the last 12 months alone.

Gregerson noted that a major driver behind the development of information digital twin technology is the fact that most manufacturing and processing companies still have a disconnected data environ ment in their plants where “we have these siloed functional islands of data connectivity and com munication, as well as divisional and stakeholder silos across engineering, operations, and maintenance.”

“We see a lot of industrial operators building things like data lakes in the cloud to store data, but not first defining how that data is going to be used or who is going to use it,” he said. “How can that data be transformed into something that’s meaningful for the consumer of the information if you don’t know who they are. Similarly, we see some industrial oper ators deploying AI platforms that are touted to solve any and every problem without first understanding what the problems are they’re trying to solve and how that translates into something that’s meaningful for a reliability engineer or a performance engineer.”

Now we’re beginning to see a new application of digital twin technology where it’s being applied to broader sets of asset-related data and information, i.e., an information digital twin.

In addition to these factors, Gregerson pointed out that industrial companies are still not very good at sharing data. A study conducted by Gartner shows that industrial operators who do share infor mation within their ecosystem of partners, suppliers, OEMs, and customers, receive 3x the economic beneﬁt of those who do not share information.

An information digital twin can solve a lot of these problems, Gregerson said. “You construct the infor mation digital twin by taking all the information you have about your industrial assets today—the design information, the operations information, the com missioning information, the asset management and ﬁnancial information—and fuse this together into

an information data model. Then you link that infor mation data model back to the physical asset itself in 3D in the context of its connectivity within the plant. This allows for more informed, more timely, and more accurate decisions to be made.”

• Deliver early warning signs of issues indicating the need for maintenance before unplanned downtime occurs;

14 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 PERSPECTIVES

By David Greenfield Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief

• Commission plant ﬂoor equipment virtually; and

“Data democratization is all about transforming this raw data into actionable and contextualized in formation that enables accurate and optimized de cision making across a business,” he explained. It’s a term that’s universally gaining popularity and is similar to what we hear about the democratization of artiﬁcial intelligence in that it’s all about taking artiﬁ cial intelligence and democratizing it so that it can be used—not just by data scientists—but by any person and role within your business through the use of nocode technologies that enables use of this advanced technology to drive decision making.

Deﬁning data use

To shrink this gap between used and unused indus trial data, Gregerson said it’s important for industrial users to not apply technology for technology’s sake.

�e rans ormational m act o an n ormation i ital in

Though software is helping industry improve the use of data via data democratization, there’s still a long way to go, Gregerson said. “Unfortunately, [collecting] more data does not translate to better decision making or improved proﬁtability. A recent

study by Seagate indicates that only 32% of all the industrial data we have available today is actually be ing put to work. And it’s reasonable to expect, based on how quickly the amount of data that we have available is continuously growing, that this amount of unleveraged data will continue growing in the same way, unless we take some decisive steps to apply the advanced technologies we have available today.”

To better understand the information digital twin and its potential impact on industrial manufacturing and processing operations, we connected with Sean Gregerson, vice president of asset performance management at Aveva, for a recent episode of the “Automation World Gets Your Questions An swered” podcast series.

this information is and how it can be used to make better decisions,” said Gregerson.

“For example, if they want to notify a group of people by email or text when a certain event occurs, or automatically trigger a work order in the enterprise asset management system based on a certain condition being met,” he said.

that Aveva Data Hub takes data collected at edge and securely transports it to the cloud where the data is further contextualized.

He explained that Dominion Energy is currently transforming its energy generation operations and adding more renewables. As part of this transformation, they’ve developed a new service for their residential and industrial customers which allows these customers to understand how their energy is being sourced and what their energy consumption patterns are.

“This information is then made available to Dominion’s customers in a very secure way and on a selective basis,” said Gregerson. Companies can now selectively make this type of information available within their own ecosystem of partners, suppliers, and OEMs, who can then take that information and translate it back into a value proposition for their business.

A key technology enabling Dominion Energy to provide this information is the Aveva PI System, which collects operational data from Dominion’s assets at the edge.

Listen to the complete podcast with Aveva’s Sean Gregerson about the Information Digital Twin and Data Democratization.

On top of these data collection, analysis, and communication layers is a “rich visualization layer that brings all this information together and puts it in the context of the consumer of the information and their role within the business,” Gregerson said. And these visual representations are automatically updated whenever new assets are added to the system.

“The PI System archives this information in high ﬁdelity—second by second—compresses it, and then organizes it through an asset information model that contextualizes the data so that it’s consumable by all the applications and users connected to it. The contextualization of the data at the source level helps users understand what

Dominion Energy’s experience

Another step taken by Dominion Energy to better manage and understand all the data it collects is the use of Aveva Data Hub. Gregerson explained

Providing an example of a company reaping the beneﬁts of better data analysis and sharing, Gregerson pointed to Dominion Energy, a supplier of electricity and natural gas with operations across 16 states in the U.S.

for Hazardous Areas

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Beyond the PI System, Dominion Energy has also implemented self-service analytics and event management. Gregerson said self-service analytics allow the company to track any KPIs (key performance indicators) or analytics they need to drive more informed and timely decisions across the business. And with event management, Dominion can create events that respond to speciﬁc conditions.

By David Greenfield Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief

Accordingfuture.to Thomas Burke, global strategic advisor at CLPA (the CC-Link Partner Association), “TSN technology only addresses network functions at Layer 2 (Data Link) of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model for communications. Therefore, it’s only responsible for getting data from one place to another in a deterministic manner without looking at what the data is. What needs to be done with the data is typically handled at the higher-level layers that address application requirements. These are managed by industrial Ethernet technologies.”

16 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 PERSPECTIVES

Read this story on the expansion of TSN product testing for industrial networks.

The Open System Interconnection (OSI) model for communications.

Read this story on how TSN delivers determinism over Ethernet.

“Typically,convergence.mostofindustrial Ethernet protocols do not allow di erent kinds of tra c to be merged on the same network,” says Burke. “TSN adds this missing capability by allowing multiple tra c types to share the same network while being handled in a

“By doing this, it allows I/O, motion, and safety control to be integrated with standard TCP/IP trafﬁc in a deterministic way,” Burke says.

ndustrial facilities over the past two decades have seen a significant level of fieldbus communication networks replaced by industrial Ethernet. According to a 2021 study by HMS Networks, industrial Ethernet accounts for 65% of new installed nodes, while fieldbuses account for 28% of new installed nodes.

deterministic way.”

Burke advises OEMs and end users exploring the use of TSN-enabled industrial Ethernet protocols to ensure those protocols can address the I/O, motion control, and safety aspects of the intended application. For example, he notes that CC-Link IE TSN's protocol uses Layers 3 to 7 of the OSI reference model to build on the Layer 2 TSN capabilities.

Burke notes that some users may wonder why both TSN and industrial Ethernet are needed since most industrial Ethernet protocols can provide determinism when required. He says the answer lies in

W� n ustrial t ernet rotocols Will emain ele ant

With the continued advance of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) through numerous new product offerings and its ability to bring determinism to standard Ethernet, some might wonder if it’s only a matter of time before industrial Ethernet protocols like Proﬁnet, CC-Link IE, EtherNet/IP, and EtherCAT begin to recede in the face of TSN. A closer look at TSN and the industrial Ethernet protocols explains why this is unlikely—and not possible in the foreseeable

n a field test to determine the viability of artificial intelligence (AI) to control a chemical plant, automation technology supplier Yokogawa Electric Corporation and chemical manufacturer JSR Corporation successfully operated a distillation column at the JSR plant autonomously with AI for 35 days. The test ran from January 17 to February 21, 2022, for a total of 840 hours of operation.

• During inclement weather conditions that could disrupt the control state due to temperature changes, products produced during those periods still met the plant’s standards.

• Exaopc OPC interface package (OPCcompliant software that enables management of databases used in the processing industries); and

• Ensuring product quality while eliminating excess fuel, labor, and time costs associated with the production of off-spec products.

Artificial Intelligence Autonomously Controls JSR Chemical Plant

By David Greenfield Director of Content, Automation World

JSRcolumnDistillationatplant.

