July 2021: this month sees a combined article of new products and member news announcements.
Please click on a link or headline below to learn more.
New Products
Condition Monitoring Toolkit Visualizes Data for Manufacturers
Ballluff’s new condition monitoring toolkit (CMTK) provides an easy-to-implement solution for adding condition monitoring to existing machines and processes with an excellent cost-benefit ratio. The kit includes a base unit, software, and four IO-Link sensors. These sensors allow for the measurement of certain factors, like temperature, vibration, humidity and pressure to monitor the machine.
Compact Machine Designs without Compromise
The laser distance sensor families OM20 and OM30 from Baumer with IO-Link are perfectly suited to continue the trend towards more efficient, compact machines and systems without any compromise regarding the sensor performance in optical distance measurement applications. The standardized IO-Link interface allows easy integration into the control and simple parameterization of the sensor.
New Non-Contacting Radar Level Transmitter
To meet the need for highly accurate and reliable level measurement in hygienic applications, Emerson has developed the Rosemount™ 1408H Level Transmitter, the world’s first non-contacting radar device designed specifically for the food and beverage industry. Dedicated features include a hygienic compact design, fast sweep technology, exceptional radar beam focusing and IO-Link communications, helping manufacturers to optimize the efficiency of their operations, reduce product losses and ensure food safety.
Industrial Beam Characterization System
MKS Instruments has announced the Ophir BeamWatch Integrated 500 industrial beam characterization system a fully automated, non-contact laser measurement system designed for automotive and battery welding applications that works with single mode lasers using long focal lengths, up to 500mm from focal point to power meter. It can accommodate different types of welding heads and includes a PROFINET interface for integration into production networks and automated manufacturing lines to facilitate direct transfer of measurement data.
Automated Manufacturing with Fast Weight Terminal
METTLER TOLEDO’s IND360 boosts machine productivity by delivering precise and accurate weight to an automation network at 960 cycles per second to vastly improve weight-based control algorithms. Advanced condition monitoring, heartbeat, and Smart5 NAMUR NE107 prioritized alarming ensures that quality is never jeopardized due to undetected errors. Faster weight processing with IND360 makes PLC/DCS operation more efficient by allowing users to cyclically select and consume seven floating-point variables and scale status over PROFINET or PROFIBUS DP.
MCU Portfolio Redefines Microcontroller Performance
Texas Instruments has introduced a new high-performance microcontroller (MCU) portfolio that advances real-time control, networking and analytics applications at the edge. With new Sitara AM2x MCUs, engineers can achieve 10 times the computing capability of traditional, flash-based MCUs. AM243x devices expand upon TI’s support of industrial Ethernet protocols and time-sensitive networking (TSN), enabling next-generation factory networks. With AM243x, engineers can leverage certified protocol stacks available directly from TI to support PROFINET and an IO-Link Master.
Member News
OM70 – A high-performance laser distance sensor family for automation in the automotive industry
Final assembly lines for car manufacturing do not currently have a high level of automation. With the need to increase flexibility and reduce cost, this reality is changing. A seemingly trivial difference when detecting parts or positioning tools for process steps in final assembly is the fact that the car body is painted. Laser distance sensors which have been in use and have worked reliably for other applications (e.g., during chassis assembly) may no longer measure reproducibly enough from one chassis to the next due to the influence of the chassis’ color. The OM70 high-performance laser distance sensor from Baumer is a proven solution for this key problem: It measures accurately and repeatably on painted car bodies.
With a repeat accuracy of down to 0.3 µm, measurement distances from 30 mm to 1500 mm, point and line beams for stable measurement on any surface and a built-in Ethernet interface, it’s a powerful solution for distance measurement. The built-in web interface makes getting up-and-running a piece of cake. It provides all the flexibility which is needed to easily parametrize the sensor and obtain optimal performance for the application. The sensor can be integrated either via Modbus TCP, OPC/UA, UDP streaming or PROFINET (Class B).
Automation in the automotive industry relies frequently on PROFINET for field-level integration of components and equipment. Also, due to the size of the PROFINET networks which have to be managed, the devices which are integrated usually need to meet PROFINET Conformance Class B. Network management and troubleshooting can then be handled much more easily. The OM70 family complies with this requirement. Through integrated SNMP support, an OM70 sensor is fully compatible with standard network management tools.
Further information: www.baumer.com/OM70
Between pragmatism and system relevance – measuring-technical proof of quality in fieldbuses and industrial networks in 2021
The sixth edition of the VORTEX report has been published
“Entirely off the rails” seems to adequately describe the exceptional year of 2020. It wasn’t just that toilet paper grew scarce at times during the pandemic. Travel prohibitions and access restrictions for third parties also posed some very special challenges to service engineers in the industry. New paths had to be found to permit necessary measuring deployments to determine data communication quality in industrial networks and fieldbuses.
In many places, safety concerns harboured for many years had to be given up to create remote access options for one’s own automation system. Some used this step for generous restructuring, understanding just how important planning (and simulation) of such structures is in order to avoid elaborate retrofitting later.
Details and examples of this, as well as an experience report that shows an example of why even stable machine/plant operation should never leave it at only 80% availability can be found in VORTEX 2021. This is now the sixths consecutive year in which this document is summarising the findings from deployments of the Indu-Sol measuring engineers to determine data communication quality in fieldbuses and industrial networks in the respective last calendar year to derive insights for maximising their availability from them.
Have a look: https://www.indu-sol.com/en/support/catalogue/#VORTEX
Joint advancement in Ethernet APL – R. STAHL and Softing bundle their know-how
Softing Industrial Automation GmbH becomes technology partner of R. STAHL Schaltgeraete GmbH for the further development and expansion of Ethernet-APL technology.
Ethernet-Advanced Physical Layer (Ethernet-APL) – the new 2-wire Ethernet for process automation – is the key technology for end-to-end digitalization of process plants down to the field level, including use in potentially hazardous areas. Since 2018, R. STAHL, the expert in safety technology for hazardous areas, has been cooperating with 11 leading manufacturers in the process industry as well as the four major organizations for process automation FieldComm Group, ODVA, OPC Foundation and PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI) in the “Ethernet-APL Project” to develop fundamentals and specifications for Ethernet to the field.
R. STAHL and Softing Industrial will soon present products and solutions in the form of Ethernet APL power switches and field switches, for installation in Zone 1 and 2 with intrinsically safe 2-WISE (2-Wire Intrinsically Safe Ethernet) field device connections for Zone 0. Softing contributes its intellectual property in the field of Industrial Ethernet switches and in the technologies of the participating organizations HART-IP, EtherNet/IP, OPC UA, and PROFINET to the partnership. Softing is a recognized specialist for industrial communication with fieldbuses and Industrial Ethernet protocols, for standardized data exchange, and the integration and configuration of devices and networks. (…)
Download the full press release and images here.