HOW FAR IS THE EDGE? - Control Design · cancel a subscription, email [email protected] or call 1-800-553-8878 ext. 5020. To non-qualiﬁ ed subscribers in the United States and

HOW FAR ISTHE EDGE?

How, why and when to use smart devices away from centralized logic

MA

Y 2

01

7

WHAT SIZE MOTOR STARTER?

WHY IIoT NOW?

PLCs, PACs or PCs?

thinkallied.com

MAY17 AC Branding Snipe 3.5x3.5 (CD).qxp_Layout 1 4/13/17 11:31 AM Page 1

CD1705_01_Cover2.indd 1 4/24/17 3:39 PM

the #1 value in automationOrder Today, Ships Today!

* See our Web site for details and restrictions. © Copyright 2017 AutomationDirect, Cumming, GA USA. All rights reserved. 1-800-633-0405

The new BRX Micro PLCs are determined to get it done!The new BRX PLC family incorporates many high-level features in a small, solid package - allowing it to stand strong no matter the challenge. Loaded with options and using the very popular Do-more! DM1 technology as its engine, this micro controller packs a big punch for a little price!

The 1st micro PLC with a can-do attitude

CPU and I/OComparison

All prices are U.S. published prices. AutomationDirect prices as of 2/20/2017. Allen-Bradley, Siemens and IDEC prices taken from www.radwell.com 1/27/2017.

(4) Analog Inputs

(28) 24VDC Inputs

Total System Price

(20) 24VDC Outputs

Allen-BradleyMicro 800

AutomationDirectBRX PLC

$45.00BX-08TD1(8-pt DC OUT module + 16 DC OUT on PLC unit)

Built-in(4 Analog IN on PLC unit)

$473.00 BX-DM1E-36ED13-D

$38.00BX-08ND3 (8-pt DC IN module + 20 DC IN on PLC unit)

$556.00

Built-in(20 DC OUT on PLC unit)

$149.002080-IF4

$642.00 2080-LC50-48QVB

Built-in(28 DC IN on PLC unit)

$880.00

$433.00 6ES7 222-1BH30-0XB0(16-pt DC OUT module + 10 DC OUT on PLC unit)

$814.00 6ES7 214-1AG31-0XB0

$433.00 6ES7 221-1BH30-0XB0(16-pt DC IN module + 14 DC IN on PLC unit)

$2,010.00

IDECFC6A

$125.00 FC6A-T08K1(8-pt DC OUT module + 16 DC OUT on PLC unit)

$490.50 FC6A-C40K1CE

$85.00 FC6A-N08B1(8-pt DC IN module + 20 DC IN on PLC unit)

$1,020.50

PLC Unit(with Ethernet)

(2) Analog Outputs Built-in(2 Analog OUT on PLC unit)

$89.002080-OF2

$330.006ES7 234-4HE30-0XB0(4IN/2OUT Analog combination module)

$320.00FC6A-L06A1(4IN/2OUT Analog combination module)

SiemensS7-1200

Starting at $199.00

(BX-DM1-10AR-D)with 10 built-in discrete I/O

The BRX PLC family offers: • Advanced motion control • Robust data logging • Onboard serial and

Ethernet ports • Discrete, high-speed and

analog I/O • Expansion capabilities • Interchangeable

communications port • Free programming

software (with simulator) • Integrated video help • Free technical support • Much, much more...

with a can-do attitude

Stand-alone PLC Unit Expansion Modules

Research, price, buy at:

www.BRXPLC.com

1705-ControlDesign-BRX-MAG.indd 1 4/13/2017 9:12:41 AM

CD1705_FPA.indd 2 4/19/17 3:13 PM

seweurodrive.com | 864-439-7537

Control Freak?If you like being in control, then

SEW-EURODRIVE is your perfect

partner! We put you in charge of

every move with our gearmotors

and electronics. No headaches, no

whining, and virtually no maintenance.

You build it and we move it…simple!

Don’t you wish all partners were this

easy…?

Control Freak?If you like being in control, then

SEW-EURODRIVE is your perfect

partner! We put you in charge of

every move with our gearmotors

and electronics. No headaches, no

whining, and virtually no maintenance.

You build it and we move it…simple!


easy…?


easy…?

CD1705_FPA.indd 3 4/19/17 3:13 PM

CD1705_FPA.indd 4 4/19/17 3:13 PM

FEATURES

cover story

How far is the edge?How, why and when to use smart devices

away from centralized logic

Dave Perkon, technical editor

18connections

Understand the IIoT now for the futureThe Smart Factory Task Group, within the Industrial Internet Consortium, is a complex group that is

pulling together several testbeds for the IIoT in manufacturing automation

Dave Perkon, technical editor

30drives

Variable data fi nishing system keeps paceSprint System transforms variable print material to � nished product at 1,500 ft/min

Deirdre Ryder, VITS International

33

CONTROL DESIGN, (ISSN: 1094-3366) is published 12 times a year by Putman Media, 1501 E. Woodfi eld Rd., Suite 400N, Schaumburg, Illinois 60173. (Phone 630/467-1300; Fax 630/467-1124.) Periodical postage paid at Schaumburg, IL, and at additional mailing offi ces. Address all correspondence to Editorial and Executive Offi ces, same address. Printed in the United States. ©Putman Media 2017. All rights reserved. The contents of this publica-tion may not be reproduced in whole or part without consent of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Please send change of address to Putman Media, PO Box 1888, Cedar Rapids IA 52406-1888; SUBSCRIPTIONS: To change or cancel a subscription, email [email protected] or call 1-800-553-8878 ext. 5020. To non-qualifi ed subscribers in the United States and its possessions, subscriptions are $96.00 per year. Single copies are $15. International subscriptions are accepted at $200 (Airmail only.) Putman Media also publishes CHEMICAL PROCESSING, CONTROL, FOOD PROCESSING, PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING, PLANT SERVICES, SMART INDUSTRY and THE JOURNAL. CONTROL DESIGN assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items reported. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor information: World Distribution Services, Inc., Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9A 6J5. Printed in the United States.

table of contentsVolume 21, No. 5

ControlDesign.com / May 2017 / 5

product roundup

The many modes of machine controlFrom PLCs and PACs to PC-based control, machine builders have many options available36

CD1705_XX_XX_TOC.indd 5 4/24/17 10:29 AM

Your Total Power SolutionThe most trusted brands, all under one roof.

Phoenix Contact, Siemens, TDK-Lambda,Square D, AP, Telemecanique, SolaHD,

Bel Power Solutions, SL Power,Cosel, Schneider Electric,

Panasonic, Meanwell,Dantona Industries,

Power-Sonic,XP Power,

and hundreds more.

thinkallied.com•1.800.433.5700© Allied Electronics, Inc 2017.

MAY17 Power Ad (CD).qxp_Control Design 3/30/17 2:52 PM Page 1

CD1705_FPA.indd 6 4/19/17 3:14 PM

The smallest installation connector with the highest environmental rating. Designed for outdoor LED applications. Push the connectors together and the TWISTLOCK technology automatically locks the connectors.

16 A , 600V,NEMA 6P, 24 - 16 AWG

Compact PowerConnector

gesis RST

Rugged Circular Connector

www.wielandinc.com

Wieland - 1_3 page ads 2017.indd 5 3/20/2017 1:41:50 PM

9 editor’s page

Innovation in the Digital AgeMike Bacidore, editor in chief

11 live wire

Technology will leave you behindDave Perkon, technical editor

13 embedded intelligence

Door-to-the-floor cybersecurity requirements Jeremy Pollard, CET

14 component considerations

How to size a motor starterThomas Stevic, contributing editor

16 technology trends

See what’s new with photoelectric sensorsRick Rice, contributing editor

41 real answers

Indicator lights or HMI upgrade?—Part II

47 product showcase

50 automation basics

How to specify, size and connect wireDave Perkon, technical editor

COLUMNS

Allied Electronics .................................................................6

AutomationDirect................................................................2

AVG Automation ...............................................................52

B&R Industrial Automation .............................................8

Baldor Electric ..................................................................12

Beckhoff Automation ........................................................4

c3controls ...........................................................................26

Carlo Gavazzi......................................................................25

Dinkle Corporation ...........................................................29

Euchner ................................................................................28

Hammond Manufacturing .............................................22

IDEC Corporation ..............................................................20

Pepperl + Fuchs ................................................................27

SEW-Eurodrive ......................................................................3

Siemens Energy & Automation ..................................10

Telemecanique Sensors ................................................17

TRC Electronics .................................................................51

Turck..............................................................................21, 23

Wieland Electric ...................................................................7

Wago Corporation ............................................................22

ad index


table of contentsVolume 21, No. 5

CD1705_XX_XX_TOC.indd 7 4/24/17 10:30 AM

ALL SHAPES. ALL SIZES. ALL COLORS.

< PLC + HMI = Power Panel C-Series< Pure HMI = Power Panel T-Series< For I/O, drives and safety< POWERLINK | Ethernet | USB | CAN | RS232 | RS485< 4,3" | 5,7" | 7" | 10,1"

www.br-automation.com/PowerPanel

CD1705_FPA.indd 8 4/19/17 3:15 PM


“DETROIT, WE HAVE a problem,” warned Alastair Orchard, vice president, Digital Enter-

prise, Siemens (www.siemens.com). “For the first time in centuries, we have to tell our

children they may not have a better life than their parents.” Orchard was one of the pre-

senters at the Manufacturing in America Summit, sponsored by Siemens and Electro-Mat-

ic, attended by more than 2,000 people at General Motors’ Renaissance Center in Detroit.

Historically, growth has always been driven by revolutions in manufacturing. First

it was by steam. Second was by electricity, and the third industrial revolution was by

automated mass production. “Each represented a huge leap forward,” said Orchard. “If you

want to grow, you have to produce more. We’ve sent manufacturing off-shore, chasing

low-cost labor from country to country. Low-cost labor eventually becomes high-cost la-

bor.” Orchard explained how industry has focused on relocating manufacturing facilities

to emerging countries with lower costs of living. Over time, wages rise in those countries,

and corporations have to move

operations again to find lower-cost

labor. The digital enterprise is about

proximity to consumers, replacing

strategies that include off-shoring

and building mega factories.

“We’ve been producing things the

same way for 50 years, so now we’ve turned to the tech sector,” said Orchard. “The same

Moore’s Law that’s put a computer in your child’s Xbox has changed manufacturing. The

cost of key technologies has been dropping. Speed and production have improved.”

Much of the reason for higher profitability, shorter time to market and more production

has been the introduction of digitalization, and more specifically the digital twin. “When

we talk about the digital twin, we’re not just talking about the product,” said Orchard.

“Siemens has extended the digital twin throughout the entire value chain. We’ve created

a digital enterprise. You can identify problems in the design and problems in manufactur-

ing. Bottlenecks can be improved without ever committing a physical resource.”

Siemens runs months of production in a digital simulation. “We can actually generate

the automation code for the machine,” explained Orchard. “We can revolutionize the way

we do commissioning. We make sure it works. We can train operators in the virtual world.

We take that manufacturing blueprint and hand it over to the MES to coordinate all of that

to make sure the plant behaves and the product is made right the first time.”

Siemens already has attempted this in 320 plants. Siemens’ electronics factory in

Amberg, Germany, makes 1 million products per month. “That’s one every second, and

products are delivered within 24 hours,” explained Orchard. “Since we’ve digitized, we’ve

reduced 200 defects/million to just 10. Amberg had 1,200 people working when we started.

And we still have 1,200 people working, but production has increased ninefold.”

Innovation in the Digital Ageeditorial teameditor in chief

Mike [email protected]

technical editor

Dave [email protected]

digital managing editor

Christopher [email protected]

contributing editor

Rick [email protected]

contributing editor

Tom [email protected]

editorial assistant

Lori [email protected]

columnist

Jeremy [email protected]

design/productionsenior production manager

Anetta Gauthier

senior art director

Derek Chamberlain

subscriptionscustomer service

888-644-1803

circulation Audited December 2016

Air & Gas Compressors 553

Engineering & Systems

Integration Services 11,547

Engines & Turbines 1,025

Food Products Machinery 1,569

Industrial Fans, Blowers

& Air Purification Equipment 526

Industrial Heating, Refrigeration

& Air Conditioning Equipment 1,139

Industrial Process Furnaces & Ovens 472

Machine Tools 2,110

Materials Handling, Conveyors

& Conveying Equipment 1,507

Metalworking Machinery 2,600

Mining Machinery & Equipment 510

Oil & Gas Field Machinery & Equipment 1,187

Packaging Machinery 906

Paper Industries Machinery 312

Printing Trades Machinery & Equipment 441

Pumps & Pumping Equipment 891

Rolling Mill Machinery & Equipment 157

Semiconductor Manufacturing

Machinery 817

Textile Machinery 172

Woodworking Machinery 274

Other Industries & Special Industrial

Machinery & Equipment NEC 11,305

TOTAL 40,020

1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N Schaumburg, Illinois 60173

630/467-1300 Fax: 630/467-1124

In Memory of Julie Cappelletti-Lange, Vice President 1984-2012

Mike Bacidoreeditor in [email protected]

editor’s page

The digital enterprise is about proximity to consumers.

CD1705_09_Edit.indd 9 4/19/17 3:01 PM

ASSEMBLEDIN THEUSA

usa.siemens.com/ipc

Siemens is proud to begin assembly of select Industrial Personal Computers out of the Lebanon, Ohio facility starting April 1, 2016.

As the demand for IPCs in the U.S. continues to grow, Siemens is making it easier for customers to get the units they order faster.

The units selected for initial assembly represent the most popular configurations from our U.S. based customers and will result in significantly reduced lead times. Additional IPC models will be added over time to the Lebanon, OH facility to further meet customer needs.

These U.S. assembled units will be built with the same rigorous standards as those units produced in Germany, with more than 50 tests, including a 36 hour burn in test, to guarantee the highest quality.

You can continue to order Siemens full line of IPC products. Those configurations not produced in the Lebanon facility will continue to be manufactured in Germany.

See your local Siemens Representative for configuration options

What IPCs will be produced at this location and when?Microbox / Micropanel PC• IPC427D / IPC477D: Spring 2016• IPC427E / IPC477E: Winter 2016

Nanobox / Nanopanel PC• IPC227E / IPC277E: Summer 2016

Rack PC• IPC547G: Spring 2017

What is the customer benefit?Customers will now have significantly shorter lead times for faster delivery. Lead times will be reduced by 40%.

These products will say “Assembled in USA” to qualify for government contracts.

Siemens announces first IPC Assembly Center in the U.S.

Microbox (IPC427D) and Micropanel PC (IPC477D) will be first units assembled

©2

01

6 S

iem

ens

Ind

ust

ry,

Inc.

CD1705_FPA.indd 10 4/19/17 3:15 PM

FOR THOSE OUT there whining about how automation and

technology is eliminating jobs, I wanted you to be aware that

technology will be leaving you behind. There is no doubt; it has

happened in the past, and it will continue to. Any thoughts or

plans to stop it will just ensure technology, and others using it,

will put you further behind.

Instead, advanced manufacturing and design must embrace

technology to create the projects, products and jobs that result.

You don’t have to look further than the demise of the horse-

drawn carriage and the rise of the

automobile to see how technology is a

good thing. The automotive industry is

huge, and it created many high-paying

jobs and many levels of suppliers. And,

let’s face it, most coachmen probably

had to learn to drive a car or a taxi.

Here’s a secret. If you work at

Wallee World and unload trucks, you are going to be replaced

by drones that will work harder than you. It’s inevitable. It’s

not because of automation; it’s just how the real world works.

Automation is needed to increase the productivity, in this case,

of unloading trucks. That’s low-hanging fruit due to a signi� -

cant percentage of workers there who don’t work very hard

or productively, except when necessary to avoid work. These

contracted droids won’t steal either, like some humans do.

Of course, many employees at Wallee World are excellent,

ef� cient workers, and they would like to develop and expand

their skill sets. You know who you are, even if management

doesn’t. So, be aware that those robots are going to need to be

designed, improved, built, operated, managed and maintained.

Any of those tasks will likely pay better than placing the prod-

uct on the shelf that the robot brings to you in the near future.

Can’t do this work due to your skill set or lack of one? Duh, get

a new skill set. Yes, it may be dif� cult and take a while, so start

now. Today. Set your sites high and then exceed them. Technolo-

gy will replace jobs, and those seeking to dumb down things will

not stop it. A better path to a rewarding and well-paying job is to

go out and get trained in a technology or discipline you enjoy.