Kenji Hasegawa, vice president at Yokogawa Electric, added that the success of this test suggests that AI can significantly contribute to autonomous production operations, maximization of ROI (return on investment), and environmental sustainability around the world. “With our gaze fixed firmly on a world of autonomous operation that forms the model for the future of industries, we are now promoting the concept of IA2IA (Industrial Automation to Industrial Autonomy), which considers the impact of differences in humans, machines, materials, and methods in industry,” he said.

The specific AI technology used at the JSR plant—the Factorial Kernel Dynamic Policy Programming (FKDPP) protocol—was developed by Yokogawa and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 2018. IEEE recognized this technology as being the first reinforcement learning-based AI suitable for use in plant management. In addition to the FKDPP protocol’s ability to handle tasks beyond PID and APC, Yokogawa says specific strengths of this AI technology include an ability to deal with conflicting targets, such as handling the dual needs of maintaining high quality and achieving energy savings.

Yokogawa and JSR say the test confirmed that reinforcement learning AI can control operations beyond automated PID and Advanced Process Control (APC) applications that typically require the judgement of plant personnel and manual operation of control valves.

• OmegaLand plant simulator;

According to Yokogawa and JSR, specific achievements of the AI technology during its 35 days of autonomously operating the plant include:

• Maintaining liquids in the distillation column at an appropriate level while making maximum possible use of waste heat as a heat source.

“We have heard comments [from operators in the field] that not only has the burden on operators been reduced [with this AI technology], but the very fact that we have taken on the challenge of [using] this new technology and succeeded is motivation for moving forward with digital transformation,” said Masataka Masutani, general manager of production technology at JSR.

• GA10 data logging software.

• Centum VP integrated production control system;

Other Yokogawa automation technologies used in the test included:

17NEWS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

Though the test proved that complex chemical plant operations can be successfully controlled autonomously, Yokogawa and JSR point out that “there are still many situations where veteran operators must step in and exercise control.”

The two companies plan to continue exploring the application of the FKDPP protocol to other processes and plants to improve productivity.

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Vatsal Shah, CEO of Litmus

subscribe while Google can add more contextualized data on top at the enterprise level, such as from MES or ERP systems. The structured final data point is ready to use for analytics. All of this happens automatically but it is configurable if the user would like to change anything.”

f there’s one thing industry’s embrace of cloud and edge computing technologies has shown us, it’s that hybrid systems—using both cloud and edge computing to handle data storage and analytics—are the preferred approach. As revealed in a 2019 Automation World study, digital transformation initiatives tend to follow a typical rollout pattern: Phase one is usually centered around the cloud to host core enterprise analytics applications to evaluate plant performance or for asset optimization to reduce production downtime. From there, manufacturers tend to invest in edge computing technologies for detailed onsite analytics delivered in near real time. The cloud also figures in as a means of providing additional storage and compute scalability.

By David Greenfield Director of Content, Automation World

Explaining how Litmus Edge prepares data for Google Cloud analytics, Vatsal Shah, Litmus CEO, says, “Using Litmus technology, we collect data from industrial systems, normalize that data, and add all of the OT (operations technology) data variables for context locally. We push that data into the Google Cloud environment using publish/

Charlie Sheridan, technical director of industry solutions for manufacturing at Google Cloud, adds, “Manufacturing Connect provides data interoperability for all devices—regardless of type or brand—by generating a standardized JSON payload format for all data streams. In addition, Manufacturing Connect and Manufacturing Data Engine (the Google technology that provides for the common data model) share a common metadata model that supports integrated data contextualization at the edge and in the cloud.”

Learn more about the publish/subscribe method of network communications.

Google Cloud and Litmus Co-Develop Data Connectivity Platform

18 NEWS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

This hybrid reality of cloud and edge computing can be seen in the development of the Manufacturing Connect platform by Google Cloud and Litmus (a supplier of industrial edge computing technologies). The idea behind the Manufacturing Connect platform is to simplify the process of collecting data from disparate factory devices and exposing it to Google Cloud data and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

According to Litmus, Manufacturing Connect is a factory edge platform designed to support more than 250 machine communication protocols. Data is structured and stored locally and then sent to Google Cloud for analysis. The platform can also reportedly deploy and manage AI and machine learning models at the edge for closed loop AI

• Predictive maintenance to reduce downtime and maintenance cost. Manufacturers can use ML (machine learing) models and high-accuracy AI optimizations that are “deployable in weeks,” says Sheridan.

• Machine-level anomaly detection via Manufacturing Connects’ use of Google Cloud’s Time Series Insights, which analyzes real-time machine and sensor data such as noise, vibration, or temperature.

Describing how end users can apply Manufacturing Connect, Sheridan says, “Once data is centralized and harmonized by the Manufacturing Data Engine and Manufacturing Connect, it can then be used to create custom dashboards to visualize key data—from factory KPIs (key performance indicators) such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), to individual machine sensor data, allowing them to uncover new insights and opportunities throughout the factory. These insights can then be shared across the enterprise and with partners.”

This video covers the initial work to align Litmus edge and Google Cloud technologies.

Charlie Sheridan, technical director of industry solutions for manufacturing at Google Cloud.

Two specific types of applications noted by Sheridan are:

Featuresapplications.oftheManufacturing Connect platform include data collection and engineering, data visualizations and KPI (key performance indicator) dashboards, containerized application deployment, and machine learning model runtime. It also includes out-of-the-box integration with several analytics packages, such as Looker for BI and analytics, and Vertex AI for machine learning and AI.”

Sheridan points out that Manufacturing Connect can be used across the discrete and process manufacturing verticals, such as automotive, aviation, electronics, semiconductors, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, food and beverage, and packaging and processing.

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Bring teams together with one revolutionary new solution for operations control s olio

Advantech and Hivecell technologies connect legacy systems to IoT devices for scalable data collection and management.

• UNO-148: High-performance DIN-rail con trol computer with Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake Core i7/i5/i3 CPU;

• SKY-640V2: 4U rackmount Intel Xeon scal able GPU server;

Jerry O’Gorman, vice president of the Industrial IoT Division at Advantech, says, “The continuous growth of connected smart devices and machines is driving a need for cloud-native architectures to be built on the edge, address ing increasing computing, throughput, and pri vacy needs closer to source.”

Connect Legacy Systems with Edge-as-a-Service

Advantech’s

UNO-238.

Advantech products recommended for use with Hivecell’s EaaS, include:

By David Greenfield Director of Content, Automation World

• MIC-770 V2: Compact fanless system with 10th Gen Intel Xeon/Core i CPU socket.

tech and Hivecell jointly provide customers with a complete edge solution at the data source.”

20 NEWS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

ne of the biggest challenges of the digi tal transformation for existing manu facturing operations is accessing data from legacy production technologies and con necting them for greater analytic insights. To help address this, Advantech is working with Hivecell, a supplier of edge-as-a-service (EaaS) technol ogy, as part of Advantech’s Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) development. The combination of Advantech’s industrial hardware and Hivecell’s EaaS platform is meant to ease the process of con necting legacy systems to IoT devices for scalable data collection and management.

According to Advantech, the enormous amounts of data generated by connecting pro duction systems can “be an obstacle to efficient operations if end users depend on cloud-only pro cessing. While the cloud has value as a storage space, it cannot enable the day-to-day operational and safety improvements that EaaS makes pos sible for critical and real-time decision-making.”

“Hivecell provides the industry’s first edge-asa-service platform enabling cloud-like compute power deployed on premises,” says Jeffrey Ricker, CEO of Hivecell. “By combining forces, Advan

IoT gateways act as the bridge between devices and the network, converting physical information into digital data for transmission from the edge. Raw data flows through a gateway at the edge

where it is processed by machine learning and other analytics. In the end, only business-relevant data is sent to the cloud.

• UNO-238: Compact IoT edge computer with Intel Core i Processor;

Hivecell’s EaaS reportedly connects legacy systems to gateways, edge computers, 5G rout ers, and other IoT devices for scalable data man agement. By collecting and processing data at the edge, Hivecell says data flow can be improved because useless data is efficiently discarded on site. “Only relevant data is sent back to head quarters and/or the cloud. The result is deploy ment and management with on-premises com puting power for hundreds, or even thousands, of locations,” says Ricker.

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While industrial companies can choose to review data and information in any number of formats including plant blueprints, piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID), and isometrics through CAD/CAM software, V-Suite Starter allows users to view real-time and historical asset data on the 3D model to deliver timely and valuable insights at the point of action. The 3D visualizations of key asset information combine “see it, model it, and understand future behavior.”

