Integrated Safety Simplifies Installations, Upgrades

Safety has undergone a major change since the start of the decade. Integrated safety has become the new watchword following a change to U.S. safety standards that eliminated the requirement for dedicated, hardwired safety architectures.In 2002, the standards that dictate industrial safety in the U.S. were revised, allowing safety to be designed into controllers. That change from dedicated, hardwired safety systems marked a huge change in system design. This allowed for harmonizing... Read More

HMI Anywhere

Adding input to industrial equipment is always a difficult challenge. Siemens is addressing this with an HMI line that provides flexibility with a number of variations for both physical mounting and architectural formats. The Siemens Division Industry Automation has broadened its Simatic HMI product line with a series of rugged HMI devices that feature stainless steel and composite IP65 protection. A key benefit is a versatile mounting structure.“These are encased, so they... Read More

Controllers Now Handle Safety and Machine Functions

Making equipment safe for operators has always been a difficult task, but it’s becoming much easier. PC-based controllers can now be used to program safety features and functions, eliminating much of the complexity associated with segregated safety systems and buses. Siemens has unveiled what it says is the first PC-based software controller, the SIMATIC WinAC RTX F. Expanding the SIMATIC line to include safety simplifies the task of engineers who want to meet the most demanding... Read More

Capacitors Provide New Maintenance-Free DC UPS

Reducing downtime and routine maintenance are critical aspects of equipment design. Uninterruptible power supplies are one of the tools being used to ensure that equipment can be shut down in an orderly fashion so restarts won’t take much time.Traditional battery backup systems provide a good solution for longer backup times, sometimes several minutes to over an hour depending on required backup current. However, battery backup systems can sometimes be bulky, with no DIN rail... Read More

Component Based Automation Widget

Interlocking multiple pieces of equipment in an automation system is often a time consuming, expensive and inflexible task. Component Based Automation alleviates these issues. “CBA” stands for Component Based Automation – it represents a very simple and modular way of implementing machine to machine communications based on Ethernet technology. CBA is implemented using a Siemens software tool called “iMap” that uses a very simple, graphical editor that allows the user... Read More

Sinamics® S110 Servo Drive

“Plug and Play” has become a term almost synonymous with the consumer electronics market – and especially the computing market. These days, if a device requires more configuration than connecting it via USB and a brief walk through of a couple of point-and-click screens then most people will decide it’s not worth the effort.That same kind of convenience is gradually coming to the vastly more complex environment of the industrial automation world.HMI SCADA systems have... Read More

Eliminate 40% Costs when Applying Drive Architectures

The technology to network drives into a single, holistic plant or production line configuration has been available for several years, but adoption has not been universal, a fact that still surprises Greg Richards, an automation consultant with Siemens Energy and Automation. “I’ve gone out to plants and people don’t want to do it and I don’t understand why,” he says, pointing to cost savings in the 40 percent range when electing to go with this approach over traditional... Read More

New MP 177 6-inch Color Multi Panel

Miniaturization isn’t just desirable in the silicon chip and computing markets. Any automation engineer will happily tell you that the most precious commodity in an industrial environment is space. But there are limits to how small you can make a piece of equipment and still have it perform adequately. Siemens Energy & Automation has introduced a new HMI touch screen that, at 6 inches, has an extremely low footprint on the plant floor. With built-in Profinet/Ethernet and... Read More

Modular Embedded Controller Add-on Modules

Late in 2008, at the SPS/IPC/DRIVES fair in Nuremberg, Germany, the largest trade show of its kind in Europe, Siemens Energy & Automation took the covers off its new industrial embedded controller, the modular SIMATIC S7-mEC which integrates control, HMI and PC functionality in one device.“The S7-mEC is a turnkey automation solution that integrates both HMI and software control capabilities,” says Siemens spokesperson Andreas Czech. “The device comes with preinstalled... Read More

Five Things to Think About Before Using Hardwired Controls

Regardless of the industry you are in, the universal workhorses for automating a piece of equipment or process are simple hardwired controls like cube relays, timers and counters. You can find these devices in discrete and process industries, on the plant floor in the manufacturing environment and even in commercial and consumer applications such as gate controls, vending machines and amusement equipment. They work just fine, doing their assigned tasks as required so what’s... Read More