When selecting a skill to develop, know that some sources of

income and whole industries in the United States will be much

different or not exist in the future. It happened to the textile,

steel and machine-tool industries here to a varying extent and

other industries, as well. I have driven past and � own over

many huge, empty parking lots that used to be full of well-paid

automotive workers, high-tech automation and many robots.

Low-cost labor and trade agreements are just some of the many

reasons it happened. Even thieving countries like China had a

hand in it, by stealing the technology and design.

Technology and automation need to be embraced and need

to be developed here, built here and kept here. If a high tech-

nology is developed here, then use it to manufacture here; or,

I assure you, China will steal it or

likely already has. The manufac-

turing opportunities and employ-

ment they offer are other reasons

to stay close to home.

The National Science and

Technology Council (NSTC, www.

whitehouse.gov/ostp/nstc) thinks

manufacturing plays an outsized role in the U.S. economy. Tom

Kalil, deputy director for Technology and Innovation at the Of� ce

of Science and Technology Policy, claims it is the greatest eco-

nomic multiplier of any other sector by creating four additional

jobs for every manufacturing job. Kalil also claims, “Economic

impacts grow as we add next-generation technologies; advanced

manufacturing produces sophisticated and exclusive products

that we can sell around the world, leading to greater economic

prosperity and increasing the job multiplier to 16:1.”

Again, I cannot agree more. Throughout my career in system

integration and custom machine building, I have seen � rsthand

the reach of technology from the source manufacturer to many

sub-suppliers and service providers.

Technology needs a capable workforce, which leads to oppor-

tunities for skilled or highly skilled labor, engineering and busi-

ness. The NSTC is con� dent that skilled craftsmen, technicians,

designers, planners, researchers, engineers and managers will

be in high demand, and it claims that millions of manufactur-

ing jobs could remain un� lled due to skills gaps.

Although there is no doubt that technology will leave some

of you behind, just as electric lights dimmed the gas lamps,

American innovation will have a job opening available for the

skilled and educated. You will need to develop your skills and

� nd apprenticeships and on-the-job training will keep you in

front. Technology won’t wait to be applied.

Technology will leave you behind

live wire

American innovation will have a job opening available for the skilled and

educated.


Dave Perkontechnical [email protected]

CD1705_11_LiveWire.indd 11 4/19/17 2:27 PM

DC On Demand

• The Most DC Choices

• Unmatched Quality

• Superior Reliability

• Quickest Delivery Available

While other manufacturers have chosen to leave the DC motor market, ABB and Baldor continue to invest in product development and U.S. manufacturing in order to offer the widest variety of permanent magnet and wound field industrial DC motors in the world. DC motors continue to provide the right solutions to many application requirements. We now can supply IEC or NEMA frame motors, stock motors from 1/50 to 500 Hp or custom-designed motors to 3000 Hp to meet your specific application. If you need a DC motor anywhere in the world, call Baldor!

baldor.com 479-646-4711

©2017 Baldor Electric Company http://esp.to/w12yaX

BAL CD DC Family ad FVA.indd 1 4/12/17 12:22 PMCD1705_FPA.indd 12 4/19/17 3:15 PM


Jeremy [email protected]

embedded intelligence

REMOTE ACCESS AND cybersecurity go hand in hand. I have

been doing some market research to gather information for

an upcoming presentation at the ISA Power Industry Division

Symposium (www.isa.org/powersymp/) this June in Cleveland. I

am flabbergasted at what I am finding.

First, remote access as a technology has more solutions than

you can shake a stick at. Vendors are supporting open-source

protocols for remote access of devices over the Internet—VPN

appliances, network appliances and proprietary protocols, along

with physical access restraints and

cable plugger-inners (the ones that

use a network cable as an air gap).

The concept of cybersecurity is

very hazy, as well. The end of IT

and OT being like church and state

is clouded by the requirements of

IT departments that do not under-

stand the reality of OT requirements. Simply put, one can’t

be without email for an hour. Access to the process has to be

available at all times.

Scott Phillips, founder of IIoT Global and president and found-

er of the SearchLite (www.thesearchlite.com) produced a report

on IIoT cybersecurity for manufacturing. While reading the re-

port, my mind wandered to a risk alert from the Department of

Homeland Security on Rockwell Automation and Modicon PLCs.

These devices have the ability to be hacked from the inside or

the outside. Phillips describes various obstacles to a success-

ful implementation of securing industrial control systems with

mitigation trees to roadmap how you would deal with a certain

threat vector. He refers to the basic issues of device protection,

but I wondered where the monitoring of and promoting of sys-

tem firmware would fit into his plan.

While SCADA and the SCADA network are the most vulner-

able, states Phillips, he brings up many good points on how to

implement a policy to do basic industrial control system (ICS)

protection from inside the firewall.

These steps can be taken directly by the floor maintenance

and engineering peeps. However, IT departments have to be

involved for the remaining issues, so you can’t leave them out

in the cold. You can find the report online at www.connected-

factoryglobal.com.

James Scott, senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infra-

structure Technology (www.icitech.org) has authored a number

of publications dealing with cybersecurity that have resulted

from the collection of data from user surveys.

Scott’s approach for the survey was targeted at the retail

space, and not the industrial space. But the results and implica-

tions are similar, regardless.

Data protection policies are becoming tedious, lengthy and

problematic. The intent of the ISO 27001 standard is to create a

path for certification to put policies and systems in place to ad-

dress the issues that Scott suggests

are ever present in our current IoT

world. Ransomware is on the rise,

and 50% of the respondents said

they had a ransomware attack in

the past. This frightened me: 86%

said they do not have a plan in

place to address security issues.

The report was based on nonprofit organizations that more

than likely use a third party for IT support.

If its security isn’t up to par and an employee of your com-

pany goes to the site to donate, your network may now be

infected. If that computer is also on the OT network, then who

knows what could happen.

Scott mentions that some are using internally developed

frameworks, NIST guidelines, and SANS Institute’s list of the

top 20 critical security controls. Know that there is ISA99/

IEC 62443 and the ISO 27000 series, as well as homegrown IT

rollouts and vendor-supplied frameworks. We don’t have any

consensus on what’s good, right and workable for your level of

expertise and funding.

Scott asserts that backups are important, but it is the down-

time that hurts. Remember about OT being always available.

Houston, we may have a problem here.

One door-to-the-floor requirement includes multi-factor

authentication of the device, the person and the target. Check

out the new government personal-identity verification (PIV)

security. Are we important enough to require this level of secu-

rity? I think so.

Door-to-the-floor cybersecurity requirements

Vendors are supporting open-source protocols for remote access of

devices over the Internet.

JEREMY POLLARD, CET, has been writing about technology and

software issues for many years. Pollard has been involved in control

system programming and training for more than 25 years.

CD1705_13_EmbedIntel.indd 13 4/19/17 2:30 PM

14 / May 2017 / ControlDesign.com

component considerations

Thomas Steviccontributing editor

[email protected]

IN 1906, THE International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

was officially formed to study the international standardiza-

tion of electrical nomenclature and ratings and symbols. In the

1920s, IEC began the process of creating standard performance

criteria for electric and electronic systems and services, accord-

ing to Morand Fachot, communications officer at IEC.

In 1926, the National Electrical Manufacturers Associa-

tion (NEMA) was formed to address a broad range of problems

within the electrical manufacturing industry in the United

States. One of the issues the trade or-

ganization worked to address was the

lack of standardization. Products such

as motors and contactors built by one

company could not be easily replaced

with like products from another.

Though similar, the two groups

have different philosophies. NEMA fa-

vors robust design and a wider range of applications, where IEC

focuses on specific applications and performance. To properly

size a NEMA-style full-voltage, across-the-line motor starter,

the only information required is the motor horsepower and

voltage. Sizing an IEC starter of the same type requires knowing

the motor load, the duty cycle and full load current.

NEMA standards list 10 sizes to cover 2-hp to 900-hp mo-

tors. IEC standards specify 20 sizes to cover the same range

of motors. Additionally, IEC defines more than 30 utilization

categories for the contactor part of a motor starter in IEC 947.

Because IEC motor starters are more precisely matched to the

control application, below 100 full load amperage (FLA), they

are typically smaller than a NEMA starter sized for the same

function. NEMA-style starters are designed to be more general

purpose and robust than their IEC counterparts. The advantage

is evident when the motor is called upon to perform under con-

ditions not foreseen at the time of design. The disadvantages of

this robustness translate into a higher initial cost, larger size

and often underused capacity for the NEMA style device.

IEC style starters are typically made up of an interconnected

contactor and overload device. Serviceability is not a design

consideration. When a component of the IEC starter fails, the

contactor or the overload is simply replaced. NEMA style start-

ers often allow access to internal components such as the coil,

contacts and overload heater elements. These parts are service-

able without removing the motor starter from the enclosure.

An overload relay is always part of the motor-starter circuit.

The overload interrupts the current flow into the contactor’s

coil when the current draw of the motor exceeds the overload’s

rating for a specific amount of time. Overloads belong to one of

four classes: 10, 20, 30 and 40. The numeric part of the class is

that maximum amount of time, in seconds, that excess current

can flow to the motor before the relay operates and de-energiz-

es the motor-starter coil.

The simplest type of motor-start-

er overload is the thermal overload

relay. Current passing from line

voltage, through the contactor, is

routed through a resistive element

before being applied to the motor.

As the current increases, the resis-

tive element heats up. When the

current flow is greater than the rating of the overload, the heat

generated by the resistive element warps a bi-metallic spring

causing the overload relay contacts to open, thus de-energizing

the contactor coil. The heater elements are available in different

values, so the motor overload circuit may be adjusted per the

requirements of the specific application. This type of overload

protection is simple and dependable. However, the accuracy of

such a design is dependent upon the manufacturing tolerances

of the resistive element and the bi-metallic spring. Changes in

the line voltage also alter the accuracy of such a device. Some

NEMA style starters, particularly factory-assembled models,

incorporate this type of thermal overload protection.

A second method of overload protection is available for mod-

ular style units. An electronic overload module uses current

transformers to measure the current supplied to the motor. An

electronic overload relay is more accurate than a thermal relay

and provides detection of phase loss, phase imbalance, ground

faults and wider adjustment range.

Electronic overloads are considerably more expensive than

simpler thermal overload. They are also much more compli-

cated with more modes of failure.

How to size a motor starter

NEMA-style starters are designed to be more general purpose and robust

than their IEC counterparts.

THOMAS STEVIC is a controls engineer at Star Manufacturing

(www.starmanufacture.com), an engineering and production

company in Cincinnati.

CD1705_14_ComponentConsider.indd 14 4/19/17 2:32 PM

INTRINSICALLY SAFE I/O...Explosion Protection for Automation

Ex i System Highlights• Approved for location in Class 1 Div. 2 / Zone 2• Intrinsically safe [ia] digital, analog and safety modules• Combine standard and Ex i I/O in the same node• Modular, compact design – 12 mm width• Fieldbus Independent

www.wago.us/hazloc

Intrinsically safe I/O - Control Design - New 2017.indd 1 4/19/17 11:14 AMCD1705_FPA.indd 15 4/19/17 3:16 PM


technology trends

Rick Ricecontributing editor

[email protected]

PHOTOELECTRIC SENSORS HAVE been around for decades. The

first photo sensor was developed in the 1950s, so it’s not neces-

sarily breaking news that these exist. What has changed over

the years is the sensor package and the technology inside. A

photoelectric sensor uses a change in light intensity to deter-

mine the distance to, presence of or absence of an object. The

light is generated by an oscillator to create a light of predicted

length and frequency. The generated light is then bounced

off of the object or background, and the resultant light beam

is analyzed by a phototransistor to

determine if the light came from the

source, and the result is then convert-

ed into an output that is used to de-

termine logic. Most photo sensors use

infrared (IR) light, and you will find

three basic deployments—opposed,

retro-reflective and proximity.

In the opposed mode, one module transmits the light while

another receives it. This is the most accurate form of sens-

ing, as the receiver will only accept the light that was sent by

its matching transmitter. The object being sensed is passed

through the beam of light between transmitter and receiver.

The receiver then produces an output based on the presence or

absence of an object in the light beam.

A retro-reflective photoeye combines the transmitter and

receiver into a common module and uses a reflective tape or

object to return the transmitted beam to the receiver. Like the

opposed mode, the receiver is looking for an object to block the

beam of light that comes out of the transmitter and is reflected

back by the reflector or tape.

A proximity photoeye uses the same principle as the retro-

reflective photoeye but uses the properties of the object itself

to reflect light back to the receiver. Sometimes called a diffuse

or background suppression photoeye, this device counts on the

light beam being directed to an imaginary point in space and

the light reflecting back will then be expected to be in a particu-

lar spot on the face of the receiver. A deviation in the reflected

light will determine if an object is in the beam.

Let’s talk about package for a moment. Who remembers the

days when a photoeye came in a phenolic casing measuring

1.5 by 1.5 by 4 inches? Over the years, like most things in our

industry, greater things come in ever-shrinking packages. Most

common sensors come in an industry standard 18 mm body or

barrel, and there are a number of companies out there making

sensors to suit most applications. Recent developments have

added some great features to this often used sensor.

Any time light is used as a medium for detection, there is

the risk of interference from any number of causes. Develop-

ment over the years has evolved to use different sources of light

to improve the accuracy of sensing, as well as the distances

over which the light can be transmitted. Diffuse sensors are

nice because they don’t require a

reflector, but they are limited by

the properties of the object being

sensed and its ability to reflect

some of that transmitted light back

at the receiving optics. Early light

sources relied on a light emitting

diode (LED) to produce the neces-

sary light such as visible red or invisible infrared.

Newer sensors rely on the use of lasers to improve the range

of photoelectric sensors. These distances can be from as little

as 6 cm to as much as 5 m for a diffuse (proximity) sensor.

Within the past few years, a new technology has come

into play. The use of a self-contained, complementary-metal-

oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) laser enables sensors to use both

position and contrast to determine the presence of an object.

Recently, a vendor demonstrated the use of Class II lasers to

enhance these devices yet again. Class I sensors were formerly

used. In this package, the accuracy of the sensor was dramati-

cally improved. Not only would it indicate position (distance)

accurately, but it could use both contrast and texture to further

clarify the object presence. The remarkable result is a sensor

that can be used to find a piece of card stock on a conveyor but

also a brown or dark-blue eye spot (registration spot) on a black

shiny film. That same sensor can also be used to detect color.

I have many applications where I’m tasked with accurately

stopping packaging machines based on the presence of a blotch

of color on a piece of shiny film being run through a machine

where the film distance to the sensor might waver due to move-

ment under ambient light conditions where there is a great deal

of reflectivity due to the light itself. The accuracy of the Class II

sensor was amazing. I could teach the basic background versus

target qualities and then go into a deep teach mode where I

See what’s new with photoelectric sensors

Any time light is used as a medium for detection, there is the risk of

interference.

...because just ONE workplace accident

is too many...For over ninety years, Telemecanique Sensors has developed quality sensor

products which help engineers ensure their machines are safe to operate and meet

all the industry’s applicable safety standards.

With that kind of expertise, who should you trust for your machine safety sensor solutions?

XUSL Light Curtains for automatic machine shutdown, XCSLF Switch for dangerous area entry prevention, and XY2CJ Cable Pull Switch for emergency manual shutdowntesensors.com/safety

New, XY2CED double-sided Cable Pull switch for manual emergency shutdown of machines up to 656 feet wide!

Simply easy!NOW AVAILABLE!

New, XY2CED double-sided

NOW AVAILABLE!

CD201705-Telemecanique.indd 1 4/18/2017 4:15:19 PMCD1705_16_17_TechTrends.indd 16 4/19/17 2:34 PM

could then further define the target conditions by moving the

object around under the sensor to detune for variances in re-

flectivity due to light and the texture of the material itself.

A major advantage over the Class I device was the distance

at which an accurate change in distance could be measured.

One of the applications that I use distance sensors for is to

watch for the presence of a white or reflective film pouch in

a stainless-steel bucket of a cartoner. The bucket moves by at

60-100 ft/min and has ridges on the bottom of the bucket to

facilitate the transfer of the pouch into the cartoner. In normal

ambient conditions, the ridges kick off light in all directions as

the bucket passes by the sensor. With the Class I sensor I had to

have the sensor mounted within ½-inch of the top of the bucket

due to the limited distance to guarantee an accurate sensing

of the product in the bucket. With the Class II sensor, I have

nearly twice the distance from the background to accurately

detect the object.