22 NEWS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

GE Digital Amps Up Asset Performance Management

GE Digital’s first set of Accelerators includes an extensive library of predictive analytics, asset management strategies, and standard health and reliability processes. Using advanced prebuilt product configurations, companies can set up enterprise-level asset reliability and performance programs, embedding prioritized actionable information into daily work. In addition, they are designed to scale the power of APM with health monitors, analytics, asset maintenance strategies, and business process workflows.

First, GE Digital has formed a partnership with 3D digital twin provider Visionaize that brings high accuracy visualization capabilities to operational use cases as a way to save time, reduce cost, and improve safety, the company said. Visionaize’s V-Suite Starter can be incorporated into GE Digital’s APM Mechanical Integrity software designed to streamline maintenance activities and improve worker efficiency across asset intensive industries.

In addition to GE Digital’s own asset library, the company has partnered with Stork, an asset performance improvement provider, to offer their Asset Strategy Library (ASL,) delivering a collection of pre-defined strategy templates for known failure modes and prescribed mitigating actions for a wide variety of asset types including Balance of Plant (BoP).

Lastly, GE Digital’s AWS Competency status was a result of a rigorous technical validation process, including a customer reference audit, resulting in a demonstration of GE Digital’s deep expertise of AWS to build, implement, and integrate technology—using its APM software for power generation and oil & gas—that transforms complex business and operational systems in a way that can accelerate energy and digital transitions.

Read more GE Digital News: Proﬁcy Operations Hub 2022.

“Energy companies have used asset management practices for decades, but today’s operating environment requires that they extend that to even more assets in the plant,” said Tracy Swartzendruber, GE Digital’s VP of marketing for power generation and oil & gas during a press conference. “Accelerators help energy companies expand processes without consuming more time and more resources required on custom configurations.”

Swartzendruber went on to liken Accelerators to the game Minecraft, where players can build

GE Digital's partnership with Visionaize adds 3D digital twin technology to its asset performance portfolio. Source: GE Digital

By Stephanie Neil Senior Editor, Automation World

To that end, GE Digital has made three announcements around: a partnership with a 3D digital twin software provider; the new Accelerator product line designed to quickly configure its Asset Performance Management (APM) software; and that GE Digital has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Energy Competency status, which recognizes GE Digital’s ability to help the energy industry prepare for a lower carbon future.

In a separate announcement, GE Digital announced the launch of its Accelerator tools which will fast track the time it takes to leverage predictive analytics, asset health and reliability processes, asset strategy optimization, and change manage-

he energy industry is well on its way to digital transformation, and GE Digital is positioning itself as a technology supplier that can help accelerate an oil and gas manufacturer’s digital journey as well as their time to value for new applications.

and create anything. Over time, to avoid custom coding, the game began to productize different textures and sounds, for example, that could be easily applied. “That’s Accelerators. GE Digital deploys so many APM instances and we keep seeing the same things that people need…why not package these things up? They can still customize it, but we give them the head start.”

ment workflows without custom development.

Visionaize integrates 3D plant models with APM Mechanical Integrity to provide data-driven visualization of key attributes by color coding the model to filter out noise and focus on what matters most. It dynamically visualizes and contextualizes data for operations and maintenance activities to help assetintensive companies solve challenges associated with downtime, quicker time to resolution, maintenance costs, and workforce productivity, the company said.

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Secondary packaging

Access the PMMI report on robots and cobots

Cobots have seen their role in processing steadily expand as inclusion of the IP69k harsh environment standard, artificial intelligence, and enhanced robot vision systems become more common and affordable. Adoption in processing has also accelerated with COVID-19 restrictions, particularly in the food industry.

Processing operations

Source: PMMI Business Intelligence Report 2022 Robots and Cobots: An Automated Future.

ccording to the “PMMI Business Intelligence Report 2022 Robots and Cobots: An Automated Future,” 84% of consumer packaged goods companies now use robots somewhere on their production lines, and this number is expected to rise to 93% in the next five years. Deployment of collaborative robots, also known as cobots, is also expected to see strong growth, with use more than doubling from 27% this year to 57% in 2027. Respondents to the PMMI research say improvements in robot functionality, such as vision, self-learning, and artificial intelligence are spurring manufacturers to purchase and use more robots in processing and packaging applications.

Cobots are playing a key role in improving the efficiency of secondary packaging operations. From secondary packaging material handling to visual inspection, robots are driving new levels of efficiency and speed that help manufacturers manage production costs and increase throughput.

Primary packaging

24 PMMI NEWS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

Robotic capabilities in primary packaging have expanded significantly recently. With the advent of tactile sensors, AI-supported vision, and innovative end of arm tool designs, cobots are finding new roles in primary packaging and expanding their reach into new manufacturing markets.

CPG Cobot Use Expected to At Least Double in Next Five Years

By Sean Riley Senior News Director, PMMI Media Group

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AW SEPTEMBER 2022

hrough its TouchMark business, Del phon (a Hayward, CA-based manu facturer) provides high quality, pre cision pad printing services to the medical device and electronics industries. Pad print ing is a printing process that can transfer a 2D image onto a 3D object. The company’s cleanroom manufacturing facility enables it to handle prototypes ranging from small clinical trials and engineering lots to large production volumes.

Delphon Puts Robotsas-a-Service to Work

26 NEWS

Like most manufacturers today, Delphon has been finding it difficult to find machine operators for its production operations.

“TouchMark had considered robotic auto mation in the past, but the ROI never made sense,” Garner said. “Other cobots (collab orative robots) worked at the same rate as a human operator, needed constant super vision, and came with a big sticker price. Choosing one of these cobots would mean that TouchMark’s labor costs and throughput would have stayed the same, while its capex would have increased.”

Garner noted that the RMOs took only a few days at most to set up and needed

“Recruiting operators has been next to impossible. It only got harder once the pan demic hit,” said James Garner, director of TouchMark’s manufacturing operations.

In response, Delphon has been looking to automate various aspects of its pro duction operations for some time now. The problems Delphon encountered in its mission to automate were multiple: the robotics systems the company investi gated all cost too much, took too long to install, or delivered too little value.

By David Greenfield Director of Content, Automation World

Despite its lack of success finding suit able robotic automation technologies for its operations, Delphon continued its search and found the Rapid Machine Operator (RMO) from Rapid Robotics to be differ ent. A key factor for Delphon is that RMOs with built-in computer vision and pre-trained artificial intelligence to operate the kinds of machines TouchMark used could be hired for $2,100 per month.

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Prior to the RMO deployments, an operator was assigned to each pad printing machine. Now, one employee can supervise both RMOs while operating a third machine at the same time. The other two operators were redeployed elsewhere in TouchMark’s operations . With the two RMOs in place, TouchMark was saving $15,640 per month.

AW SEPTEMBER 2022 NEWS

Speaking to the value that robots-as-a-service has brought to Delphon’s operations across two of its divisions, Philip Haseltine, vice president of Delphon’s manufacturing operations, said, “If you don’t have a massive engineering staff and you want to start saving immediately, this is the business model for you.”

only light supervision from an operator who could work another machine at the same time.

Based on the success of the RMO at TouchMark, Delphon began using the RMO at its Gel-Pak facility, which manufactures containers and films to protect electronic materials and components. Gel-Pak uses the RMO to clean molded parts with an ionized air knife prior to assembly. With two RMOs doing the work of five Gel-Pak operators, the company is saving $20,400 per month, and the operators were redeployed to other activities.

“Production became less expensive and more consistent,” said Garner. “TouchMark’s RMOs worked at the same rate, hour by hour, day by day. That steady pace proved invaluable during the pandemic when other manufacturers were struggling to staff their machines.”

Garner added, “We don’t have a ton of engineering resources. We don’t have any robotics engineers or software engineers. For us, the RMO was an easy, quick, and incredibly rewarding entry into the world of robotics.”

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TouchMark put the RMO to work on a task it had been running the same way for 30 years—applying pressure-sensitive adhesive to semiconductor packaging. With the RMO successfully automating this procedure, TouchMark brought in another RMO to work a pad printer alongside the first RMO.

Read more about the robots-as-a-service trend.

