Wireless Networks and Machine Safety: Lessons Learned in a Non-Industrial Environment

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Safe control of large concrete doors when elephants are in outside pen. Designing a system to control a myriad of large hydraulic gates at the Elephant Community Center at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park provides lessons learned in an application that involves hydraulics, solenoids, wireless, and safety PLCs. Making sure he doesn’t scare elephants isn’t normally in Barry Stringer’s list of challenges for the day. But when his team was designing a control system... Read More

Understanding Benefits and Security Implications of Using Wireless for Safety

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A look at the multiple benefits of using wireless for industrial safety applications, along with a detailed discussion of implications and pitfalls to avoid when implementing the latest wireless security measures. In recent years, wireless communication systems have become ubiquitous. A standard feature in your local coffee shop, wireless networks have also been increasing in industrial and manufacturing settings, delivering value and reliability even in the harshest environments.... Read More

Case Study: Dairy Food Company Proves Wireless Networking is Ready for Mission-Critical Control

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Texas ice cream manufacturer replaces five aging PLC’s with one modern PLC on each of its three automated storage and retrieval systems, all outfitted with wireless Ethernet for control. Also: Seven things to know before implementing wireless on the plant floor. Although wireless networking is no longer new in the realm of industrial automation, many manufacturers are still reluctant to depend on wireless for control applications. “The primary concerns people have about trusting... Read More

Wireless Networks: Self Healing Capabilities Offer Edge

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The self healing capabilities of wireless networks offer an edge over traditional wired technology. In the wired versus wireless debate, network cables have always been touted as the most reliable solution. That’s likely to change in coming years as wireless architectures bring self-healing capabilities to the networking world. When nodes on wireless networks fail, modern peer to peer architectures have the ability to find alternative paths, sending signals to other nodes until... Read More

Wireless Integration Ensures Wastewater Plant Reaches Its Upgrade Goals

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Upgrading the control system for a municipal wastewater system was going to be costly and time consuming until facilities engineers reviewed available wireless technologies. The Persigo Waste Water Treatment Plant serves the City of Grand Junction, Colo., and the surrounding communities. The facility, which cost about $28 million, was put into service on Jan. 16, 1984. After two decades of operation, the existing control infrastructure was in need of replacement and upgrade. Although,... Read More

6 Critical Things to Know Before Implementing Wireless on the Plant Floor

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While the automation command “startup” may not be as historically significant as the dots and dashes of the Morse code “SOS” distress call, it is no less important to the day to day operation of the factory machine that won’t go unless it gets the instruction to begin operation. According to industry analysts, those instructions are being transmitted more often via wireless networks than ever before. In 2007, industrial customers bought some 2.7 million wireless enabled... Read More