One final accolade should be mentioned about this new tech-

nology. The product that I find most difficult is a thin (less than

¼-inch) pouch of a shiny white material with a blue printing on

the surface. Conventional distance sensors could not always

pick up the product, due to both the small distance element as

well as the shiny white film reflecting the ambient light. The

blue print also caused issues as it often absorbed the visible red

light, creating blanks in my sensing window, so much so that

my attempts to filter the signal presence would result in not

picking up the pouch presence at all. The ability to deep-teach

the sensor while seeing the target allowed me to teach out

the blue printing and make the sensor consider that part of a

good read and not part of that highly reflective, stainless-steel

bucket passing by.

This advancement in technology has me thinking about a

photoelectric sensor where I might normally have considered

a vision system as a last resort. Imagine how that affects my

budget for projects. Definitely worth a second thought.

RICK RICE is a controls engineer at Crest Foods (www.crestfoods.com),

a dry-foods manufacturing and packaging company in Ashton, Illinois.

...because just ONE workplace accident

is too many...For over ninety years, Telemecanique Sensors has developed quality sensor

products which help engineers ensure their machines are safe to operate and meet

all the industry’s applicable safety standards.

With that kind of expertise, who should you trust for your machine safety sensor solutions?

XUSL Light Curtains for automatic machine shutdown, XCSLF Switch for dangerous area entry prevention, and XY2CJ Cable Pull Switch for emergency manual shutdowntesensors.com/safety

New, XY2CED double-sided Cable Pull switch for manual emergency shutdown of machines up to 656 feet wide!

Simply easy!NOW AVAILABLE!

New, XY2CED double-sided

NOW AVAILABLE!

CD201705-Telemecanique.indd 1 4/18/2017 4:15:19 PMCD1705_16_17_TechTrends.indd 17 4/19/17 2:34 PM

With the advent of the Industrial Internet of Things

and Industry 4.0, the use of smart edge devices is

becoming more common in factory automation.

A wide variety of these smart edge devices are being used for

data collection and control, but what exactly one is depends

on who you ask. Smart edge devices don’t necessarily make a

smart machine.

What exactly is a smart edge device? What real work are

these computing devices and microcomputers doing at the

edge? And do these smart edge devices make machines smarter

and improve manufacturing?

Taking a step back from the edge, Rich Carpenter, general

manager, controls platforms, GE Automation and Control (www.

geautomation.com) asks, “In today’s modern era, are smart

edge devices re-defining the traditional control loop that has

been in place for about 50 years? Collect your inputs, run your

logic and set your outputs—that is how we have been doing it

for a long time. In today’s world and moving forward, you have

to incorporate the results of analytics and optimization that

happen outside of the normal control loop. The smart edge

device is a critical link between what the traditional control

system can do and the rich set of information available at the

plant, enterprise and even the ecosystem level that can be

incorporated into the day-to-day control decisions.”

What is a smart edge device?“A smart edge device is something that’s able to communicate

one or many plant-floor protocols in a way that isolates that

network and traffic from the Internet,” says Greg Giles, execu-

tive director, MES/Argonaut at RedViking (www.redviking.com)

in Plymouth, Michigan. “Sometimes data can be processed on

the edge device; sometimes the edge device can simply be a

pass-through. In both cases, it’s responsible for passing infor-

mation to an enterprise- or cloud-level server.”

The edge device that RedViking uses as part of its Argonaut

Manufacturing Performance Platform is called a Spearhead (Fig-

ure 1). “Sometimes these more complex versions of a Spearhead

are incorporated into a hardened HMI or drive some other type

of external display,” says Giles. “The simpler implementations

are usually small devices without a display.”


cover story

How, why and when to use smart devices away from centralized logic

by Dave Perkon, technical editor

CD1705_18_29_CoverStory.indd 18 4/24/17 10:36 AM

Smart edge devices perform

information computing, such

as data gathering, data storage and

analytics, at the device level, says Mike

Pantaleano, global business manager—

analytics & cloud at Rockwell Automa-

tion (www.rockwellautomation.com).

“These devices may have cloud gateway

functionality, but what truly makes them

smart is their ability to manage data and

help drive decisions locally,” he says.

Manufacturing systems have always

used edge devices that are located close

to or in contact with the workpieces or

material, says Christian Fell, Posital-

Fraba (www.posital.com). “These include

the sensors, actuators, drives and so on

that provide real-time information to

the control system and carry out its in-

structions,” he says. “Smart edge devices

are just devices that have some level of

built-in intelligence, often in the form

of an embedded microprocessor. These

local microprocessors can perform tasks

such as signal processing to turn analog

readings into calibrated, temperature-

compensated digital data; condition

monitoring; and management of high-

level communications interfaces such as

fieldbus or industrial Ethernet.”

Control and analyticsSmart edge devices may provide control

at the edge. “However, a larger use case

for edge devices has to do with data

analysis, which allows the device to per-

form some basic analytics onboard and

off-line,” says Keith Blodorn, director of

the wireless program at ProSoft Technol-

ogy (www.prosoft-technology.com). “The

immediate value of this is reducing the

torrent of data that would otherwise

need to flow to an analytics engine in

the cloud, since transporting that data

remains the most expensive part of the

big data puzzle.”

That said, an edge device performs

a mission-critical role in production at

the edge, continues Blodorn, but a smart

edge device takes this a step further by

continuing to reliably function while

offering secure enhanced access, control

and visibility into that edge function and

edge devices.

Smart edge devices can be used for

both the control and monitoring of

industrial machines and equipment,

notes Nick Butler, Sr., group manager,

data acquisition & control product

marketing at National Instruments

(www.ni.com). “The purpose of the edge

device is to make the asset itself smart,”

he says. “This is done by connecting

the asset to the network and allowing

the asset to sense and react to its own

operating conditions and environment.

This results in assets that are not only

smarter, but safer, more reliable and

better performing.”

At National Instruments, smart edge

devices must have the following features

or capabilities:

• ability to interface with sensors to

measure conditions inside of and

around the machine

• ability to interface with actuators or

other motion systems to control the

operation of the machine based on

input from the sensors

• connectivity to other devices in the

deployment environment, such as

fieldbuses, other machines and SCADA

systems, as well as connectivity to the

IT/enterprise network, so that the asset

becomes a “thing” on the network that

can be remotely monitored, managed

and controlled

• durability and a rugged enough exte-

rior to withstand the conditions of a

factory or industrial environment

• internal processing and analysis capa-

bilities to process incoming sensor data

and make decisions or control outputs

at the asset.


Manufacturing performance platform Figure 1: RedViking’s Spearhead smart edge device can be a hardened HMI, drive a display or function without a display.

(SO

URC

E: R

EDV

IKIN

G)


• Modbus TCP and RTU

• CAN J1939 CPU

• Email and Text Messages

• Built-in Web Page Editor

• 126 Analog I/O

• 640kB programming memorywww.IDEC.com/usa

800.262.IDEC

IDEC’s new FC6A MicroSmart PLC provides the power of a PAC in a small form factor, making it an ideal fi t for your most demanding applications. The MicroSmart features the industry’s leading price/performance ratio with the capacity to handle 520 I/O including up to 126 analog I/O.

640kB of program memory handles your toughest control applications, and programming is quick and easy with IDEC’s WindLDR PC-based software. Remote access is a snap by creating custom web pages confi gured for remote monitoring and control using simple drag and drop functionality with no HTML programming required, a feature unique in this class of PLCs.

The FC6A MicroSmart provides competitive advantages via simplifi ed programming and web page creation, more cost effective end solutions for your customers, and ease of maintenance via remote access—a set of features unmatched by any other micro PLC.

Find out more at: http://FC6A.IDEC.com

The Next Level of Micro PLC!

Providing PAC capabilities with ease of programming

FC6A Delivers the Power of a PAC in a Micro PLC

Built-in Analog InputRemovable Power & I/O Blocks

I/O Status LED

Optional Analog& Comm Cartridge

RJ45 RS232C/RS485 Port

RJ45 Ethernet Port

Mini-B USB Port

SD Memory Port

Start/Stop Switch

CD1705_FPA.indd 20 4/19/17 3:17 PM

Control, data and smartphones“The set of possible smart edge devices

that can be used for industrial control

is rapidly expanding as ever more com-

pute and sensing capability moves to

the edge,” says Greg Olsen, senior vice

president, products, at Falkonry (www.

falkonry.com). “As long as the device

can transform signal observation into

operational commands or guidance,

it can be considered a control device.

Smartness is clearly subjective, but

the range can include anything from

advanced process control all the way up

to artificial intelligence.”

A smart edge device enables communi-

cation between operators and ICS/SCADA

systems in near real-time, without dis-

rupting, interrupting or altering existing

networks and device configurations,” says

James Scott, senior fellow, Institute for

Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT,

www.icitech.org). “Many smart edge

devices are able to make coordinated

decisions even in low-bandwidth settings

or on unreliable networks.”

A smart edge device is some type of

connected industrial device designed to

gather large amounts of manufacturing

data and to have the flexibility to process

data or conduct analytics on the device,

says Eric Reiner, industrial PC market

specialist at Beckhoff Automation (www.

beckhoff.com). “This same device must

also be able to transmit data vertically to

the cloud or other higher-level database

systems, such as MES or ERP,” he says.

“In terms of the Beckhoff portfolio, these

include PC-based controllers, such as

compact industrial PCs and embedded

PCs that can conduct advanced analytics

at the machine and/or push data up via

recognized IoT standards such as OPC

UA, MQTT and AMQP.”

Edge devices are generally routers or

switches that act as a portal for ma-

chines to the outside world, says Tom

Moolayil, senior technical manager at

Universal Robots (www.universal-robots.

com). “Smart edge devices, in this case,

would be smart phones, tablets, cars,

TVs and other devices that are Internet-

enabled,” he says. “These devices would

have access to the factory floor via stan-

dard edge devices, so in tandem I sup-

pose you could refer to them as a smart

edge device. The reason it’s smart is it

gives unprecedented and easy access to

the factory floor.”

Some key smart features“Smart devices alone don’t automati-

cally make machines smart,” says Rock-

well Automation’s Pantaleano. “A ma-

chine requires controllers to orchestrate

the proper sequence, turn things on and

off at the right time and survey various

conditions to optimally control produc-

tion. In this way, the controller adds a

critical layer of context in addition to its

control responsibility.”

One example is Rockwell Automa-

tion’s upcoming Allen-Bradley Compact-

Logix 5480 controller, which will have

Windows 10 built right into it, continues

Pantaleano. “This will create a marriage

of mission-critical control with analytics

and information,” he says. “New soft-

ware tools can help to bring analytics to

existing edge devices. For example, our

new FactoryTalk Analytics for Devices

appliance can provide analytics on de-

vices such as drives to transform them

into smart edge devices.”

New mobile apps are turning the ev-

eryday smartphones in our pockets into

smart edge devices, states Pantaleano.

“Our FactoryTalk TeamOne mobile app,

for example, allows smartphones to be

securely added inside the IT network

and automation layer rather than com-

ing in from outside Internet,” he says.

cover story

Not suitable for repairing crummy sensors (or your reputation).

WARNING

Rugged, reliable industrial

automation products from

Turck are built to perform in

the toughest conditions, and

our engineered solutions

are customized to meet

your application challenges.

Cheap knock-offs can’t

compare. Turck works!

Call 1-800-544-7769 or visit info.turck.us/sensors

Your Global Automation Partner

Uprox®3 Inductive Proximity Sensors

Developed to combine compact

sensor design with the longest

switching distance to all metals

of all inductive proximity

sensors on

the market.

Now available with IO-Link!


Already today, industrial companies are using this app to diag-

nose issues, collaborate with colleagues and instantly connect

to automation devices (Figure 2).”

The next generation of the control loop will have an inner

and outer loop, says GE Automation and Control’s Carpenter.

“The inner loop is the traditional read inputs, do logic and set

your outputs,” he says. “The outer loop will gather the intel-

ligence and smart information to make better decisions. This is

what drives the need for a smart edge device.”

For brown� eld, existing applications, GE has an outer loop

smart edge device called a Field Agent—a secure authenticat-

ed device that can connect into other information, run analyt-

ics and send the information to the control to make better

decisions, continues Carpenter. “For a green� eld application,

GE has a two-in-one programmable automation controller

(PAC) called the RX3i CPE400,” he says. “Part of the controller’s

processor is used for deterministic control, and part is used

for implementation of the Field Agent. This is a connected

controller smart edge device that can run the inner and outer

loop, simultaneously. The industrial Internet control system

(IICS) has arrived.”

Other key features include the connection and user inter-

face. “Smart edge devices typically have a serial/Ethernet port

or a wireless connection, it may include a TCP/IP stack, and it

contains a mechanism for remote users to connect to the smart

device using device capable of hosting a, typically HTML5, Web

browser,” notes ICIT’s Scott. “Authenticated users can moni-

tor or adjust the system settings through con� gurable rich

graphical interfaces,” he says. “Many smart edge devices do not

require proprietary code/� rmware, contain extensive object

libraries and have built-in GUI functions.”

Hilscher de� nes the edge as that point of contact where OT

control environments connect to IT environments, says Craig

Lentzkow, IIoT business development manager at Hilscher

(www.hilscher.com). “Hilscher Edge Gateways make the con-

nectivity between OT and IT environments,” he says. “Depend-

ing on the product, the Edge Gateways can run customer ap-

plications on them to facilitate edge computing or only stream

cover story

Polyester

Die-cast Aluminum

StainlessSteel

IndustrialWall-mount

Polycarbonate


data from the manufacturing floor to

servers, on-premise or in the cloud.”

Why be smart?“There are new IIoT devices designed

every day,” says RedViking’s Giles.

“We’ve had decades of experience cus-

tomizing MES, incorporating multiple

brands of controllers and software and

networks, and, if you’re a very large

corporation with millions invested in

your legacy systems, you don’t have

much choice but to keep recoding that

black-box MES software. That’s the

whole reason we developed Argonaut.

It’s designed to be an anything-to-

everything platform. It can receive data

from any plant-floor machine or device

and send it to anything that can receive

an API call. Manufacturing companies

won’t have to write new code for every

new device or software application, and

they won’t be tied to any specific type of

equipment. Smart devices are important

to the future of manufacturing data, but

we believe that flexible software is just

as important, if not more so.”

An important reason for building

intelligence into an edge device is to

off-load tasks from the central control-

ler hardware and have the work done by

the edge device, says Posital-Fraba’s Fell.

“This can be achieved by using higher-

level communications systems such as

fieldbus or industrial Ethernet,” he says.

“These systems, which make use of lo-

cal microprocessors or ASIC devices to

manage the interface, take care of data

communication tasks, such as data pack-

aging, handshakes and error-checks,

without burdening the central PLC or

microcontroller.”

The two advantages to using a

separate edge device for collecting and

analyzing data are avoiding load on the

PLC processor and providing a configura-

tion paradigm that is geared toward data

management rather than machine con-

trol, says ProSoft Technology’s Blodorn.

“As it relates to machine control, the PLC

is an edge computer,” he says. “With the

tremendous growth in machine analyt-

ics, some of these edge data collection

tasks will surely fall on the PLC, while

Industrial-strength mobile appFigure 2: A mobile app turns a smart phone into a smart edge device that can connect to automation devices, diagnose issues and collaborate with colleagues.

(SOURCE: ROCKWELL AUTOMATION)

Call 1-800-544-7769 or visit info.turck.us/sensors

QR24 Rotary Inductive SensorsAn expanded line of noncontact inductive

rotary position sensors with optional

stainless steel housing.

Wide variety of

outputs includes

HTL Incremental,

SSI, CANopen and

analog in voltage

and current.

Rugged, reliable industrial

automation products from

Turck are built to perform in

the toughest conditions, and

our engineered solutions

are customized to meet

your application challenges.

Cheap knock-offs can’t

compare. Turck works!

Not suitable for repairing crummy sensors (or your reputation).

WARNING

Your Global Automation Partner



cover story

others will find better homes in other

devices throughout the system.”

Smart edge devices, such as smart

instruments, are especially important

for process skids, where the system

may be installed in a remote area or not

connected to the main control sys-

tem, says Michael Robinson, national

marketing manger, projects, services

and solutions, at Endress+Hauser (www.

us.endress.com/en). “Data and analytics

from the smart instruments can be sent

directly to a plant’s control systems or

operators without involving the skid’s

control system.”

How to use them“Using our Argonaut platform, smart

device data is captured on a Spearhead

edge device and forwarded to a server

or the cloud,” says RedViking’s Giles.

“It’s all managed from a central loca-

tion, with apps and updates deployed as

needed. It’s efficient because it doesn’t

require a plant-floor PC to run or an

on-site engineer to perform updates. It’s

secure because it uses TLS, token-based

authentication.”