–

Modular enclosures like Rittal’s TS 8 provide greater accessibility via the ability to easily remove doors, sidewalls, and other parts of the construction. Source: Rittal

28 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 APPLICATION SERIES

ENCLOSURES:

onventional wisdom is that there’s not much to selecting an in dustrial enclosure. Yet the last likely item chosen for an industrial control system turns out to have an outsized impact as a simple design miscue can send engineers back to the drawing board, slowing timeto-delivery as well as jeopardizing a system’s operational health. Enclosures are the cabinetry that play an essential role in protecting machinery controls, circuit boards, cabling, switches, and other critical electronics and automation components from environmental elements like dust, water, and extreme temperatures. They are also the central housing backbone for the auxiliary components necessary for many industrial auto mation applications—for example, cooling systems such as heat exchang ers and fans are now commonplace as the number of heat-generating elec tronics used in control applications has mushroomed over the years.

Beth Stackpole, contributing writer

29 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 APPLICATION SERIES

Often overlooked and under considered, the right enclosure is critical to ensuring the healthy lifecycle of automation and industrial control applications.

The Workhorse of AutomationIndustrial

form of industrial enclosure.

A modular approachto boost flexibility

battery, and myriad other industries.

As opposed to a traditional unibody enclosure, Rittal takes a modular approach to its product line, starting with a metal-formed frame that can accommodate accessories as well as be joined with other frames to create a nearly infinite number of configurations. This approach allows customers to create side-to-side, back-to-back, or side-toback enclosure system designs. It also simplifies modifications if the end user’s needs shift without incurring costly fabrication techniques.

“There’s real ﬂexibility in the design and ways to grow and conﬁgure a cabinet,” says Robbie Hall, system consultant at Rittal. It's also less complicated to replace parts, repair any mistakes made with cut outs, or correct paint damage—all tasks that are much harder to take care of with the classic unibody enclosure style, Hall maintains.

Saginaw Control & Engineering specializes in both standard stock and Controlindustry.enclosurescustom-designedfortheelectricalSource:Saginaw&Engineering

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Conaway serves a range of industries so enclosure flexibility is crucial given that the feature set and enclosure configuration will vary significantly depending on the nature of the control application. The need for versatility led Conaway to Rittal’s family of modular enclosures—a partnership that has spanned nearly 30 years and allowed the firm to service applications in food & beverage, chemical, automotive,

“Whether we’re upgrading equipment for a customer with existing enclosures or starting fresh with a new design and speciﬁcation, 90% of what we do involves enclosures—everything from a lowvoltage data network or camera installation up to a high-voltage power distribution,” says Je Shefﬁeld, superintendent with Conaway. “All of these product o erings involve enclosures.”

“Compared to everything else in the automation world, enclosures are the ‘dumbest’ product out there—they don’t plug in, they don’t have firmware, yet they serve an important purpose,” says Jody Kinney, product manager for AutomationDirect, a direct e-commerce distributor of industrial products. “The big part is understanding what your environment is so you can understand what you need. Many people think it’s simpler than it is.”

With its 40-year history serving a variety of industries as an electrical contractor, including panel building and system integration work, Conaway Electrical Service Inc. has hardly landed a contract or job that didn’t call for some

System design impacts

31 AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS Picking • Packing • Stacking Conveyors • Specialty Machinery • Control Systems FOOD & BEVERAGE LIFE SCIENCE | GENERAL INDUSTRY BCAsystems.com 978.255.1921 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 APPLICATION SERIES

EPlan, design software for machine and panel builders offered by Rittal, helps address those challenges, ensuring Conaway avoids such errors

protecting the lifeblood of Mesa Technologies’ intelligent traffic systems from environmental factors. The enclosures also create an acces sible deployment environment that allows city technicians, who don’t have machine building and industrial automation experience, to eas ily configure and maintain traffic systems once they are out in the field.

Mesa Technologies manufactures camera systems for use in tra c monitoring and its secret sauce comes in two ﬂavors: Artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) capabilities that identify and classify risky be haviors and, designing and building its own circuit boards and related camera equipment to better cater to individual customer needs.

A less flashy, but still central element in its offering are industrial enclosures from Phoe nix Contact. These enclosures are essential to

as part of its current enclosure design practices.

Another common mistake practitioners make when considering enclosures is putting too much focus on the lowest cost as opposed to total cost of ownership. “They’re not looking at what it costs to integrate or engineer the product, [meaning that] things aren’t well thought out across the board,” Rittal’s Hall says. “Enclosures aren’t looked at as a technology piece—it’s more about the stu inside like drives and PLCs. Not enough time is spent thinking about the technology involved in the ac tual cabinet and what it is housing.”

Rather than developing a traditional sche matic provided with an enclosure, Mesa worked with Phoenix Contact to custom print a layout directly on the enclosure so technicians know exactly where every termination needs to go as part of an overall assembly roadmap. “When a customer goes to install or manufacture, ev eryone knows exactly where every component is going,” explains Todd Jackson, product officer at Mesa. “The drawing shows what the connec tor looks like so it’s easy to install.”

Rittal’s modular enclosure design has enabled Conaway to accommodate the needs of its cli ents, Sheffield says. For example, in one recent deployment, Sheffield’s team was able to opti mize a client’s tight spacing restrictions by mak ing a smaller panel on one side of the enclosure and a taller option on the other end. “As long as I think of my design as modular, it gives my customers extended flexibility,” he says.

In all his years working with industrial enclo sures, the greatest challenges always come down to a case of inadequate planning or miscues on enclosure size due to underestimating the spac ing requirements of individual components. “You need to have a good understanding of the com ponents you’re putting into the enclosure and their requirements—that’s what is going to drive what kind and how big your enclosure needs to be,” he says, adding that it’s a hard lesson most integrators and control engineers learn over the years based on trial and error.

Because Mesa is committed to designing as much componentry as possible in-house, enclo sure flexibility was critical. For example, Mesa was building its own power supply board for one product, which needed to snap on to a DIN rail.

Phoenix was able to deliver an enclosure that accommodates the board while still allowing it to be affixed to a DIN rail, ensuring protection from environmental factors.

“Each board has a different function in a traf fic system, and we can offer different size en closures to accommodate different size printed circuit boards,” says Travis Prause, senior elec tronics sales engineer at Phoenix Contact.

32 AW SEPTEMBER 2022

To avoid unwanted, last-minute surprises, Prause says customers should retool processes and work with enclosure providers to consider the enclosure as part of early-stage PCB (print ed circuit board) design. “If they design the

PCB first and look for enclosure to fit the board after, it seldom works,” he says. “If we’re talk ing to customers early on in the product design cycle, it’s easy to find the right enclosure.”

Screen printing capabilities allow information to be printed in enclosures to ensure correct placement of corresponding devices. Source: Phoenix Contact

While NEMA ratings are designed to guide control engineers to one type of enclosure or another, the system isn’t the most intuitive, acknowledges AutomationDirect’s Kinney. As a result, many misunderstand the ratings and er roneously spec a unit or they ignore the rating system all together, relying instead on gut in stinct, which raises the risk of problems.

As part of the selection process, it’s important to fully understand where the enclosure will be used to address factors such as physical security, mounting requirements, and accessibility. Ther mal management is another critical aspect of en closures as integrators will often need to include

“Customers will consider an environmen tal rating that gives specific requirements, but that standard only looks at a portion of what that environment is,” notes Ron Zeitler, quality assurance manager for Saginaw Control & En gineering. “You have to consider all of the en vironmental issues in the end-use environment, not just the type of rating.”

Deployment best practices

APPLICATION SERIES

di erent forms of cooling devices—many of which may not be compatible with speciﬁc environ ments where water or extreme cold temperatures are involved, Kinney says. Another important consideration is size—too many control engineers don’t pay close attention early on to the size and spacing needs of components like HMI screens or fans and then end up saddled with an enclosure that doesn’t scale properly to accommodate the full bill of Kinneymaterials.advisescustomers to keep longevity in mind when selecting an enclosure, at least beyond the service life of the internal compo nents, to avoid having to purchase a new enclo

The ultra-compact ELM72xx EtherCAT Terminals: full-ﬂedged servo drives in an I/O terminal with robust metal housing increased output current of up to 16 A at 48 V DC metal housing for optimum heat dissipation at high outputs directly integrated in the standard EtherCAT I/O system increased performance and added functionality optimal shielding in case of electrical interference convenient connector front end and One Cable Technology (OCT) selectable safety range: STO or comprehensive Safe Motion function package

“Put the work in on the front end so you don’t have to think about it on the back end,” Kinney says. “Once the enclosure is installed, the only thing you should worry about is troubleshooting

and maintaining the equipment inside. The enclo sure should be able to do its job in perpetuity.”

