EPN Industrial Automation Blog

SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2011: IO-Link conformance

A manufacturer’s declaration is asked by the IO-Link Consortium for all IO-Link Masters and Devices in order to get IO-Link conformity. Therefore, test equipment is neccessary which allows checking all relevant parameters. A major part is EMC conformity.

Machine under forced scrutiny

In industrial systems, machines need to be monitored constantly in order to ensure material stability, system security and personnel safety. The Field Device Technology standard (FDT) takes care of vendor-independent parameterization.

The mountain in labour (not a fable)

ZigBee technology has been in use in building automation for a few years now, and finally the alliance agreed on a standard, based on BACnet.

Free access to field devices

Specialists in fieldbus technologies don’t usually give anything away for free, neither as in free beer nor as in free speech, to quote Richard Stallman. Since manufacturers often even charge extra for supplying the (standard) software driver necessary to operate the devices they sell, any exception of that policy is remarkable.

Wires out of automation

There are various obstacles for a stronger perpetration of wireless networks in the process industry. Since RF communication would simplify life in many ways, there are efforts being made to overcome them. While a mesh architecture is a good way to get optimum coverage, common solutions are difficult to integrate in automation infrastructures.

CANopen and IEC 61499

Following a comprehensive search for advising industry experts, the nonprofit CAN in Automation (CiA) group has established the CANopen SIG (Special Interest Group) »IEC 61499«. The group’s scope is the development of a framework specification for CANopen-based systems using an IEC 61499 compliant programming environment.

Ethernet for ‘intelligent’ applications

A major driver in the development of »CC-Link IE« was to deliver an automation network for manufacturing without many of today’s shortcomings. It’s meant to be simple to implement, easy to troubleshoot and use standard Ethernet tools. The current result is »CC-Link IE Field«.

M2M all over Europe

Machine-to-machine communication over mobile networks has challenges of its own. Depending on the application, quality of service can be crucial. That’s certainly the case in most industrial automation applications.

Death of the living dead

Fieldbuses have been dead for a few years now even though not everyone in the industry noticed that. Everything’s Ethernet now and even the toughest defenders of the old ways have to admit now that the Fieldbus times are over.

Japan: News from Distributors

European and international distributors offer online information about the delivery and supply situation regarding their Japanese linecards.