Another example of a smart edge

device starts with a control system up-

grade, by Chicago Electric (www.chica-

goelectric.com), in Carol Stream, Illinois,

using standard PLCs, drives, sensors

and HMI screens. Chicago Electric builds

control systems for a variety of applica-

tions, including the corrugated container

industry. “When a component needs to

be replaced or some new functionality is

required, updating the old software can

be a nightmare,” explains Bob Kaska,

Chicago Electric’s president. “A control

system upgrade frees our customers

from the limitations of proprietary com-

ponents and software.”

The task of measuring the precise

location of machine components is

handled by smart absolute encoders,

says Kaska. “Posital absolute encod-

ers have been a key part of our design

philosophy since 2008,” he says. “They

provide a complete picture of exactly

where each component of the machine

is positioned, even after a power failure

or cold startup. More than 500 Posital

encoders have been built into Chicago

Electric control systems (Figure 3). The

available EtherNet/IP interface supports

both operational data communications

and full device condition monitoring.”

Making robots smarter“In essence, a smart edge device is a tool

that sits on the edge of your private net-

work and allows it to connect to external

resources, including the cloud,” says Eric

Foellmer, chief marketing officer at Tend

(www.tend.ai).

“We use a smart edge device, called

a sidekick, as part of our smart cloud

robotics software solution, in.control,”

explains Foellmer. “The device essen-

tially acts as a router, which connects

any robot to our cloud-based control

system,” he says. “The user can now

control and monitor a Universal Robot,

Smart cloud roboticsFigure 4: A smart edge device with smart cloud robotics software and a vision system enables a robot to interact with machines as a human would.

Smart encodersFigure 3: Smart encoders monitor equipment position on a machine as part of an updated control system.

SOU

RCE

(TEN

D.A

I)

(SO

URC

E: C

HIC

AG

O E

LEC

TRIC

)


for example, that is tending 3D printers

or CNC machines from anywhere using

a secure software app on a smart phone

(Figure 4). This is a smart edge device

using Smart Manufacturing/Industry

4.0 principles today.”

The in.control software and sidekick

also give the robot smart vision. “Using

a vision-based approach to interfacing

with machines is actually a more ver-

satile and forward-thinking approach,

for a number of reasons,” says Foellmer.

“First, there are many older production

machines in use today which can’t be

feasibly connected or integrated via a

physical network. Our solution lever-

ages the customer’s own cameras to

interface with those machines visually,

like a human would. For example, it can

read a display screen, check on part

status or look for errors.”

More importantly, this approach is a

more versatile way of interacting with

machines in general. “It overcomes the

fact that there are so many different net-

working protocols, proprietary software

interfaces and other variables to contend

with when integrating directly between

machines,” explains Foellmer.

The one thing that all machines have

in common, new and old, is that they

were designed to interface visually with

human beings, says Foellmer. “Be-

cause our system interacts with those

machines in that way, it eliminates the

need to have a standard technology plat-

form that creates those connections,” he

says. “So by leveraging a vision-based

approach, the robot responds to those vi-

sual prompts in the way a human would,

and the way it’s been instructed to dur-

ing the training process—that is, ‘part

not ready; move to the next machine.’”

SENSORS: Inductive and Capacitive Proximity Sensors • Photoelectric Sensors • Level Sensors • Ultrasonic Sensors • Magnetic Sensors • Limit Switches • Safety Interlocks

Whether it’s our industry leading range of solid state relays and contactors, or our vast range of sensors, power supplies, energy meters and electromechanical contactors, CARLO GAVAZZI has the solution for your application needs.

Contact us today, and one of our field sales representa-tives will show you why we are one of the fastest growing automation companies worldwide. We’ll even provide a free evaluation sample to qualified OEMs.

GavazziOnline.com • 847.465.6100 • [email protected]

USA Tel: 847.465.6100 Fax: 800.222.2659Canada Tel: 888.575.2275 Fax: 905.542.2248 Mexico Tel and Fax: 55.5373.7042www.GavazziOnline.com • [email protected]

twitter.com/CarloGavazziNA facebook.com/CarloGavazziNA

Visit our website for downloadable data sheets,brochures and pricing: www.GavazziOnline.com

CARLO GAVAZZI A u t o m a t i o n C o m p o n e n t s




Innovative Automation SolutionsInnovative Automation SolutionsInnovative Automation SolutionsInnovative Automation SolutionsInnovative Automation SolutionsInnovative Automation Solutions

SWITCHES: Solid State Relays • Contactors and Overloads • Soft Starters • Definite Purpose Contactors • Mini Circuit Breakers • Electromechanical Relays • Pushbuttons and Pilot Devices

CONTROLS: Energy Meters • Current Transformers • Transducers • Power Supplies • HMIs • Panel Meters • Time Delay Relays • Current-, Voltage- and Phase Monitoring Controls

Manufacturing systems have always used edge devices that are located close to or in contact

with the workpieces or material.


Software makes the edge smart and connected“One of the main advantages of choos-

ing a software-plus-edge-device ap-

proach is that data and configurations

aren’t lost in the event of some kind of

interruption,” says RedViking’s Giles.

“Data is sent from the edge device and

stored centrally, so if the plant has

some kind of hardware or network fail-

ure, they’ll be able to quickly restore

normal operating conditions. All of the

data and configurations are centrally

managed and deployed.”

Another important bene� t of smart

edge devices is their � exibility and

versatility. “The performance charac-

teristics of a smart device can be largely

de� ned in software,” says Posital-Fra-

ba’s Fell. “For example, the current

generation of Posital’s incremental

encoders can be programmed to have a

resolution—number of pulses per revo-

lution (PPR)—anywhere between 1 and

cover story

Lifetime Warranty

Guaranteed Same-Day Shipping

Advantage Pricing—Real Savings up to 40%

Customer First and Support that is second to none!

THE BEST ELECTRICAL CONTROLS BUSINESS ON THE PLANET!

Experience the difference. Get your FREE SAMPLES of our

premium controls today.

info.c3controls.com/samples-cd

15 Million+ Product Configurations

MOTOR CONTROL

DISCONNECT SWITCHES

PILOT DEVICES

TOWER LIGHTS

CAM SWITCHES

ENCLOSED CONTROL & CONTROL STATIONS

TERMINAL BLOCKS

PROGRAMMABLE RELAYS

ELECTRONIC TIMING RELAYS

GENERAL PURPOSE RELAYS

WIRING/CABLE DUCT

Data generation, aggregation and managementFigure 5: In this diagram, the gateway is a computing device that collects data from real-time control networks and converts it to protocols that can be interpreted by IT software.


16,384 PPR,” he says. “There is no need

to make mechanical changes to the

device. This is useful for system design-

ers, since they can specify exactly the

performance characteristics they need,

without compromise.”

We have examples of smart edge

gateways collecting real-time data of

manufacturing processes from one to

more than 30 plants, says Hilscher’s

Lentzkow. “Data is brought to one

centralized location via a software

Pepperl+Fuchs now offers secure, online ordering and fast delivery on sensors, intrinsic safety barriers, and purge and pressurization systems. Over two thousand commonly stocked items are available and ready to ship to you with only a few clicks.

We accept all major credit cards, or you can use your PayPal account. And for a limited time, enjoy free shipping with your order.

Now it is easier than ever to order sensors and accessories direct from the manufacturer.

Online Ordering Now Available

Sensors, Intrinsic Safety Barriers, Purge and Pressurization Systems

FREE Shipping For

A Limited Timewww.pepperl-fuchs.us

Data generation, aggregation and managementFigure 5: In this diagram, the gateway is a computing device that collects data from real-time control networks and converts it to protocols that can be interpreted by IT software.

(SOURCE: HILSCHER)


platform running in each plant,” he

says. “The platform provides process

visualization and sends data in MQTT

format to IT software. The Hilscher

Edge Gateways connect to the ma-

chines collecting process data and the

software platform also runs in the

Edge Gateways providing the IT con-

nectivity (Figure 5).”

Past, present and future“How can smart devices connect and

communicate on a plant floor, to a con-

troller and to the cloud, all efficiently

and securely,” asks Daniel McGinn,

director of business development,

SecurePower—IT Business at Schnei-

der Electric (www.schneider-electric.

com). “This is the ultimate question.

We are already sitting on a mountain

of untapped data and capability. Smart

devices and open networks have been

finding their way into industrial ap-

plications since the early ’90s, often

unconnected or only connected in a hi-

erarchical way to upstream controllers.”

While we hear one conference pre-

sentation after another and see new

articles everyday about the benefits of

smart devices, the Industrial Internet

of Things, Industry 4.0 and Big Data

for Manufacturing, we often ignore

the longstanding reasons that there

have been specifications in place to

prevent that very type of open con-

nectivity, continues McGinn. “Concerns

such as uncontrolled access, network

intrusion, cybersecurity and system

management become front and center

in such an enterprise,” he says.

cover story

S a f e t y t e c h n o l o g y f o r m e c h a n i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g

MSCThe small safe control system MSC

E U CH N E R - U S A I 6 7 2 3 LYO N S S T. I E A S T S Y R A C U S E , N Y 1 3 0 5 7 I P H : 0 3 1 5 7 0 1 - 0 3 1 5 I I N FO @ E U CH N E R - U S A . C O M

www.euchner-usa.com

Compact housing for all modules, only 22.5 mm width

Easy to program and multifunc-tional in use

Various diagnostic features

Highest safety, Categorie 4, PL e

Easily expandable with safety and bus communication modules

Connection of a large number of safety-related devices

178x124 MSC US.indd 1 26.01.16 13:04

Smart edge devices perform information computing, such as data gathering, data storage and analytics,

at the device level.


“We used to install these systems and

effectively forget about them for years,”

notes McGinn. “In an open and con-

nected environment, edge infrastructure

needs to be managed and maintained

in much the same way as IT systems,

but with additional consideration since

we are talking about physical systems

that can cause harm to themselves or

product or even people if not managed

properly. Policies, practices and system

architectures need to be aligned around

these needs. This means specifying

high-availability hardware, including

network redundancy and UPS backup,

much like in IT environments. It also

means having strategies for software de-

ployment, patch management, anti-virus

and, quite possibly, virtualization.”

The future trend will be to push the

data analytic engines from the edge

devices down to the actual devices

themselves, says Nathan Hedrick,

national product manager, � ow, at

Endress+Hauser. “There are two objec-

tives that the sensor and its associated

data are ful� lling,” he says. “First is to

control the process, and that will need to

be performed by a supervisory element

outside the device, and, second, to en-

sure that the measurements and devices

are healthy and performing optimally.”

These smart edge devices will bring

the business thinking to the way your

equipment runs and get a better out-

come for your organization, says GE

Automation and Control’s Carpenter.

“A whole series of apps will be avail-

able to be operated on the various edge

devices,” he says. “The creativity will be

through the industrial community to de-

liver value-added applications. Find the

app that works best for the application,

download it and run it.”

The smart edge devices will help to

fuel the app economy for control that

doesn’t really exist today. Security is

the most important concern. “But you

also don’t want some errant app to

adversely affect the way a machine

runs,” says Carpenter. “The rules for

interacting have been defined,” he

says. “The deterministic side needs to

be perfect all the time, and the smart-

edge-device side, such as a Field Agent,

uses dialog and negotiation to keep

the operators and equipment safe and

optimized.”

Push-in DesignPID The push-in design adopts specially designed spring

technology which allows fast and easy wiring without

the use of tool. The structure is rigid,durable and only

requires moderate force to release the wire with a

screwdriver.PID , ideal for high density wiring.

©DINKLE Corporation ,USA ALL RIGHT RESERVED

Delight Through Connection

What are the advantages ?

LED indicationHigh transparency light pipe

Clear indication

High transparency light pipeHigh transparency light pipeHigh transparency light pipe

Flange with release tool for quick and easy release of plug.

The patented S-cage combines the spring and wire cage feature in one piece structure,offers more reliable and secure connection.

Single and double level PCB connectorsare available for high density wiringrequirement.

Compact size, products designed tocompliant with UL 1059.Excellent resistance to vibration.

Versions of various connecting directions.



DEVELOPING AND USING technology for

the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

is filled with complexities. The Smart

Factory Task Group (SFTG) within the In-

dustrial Internet Consortium (IIC, www.

iiconsortium.org) is helping end users

and machine builders to navigate those

complexities and become participants in

the Industrial Internet revolution.

“Much of what you hear about the

Internet of Things (IoT), such as Fitbit,

Nest or a connected scale or refrigerator,

is from the consumer side,” says Calvin

Smith, business lead of IoT strategy at

Dell EMC (www.dell.com). “However, one

thing analysts in the IoT space seem to

agree upon is that roughly 70% of the

revenue in the IoT today, and likely in the

future, is on the enterprise side. The larg-

est vertical in that is manufacturing.”

Smith is aware of the potential impact

the IIoT can have in a number of markets

and verticals. “There is significant rev-

enue potential, and there is a lot of cool

stuff that has already been done in the

smart factory space.”

The numbers vary, but, depending on

who you talk to, there are somewhere

between 30 and 50 standards bodies and

consortia that focus on IoT right now,

says Smith. “For some organizations, it is

difficult to make a decision on which to

join or where to be most prevalent,” he

says. “The Industrial Internet Consor-

tium is a global public-private organiza-

tion of more than 270 members, formed

to accelerate the development, adoption

and widespread use of interconnected

machines and devices, intelligent analyt-

ics and people at work. Although they are

not standards-focused, which is an im-

portant piece of the IoT in general, they

are more about getting people together,

forming consortia and making some

collective decisions and putting together

reference architectures and testbeds.”

Essentially, the IIC wants to test out

and prove things in the IoT and make

them real today as opposed to getting

together and talking about things that

might become real over an extended

period of time, continues Smith. “The IIC

is much more about execution and cross-

knitted solutions by different member

organizations,” he says. “This includes

large enterprises, subject matter expert

medium-size businesses, small business-

es and startups, as well,” he says.

Groups and tasks“The IIC structure includes several

working groups managed by full-time

staff,” explains Erik Walenza, CEO,

IoT One (www.iotone.com), Shanghai,

China. “There are working groups cover-

ing areas such as marketing, security

and technology. Under each working

group there are task groups that do the

core work and are run by the members.

The Smart Factory Task Group is under

the Marketing Working Group, which

means our focus is less on creating new

technology and more on aggregating

information and putting it into a format

that makes sense to business decision

makers (Figure 1).”

by Dave Perkon, technical editor

Understand the IIoT now for the futureThe Smart Factory Task Group, within the Industrial Internet Consortium, is a complex group

that is pulling together several testbeds for the IIoT in manufacturing automation


connections

Smart Factory Task Group Figure 1: The Smart Factory Task Group (SFTG) works with many IIC testbeds to demonstrate and educate end users and machine builders in the use of IIoT technology in manufacturing automation.

CD1705_30_32_SmartFactory_featr.indd 30 4/19/17 2:42 PM

Testbeds are the heart of the IIC and

are driven by hardware companies,

software companies and integra-

tors who create and test technology

solutions for the IIoT, says Walenza.

“The SFTG is tasked to look at this IIoT

technology and present how a machine

builder can integrate it into its product

offering for the factory floor,” he says.

“We are looking at ways to upgrade an

end user’s five-year-old equipment to

work with the IIoT without completely

replacing the control system to get

there. We are educating end users on

how to work within the legacy environ-

ment to adopt new technologies and

enable IIoT-connected solutions.”

Smart Factory Task Group advancing the IoT“Smart Factory is an important group for

manufacturing automation, and the tim-

ing is right,” says John Kowal, director,

business development, B&R Industrial

Automation (www.br-automation.com).

“We have the chance now to create stan-

dards and best practices before propri-

etary or quasistandards are adopted.”

Kowal wants to make sure standards

meeting the specific requirements

of manufacturing automation are in

place before everything in the IIoT gets

developed, so it doesn’t end up like OEE,

for example. “With OEE, everyone does

it their own way,” he says. “The Smart

Factory and the testbed working groups

are working to make the new indus-

trial Internet technologies, applica-

tions, products, services and processes

interoperable, relevant to the manufac-

turing community and robust. This is

a chance, especially with technologies,

such as time-sensitive networking (TSN)

and OPC-UA, to develop some standards-

based solutions that are suitable for

manufacturing automation-specific

requirements such as determinism and

real-time response in the IIoT (Figure 2).”

It’s amazing to the IT people in the

IIC that manufacturing industries’

operational technology (OT) is based on

proprietary standards that aren’t fully

interoperable, continues Kowal. “It’s not

like the IT world where they can go in

and plug stuff together. If we didn’t have

the Smart Factory Task Group, the IIC as

a whole may not have known to address

manufacturing standards. B&R is ad-

dressing these issues by basing its prod-

ucts on mainstream computing technol-

ogy, just like IT. The overriding need for

interoperability to achieve the IIoT is

convincing the big players to adopt be-

cause they will follow the money, which

is the analytics business.”