33APPLICATION SERIES AW SEPTEMBER 2022

directly integrated in the EtherCAT I/O system EK11-20USA Scan technologycompactmigrationbeginandyourtodrive

ELM72xx:

Compact drive technology in a robust metal housing

sure and endure the hassle of remounting and optimizing components.

34 CASE STUDY AW SEPTEMBER 2022 Aveva’s interactive wall showcasing EAM software insights applied to a city-wide asset management. Source: Aveva Enterprise Asset Management Helps CF Industries Streamline Operations From automating workﬂows and minimizing vendor communications to reducing costs and increasing revenue, Aveva’s EAM software has proven its ability to broadly improve operations at CF Industries. By Jeanne Schweder, contributing writer

CASE STUDY

But at some point, even tried-and-true sys tems face the end of their useful life. That was the case for CF Industries, which was spending more than $1 million annually to keep its home grown system in sync with the requirements of its growing business. The company turned to Aveva to achieve its connected goals of con tinuous maintenance planning across multiple facilities, cost savings, and flexibility for growth.

“For now, we can actually ensure that maintenance materials and services we need are there when we need them, know what it costs to maintain the plant, and know the best way to maintain it based on history,” Wiedenfeld adds. “This puts us way ahead of the game.”

While CF Industries’ previous IBM-based asset management system had worked well over the years, managers at the company reasoned that migration to a Windows-based system would enable the company to further expand its automation-

MRO and improvementcontinuous

“The Aveva software takes raw data from Mi crosoft documents, such as Excel, and makes useful information out of it,” says Wiedenfeld.

The software allows CF Industries to aggregate data on spending and analyzes factors such as number of vendors for common items, price, and delivery performance, which has contributed to savings of approximately $2 million through improved sourcing and contract negotiations.

CF Industries has now standardized on Aveva EAM software as its core platform for the col lection and storage of data on maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) inventory, as well as maintenance and procurement activities on more than 60,000 inventory items across CF Industries’ four manufacturing locations. The company also uses it to analyze equipment data for continuous process improvement.

“This enables us to monitor assets and optimize efficiency. Data analysis that took two weeks is now done in 10 minutes, which opens up new doors for improvement.”

CF Industries’ terminal in Spencer, Iowa. Source: Aveva

“Because we were already automating maintenance planning in a big way, we had pretty heavyduty requirements for the new system,” explains Dave Wiedenfeld, group IT project leader, at CF Industries. “We found that the Aveva software had most of the functionality that we needed and also had the ﬂexibility to develop custom applications and integration to support our business.”

anaging tens of thousands of assets, especially at large-scale facilities like chemical manufacturing plants, is a herculean task. That’s why companies like CF Industries, one of North America’s largest manufacturers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers, have long used automation for maintenance planning.

driven maintenance process improvement. It would also provide a familiar, easy-to-navigate desktop environment and a standard, Internet-enabled platform for building future enhancements.

In addition to providing a more intuitive interface for users, the EAM software provides a platform for expansion. Using the Aveva applications interface, the company has already added a custom workﬂow automation tool that generates inventory pick lists from work orders and purchase requisitions. A B2B vendor portal has also been added, which minimizes communications with vendors.

The Aveva EAM software has proven particu larly beneﬁcial in analyzing and improving inven tory and spending activities. It has contributed to reducing inventory by several million dollars now that CF Industries can analyze inventory activity, such as ordering frequency, number of turns, and inventory value.

AW SEPTEMBER 2022

In comparison to the investment the company would have had to make to develop comparable functionality in house, Wiedenfeld says the Aveva system has already paid for itself many times over.

The company has supplemented the EAM system by adopting standard catalog descrip tions for all MRO items with the help of I.M.A. Ltd., a supplier of data collection, cleansing, and governance services.

Aveva’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system automates maintenance planning and tracking activities on CF Industries’ nearly 50,000 asset entities, including vessels, pumps, rotating equipment, and electrical motors. The software consolidates visualization dashboards and key performance indicators to help deliver a more streamlined business workﬂow. As a result, CF Industries reports a potential revenue improvement of up to 5% using Aveva’s EAM technology, as well as a reduction in operating costs of up to 10%.

Transitioning fromlegacy asset management

See more about ATRO.

36 NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT AW SEPTEMBER 2022

This forthcoming modular, customizable, do-it-yourself robot technology adds new dimensions to how end users, system integrators, and OEMs will think about robotic automation.Modules

The ATRO system can handle payload capaci ties ranging from 3 kg to 10 kg with a reach from 0.6 meters to 1.3 meters.

he ATRO (Automation Technology for Robotics) system from Beckhoff is a modu lar industrial robot system that allows end users, integrators, and machine builders to create an optimal robot configuration for their applica tion. ATRO is comprised of standardized motor modules with integrated drive functionality, link modules of various designs and lengths, and the TwinCAT control platform. With these compo nents, users can create robotic systems ranging from 1-axis rotary indexing tables and 3-axis delta robots to 6- and 7-axis articulated robots.

Beckhoff notes that all ATRO modules feature an internal media feed for data, power, and fluids (vacuum, air, and water). This allows ATRO to use a variety of tools, such as mechanical, pneumatic, or electric grippers. Because these media feeds are internal, it allows for endless rotation of ATRO axes and end effector tools, as there are no exter nal cables to hinder the robot’s range of motion.

Beckhocomponentsandof’sATRO system.

Beckho Introduces the ATRO Modular Robot

Assembly of an ATRO robot is accomplished using a method similar to a slip ring to connect each module and an adjustable tool to secure the joint in place. As each module is connected, a light lining the joint connection illuminates. When the light is yellow, it has verified that EtherCAT communications between modules is effective; a green light indicates the module is ready for operation; and a blue light indicates the unit is ready for manual teach mode.

limited to a specified speed window; Safe Operat ing Stop (SOS) where the robot’s drive is safely monitored at a particular position; Safe Stop 2 (SS2) where the robot’s drive is ramped down to a stop and stays safely controlled in stop mode; and Safe Torque Off (STO) where all torque-gener ating energy to the robot is cut off immediately.

ATRO motor modules will be available in three designs: L- and T-motor modules for use as 90-degree angle joints and straight I-motor modules created to reduce flange size. Length of the ATRO link modules vary and are available in I-shape, L-shape, T-shape, and Y-shape. The base of the ATRO robot can be floor-, wall- or ceiling-mounted.Ifyou’rewondering whether the ATRO is an industrial robot or cobot, Beckhoff says the ATRO is an industrial robot that can accomplish Twin Safe Motion commands such as: Safe Limited Speed (SLS), where the robot’s speed is safely

Editor’s note: This is a pre-release preview of ATRO. The technology is not yet available for purchase.

Close-up of the ATRO interface.

SUMMIT Helping new brands scale manufacturingTM Are new brands on your radar? Get on their vendor shortlist when you exhibit at the Emerging Brands Summit. Visit emergingbrandssummit.com to learn more and download the exhibitor and sponsorship guide. Why exhibit? z Connect with prospective buyers ready to build out their manufacturing operation. z Build brand awareness with emerging brands before they enter the buying cycle. z Develop your network within the community of emerging brands and partners. OCTOBER 23, 2022 Chicago, IL @ PACK EXPO

EMERGING BRANDS

Embeddable Thermocouple

Pozyx, pozyx.io

The Pozyx software platform is asset tracking and identification software for indoor and outdoor tracking and supports multiple location technologies. The Pozyx platform tracks and identifies any asset providing real-time data to improve operational efficiency, enhance productivity, and increase workflow performance. The platform is based on the omlox hub where location data from UWB, 5G, RFID, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS converge. Independent of technology and manufacturer, the data is made available to other applications via standardized APIs (application programming interfaces). It has an open architecture with flexible interfaces for integration with ERP, MES, and warehouse management systems. A full set of industry-specific analytics and dashboards make the collected data actionable for operational purposes.

