Whether the utility provides electricity, gas, water, or sewage treatment, management has a duty to protect employees by providing a safe work environment and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required for the job in the facility and in the field. However, despite various PPE options, many utilities fail to supply or specify important lighting tools – namely headlamps.
Authorized employee training is one of the most important aspects of a complete energy control program. Training delivers the knowledge that employees need to effectively lock out equipment for servicing or maintenance. This type of training should include the use of energy control procedures as well as lockout locks, tags and devices.
Professor Friedhelm Loh has received the highest recognition for his success and commitment – from the top levels of business and politics and far beyond Germany’s borders. Through his personal achievements, his top political honours and great entrepreneurial courage, he has nevertheless remained – as he says himself – a “simple worker” and above all: grateful.
A new generation of switches for touchless switching has been developed for switching without touching. Switching without contaminating the surface with potentially harmful germs, viruses or bacteria. How do these switches work and what are they capable of?
Utilities that are replacing their aging remote terminal units (RTUs) and SCADA systems are doing so to ensure system reliability, improve usability and enhance future scalability – taking advantage of technology advancements in data connectivity and remote management. But how a utility approaches such a project is critical to ensuring that their system upgrade will be seamless and cost-effective.
Electrical control panels are an integral part of any automated manufacturing process. While control systems are a fundamental aspect of electrical engineering, many people aren’t aware of the key control panel components required to function safely and reliably.
One of the key ways to help protect your organization against nefarious actors and cyberattacks is proactive firmware and software management. Keeping your firmware and software up to date isn’t a one-off exercise. It’s a process. And manufacturers are well advised to adopt version updates as they become available. Especially as more manufacturers implement digital strategies to improve operational efficiency, reveal data-driven insights, and use cloud-based technologies.
The International Society of Automation (ISA) and the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance (ISAGCA), with contributing author Pierre Kobes, have released a white paper entitled, “Applying ISO/IEC 27001/2 and the ISA/IEC 62443 Series for Operational Technology Environments.” Many organizations have established policies and procedures governing the IT security in their office environment predominantly based on ISO/IEC 27001/2.
Spanish company Packfeeder has developed a family of automatic, robot-supported bottle unscrambling machines for the packaging industry. The so-called Pickfeeder uses the eXtended Transport System (XTS) from Beckhoff to implement a machine concept that is highly flexible and suitable for the most demanding sorting jobs in packaging with virtually no changeover effort.
If you don’t know every last industrial asset that’s installed in your production facilities and stocked in your storerooms, you’re not alone. Over a period of decades, it’s easy to lose sight of what assets you have as those assets are replaced, parts are restocked and employees change roles. But maintaining a complete understanding of your assets – from industrial control devices and parts, to machines and equipment – is a prerequisite to optimizing how you manage them.
Multi-function safety relays are often the best choice for applications where single-function relays aren’t capable enough and a safety-rated PLC is overkill. Many machines and robots require safety circuits to stop all or part of operation in the event of an emergency. Safety circuits are also used to keep all or part of a machine or robot from running while there is human activity in close proximity, either for normal operations or maintenance.
The rise of interconnected Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) systems is often attributed to how business models have evolved to enhance operational efficiency. For example, SCADA networks deployed along oil pipelines now collect oil output data that is essential to billing and pricing systems. This increase in data collection allows companies to predict with higher levels of accuracy not only oil production and output, but also expected revenue.
Molex, a global electronics and connectivity provider, recently announced the results of a global survey of Industry 4.0 manufacturing stakeholders driving advancements in robotics, complex machines and device or control systems. The findings reflect steady progress in the development of Industry 4.0 initiatives across the industrial automation ecosystem, including smart automation, connectivity and analytics that add efficiency and intelligence throughout the manufacturing lifecycle.
Selecting appropriate product data in engineering is often time-consuming. However, the new EPLAN Data Portal, with a new user interface and improved search algorithms, makes it easier and faster than ever before. Expanded search parameters mean that users can quickly find exactly the components they are looking for. Individualised solutions based on configurators can be intuitively generated – as demonstrated by the Lenze product configurator.
Today’s ecosystem of industrial automation is characterised by many media disruptions during the processing and transfer of documentation. It is essential to resolve these issues within the development process for machines and plant systems – via targeted collaboration among all stakeholders and systems. Data created in the engineering process must be shared with everyone involved in the process.
Selecting the proper plastic electronic enclosure is often much more than just finding a standard box that meets your dimensional requirements. This is especially true when searching for a box that can withstand the elements whether inside a factory or outdoors. At the same time, you want to make sure that you are not wasting money with extra features or tighter ratings that are really not needed.