Flattening the network for IIoT“As the IIoT standardizes, I don’t think

the measure of success will be how

many industrial networks have been

installed, but how many corporate net-

works were flattened down to one level

so the ERP system can talk directly to

the machine control,” says B&R’s Kowal.

“That is actually what B&R Industrial

Automation is doing in our own smart

factory in Eggelsberg, Austria, to achieve

batch-of-one manufacturing. And

we’ve been doing it for nearly a decade.

Security in the IIoT is always important.

Corporate IT departments may say, ‘No,

don’t do that,’ but, if you don’t tackle the

issue of secure access, I don’t think you

are going to have IIoT.”

In B&R’s smart factory, the ERP

system talks directly to the control-

lers, continues Kowal. “We don’t have

an MES or a warehouse management

system,” he says. “We use the ERP

system, connected through OPC-UA and


IIoT information transferFigure 2: OPC-UA is just one of many Industrial Internet technologies being developed, used and tested in

a variety of IIC working group testbeds.

(SO

URC

E: B

&R

IND

UST

RIA

L A

UTO

MA

TIO

N)


XML. It’s telling the automated storage

retrieval system (ASRS) which parts to

pull, and then it watches which parts

are used most often and moves them

closer to the front shelves to reduce

travel distance required.”

This flat hierarchy is the brass ring,

says Kowal. “If you have to go through

several gateways and several different

network types, you are not quite going to

get where you want to go,” he says. “The

IIC actually has an IT/OT task group, and

they have announced this is not about

technology. This is about culture, and IT

and OT have to start working together.”

Again, security is very important.

“The more you hear about potential

security problems, the more you have to

agree with that and design accordingly,”

says Kowal. “However, the OT side is

where you make your money (Figure 3).

That’s where the C-suite needs to get to-

gether and say, ‘We are going to do this;

what’s the best way to do it?’”

There are many other groups in the

IIC, such as the Security Working Group.

“It came up with an Industrial Internet

Security Framework (IISF) in September

2016,” says Kowal. “The group will be

coming out with best practices to secure

IIoT systems, as well.”

Do IIoT right“The Smart Factory Task Group re-

ally focuses on what is different about

manufacturing IIoT,” says B&R’s Kowal.

“We are working hard to not reinvent

the wheel. If someone else is already

working on a standard, we want to refer-

ence that. We are also focusing on how

mid-market manufacturers can benefit

and start to participate. Some Smart

Factory members are focused on brown-

field. We’re also looking at what I call a

‘green patch’ in a brownfield. You may

not be in a position to build a greenfield

facility, but you may have a product or

process that would benefit from building

a dedicated line within your existing

facility that’s pure-play IIoT. Think of

the focused factory and factory-within-

a-factory concepts.”

The IIC and the SFTG has their work

cut out for them, says Dell’s Smith. “It

would be great to just buy a single IoT

platform and be done with it,” he says.

“The good news is people are thinking

about this; there are plenty of answers

on what to use as an IoT platform. How-

ever, it’s complicated—most large en-

terprises are buying multiple platforms

to suit different needs. The bad news is

there are too many answers. At latest

count from our tracking, there are more

than 420 IoT platforms out there now.

And most are generic and horizontal, not

necessarily related to smart factories.

That’s too many options.”

Which IoT platform to use is not an

easy decision, continues Smith. “It’s

something where, as an industry and in

manufacturing, people need to analyze

and weigh multiple options before mak-

ing a decision,” he says. “With IoT, what

is particularly interesting is where IT

meets OT—IT being the traditional data,

infrastructure and management of the

data, and OT being the need for business

decisions to be made based on the use

case you are deploying. With the IoT,

Dell often speaks with both the CIO and

the factory manager or business-line VP,

for example. You need to talk to both in

order for IoT purchasing decisions to be

directly correlated to tangible ROI for

the business. You need to start with the

business need and use case and then

decide what technology will enable it.”

The SFTG is focused on the end user

and OEMs, says IoT One’s Walenza. “The

IIC has been very successful in address-

ing technology providers, the original

members, and helping them to collabo-

rate with each other,” he says. “The IIC is

working to communicate what has been

learned to end users, and the members

feel very strongly about educating the

end users and OEMs. They want the

work they have been doing to be known,

influence the market and educate their

customers. That’s really the SFTG focus

on the end-user side.”


connections

IIoT in your handFigure 3: The cell phone will play a big part in displaying the appropriate amount of information in IIoT.

SFTG ResourceCheck out the Smart Factory Task Group (SFTG) at www.iiconsortium.org/vertical-markets/manufacturing.htm.

(SO

URC

E: B

&R

IND

UST

RIA

L A

UTO

MA

TIO

N )



DIGITAL-PRINTING TECHNOLOGY has made huge gains in recent

years, in terms of both speed and � exibility. As a result, manu-

facturers of printing � nishing systems have faced challenges to

match that growth with new innovation.

VITS International (www.vitsinternational.com), a Blauvelt,

New York-based global supplier of variable repeat sheeting and

� nishing systems for the printing, packaging, digital and con-

verting industries, recognized that the digital-printing market

needed industrial-strength � nishing systems that could deliver

the speed, � exibility and ultra-precise registration control to

sustain commercial printing production rates. To meet that

need, VITS developed the Sprint Variable Data Finishing Sys-

tem, created with a complete, state-of-the-art electric drive and

control platform from Bosch Rexroth.

Digital printing drives innovationSimilar to web offset printing, digital inkjet printers are capable

of high-speed web-fed output with speeds reaching near-

commercial rates of 700 to 1,000 ft/min (fpm). However, digital

printing supports variable data printing: it can dynamically vary

the content being produced—not just the number of pages for a

given product, but variable imaging and signi� cant variations in

page dimensions. While this provides new abilities for custom-

ization, it vastly complicates how the printed web roll is � nished.

Finishing systems need to be able to cut, collate and assemble

the pages into a � nal readable piece in the most logical order.

The complexity—high speeds plus variable data printing—

was viewed as an important opportunity for VITS. We decided

to take a leading role in developing robust, industrial-strength

� nishing systems that have the technical capacity, speed and

sophistication to support both off-line and in-line � nishing

with the highest quality.

Sprint System supports in-line and off-line � nishingThe Sprint Variable Data Finishing System transforms variable

print material to � nished product at production rates up to

1,500 fpm. It utilizes patented Clear Channel registration con-

trol technology to enable cutting thousands of pages per hour

while keeping ultra-precise page registration not previously

possible with comparable � nishing systems.

“Our printing customers wanted to be able to produce

much larger products at much faster rates of speed,” says Kim

Markovich, VITS International director of product applications

and regional sales and marketing manager. “Particularly for

the direct-mail marketplace, being able to � nish multiple webs

and multiple ribbons and accomplish perfect register control

meant that our printing customers could take on more work

and be more productive.”

We developed the Sprint system to support two variations:

in-line systems, which receive and � nish a single web coming

directly from the digital printer, and off-line multi-web � nish-

ing, which enables the processing of multiple webs into a single

� nished signature or book (Figure 1).

The team at VITS knew that the controls and drive technolo-

gy it chose for the Sprint system must have the highest levels of

versatility and sophistication—one of the key reasons the team

chose Rexroth. “As we looked at the challenges, we came to the

conclusion that only Bosch Rexroth would be able to provide

the precise control technology we needed,” says John Salamone,

director of new product development for VITS.

Ultra-precise multi-web registration controlThe Sprint Finishing System consists of modular, indepen-

dently driven components controlled by a central Rexroth

IndraMotion MLC motion control platform. The in-line Sprint

by Deirdre Ryder, VITS International

Variable data fi nishing system

keeps paceSprint System transforms variable print material

to � nished product at 1,500 ft/min

drives

CD1705_33_35_VITS_featr.indd 33 4/19/17 2:43 PM

system con� guration typically has 10 to 12 driven axes,

while the more advanced multi-web off-line version can have

up to 30 driven axes.

Each Sprint module performs speci� c functions to convert

a printed web into a completed book or direct mail piece, and

each utilizes a speci� c set of Rexroth IndraDrive servo drives

and proven IndraDyn servo motors.

In the off-line multi-web system, multiple paper rolls are

mounted on register splicers that feed the web continuously to

the VITS automatic constant-tension infeed. The infeed deliv-

ers precise gain/tension control to the web.

The web then passes through an angle bar system that

slits it in half and repositions one half over the other, before

travelling to a ribbon-gathering station and then over a folder

element to fold the ribbons in half.

Once the fold is complete, the web travels through a shear-

slitting module where the folded web can be trimmed, and

then into the variable data rotary cutter that cuts each page to

size and collates/stacks the � nished product for the next pro-

cess, such as � nal binding or saddle stitching (Figure 2).

Maintaining absolute registration control of multiple webs,

so that every page in every signature is cut to exactly the same

dimension, was one of the most signi� cant technical hurdles

the team faced.

“Nothing is ever printed perfectly—the length of print can

vary by plus or minus ten-thousandths of an inch from page to

page,” says Salamone. “That doesn’t sound like much, but after

a hundred pages the registration can be off signi� cantly.”

VITS enlisted Bruce Parks of Parks Consulting International

(www.parksconsulting.net), a system integrator with extensive

experience using Rexroth printing system controls, to help de-

velop the Sprint automation solution. “The Rexroth drives have

a large amount of intelligence built in,” says Parks. “So we use

the drives to maintain registration on the web in a dynamic

fashion, which then frees up the processing power of the cen-

tral IndraMotion MLC controller.”

All drives maintain synchronization with a virtual master.

Tension zones are created between individual drives in each

module to maintain optimal tension when variations occur as

webs merge, split and are cut. Groups of drives are also created,

allowing adjustments to be made as a group to bring the web

into proper register with the virtual master.

The team used the industry-speci� c IndraMotion for Printing

version of Rexroth’s IndraMotion MLC system as the automa-

tion platform, featuring IEC 61131-compliant motion-logic

controls and PLCopen function blocks along with extensive

software libraries for printing and converting functions.

“IndraMotion for Printing provides engineering tools that


drives

FinishingFigure 1: The VITS variable data multi-web fi nishing system supports two variations: in-line systems, which receive and fi nish a single web coming directly from the digital printer, and o� -line multi-web fi nishing, which enables the processing of multiple webs into a single fi nished signature or book


work right out of the box to accomplish most of the web

handling tasks,” says Parks. “We then used Rexroth’s PLCopen

function blocks as the starting point to build the special cam-

ming pro� les and functions we needed for the proprietary VITS

Clear Channel registration capability.”

Rotary cutting chip controlThe other major challenge for the Sprint team was having a ro-

tary cutter that could handle variable data—in� nitely variable

image sizes ranging from 5 to 25 inches—and be con� gured to

cut different-width chips—the blank space between pages on

the web roll—all with the push of a button, rather than a time-

consuming changeover.

In the rotary-cutter module, two knives cut the chip out; the

knives are separated by the width of the chip, and the cutting

needs to be synchronized with the speed of the web through

the system. “Our camming process allows us to cut variable-

size products with multiple knives and still maintain chip size

because we always synchronize with the web speed through

the cutting zone,” Salamone says.

The Clear Channel register control provides faster size chang-

es, as well as cut tolerances never before provided by standard

� nishing systems, which is a competitive advantage for both

VITS International and its customers that choose the system.

Collaboration chemistryThis is the � rst system we’ve produced using a complete Bosch

Rexroth drive and control platform—a decision that was made

after a thorough evaluation.

We had a great relationship with our previous supplier who

was a close business partner and was always there to work

through any issues. With Bosch Rexroth, we found similar

values and commitment. More importantly, it was the technol-

ogy that allowed us to develop our equipment much faster,

with world-class accuracy that none of our competitors have.

We now have Rexroth-equipped machines located all around

the world. Their performance and reliability is good; they are

working � awlessly.

It has turned out to be the best decision for our growth and

our future to work with Rexroth. We could not imagine doing

what we are doing now without their technology and their

capabilities. With a lot of input from our team and the right

technology, we were able to solve the challenges we encoun-

tered. It took all three partners—Bosch Rexroth, VITS Interna-

tional and Parks Consulting International—to go from ideas to

working solutions.

Deirdre Ryder is president and CEO of VITS International in

Blauvelt, New York. Contact her at [email protected].


StitchingFigure 2: Once the fold is complete, the web travels through a shear-slitting module where the folded web can be trimmed, and then into the variable data rotary cutter that cuts each page to size and collates/stacks the fi nished product for the next process, such as fi nal binding or saddle stitching.


PC-based control platformThe APAX-5580 is a PC-based control platform with I/O mod-

ules, communication ports and control software. It is designed

for integrating operation technology and information tech-

nology to take advantage of the

Industrial 4.0 trend. It includes

an Intel Celeron 1.6-GHz/Core i3/

Core i7 1.7-GHz processor, 4-GB

DDR3 memory, two GbE ports, one

RS-232/-485/-422 port, one mSATA

connector, two SD slots, two mini

PCIe slots, dual-power input and

UPS support. A hot-swappable de-

sign allows modules to be swapped

in and out without interrupting the IPC’s operation. As a con-

trol platform serving Smart Factory applications, it can connect

to other third-party industrial devices.

Advantech / 800-205-7940 / www.advantech.com/ea

PLC with master interface portThe 750-8208 PLC with Profibus DP master interface port is the

newest member of the PFC200 family. It is

compact with a large memory and secure

VPN and firewall. This PLC also comes

equipped with two Ethernet ports, as

well as CAN and serial interfaces.

The interface port is designed to

be a reliable gateway between

multiple fieldbuses.

Wago / 800-din-rail / www.wago.us

Server with built-in security featuresControl Server is a scalable platform and key enabler for power

plants to address cyber-security regulations, operating costs

and extraction of industrial data. It is part of GE’s Industrial

Internet Control System. The

product enables intensive

optimizing apps such as

model-based optimiz-

ing control to inject

performance improvements to help deliver greater profitability.

Built-in security features reduce attack surface and improve

compliance to regulations. Operating and maintenance costs

are reduced through consolidation of PC functions provided by

virtualization technology on a server-grade platform.

GE Energy Connections / www.geenergyconnections.com

Next-generation micro PLCThe FC6A MicroSmart PLC offers up to 520 I/O and provides the

power of a programmable automation controller. It can execute

basic instructions in 0.042 ms, and program memory is 640

kB. There are 1,024

timers, and six of

the 512 counters are

high-speed at rates

up to 100 kHz. These

capabilities are com-

bined with extensive

data and bit memory,

double the capacity of a typical micro PLC. These features allow

the PLC to handle large programs with complex control require-

ments such as PID, flow totalization and recipes. Three models

are available, each with 24 Vdc or 100- to 240-Vac input power.

IDEC / 800-262-4332 / www.idec.com

Ultra-compact IPCThe ultra-compact C6015 in-

dustrial PC (IPC) measures 82 x

82 x 40 mm. The IPC offers an

integrated Intel Atom CPU that

features up to four processor

cores and aluminum/die-cast

zinc housing designed for pas-

sive cooling. The device also features an extended operating

temperature range up to 55 °C and high resistance to vibration

and shock. It can be mounted both vertically and horizontally

on the rear wall of a control cabinet or attached to a DIN rail.

Even in tight installation spaces, this permits various mounting

scenarios with flexible orientation of the IPC.

Beckhoff Automation / 877-twincat / www.beckhoffautomation.com

The many modes of machine controlFrom PLCs and PACs to PC-based control, machine builders have many options available


product roundup CONTACT US [email protected]

CD1705_36_40_Roundup.indd 36 4/19/17 2:45 PM

Compact programmable logic controllersThe BRX PLC platform has been added to the Do-more line of

programmable logic controllers. These compact PLCs offer such

features as built-in data logging, motion control, serial and

Ethernet communication, an interchangeable (hot-swappable)

communications port and integrated high-speed I/O. Sup-

port for EtherNet/IP, Modbus RTU and TCP, ASCII and custom

protocols also is included. Designed as stand-alone controllers

with expansion capabilities,

these micro PLC units are

available in four distinct form

factors: M series (no onboard

I/O), 10-point series, 18-point

series and 36-point series.

This platform requires no base

or backplane, and some PLC units can be expanded with up to

eight additional I/O modules.