The ETTC series of embeddable thermocouples feature a miniature cone-shaped tip for sub-surface temperature measuring applications within soft materials including rubber, gel, flesh, or wood. The max cone tip max dimension is 0.140-in. (3.6mm). Designed for research and development applications, these fast-response thermocouples are available with fiberglass or Teflon-insulated wires and are made in the U.S. Special limits of error accuracy thermocouple wires are cut to the required length and the conductors are passed through a miniature cone shaped tip then TIG welded to form a measuring junction. The cone tip is pressed into the surface using an embedding tool (sold separately). The ETTC series is available as type J, K, or T thermocouples and features an error accuracy of +/0.4% of reading, a grounded junction, and a response time constant of 500 milliseconds.

Ethernet Switch

Westermo, westermo.com

Harold G. Schaevitz Industries, hgsind.com

Bosch Rexroth, boschrexroth.com

Electromechanical cylinders (EMCs) from Bosch Rexroth are now available in a highforce, high-precision, low-maintenance version—the EMC-HP. Designed for heavy loads up to 100 kN, these are based on the reliable planetary screw drive and feature oil-bath lubrication and optional water cooling directly on the screw itself. The new EMC-HPs are available in three sizes 115, 130, and 160 (housing diameter) with protection class IP65 and are suitable for a range of different heavy-duty applications with strokes of up to 1,500 mm. Each EMC-HP uses Bosch Rexroth’s planetary screw assembly to meet extremely high standards of control accuracy and dynamics. Thanks to a dynamic load capacity of up to 189.5 kN, high loads can be moved as part of an energy-efficient process—even in complex motion profiles—with axial forces of up to 100 kN and at speeds of up to 0.83 m/s.

Asset Tracking

Electromechanical Actuators

38 NEW PRODUCTS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

The new RedFox 7528 10Gb industrial Ethernet switch enables high-speed, low-latency connectivity with SCADA systems, as well as equipment such as HD IP CCTV cameras deployed in industrial settings. Suitable for 19-in. cabinets, the switch provides four 10 gigabit uplink ports and 24 one-gigabit ports, customizable with SFP transceivers and a switch core that prevents congestion when network traffic spikes. The device also features configurable I/O fault contacts to support easy installation and monitoring. The RedFox 7528 has an extensive suite of advanced cybersecurity features that can be used to build networks in compliance with the IEC 62443 standard, which defines technical security requirements for data communication network components. The RedFox 7528 has been extensively tested to meet a broad range of industry standards relating to electromagnetic compatibility, isolation, vibration, and shock, and with its IP40-rated fanless, all-metal housing, it can also handle a wide operating temperature range.

The new modular KDSI-SR cable entry system enables reliable sealing and time savings feed-through for cables with and without plugs. The system is designed for installation from the outside of a control cabinet, enclosure, or machine. The KDSI-SR system features an inverse tapered design of the screw-on frame’s opening and includes an additional two-part cover with TPE seals in three levels. This ensures a tight fit of the sealing elements, which are available for one, two, or four cables or as blanking plugs. The sealing elements with serrated edges and a tapered design provide IP66 ingress protection and reliable static strain relief in compliance to DIN EN 62444. The system can withstand ambient temperatures from -40°C to 120°C. KDSI-SR frames are available for 4, 6, 8 or 10 sealing elements in various configurations to match the number and diameters of cables.

Process Pump Sulzer, sulzer.com

Vision Components, vision-components.com

Conta-Clip, conta-clip.com

Embedded Vision Stereo Camera

39NEW PRODUCTS UL TYPE IP54 www.icotek.com The KEL-FA, (Fast Assembly) cable entry frame oﬀers a fast, tool-less assembly. Provides a strain relief according to EN 62444 and a wide range of cable grommets for any application. The Fast Assembly Cable Entry Frame Click… Clack… Closed! icotek@PACK EXPO Booth LU-7056 AW SEPTEMBER 2022

The Ahlstar A pump range features the new ASTM A395 60-40-18 construction—the volute case and case cover of the pump are made of ductile iron. Ahlstar A pumps in ductile iron have a maximum working pressure of 16 bars, with a temperature limit of 180°C. A heating jacket option is also available. Proper temperature of the pumped liquid prevents undesired sedimentation, crystal growth, or solidification of the fluid handled. A case cover with internal recirculation has also been developed for Ahlstar pumps. In this design, an internal recirculation flushing fluid channel is integrated inside the case cover, enabling seal flushing without external piping. Ahlstar pumps have been assigned the Food Contact packaging.tomaterialapplications,foodtheir1935/2004,CertificateMaterials(EC)enablinguseinvariousandbeveragefromrawproductionprocessingand

Modular Cable Entry

The VC Stereo Cam is based on the VC Power SoM image processing module with an onboard FPGA, which preprocesses large data volumes in real time and transfers the results in the MIPI data stream to a higher-level CPU. This allows users the choice of their processor platform. The FPGA is open for customer programming and, with its 120,000 logic cells, can handle complex calculations in real time. As a result, sophisticated 3D applications, such as volume determinations, are possible. The prototype VC Stereo Cam for 3D vision integrates two Sony Pregius IMX296 global shutter image sensors. It is also possible to integrate different sensors, for example for day/night shots or for parallel shots in color and monochrome or in the visible and SWIR spectrum.

Industrial Embedded Computer Cincoze, cincoze.com

The DV-1000 rugged embedded computer series has a chassis measuring 224×162×64mm and is powered by a 9/8th gen Intel core i7/i5/i3 CPU (Coffee Lake-R S series) that supports up to 128 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz memory. Storage options include 1x 2.5 SATA HDD/SSD tray, 2x mSATA slots, and 1x M.2 Key M 2280 slot for a high-speed NVMe SSD. The DV-1000 includes industrial I/O interfaces, such as 2x GbE LAN, 2x COM, 3x USB 3.2, and 3x USB 2.0, for connecting to peripheral devices. To maintain consistent high quality, stability, and resilience, the newly launched DV-1000 uses industrial-grade components and an extruded aluminum chassis enabling wide temperature performance from -40°C to 70°C. The system accepts a range of voltage inputs from 9 to 48V DC. The DV-1000 passes military standard MIL-STD-810G shock and vibration resistance.

The CAD2Scan robotic vision inspection system is a CAD-based automated inspection planning tool and is the latest feature of the Kitov Smart Planner. Semantic information extracted from the CAD is passed on to Kitov semantic detectors, which use the information for better inspection. For example, in surface inspection, information on material properties, such as surface reflectance, is used to determine the best illumination angles. Information on screw type and dimensions can enhance screw inspection. Other Kitov semantic detectors, such as labels, barcodes, and connectors, benefit from the relevant semantic information extracted from the CAD model. This system allows quality managers to define their inspection requirements directly on the part CAD model, saving weeks or even months compared to defining such inspection manually. The software automatically takes all available information from the CAD, including geometric and component specifications, and uses it for the planning of the robot inspection.

Robotic Visual Inspection System Kitov.ai, kitov.ai

The 823 and 824 series M12 cable connectors are designed to meet the testing and certification requirements of the North American market. These compact M12 K- and L-coded connectors include both male and female cable and angled connectors. They feature M12x1 threads, 8-mm to 13-mm cable outlets, and IP67-rated screw clamp terminals. To comply with UL 2237 requirements, the threaded ring is electrically connected to the PE contact. K-coded 5-pin connectors are for power supply in AC applications, such as drives or frequency converters. The K-coded connectors have a rated voltage of 630V AC and rated current of 12 A. L-coded 5-pin connectors are for DC compact drives, decentralized I/O modules, and various DC-powered automation components connected to fieldbus systems. The L-code connectors have a rated voltage of 630V AC and a rated current of 16 A.

Manufacturing Work Cell Management Flexxbotics, flexxbotics.com

Binder USA, binder-usa.com

M12 Connectors

FlexxConnect is a manufacturing work cell management platform designed to reduce the time and complexity it takes to set up and execute manufacturing jobs. It is a no-code platform that connects enterprise business systems to the manufacturing floor for process control, operations data acquisition, and work cell setup automation. The FlexxConnect platform is made up of FlexxControl, a cloud-based platform that connects to your enterprise business systems and work cells, and FlexxEdge, an embedded system linking everything within your individual work cells. Flexx Edge can connect to all devices via Ethernet, Bluetooth, or I/O. User can create custom manufacturing job workflows in Flexx Control using work instructions, robot configurations, and quality alerts. Jobs can then be deployed to individual workcells using the step-by-step interface. The holistic log representation helps you understand what has changed in your production environment, enabling you to infer the root cause of quality issues sooner.