AutomationDirect / 800-633-0405 / www.automationdirect.com

I/O network and field device authentication and encryptionBedrock Cybershield 2.0 firmware enables authentication and

encryption of I/O networks and field devices and protects

compliant networks and user applications such as control-

ler configuration, engineering and SCADA. It achieves this

with the industrial control system (ICS)

certification authority (CA), which draws

on the power and flexibility of public key

infrastructure (PKI) and Transport Layer

Security (TLS). With the inclusion of more

than 40 intrinsic technologies, the Open

Secure Automation (OSA) platform offers

a secure control platform and secure

component supply chain. Software de-

velopers can receive certificates of authorization to incorporate

Bedrock encryption keys into their software, which will give

their programs secure access to Bedrock controllers.

Bedrock Automation / 781-821-0280 / www.bedrockautomation.com

Five-slot automation PCThe Automation PC 910 is available with five slots, in addition

to the previously available one- and two-slot models. The hous-

ing can be selected to allow installation of one, two or up to five

PCI or PCI Express cards. By selecting the right processor, mem-

ory and housing, customers have the

freedom to design the perfect PC to

meet the needs of their automation

solutions. Customers with compu-

tationally intensive control or image

processing tasks and few peripheral

hardware devices can select a quad-

core processor with lots of memory

and a one-slot housing. For other tasks, a single-core processor

and multiple insert cards may be more effective.

B&R Industrial Automation / www.br-automation.com

Compact, DIN rail-mountable IPCThe compact C6 Smart IPC can be mounted on a DIN rail, and

all connections are on the front face with nothing above or

below. An EtherCAT master side port allows a direct connection

with KEB remote I/O modules.

The IPC and 128 digital I/O

points use just 150 mm (6 in) of

the DIN rail. The IPC can operate

as a logic controller or a fully

coordinated motion control

system. Functionality such as electronic gearing, CAM profiles

and relative/absolute/superimposed moves are supported with

a library of PLCopen and KEB-specific function blocks.

KEB America / 952-224-1400 / www.kebamerica.com

Energy-efficient industrial PCsThe Valueline 2 (VL2) industrial PCs have increased performance

power and higher energy efficiency compared with the legacy

Valueline IPCs. The VL2’s design improves usability, incorporates

fourth-generation Intel Core processors and has an interac-

tive user interface. The IPCs are

equipped with a gull-wing access

door, which reduces maintenance

time and provides easy access to the

PCI/PCIe card. They have DisplayPo-

rt++ for high-resolution images and

streaming over a single connector.

The 10-point capacitive multi-touch

screen allows a more interactive user interface. This generation

has added a second 2.5-in SATA drive bay, which adds Redun-

dant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) 0 and 1 functionality.

Phoenix Contact / 800-322-3225 / www.phoenixcontact.com



Div. 2/Zone 2 HMI panel-mount PCsThe VisuNet IND 8200 series HMI panel-mount PCs are

Windows-based, all-in-one units that mount directly to OEM

process machinery or manufacturing equipment and interface

with the control system. Each unit is manufactured using all

industrial-grade components. The PCs are shock- and vibra-

tion-resistant and are globally

certified for Class I, Div. 2 and Zone

2 (ATEX and IECEx) operation.

They are rated for 24/7 operation

in extended temperature envi-

ronments. The design allows for

indoor/outdoor use even in harsh

and hazardous applications. The

panel-mount workstations are

available in KVM, thin-client and

panel PC configurations. The units feature a chemically resis-

tant 15-, 19-, 21.5- (full HD) or 22-in touchscreen.

Pepperl+Fuchs / 330-486-0002 / www.pepperl-fuchs.us

Industrial tablet PCThe Simatic ITP1000 industrial tablet PC features a projective-

capacitive 10.1-in multi-touch display and touch-operated BIOS

and can integrate into existing and new applications and IT

landscapes. The tablet PC supports Windows 7 and offers Intel

Core-i5 DualCore (Skylake H) CPU technology. The configurable

device has 4-GB RAM and an optional 8 GB. A 128-GB solid-state

drive is available. Customized automation tasks are simplified

with numerous options, including RFID, a 1-D/2-D barcode read-

er, camera and six freely

programmable function

keys. Available inter-

faces include WiFi802.11

a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GB

LAN, serial RS232 DC-in,

miniDP, SD card slot, USB

type C and USB 3.0 ports.

Siemens / www.siemens.com

Compact and rugged scalable controllerThe compact Graphite Edge controller offers scalable I/O and

combines networking and data visualization with IEC 61131

control capabilities. The controller is suitable for process and

factory automation customers who require a rugged industrial

controller with wide operating tempera-

tures to control and monitor machin-

ery in harsh environments. It includes

Crimson 3.0 software featuring

Crimson Control, which enables users

to interconnect devices using over 300

industrial protocols and to use IEC

61131 programming languages such as

ladder logic, function block and structured text to

solve specific application needs. The controller can be scaled for

large applications using expansion racks.

Red Lion Controls / www.redlion.net

Controller for high-speed applicationsThe Allen-Bradley CompactLogix 5380 controller is suitable for

high-speed applications with up to 20 axes of motion; it offers

the features of the Integrated Architecture

portfolio into the CompactLogix size.

When combined with the Allen-Bradley

Bulletin 5069 Compact I/O system, sched-

uled outputs improve I/O response time to

as fast as 0.2 ms. Event triggers from the

I/O modules provide near-instantaneous

task execution. In addition, a dual-con-

figurable, 1-gigabit Ethernet port supports

device-level-ring (DLR) topologies or the use of multiple IP ad-

dresses. Diagnostic indicator lights display the status of com-

munications, module health and I/O module activity.

Rockwell Automation / www.rockwellautomation.com

Multiple-machine controlDesigned for high-performance compact machines incorporat-

ing speed and position control functions, the Modicon M241

PLC can control multiple machines by leveraging dual-channel

communications for handling both upstream and downstream

communications simultaneously. The controller offers commu-

nication with five embedded ports and embedded CANopen for

fieldbus architectures for up to 63 devices. This platform offers

unlimited access to the machine

via Ethernet to simplify mainte-

nance with visualization pages

designed directly through SoMa-

chine and stored in the PLC’s web

server. The SoMachine environ-


product roundup


ment leverages the user’s existing HMI programming knowl-

edge to develop custom web pages hosted within the PLC.

Schneider Electric / www.modicon.com

Safety controllers with Profinet communicationProfinet communication has been added to the SC26-2 and

XS26-2 safety controllers. The SC26-2 configurable safety con-

troller is used to monitor multiple safety and non-safety input

devices, providing safe stop and start functions for machines

with hazardous motion. The XS26-2 is a scalable version of

the SC26-2 capable of supporting up to eight expansion I/O

modules. The addition of the Profinet

industrial protocol to these safety

controllers enables communica-

tion channels to any connected

devices that use the Profinet

standard, including devices from

other manufacturers. This function-

ality matches the capabilities available for

EtherNet/IP, Modbus/TCP or PCCC. These models can

be configured with up to 256 virtual status outputs.

Banner Engineering / www.bannerengineering.com

Entry-level all-in-one machine automation controllerThe NX1P entry-level all-in-one machine automation controller

is designed for machine builders and OEMs who want the Sys-

mac integrated platform to control

logic, motion, vision and safety in

a single unit. It is equipped with

24 or 40 local I/O built in and four

to eight motion axes. To connect

the machine to the plant floor, the

controller provides built-in open

interfaces for both EtherNet/IP and Ether-

CAT networks. I/O expansion can be done locally or remotely

using NX-series slice I/O that includes an IO-Link master unit

to gather data for preventive maintenance and IIoT migration.

Omron Automation / 866-88-omron / www.omron247.com

Smart PAC with blue hose interfaceVersion 2.1 of the Smart SoftPLC PAC and protocol gateway

includes enhancements such as a power input range of 6 to 70

Vdc (ac input power factory option) and a “blue hose” interface

for Allen-Bradley Data Highway

Plus and remote I/O. It includes

a four-port managed Ethernet

switch/router, five serial ports

and options for additional com-

munication interfaces to many

fieldbus protocols. Users can

configure all the ports for a mix of

communication protocols. It can

be used for simple to complex automation control applications

and also as a multi-protocol gateway bridge, data logger, IoT

interface and remote alarming.

SoftPLC / softplc.com

PLC+HMI controllerA fourth panel model has been added to the UniStream

PLC+HMI controller line. This 7-in model can support up to

2,000 I/O points and offers options for RS-485, CANopen and

UniCAN as well as serial and Ethernet Modbus communica-

tions. It also supports EtherNet/IP and can be adapted to other

third-party protocols; the USB and serial ports support exter-

nal devices such as modems, printers and barcode readers.

The platform offers control and

monitoring tools, including an

alarm management system, Web

Server capabilities and data log-

ging features. UniLogic software

enables users to program using

both ladder logic and C.

Unitronics / www.unitronics.com

DIN rail-mount PLC relaysThis 24-Vdc PLC relay terminal block is a

suitable interface relay for tight spaces.

This compact relay measures only 6.2

mm wide. It features a plug-in SPDT relay

rated at 6 A at 250 Vac/30 Vdc with a coil

voltage of 24 Vdc mounted in a DIN rail ter-

minal block. Screw clamp wire terminations

and an actuator serve to lock the relay in place and to

eject it for easy removal. The relay base is equipped with an

LED for visual indication of operation, and a wiring diagram

that is easy to read and to follow is printed on the side.

ASI / 877-650-5160 / www.asi-ez.com



PLC technology to extend HMI functionalityThe IHMI-PLC incorporates a virtual PLC

technology designed to extend HMI software

functionality. This includes a stand-alone

development system for Windows PC and

the virtual PLC-Runtime for Windows PC and

CE platforms. Users can program using any

mix of three IEC61131-3

programming languages:

ST: Structured Text, IL:

Instruction List and LD:

Ladder Diagram. Using

Modbus TCP protocol as

an interface, any HMI can

access all PLC variables

of interest and thus monitor and control the

values in registers, coils, digital I/O and analog

I/O. The PLC also supports direct-access API for

plug-in I/O modules on some CE touch panels.

Software Horizons / www.instanthmi.com

PLC with OPC UA protocolThe ControlEdge PLC, when combined with

the Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS),

provides secure connectivity and tight inte-

gration to devices from multiple vendors. The

PLC uses OPC UA protocol and built-in cyber

security for integration to instruments, equip-

ment and software

and offers universal

I/O, providing remote

configuration and

late design change

flexibility. The IIoT

solution-ready plat-

form integrates with existing assets for either

process or discrete applications ranging from

DCS systems to variable speed drives.

Honeywell Process Solutions / www.honeywellprocess.com

System for control, monitoring and acquisition applicationsThe Snap PAC system integrates hardware and

software for IIoT, industrial control, remote

monitoring and data acquisition applications.

It consists of five components: analog, digital

and serial I/O modules for wiring directly

to field devices, machines and sensors; PAC

brains—intelligent I/O processors for distrib-

uted control on Ethernet and serial networks;

standalone or rack-mounted industrial control-

lers with networking options and a RESTful

API or a software-based controller; PAC Project

software—flowchart-based control program-

ming, HMI development and runtime, plus

options; and groov—a tool for building and

using custom mobile operator interfaces and

system dashboards to monitor and

control systems and

equipment from any

web-enabled device.

Opto 22 / 951-695-3000 /

www.opto22.com

Automation controller based on IEC 61131-3The Parker automa-

tion controller (PAC)

combines discrete

machine logic,

precision motion and

robotic controls and visualization. It is equipped

with EtherCAT for control, modular I/O add-ons

and Parker automation manager (IDE, or inte-

grated development environment) for applica-

tion development. This package offers a single,

intuitive environment for development with

industry-standard programming, machine-

to-machine communication and network con-

nectivity to provide real-time information. The

automation manager includes the full suite of

IEC61131-3 programming languages and PLCo-

pen motion control function blocks. The PAC

comes standard with a variety of onboard com-

munication protocols, including an OPC Server,

Modbus TCP, EtherCAT, dual LAN networks, and

options for Ethernet/IP, Profinet, and Profibus.

Parker Hannifin / www.parker.com


product roundup

publishing teamgroup publisher & vp, content

Keith Larson [email protected]

vp, sales & publishing director

Tony D’Avino [email protected]

630/467-1300 ext.408

director of circulation

Jack Jones [email protected]

sales teamnortheastern and mid-atlantic regional manager

Dave Fisher [email protected]

508/543-5172 Fax: 508/543-3061

24 Cannon Forge Dr.

Foxboro, Massachusetts 02035

midwestern and southern regional manager

Greg Zamin [email protected]

704/256-5433 Fax: 704/256-5434

1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N

Schaumburg, Illinois 60173

digital sales specialist

Jeanne Freedland

[email protected]

805/773-4299 Fax: 805/773-0451

inside sales specialist

Polly Dickson [email protected]

630/467-1300 Fax: 630/467-1124

executive staffpresident & ceo

John M. Cappelletti

cfo

Rick Kasper

vp, circulation

Jerry Clark

vp, creative services, production

Steve Herner

reprintsFoster Reprints www.fosterprinting.com

Rhonda Brown

[email protected]

866-879-9144 ext. 194

The only magazine exclusively

dedicated to the original equipment

manufacturing (OEM) market for

instrumentation and controls—the

largest market for industrial controls.

1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N

Schaumburg, Illinois 60173

630/467-1300

Fax: 630/467-1124



Responses to this reader question were so overwhelming that a second installment is featured here. Part I appeared in the March 2017 issue of

Control Design.

Indicator lights or HMI upgrade?—Part II

real answersCONTACT US [email protected]

A CONTROL DESIGN reader writes: I work

as a control designer at a packaging

equipment OEM, and I think my boss is

being cheap. At question is whether to

add an HMI or keep the half dozen indi-

cator lights for status and fault annun-

ciation on our box-making machine. It

seems like hardware cost is the boss’

only concern, where I think integration

labor, user experience and function-

ality are much more important. The

addition of an HMI is way beyond just

the bottom line cost; it’s about machine

capabilities and can even help to sell it.

What are some pros and cons of add-

ing an HMI to a machine that doesn’t

currently have one, whether on a new

design, existing design or retrofitted?

I plan to use this information when

presenting my HMI upgrade solution to

the boss.

Answers

The richer the experienceYou pose a really good question that can often generate a lot of

debate as you yourself are experiencing. One of the challenges

with this discussion is that the term HMI is so broad. HMI or hu-

man-machine interface is simply the mechanism that allows the

human operator to interface with the machine, and so techni-

cally the half dozen indicator lights you have are, in fact, an HMI.

However, if I read into your question further, I assume that you

are thinking of some sort of digital interface that is connected

directly to your machine’s controller, or another standalone PC

where the operator gets a richer interaction with the machine.

To best understand the pros and cons of adding an HMI

such as this, we need to understand what is available. First are

component-level displays, which are components to a larger

system that you can directly integrate into your final mechani-

cal design. These types of displays are typically board-level,

connect via serial or USB and are designed to provide more

basic functionality such as soft front panel buttons or basic

system data. These types of displays are often the lowest cost

but are limited in their performance. Another option, and what

most people likely think about when considering an HMI, is to

use a standalone touch panel computer (TPC) or a standalone

PC and monitor that connect via Ethernet to your controller.

This type of HMI can drive more complex, graphics-intensive

interfaces due to a dedicated processor and therefore provide a

richer experience, but they do add cost to your design.

If you are building a new design and you know you want to

integrate an HMI into the system, you could choose a machine

controller that has the ability to support Web-service-based

HMIs or has been specifically designed to integrate the graphics

processing directly into the controller while still maintaining

the necessary levels of determinism required, which means

you only need a monitor. The first option is called a thin client.

Unlike a dedicated TPC or client-installed application, a thin

client executes a zero-install user interface (UI) on the client

and relies heavily on the server for data retrieval, analytics and

logic execution. This type of UI allows you to have even more

flexibility on where you access your data, including from a Web

browser or a mobile device. If your controller has integrated

graphics, you can get the same user experience as a TPC, but

without the higher cost and software burden they will have.

BRANDON TREECE

senior product marketing manager / National Instruments / www.ni.com

The modern lookAn HMI can be developed for all types of systems, whether

they are new designs or a retrofitting of existing systems for

upgrades. Proper planning makes implementation both quick

and easy. From a sales standpoint for tool builders, using an

HMI just says this tool is a modern-built system, when compar-

ing it to switches and indicators. An HMI is designed to allow

easy replacement of controls and status signals on a system. In

terms of illustrating system status and faults, the level of detail

goes up exponentially. Status lights go from being simply on or

off to showing the exact fault code or alarm message associated

with the issue. With the use of the illustrations of the system,

the exact location of the faults can also be shown. Another

advantage of using an HMI is the ability to store and log data

CD1705_41_46_RealAnswers.indd 41 4/19/17 2:48 PM

during runtime. From the control side, the space required can

be reduced, as well.

With the use of different screen objects and even multiple

screens, many more controls can be put on a much smaller sur-

face. However, one should keep in mind there is upfront design

and development time for what goes into an HMI.

RAMEY MILLER

HMI marketing manager / Siemens / www.siemens.com

Consider efficiency and experienceThere are several benefits related to using an HMI, including

increased efficiency, safety, added functionality and less instal-

lation time and cost. While a push-button panel is easily under-

stood and simple, its functionality is limited and its efficiency

depends on the experience of the operator.

HMIs are easier to use because you better describe each

push button and light function. Push-button panels are used

on simple machinery, typically consisting of only one piece of

equipment. For example, it may be easier to understand how

to run a small motor using a VFD by simply using a start/stop

button, assuming you don’t need to change motor speed. When

you have multiple motors in operation (larger size systems) it

is not always clear which motor is running, what the lights are

indicating or which button controls which device.

Machine operators will also have a harder time learning how

to use the machine. An HMI provides a more intuitive experi-

ence. Even maintenance people can benefit from an HMI, partic-

ularly when a machine problem needs to be diagnosed. Without

an HMI, someone will need to open the control cabinet to access

the PLC to troubleshoot the machine.

With an HMI, it is easier to add functionality—for example, add-

ing an extra button to a screen takes 2 minutes to download to an

HMI. You can charge for adding extra functionality to the system,

and it will only take minutes to implement. Installing an additional

push button in the panel will cost you much more time and money

because of the programming, wiring, installation and labor.

In some cases you can use one operator panel to control two

or three systems. You can create multiple screens, and each is

responsible to control different equipment. This will bring down

overall cost. HMI can track much more information than push

button—tracking your box, weight and size of box—all of this

information can be logged in the HMI. You can log alarms, events

and warnings such as the carton stock is low, so the operator can

quickly add a new batch of boxes before machine stops.

AGA ZUPANCIC

senior product marketing engineer / Mitsubishi Electric Automation / us.mitsubishielectric.com/en

Pros and consWith today’s enhanced technology, there are many advantag-

es of using an HMI instead of components such as switches or

pilot devices.

Pros

1. Cost saving

• reduced purchase, installation and wiring cost

• reduced maintenance cost.

2. Panel space saving

• allows more data to be displayed in a smaller area

• able to view detailed information and error message

• able to provide many more options for operator input.

3. Flexible and powerful

• quickly and easily control, monitor and edit controller data

• easy troubleshooting

• easy to modify the operator interface.

4. Fast response time

• email alerts can instantly alert operators of probems

• operator’s act quickly to minimize downtime.

5. Safety

• HMI provides wide range of functionality

• operators don’t have to be near the panel.

Cons

• most applications still require e-stop push buttons

• push buttons provide better tactile feedback

• must learn how to use HMI programming software.

LINDA HTAY

product manager / IDEC / www.idec.com

Get mobileBesides the obvious benefits of having a visual representation

of your machine—real-time statistics, customizable alarms,

simple graphics/system modifications, easier troubleshooting—

HMIs offer many behind-the-scenes features that no indicator

light or push button can provide.

HMI can also provide email capability, where the HMI can

email important data to you wherever you are. They offer

Web-server functionality so you can log on to the HMI from

anywhere in the world to check status or control your ma-

chine. They provide data logging so you can record produc-

tion data for future reference, analysis or troubleshooting

efforts. Some HMIs also offer mobile apps for your smart-

phone so you can even check on production while on the go

(Figure 1).


real answers


If you’re trying to justify replacement of a half dozen indica-

tor lights, then you should look at basic HMIs, which can pro-

vide touchscreen control, and maybe for less than you’re paying

for those indicator lights when all purchase, installation and

wiring costs are taken into account.

BILL DEHNER

application engineer / AutomationDirect / www.automationdirect.com

Retrofit for improvementThere are lots of pros in adding HMI and automation to older

technology machines. But as in life there is always a balance

to consider between the costs and the benefits that are derived

from that endeavor.

The most common thing is to start with questions to be an-

swered. So the first question to answer is how difficult will this

really to be to accomplish? That starts with things such as, here

is what it does today. If I only modernize that into an HMI opera-

tion, what does that do for me? That starting question has to be

answered on multiple levels.

What is the end-user benefit? Will this make this machine

better, more modern looking, more competitive in the market

place? Usually those questions are subjective but really become

the most important long term.

Then the next consideration is what enhancement(s) would

I like to do? Answering that is where this really gains momen-

tum. I always paint the mental picture: You start with DAQ,

then move to machine control (PLC/PAC or soft versions of that)

and then upward to SCADA and enhanced networking and con-

trol—being able to measure, manage and report.

Another very important variable is that there are a wide

range of HMI solutions that range from surprisingly low cost

to very capable albeit much more expensive solutions. There

are a lot of entry-level HMI solutions that have the software/

hardware bundled to make it very cost efficient to get into the

HMI-enabled product offering. The HMI software (low tag count)

lets you get started with relatively low startup costs and get a

solution on your product with some fairly impressive capability.

To cite an analogy, years ago automobiles had buttons,

lights and annunciators, just like the box-making machine,

so you could effectively drive your car. Today even the

economy models are seeing dash-mounted small screens

that improve safety, enhance the driver’s abilities and overall

improve the vehicle operation. One example is the backup

camera, which is becoming a standard option on a large

portion of automobiles. The National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration (NHTSA) has proposed legislation to mandate

that by 2018. According to the NHTSA, the minor cost to en-

able that is far outweighed by the safety benefit.

When considering retrofit, there is a movement seen in

recent years to repurpose and modernize equipment, especially

once-expensive equipment with new capabilities. For example,

a CNC machine can be retrofitted to bring newer capabilities to

older existing machines utilizing new HMI technologies. Vision

capabilities might be added to improve quality control and

minimize waste. It offers follow-on business, too.

So, one main message in all of this is you can evolve the

technology even into existing, older systems if the business

case is there. And usually it is.

Are there any cons to this? Overcoming objections such as

“why change?” or “it’s the way we have always done it” or, of

course, the fear of the unknown in “how costly and hard is this

going to be?”

I wish I could be standing beside the reader as he goes to con-

vince his boss feeding him all the demographic data he needs to

persuade his point. Employees who ask, “Why not?” are the ones

who drive innovation in our world. And that is a very good thing.

TIM STONE

North American HMI product manager / Advantech / www.advantech.com


Mobile appsFigure 1: Mobile apps can let remote workers interact directly with a PAC via a window into an HMI through a smartphone or tablet. Given proper security credentials, status can be viewed and changes can be made to alleviate issues.

(SO

UR

CE:

AU

TOM

ATI

ON

DIR

ECT)


Limitless components with HMIDeciding to add an HMI to a product design involves much

more than simply a line item in a bill of materials. You

touched on some of these considerations—assembly cost, user

experience, added functionality—in the question. I would add

design flexibility and ease of maintenance to the equation.

Certainly price is an important consideration, but you may be

surprised at the attractiveness of many HMI offerings on the

market. After accounting for all of these factors a reasonable

decision can be made as to whether it makes economic sense

to embark on a system upgrade.

Let’s consider user experience and functionality. Through the

HMI project design, you can incorporate your company’s brand

and aesthetic into the everyday functioning of the product. The

experience your customers have using the product every day is

the most valuable advertising you can buy. Time and attention

spent creating a customized and pleasing user interface can be

rewarded with customer loyalty and increased sales. Custom-

ization is much easier to achieve using HMI configuration soft-

ware than in modifying a face plate or modifying hardware.

The next thing to take into account is the flexibility you

receive when you move from discrete components to an HMI.

Once an HMI is incorporated into the design, you don’t merely

have six indicator lights, you have the option for an infinite

supply of them, and, not only that, but a vast store of all kinds

of other useful objects you can add to the system. It is difficult

to anticipate exactly what a given customer’s needs are going to

be in advance. For example, in addition to real-time alarm sta-

tus a customer may like to see an alarm history to get a sense of

how often and why alarms occur. With an HMI, you can easily

adapt to such a request with little to no impact on production.

There are many machines out there that do very simple tasks

and do them well, but they will never do anything more. If this

is the case for your particular product, it may not be worth

the effort and expense of a design update. However, customer

expectations and competitor capabilities rarely remain static

for long. By incorporating an HMI into your machine design

you can reduce complexity, while enhancing functionality and

future flexibility. This may be the last hardware revision that is

made to the system, but it enables continuing expansion of the

features and capabilities of the product. The cost of any particu-

lar component should be weighed against the benefits it can

have throughout the lifecycle of the product, not simply by the

upfront cost of the component.

MIKE SHELDON

applications engineer / Maple Systems / www.maplesystems.com

Competition, information, security, change, transitionYou have already stated several of the many potential advan-

tages to replacing mechanical indicators and controllers with

human-machine interface (HMI) software. The packaging in-

dustry is one of the largest industries today, utilizing HMIs with

well-proven commercial and technological benefits. To help you

out further, here are several ideas to discuss with your boss.

Competitive advantage: The OEM business is competitive,

and demonstrating that your machine is better than the compe-

tition’s can start with the very first impression, which is visual.

Does your machine look outdated or state of the art? Does it

look clunky and hard-to-use or clean, light and highly human-

responsive? A bright screen with visually appealing graphics

speaks value against bulb-type lights and stodgy push buttons.

Information advantage: HMIs are not just pretty pictures.

They can provide a plethora of information that can be used to

your advantage, giving your customer an overall better experi-

ence over the lifetime of the machine. A simple HMI can log

usage statistics, error codes, user ID, date and time of certain

events and alarms, as well as communicate this information

over a network or WAN even back to you, the OEM manufac-

turer. How helpful would it be for your customer to monitor the

machine for performance and maintenance and for your OEM

company to be able to monitor all your machines in the field,

gathering usage data to help to diagnose and predict potential

breakdowns and maintenance needs?

Security advantage: HMIs can be easily configured to require

password-protected logins and track that information. Custom-

ers can now be sure that only authorized personnel are able to

operate the machine at a particular time and can even assign

different levels of authorization such that an operator can

enable certain functionality while only a supervisor or mainte-

nance person can enable other higher functionality or support.

Change advantage: The only constant is change. Changing

the characteristics of an HMI is a simple task, all done within

the software. If in the future your machine requires more or

fewer lights, switches, toggles, controls, or even changes due

to environmental or regulatory requirement changes, making

changes to the HMI is dramatically faster, is easier, requires

less machine redesign and is more cost-effective than changing

mechanical characteristics of a machine. In addition, by using

an HMI, the OEM company no longer has to access, stock, ship

or install backup and replacement mechanical parts.

GARY NELSON

product marketing manager for Wonderware HMI supervisory engineered solutions /

Schneider Electric / www.schneider-electric.com


real answers


Signal towersA well-designed HMI system can be an incredible tool for

machine operators to have both control and machine feed-

back simultaneously. But hardware cost is just the first step to

integrating an HMI solution. The different types of software

available allow for many forms of data to be shown on screen,

which are dependent on what the operator needs to interface

with. The conversion of data can be very complicated, may

require a dedicated team of system engineers to integrate

this system onto a machine and also may carry a price tag

to match. Signal towers on the other hand can be installed

quickly, can be seen from a distance when maintaining mul-

tiple machines and have fewer moving parts where problems

can occur. Towers are also becoming smarter—being PC-

programmable, having 21 colors in one unit that can illustrate

progress information or including network connectivity so

they’re enabled for the Internet of Things (IoT). These towers

can provide machine feedback similar to an HMI while also

utilizing normal tower functions and benefits.

SOPAN KHURANA

technical engineer / Patlite / www.patlite.com

Look beyond the sunk costWeighting initial investment costs is a natural way to measure

alternatives, considering this is how most consumers make

purchasing decisions. However, when we make big-ticket pur-

chases, we understandably look at total ownership costs so that

we can limit buyer’s remorse and fully understand our benefits/

risks. When installing HMIs on machines that were previously

indicator lights, it is certainly an upsell situation and may need

to be justified due to the engineering required and potential is-

sues associated that wouldn’t be found with a more passive in-

stallation. However, once one looks beyond the initial sunk cost

of engineering hours, they’ll see the benefits that are available

to them, such as remote monitoring, historical logging, user

guidance and trending. These fundamental benefits can save

OEMs after-sale support dollars, can provide great introspec-

tive to one’s process and can also be sold as support plans that

generate extra revenue to hedge against the initial cost.

ERIC REICHERT

product marketing lead specialist—industrial PCs and HMIs /

Phoenix Contact / www.phoenixcontact.com

Virtualization and mobilityThe primary benefit is that HMIs allow operators to visualize

the current state of machines and the ability to control and

troubleshoot processes. In addition, teams in the plant gain a

view into the automation system in order to track alarms and

process variables and changes. When manufacturers lack an

HMI solution, they can only react to a machine state after the

fact, which often leads to costly downtime.

Today, the benefits of HMIs are extended by their support

of virtualization and mobility. The latest graphics engine

improves user experience and drives better operator decision-

making. These new technologies may require additional

effort when deploying the HMI solution; however, the benefits

outweigh the cost.

Information is fueling growth for manufacturers. The HMI is

a first step into accessing contextualized, real-time information

that helps a manufacturer and the plant-floor teams get the

most out of production.

The indicator lights provide a status check but do not provide

context or actionable information to operators or engineers.

Ultimately, HMI solutions offer increased productivity by pro-

viding information to the right users at the right time.

CHIRAYU SHAH

product marketing manager / Rockwell Automation / www.rockwellautomation.com

Dynamic user inputImportant considerations that factor into this conversation in-

clude complexity of the system, control system infrastructure,

what existing products and their costs could be made redun-

dant and eliminated and the machine-specific business case of

whether an HMI could facilitate enhanced value.

In determining the impact on overall cost, it may be that

other component costs, such as industrial-grade indicators,

switches and associated wiring could be reduced or removed.

Furthermore, some newer HMI devices are also capable of per-

forming controller (PLC) functions, as well, thus consolidating

the cost of a dedicated controller. This device functions as a PLC

with fieldbus scanner capabilities for flexibility in collecting I/O

signals from throughout your machine.

DAN KLEIN

product manager, fieldbus technology / Turck / www.turck.us

COTS solutions for OIHave you thought about using off-the-shelf mobile devices to

replace your industrial OI? Increasingly, automation engineers

and technicians are seeing the value of using commercial, off-

the-shelf (COTS) mobile devices for situations such as remotely

accessing equipment, commissioning and maintaining systems

and providing inexpensive machine operator interfaces.



Most of us have quickly gravitated to smart phones and tab-

lets in our personal lives, emailing and texting, playing games

and reading, posting on Facebook and Twitter, watching videos

and taking them, even banking and paying bills online.

COTS products are attractive for several reasons. Develop-

ment costs have been spread out over a broad market, so the

product is less expensive to buy. Products are readily available

and can be quickly acquired or replaced. You don’t need to wait

months or years to get them; nor do you have to keep expensive

spare parts in stock. Because products in the general market

are used by a wide range of businesses, common standards are

often built-in, making interoperability easier. Due to competi-

tive pressures, more frequent product updates add new features

and support for the latest technologies. Support and training

costs are lower because the product is well-known and familiar

to technicians and employees.

An increasing number of manufacturers are making tools

available, so you can create a mobile interface for your equip-

ment or system, or you can adapt an HMI you already have.

MATT NEWTON

director of technical marketing / Opto 22 / www.opto22.com

Keep it tetheredBased on the application and the three scenarios of new design,

existing design and retrofits, a graphical pendant station (hand-

held tethered HMI) would be an ideal simple solution.

The challenge of existing design and retrofit (installed base)

is that, with the traditional panel-mounted HMI, the enclosure

itself would need to be modified for installation of the HMI or

an entire new enclosure be potentially costly and labor-inten-

sive. The ideal placement of a panel-mounted HMI is typically

at the operator’s eye level, which may also be a challenge for

current or retrofit design. A graphical pendant station would be

a less-intrusive solution since mounting would only require an

easily attachable mounting bracket. With the graphical pendant

station being tethered, an operator can hold the HMI to maxi-

mize the viewing experience.

To address your concern and needs for the new design

scenario, the graphical pendant stations typically have other

features integrated into the product—for example, an inte-

grated e-stop switch and integrated dead-man switch. These

integrated features would allow your customers some mobility

to operate and/or troubleshoot your machines from different

vantage points. Beyond these unique features associated with

a handheld HMI solution, the advantages of having an HMI

in general would be the ability to have typical HMI functions

available such as alarm time stamping and alarm/data logging

and improvement for preventive maintenance activities.