40 NEW PRODUCTS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

Portable Ultrasonic Flow Meter

Remote I/O Modules

Acromag, acromag.com

Rotary Tilt-Yaw Gimbals

Acromag’s new BusWorks NT series remote I/O modules now support EtherNet/IP. NTE Ethernet I/O models have dual RJ45 ports and a webserver with Modbus TCP/IP and EtherNet/IP communication to monitor or control the internal I/O channels in multiprotocol control systems. Profinet capability is forthcoming. An integrated DIN-rail bus allows connections of up to three NTX expansion I/O modules. Each I/O module adds up to 16 input or output signals allowing a mix of voltage, current, temperature, time to live, and relay control signals networked on one IP address. The design requires only 25mm of DIN rail per module. Ethernet I/O modules distribute 9-32V DC power along the DIN-rail bus to expansion modules. Hazardous location approvals, high noise immunity, and -40°C to 70°C operation capability enables use of these I/O models in harsh environments.

IntelliDrives, intellidrives.com

Schurter now offers DIN-rail mount adaptor kits for panel mount 1- and 3-phase filters. The kits enable the conversion of panel mount block filters to DIN-rail mount for use inside control cabinets. The clip design uses heavy-duty metal to ensure a constant ground connection of the filter housing to the rail. The DIN-rail mount adapter kit fits with Schurter’s compact range of EMC filter series and is also suitable for use with other panel mount filters, provided the mounting holes are the same.

AW-Lake, aw-lake.com

41NEW PRODUCTS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

AW-Lake’s new PTFM 6.1 provides non-contacting flow measurement in industrial environments, and was designed to measure flow on demand, without difficult installations or process interruptions. Encased in a rugged IP67 housing, these meters are compatible with a range of metal and plastic pipe materials from ½-in. to 48-in. in diameter. Along with a standard 4-20mA/0-5V analog output, optional Modbus RTU and HART communications provide instantaneous flow rate, volume, total, run hours, and diagnostic information. It features a data management storage of 12.5 million data points with logger software for data viewing and reporting. An integrated USB-C port expands the PTFM 6.1’s input and output capability to meet future requirements without replacing the meter.

Integrated two-axes rotary gimbal assembly provides high-speed machining capabilities for complex 3D part geometries. The precision-aligned system allows accurate positioning on a hemispherical surface. Multiple frame sizes with direct- or gear-driven options provide a wide range of load carrying capability. These gimbal assemblies feature a resolution of 5 arc-sec, repeatability of 10 arc-sec, and a load capacity of 10 kg. Stepper or servo motor versions provide the operating speed and accuracy for specific applications. The tilt axis can be equipped with a brake to hold axis position when power is removed. For large load applications, the gear-drive units provide higher continuous torque output while the drive mechanism limits motion in the power-off state. The precision anti-backlash gearing enables this higher torque output while still maintaining accuracy and repeatability.

DIN-Rail Mount Adaptor Kits

Schurter, schurter.com

The skill set in shortest supply among CFOs is internal decision support. This area is the most difficult to assess because the knowledge and skills are not widely taught in accounting curriculum. Managers and employees benefit greatly, in terms of innovation and process improvement, from financial information that clearly reflects and directly applies to the operations, resources, and decisions they use and make daily. A few examples:

and where expert assistance is most available.

mong all the characteristics you would look for in a CFO, clearly the most important is integrity and honesty. Little can disable a company faster than a dishonest CFO. But be careful, the accounting profession is a little odd when it comes to integrity; an accountant can stick purely to accounting standards and rules to a fault, fail to provide a company important internal decision support information that can promote greater profitability, and still have high professional integrity. I like to think of the key responsibilities of a CFO as a simple matrix (see image).

Key Manufacturing CFO Responsibilities

CenterProfitabilitytheAnalyticsofExcellence Required External Reporting External Stakeholders CEO/Board Internal Peers/Managers/EmployeesStakeholders: Internal Decision Support X XX X

How do you evaluate the internal decision support capability in a CFO? First, you want a CFO with a proven track record of creating a collaborative work environment and culture, not just in the finance space, but across a broader part of the organization. Second, a clear record on innovation within finance and the broader organization. Experience with Lean, Six Sigma, agile, and scrum techniques are good indicators of an innovative mindset. Third, a genuine interest in your business from production to sales and logistics to strategic planning, as well as evidence that they have engaged functionally in other businesses beyond finance. Finally, all business requires taking risks to advance and improve. Yes, a risk-supporting CFO is essential. The CFO you want must enable the risk profile needed to achieve your organization’s strategy. A CFO that will venture aggressively into internal decision support information projects will rapidly gain an understanding and effectively communicate what is needed for success in your organization.

External stakeholders are particularly important to public companies. Private companies also pay taxes, have regulators, and probably creditors that require some form of regulated financial reporting. The CFO must ensure the company’s credibility and reputation is strong with external audiences. Information presented must be highly credible and meet the specifications required. Mistakes can lead to loss of reputation, criminal indictments and fines, and loss of financing. External reporting is the area of greatest educational focus for accountants

• Depreciation should be based on use and actual longevity periods.

42 FINANCE VIEW AW SEPTEMBER 2022

• Selling costs, collection costs, and other cause and effect related costs should be causally modeled into product and/or customer costs.

The CEO and board are very interested in high quality external reporting and the company’s reputation, and they are responsible for strategic planning and management requiring a wider range of information to guide the company to long-term profitability and viability. Regulated external reporting presents a version of profitability, but it tends to have a shortterm focus and be oriented toward short-term market expectations which can distort longer term strategic considerations. An example is offshoring manufacturing to improve the return on investment metric by shrinking investment rather than improving return and injecting huge quality and supply chain risks. A CFO must be able to look at company performance and organizational incentives from multiple financial perspectives, including external reporting and internal decision support. This is a challenging realm for an innovative CFO because individual and organizational performance incentives have long been based on external reporting metrics and most executives are very skilled at gaming those metrics to their short-term advantage— even when it may disadvantage the organization in the longer term.

• Overhead allocations should be replaced with strong causal assignments showing fixed and proportional costs that reflect the resources used in processes.

By Larry White CMA, CFM, CPA, of

lwhite@rcaininstitute.orgCGFM director

Structural visibility provides companies with the full picture of their operations at a given point in time or over a certain period. This oversight helps to uncover issues surrounding where their suppliers are, where points of manufacturing and logistics route are, interrelationships across the broader supply chain network, and potential supply chain challenges.

Driving greatersupply chain resiliency

On the other hand, dynamic visibility helps companies understand what is happening right now. Companies use it to monitor and respond to events in real-time, helping them to see where products are across the chain, how their plants and warehouses are running, when and where disruptions are happening, and how disruptions are affecting the company.

On a broader note, intelligent visibility should be seen as a long-term investment. Supply chains are expected to become even more complex and dynamic to meet customer demands over the next few years. Therefore, a sustainable visibility solution is critical for continual optimization and improvement. Those that fail to embrace intelligent visibility could find themselves behind the curve.

Intelligent visibility is a combination of structural and dynamic visibility supported by analytical

likelychainstheirvisibilitywithCompaniesgreaterintosupplyaremoretoretain

Intelligent visibility gives companies a deeper view into the extended supply chain. These insights help companies react faster and make better, factbased decisions around how to manage supply chain disruptions and where to focus investments. Companies can use intelligent visibility to build new capabilities that help them assess where they’re most vulnerable and enable them to see exactly what’s occurring across their extended supply chain.

Recent Accenture research, based on interviews with 30 supply chain executives, found that companies with greater visibility into their supply chains are more likely to retain revenue, profit, and share price performance during periods of disruption. Of course, this is a small sample of companies, but their experiences suggest that visibility can help companies avoid or bounce back quicker from disruptions.