GEORGE CAUDLE

HMI product manager / Pro-face America / www.profaceamerica.com

HMI-inclusiveOver the past few years, we’ve seen our OEM customers wrestle

with this issue quite a bit. In certain instances, the lower cost of

more traditional components may win the day, but for custom-

ers interested in understanding overall operational benefits and

total cost of ownership, incorporating HMIs into your equipment

can provide ongoing return on an initial investment. So, what are

the reasons to include HMIs in your equipment designs?

Increased productivity: HMIs can deliver increased productiv-

ity from the equipment operators, offsetting the price of a more

advanced interface. By delivering a menu-based consistent

interface across the equipment with easy-to-follow instructions

for each stage in the process, your customer’s time to onboard

and train operators can be greatly reduced.

Greater operational efficiency: Regardless of industry, opera-

tions managers and finance teams are constantly looking for

ways to output more products with less error, downtime and

scrap. An HMI is far more than a display-based push-button re-

placer, instead providing integrated, customizable data-logging

functionality capable of capturing and reporting data to the

operator on a screen or in a variety of common formats used by

OEE packages in the back office. Once the data is captured and

centralized, analysis provides opportunities for improvement

that simple lights and buttons just can’t offer. HMIs also provide

operator guidance when production changes.

Improved profitability: The ratio between the investment

you make as an OEM to incorporate HMIs in your designs and

the value your customers place on the new features is not 1:1.

Improved ROI through gains in productivity and efficiency yield

ongoing benefits to your customers, and this ongoing use value

can enable you to command a higher price for these value-driv-

en features and drive more sales.

Push buttons and indicator lights still have a place in equip-

ment like yours, and we don’t see having an HMI as an either/or

proposition. Given the features available today, we recommend

conducting a thorough voice-of-customer investigation and

possibly test your market by offering a mid-range to premium

HMI-based version of your product. It could be a great way to

build your boss’ confidence in an HMI’s place in packaging.

JEFF THORNTON

product management—indication & interface / Red Lion Controls / www.redlion.net


real answers


Hollow-shaft rotary encodersRotary encoder series ECI 4000/EBI 4000 offers encoder variants

that are modular devices without integral bear-

ing and with a 90-mm hollow shaft. This enables

users to replace the conventional toothed-belt

drive for coupling a motor feedback system to

torque motors. The single-turn version fea-

tures resolution of 20 bits. As an alternative,

EBI 4000 is a multiturn variant that features

a revolution counter option with resolution

of 16 bits and that is backed up by an external

battery buffer. These inductive rotary encoders

consist of a scanning unit and the scale drum.

They have an overall height of 20 mm.

Heidenhain / www.heidenhain.us

Two-pole solid-state relaysThe RK series consists of solid-

state relay (SSR) solutions that

have two poles in a single hous-

ing. It gives the option of having

the two poles controlled inde-

pendently or simultaneously. The

latter offers a cost-effective solution for economy switching of

three-phase loads. The SSRs are suitable for reliable switch-

ing of resistive loads. This series extends the current ratings

of two-pole solid-state relays to 75 Aac per pole with a proper

heat sink and provides output screw terminals for secure

connectivity of cables with ferrules, ring or fork terminals. It

conforms to global standards such as UL 508, CSA C22.2 and EN

60947-4-3.

Carlo Gavazzi / 847-465-6100 / www.gavazzionline.com

Solenoid valvesThe Nitra pneumatics line includes two additional series of

valves and manifolds. The BVS-3 series modular solenoid

valves are body-ported three-port (three-way) poppet valves

available in two-position, nor-

mally open or normally closed

configurations. The BVS-4 series

modular solenoid valves are two-

position, single-spring return,

body-ported four-port (four-way)

spool valve models. BVM series

manifolds help to simplify the mounting and wiring of BVS

series solenoid valves. Made of sturdy glass-reinforced ther-

moplastic with DIN rail mounting clips included, they feature

push-to-connect air connections for quick tubing installation.

Control distribution blocks also are available for BVS-4/BVM-4

assemblies. Additional accessories include replacement sole-

noid coils, aluminum manifolds and blanking plugs.

AutomationDirect / 800-633-0405 / www.automationdirect.com

Brush dc motorThe DC022C series 22-mm-

diameter brush-commu-

tated dc motor is offered in

three lengths with continu-

ous output torques of 0.0056

to 0.141 Nm and with eight

standard windings, with special windings available. The motor

features speeds up to 10,000 rpm and dc bus voltages up to 36

Vdc. It has a two-pole stator with neodymium magnets, five-

slot skewed rotor and sintered bronze bearings. Ball bearings,

copper graphite brushes and RFI suppression also are avail-

able. Options such as an encoder and gearboxes with reduc-

tion ratios from 4:1 to 429:1 are offered to optimize the motor’s

performance for specialized or unique applications.

Pittman Motors / www.pittman-motors.com

Touch monitor seriesThe IDS31 industrial touch moni-

tor series with flexible mechanical

design ranges from 7 to 32 in for

both 4:3 and 16:9 sizes. The open-

frame chassis system is designed

for rear mounting to existing

panels or new designs. The series is equipped with a

mechanical design that allows for both touch and nontouch

versions as standard, which can be adapted to alternate touch

technologies such as surface capacitive or surface acoustic

wave. The design has been developed to minimize bezel

frame dimensions and incorporates the standard VESA 75 x

75 or 100 x 100 mounting system. The series design has an

optional black powder-coated cover to enable users to specify

a closed-frame construction allowing surface, pole, arm or

other standard VESA mounting systems.

Advantech / 888-576-9668 / www.advantech.com/ea


product showcaseCONTACT US [email protected]

CD1705_47_49_Showcase.indd 47 4/19/17 2:50 PM

Embedded computerThe Matrix-700 embedded computer is a ready-to-go IoT

gateway that supports Linux OS and Node-RED. Node-RED is a

visual wiring tool for IoT. Users drag and drop the nodes to the

flow editor and connect and configure the nodes. The applica-

tion then is ready to go. Node-RED uses a browser to edit the

node and flow, and users

can share their nodes

and flows by import-

ing and exporting the

libraries that are stored

in JSON and managed by

npm. The computer al-

lows users to connect industrial devices and push the field data

and information to the database of the backend server or even

to the cloud and vice versa.

Artila Electronics / www.artila.com

Data manager with EtherNet/IPEtherNet/IP capability has been

added to the Memograph M RSG45

data manager. The data acquisition

system for small process control ap-

plications provides a way to integrate

legacy 4-20 mA, RTD, thermocouple

and HART-based instruments into a modern control system. It

can quickly integrate up to 20 individual instruments into an

EtherNet/IP environment using a single standard Cat. 5 cable.

The EtherNet/IP connection also allows a plant to control batch

start/stop activities from the control room. The data manager

can accept up to 14 discrete and 20 universal/HART analog

inputs from process sensors.

Endress+Hauser / www.us.endress.com

High-power cabinet heatersA high-power 1,300-W thermostatically controlled cabinet

heater, available in 120-V, 60-Hz and 230-V, 50/60-Hz versions,

has been added to the FLH series.

This model extends the series to five

wattage alternatives, giving a good

choice of outputs powers to match

the volume of the enclosure. Heaters

maintain temperature levels above

equipment minimums as well as

help prevent dangerous, corrosive condensation. The series

offers automatic operation. The built-in thermostat can be

adjusted from 0 to 100 °F (-18 to 38 °C). The integral fan can run

constantly or operate automatically under the control of the

embedded thermostat.

Hammond Manufacturing / www.hammondmfg.com

Customizable angle sensorsThe Vert-X 2800 series of sensors

measures angular position. These

sensors convert rotational angle

into an analog or digital output,

depending on the version. Users

can select stock parts to simply

measure angle, or they can be con-

figured, using a tool connected to a PC called Easy Adapt, to be

application-specific. Possible configurations include start and

end angles for less than 360° maximum range, index point, cw

or ccw indication, calibration settings and nonlinear curves.

The sensors are available in single and fully redundant ver-

sions. Measurement range is 0 to 360° with repeatability of 0.1°.

Novotechnik U.S. / 508-485-2244 / www.novotechnik.com

Modular I/O data loggerThe D4T with Intuition data logger features field-removable I/O

modules. Configurations can be customized to meet the scaling

needs of a range of equipment and applications while providing

the hardware types required for compatibility. The product fea-

tures a 4.3-in color touch panel with a high-resolution graphi-

cal user interface, which allows channels, alarms, inputs and

outputs to be personalized with user-defined names. The data

logging capability complies with regulatory

standards with the ability to choose

encrypted, .CSV or both types of

file formats for tamper-proof record

needs. It allows the use of lock-out se-

curity levels for different user groups.

Watlow / www.watlow.com

Digital I/O carrier board for Raspberry PiA digital I/O carrier board is available for the Raspberry Pi

single-board computer, enabling the Pi to sense or switch up to

16 individually selectable electrical loads ranging from 2.5 to


product showcase


280 Vac/Vdc, with solid-state power and reliability. This carrier

board adds the ability to connect, monitor, control and auto-

mate billions of existing devices that previously were beyond

the Pi’s built-in 3.3-Vdc GPIO sensing and control capabilities.

The board enables development of solutions for industrial au-

tomation, remote monitoring and discrete control applications

using Raspberry Pi and I/O modules.

Opto 22 / 951-695-3000 / www.opto22.com

Safety control module with multiple fieldbus protocolsSix industrial press function control blocks have been added

to the samosPro Compact-Plus family of programmable safety

controllers to monitor press contacts, ensuring proper signal

sequencing and timing during press operation, and to control

press operation during setup, single-stroke, automatic and

cyclic modes. Integrated support for both EtherNet/IP and

EtherCAT fieldbus communication protocols is included. The

expanded capabilities allow machine design engineers to

integrate peripheral devices into the automation network and

to relay control information back to these devices using one of

several industrial communications protocols. The 45-mm-wide

base modules are compatible with Wieland’s

samosPlan5+ programming software,

which provides an intuitive interface,

simulation tools and troubleshooting

and reporting functions.

Wieland Electric / 800-943-5263 /

www.wieland-safety.com

Ribbon connector interfaceThe compact 32-channel 40-pin ribbon connector inter-

face offers 24-Vdc selectable connections that allow for use

with a variety of PLC devices. Features include

convenient power supply terminations for

sensors, operation voltage of 24 Vdc,

ambient operating temperature of -20

to 55 °C and Cage Clamp spring pres-

sure connection technology.

Wago / 800-din-rail / www.wago.us

Modular power supply with low acoustical noiseThe QM7 power supply has both medical and ITE safety cer-

tifications and offers low acoustical noise. Accepting 90- to 264-

Vac, 47- to 440-Hz input, the power

supply delivers 1,200 W at low line

and 1,500 W with a 150- to 264-Vac

input. With its modular construc-

tion, the series can be configured

using an online configurator to

provide one to 16 independently

regulated outputs and includes dc good and remote on/off ca-

pabilities. Module output voltages range from 2.8 to 52.8 V and

output powers from 300 to 1,200 W. A further subset of option

modules provides an ac fail signal, standby voltages (up to 12 V,

2 A) and global remote on/off.

TDK-Lambda / www.tdk-lambda.com

Machine-mount IO-Link mini-masters for industrial EthernetThese four-port slim-design IO-Link masters connect smart

devices over IO-Link to build a distributed machine-mount

controls architecture. With IP67 housing, these industrial

Ethernet-based IO-Link masters can be mounted directly on

the machine closer to the sensors and actuators, keeping

short cable runs and adding enhanced diagnostics. EtherNet/

IP, Profinet and EtherCAT version of the masters are available.

These masters are ready for IIoT and Industry 4.0 application

realization. Full-service webserver for EtherNet/IP and

Profinet IO-Link masters enable remote diagnostics

and configuration of the master as well as attached

IO-Link devices. With SNMP onboard, the IO-Link

master and all IO-Link devices are discoverable

for network management systems for critical

data gathering.

Balluff / www.balluff.us

Temperature- and shock-resistant absolute encoderThe DS-25 absolute encoder is a

member of the DS series of electric

encoders. Features include 17-bit

resolution; < 0.025° accuracy; analog

sin/cos, digital SSi,BiSS-C output

options; hollow floating shaft; lack of

bearing or other contact; high tolerance to temperature, shock

and moisture; EMI, RFI and magnetic fields; a total weight of 4

g; and a low profile of 7 mm.

Netzer Precision / www.electromate.com



IT’S NOT OK to grab the nearest roll of wire off the shelf and

begin to wire a control panel or machine. There are many re-

quirements to follow. Much of the requirements have to do with

control circuit conductor protection, against both overcurrent

and short circuit, and the type of wires used inside and outside

of a control enclosure. When specifying wire and connectors,

it is best to take a step back to the basics and start with the

standards that must be followed.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has a lot

to say about codes and standards

related to electrical and � re safety.

NFPA 70: National Electrical Code

(NEC) details the requirements for

safe electrical design and installa-

tion, and it explains how to protect

people and property from electrical

hazards. If you are designing control

systems, you should probably have a heavy, hardbound copy of

this standard front and center on your desk.

More importantly, any electrical designer, machinery manu-

facturer, installer or others working with industrial equipment

must have a copy of NFPA 79: Electrical Standard for Industrial

Machinery. NFPA 79 provides safeguards for industrial machin-

ery and protects operators, equipment and facilities from electri-

cal hazards. It also addresses requirements to keep machinery

from burning down the factory. All industrial machine wiring,

600 V or less, from the control enclosure’s main disconnect to

the � eld devices on the machine, are included in this standard.

Too much current in a conductor can cause a � re. Other than

a few exceptions, electrical conductors must be protected from

overcurrent based on the conductor ampacity. There are ampac-

ity tables in NFPA 79 for grounding and binding conductors, as

well as power and control circuit conductors. The control circuit

design at the main electrical disconnect and branch circuit fus-

ing determines the ampacity—the current-carrying capability

of the wire—and the related wire gauge referred to as American

wire gauge (AWG) in the United States.

There are more than a few exceptions, especially with regard

to conductor sizing. Power circuits, such as feeder and branch-

circuit conductors feeding a disconnect, must be a minimum

of 14 AWG based on electrical equipment requirements. Yet

control circuit conductor sizes of 14, 16 and 18 AWG are consid-

ered protected by a 20-A or less overcurrent device. And control

circuit conductors of these sizes inside a control cabinet have

even higher ampacities. No wonder some factory’s electrical

speci� cations require a minimum of 14 AWG wire.

Clearly, there are many codes to understand when specify-

ing wire. Not only must it meet overcurrent and short-circuit

requirements, the voltage rating, insulation type and number

of wire strands must be considered, as well as � exing applica-

tions, wire color and connections.

A wire or cable insulation voltage

rating must be considered for use

in the circuit and the installation in

the control panel. A cable rated at

300 V obviously cannot connect to

a 480 Vac motor circuit, but it also

cannot run in the same conduit or

raceway as the 480 Vac conductors.

The wires and cables must also have � ame-retardant proper-

ties and be suitable for use within certain temperature limits.

Check out the heat-, moisture- and oil-resistant thermoplastic

insulation of machine tool wire (MTW) and thermoplastic high

heat-resistant nylon-coated (THHN) wire, among others. You’ll

need to specify the correct one.

The wire, cables and � exible cord speci� ed must be selected

based on the applications. These conductors are identi� ed for

their intended uses. To start, they must be stranded, soft-

annealed copper. Whether a non� exing, � exing or constant � ex

application, there are a minimum number of conductor strand

requirements for that.

Specifying the correct conductor color is important, as well.

The NFPA 79 speci� es black for ungrounded power circuits,

green with or without a yellow strip for ground, red for 120

Vac, white for 120 Vac grounded common, blue for a dc control

circuit and white with blue strip for dc grounded common and

others. Follow these color standards in the United States, but

check the European codes, as their wire colors are different.

There are many requirements for connections and terminals,

as well. For example, if the conductor exits the control enclo-

sure, it should be connected to a terminal. There are pages of

requirements for wiring practices in NFPA 79. Purchase this

code or similar and study up. If not, the smell of an electrical

� re may make it into your future control system design.

How to specify, size and connect wire


Dave Perkontechnical editor

[email protected]

automation basics

Electrical conductors must be protected from overcurrent based

on the conductor ampacity.

CD1705_50_AutoBasics.indd 50 4/19/17 3:00 PM

CD1705_FPA.indd 51 4/24/17 10:38 AM

CD1705_FPA.indd 52 4/19/17 3:18 PM

Documents

HOW FAR IS THE EDGE? - Control Design · cancel a subscription, email [email protected] or call 1-800-553-8878 ext. 5020. To non-qualiﬁ ed subscribers in the United States and