First, our research showed that companies with greater visibility are better positioned to weather all kinds of disruptions. Having said that, full visibility across the supply chain isn’t necessary or economically feasible. We found that it’s far more effective to focus on the most important areas of the business.

ver the past few years, businesses have had to learn that their supply chains need to be much more resilient. Raw material and component shortages, along with increasing operating and merchandise costs, have continued to exert enormous pressures on global supply chains across the manufacturing and logistics sector, which is still recovering from a global pandemic. But the solution to these issues doesn’t lie in simply holding more inventory and building redundant capacity—both of which increase costs. Thankfully, advances in tech, specifically artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, have opened the door to a new, cost-effective way to improving the resilience of supply chains: intelligent visibility.

Dynamic visibility, by contrast, was found to be less mature across the companies researched. Many companies reported that they used monitoring and predicting, but only 40% said that they use data prescriptively.

re enue ro t and share ofduringperformancepriceperiodsdisruption.

By Brian R. May Managing Director, North AccentureIndustrialAmericaLead,

What is intelligent visibility?

Strengthen Your Supply Chain with Intelligent Visibility

techniques and AI.

Second, we found that structural visibility is a necessity. Every company should have the basics—network mapping, risk management, network assessments, and modeling—in place, allowing them to leverage advanced analytics to go to the next Finally,level.companies should always be targeting more advanced dynamic visibility. Predictive visibility and autonomous execution, achieved with a sophisticated control tower, are the keys to maximizing resiliency.

43ENTERPRISE VIEW AW SEPTEMBER 2022

How does intelligentvisibility work?

Our research found that most companies have an advanced level of structural visibility, often using classic risk management and network modelling, but executives said structural visibility is restricted to particular suppliers instead of the entirety of their supply base. Often, these suppliers aren’t the ones that present the most risk to the overall ability to manufacture and deliver products.

This revelation does not mean companies are not trying to move to an enhanced real-time visibility. In fact, significant investments in this space have been made. Some of the common challenges that need to be addressed include fragmented data and operational technology, sourcing high quality data from suppliers, and competing priorities for the right level of investment to move at pace.

Companies can and should use intelligent visibility to drive greater supply chain resiliency, and we found three key takeaways in this regard.

Digital twins are components of larger IIoT ecosystems based on a multi-tiered architecture that ranges from enterprise-level cloud network infrastructure to edge computing services and platforms, and culminates at the far edge of intelligent devices and IIoT endpoints. Therefore, digital twins are dependent on the digital thread supported by this multi-tiered architecture.

Adoption of digital twins is currently gaining momentum across a variety of industries, especially as suppliers that offer comprehensive closedloop digital twin platforms and technologies have emerged. Embarking on a digital twin journey can look very dauting initially, given the advanced simulation technology involved, the operational and infrastructure requirements, and the clear definition of use cases you want to focus on. These use cases can involve the entire enterprise landscape, including product development, manufacturing processes, and a business model development process. Companies should research and assess suppliers that can offer a comprehensive and integrated digital twin that includes proven simulation technology, IIoT connectivity, and accompanying infrastructure architecture.

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44 AW SEPTEMBER 2022 INDUSTRY VIEW

Key differences

tual simulations, they are not the same. While the simulation capability of today’s integrated design/ test platforms is very powerful and has significantly accelerated the product development process, the capabilities of a digital twin extend well beyond product development. In both applications the simulation is executed using a virtual model, but the model becomes a digital twin only after the product is produced.

By Dick Slansky

the digital twin, based on constantly changing data, gives it the ability to mature through the product lifecycle, as well as drive business decisions based on the maturing and improvement of the product.

W�ere simulation can provide the means to understand what may happen in the real world, a digital twin allows engineers and operations technicians to compare what may happen concurrent with what is happening in real time.

How Advanced Simulation Drives Digital Twin Implementation

The underlying simulation technology used for product testing and validation (computer aided engineering—CAE) is shared with the virtual modeling of physical production systems and assets in the field to implement a digital twin. Although both applications share the ability to execute vir-

igital twins are increasingly being used to help inform wider business decisions as well as fundamentally changing business models. And, when implemented in an IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) environment across a digital thread, digital twins can share data between different systems, providing a clearer and more precise picture of performance on a larger scale, such as entire factories and supply chains.

While virtual simulation—for both product testing and digital twins—uses virtual models to replicate product functions and production processes, there are some key differences in application of the two instances. CAE simulation applications usually determine if a product meets design criteria for fit, form, and function. Conversely, in the implementation of a digital twin, a virtual environment is created where engineers can study multiple simulations backed up with real-time data and two-way flow of data between the digital twin models and the sensors and intelligent end devices that collect the data from the asset(s). The result is more accurate predictive/prescriptive analytics that drives the optimization and enhanced operational understanding of products and assets.

The virtual aspect of a digital twin can begin with the creation of CAD. However, the real value of a digital twin is realized when the virtual models receive real-time data from its physical world counterpart. At this point the digital twin simulation becomes active and the model changes as real-world data is received. The dynamic nature of

A product test/validation simulation typically uses CAE applications such as finite element analysis, multi-physics, and computational fluid dynamics to create a simulation model into which the designer can introduce and test various design elements. The resulting computer aided design (CAD) model is basically static until the designer introduces new elements.

senior analyst, ARC Advisory Group

Where simulation can provide the means to understand what may happen in the real world, a digital twin allows engineers and operations technicians to compare what may happen concurrent with what is happening in real time. The digital transformation of production processes or assets in the field can enhance product design, optimize asset performance, and provide insights into building the next generation of systems and factories. However, this is very much dependent on the quality of the data, and the level of intelligence in smart edge devices and sensors.

When implementing a digital twin, users quickly understand that it needs to function within an IIoT environment with a working digital thread across the product/production lifecycle. A digital twin operating in this environment can receive real-world data quickly and process it, allowing the product designer or manufacturing engineer to virtually see how the real product, equipment, or asset is operating.

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Telemecanique Sensors www.tesensors.com/XUMMini 11

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Emerson Automation Solutions www.emerson.com 48

Beckhoff Automation www.beckhoff.com 33

Uline www.uline.com 39

Hammond Manufacturing www.hammondmfg.com 13

Automation Direct www.automationdirect.com 12-a

ASCO LLP - Emerson www.emerson.com 27

AVEVA Software, LLC www.aveva.com 19

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Automation24 Inc. www.automation24.com/schmersal 5

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Another lifeline for ﬁeldbus and 4-20mA communications has been the development of gateways and translators capable of sending data to Ethernet networks. These devices allow data to be extracted from legacy networks while enabling those data to be sent to the edge or the cloud for monitoring and analysis.

46 KEY INSIGHTS AW SEPTEMBER 2022

Jim Koelsch on ﬁeldbus and 4-20mA in the age of IoT

Most companies have an advanced level of structural visibility, often using classic risk management and network modeling. Dynamic visibility, by contrast, was found to be less mature across the companies researched by Accenture. Many companies reported that they used monitoring and predicting, but only 40% said that they use data prescriptively.

Brian R. May of Accenture on strengthening your supply chain with intelligent visibility

Jeanne Schweder on Johnson & Johnson’s use of a secure data pipeline for Covid-19 vaccine production.

Interacting with paper charts is very ine cient. A lot of times you can be running a bunch of di erent CIP (clean-in-place) cycles over the course of a 12- or 24-hour period. When you’re looking at that, it’s hard to really interpret—was this good or not?

David Greenﬁeld on Google Cloud and Litmus’s Data Connectivity Platform

Manufacturing Connect is a factory edge platform designed to support more than 250 machine communication protocols. Data is structured and stored locally and then sent to Google Cloud for analysis. The platform can also reportedly deploy and manage artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models at the edge for closed-loop AI applications.

Using MQTT, a secure gateway was established that ensured only Janssen’s data was transmitted. This architecture operated reliably in an external, unfamiliar environment while preserving data quality. It also supported the manufacturer’s ability to make the vaccine with fewer operators, which was particularly important with the social distancing requirements around COVID-19.

Aaron Hand on modernizing cleaning system reporting with cloud-based software

empowered operators solving anything, anywhere, anytime, at warp speed.

We see

Think of it as a modern command center for your plant. Make better, more informed decisions with context to drive more precise actions. Monitor your facility’s health. And do it all knowing your valuable data is secure. It’s the future of warp speed automation. Watch the video at Emerson.com/DeltaV

Automation World September 2022

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