Industrial Technology

Generating added value from machinery data

For manufacturing companies operating in the 21st century, data is like crude oil in a productive oil well. It’s abundant, it’s potentially very valuable, but to release its value, it needs to be refined. We asked the experts at Weidmuller to tell us how.

26th June 2017

Challenges and benefits of smart manufacturing

Chris Evans of Mitsubishi Electric explores what is actually meant by ‘smart manufacturing’ by considering the benefits of adopting the concept and what challenges may lie ahead.

26th June 2017

Field devices provide the lifeblood for Industry 4.0

When Industry 4.0 is discussed, those discussions often start at the highest levels of the network and the flexibility in production that these network implementations will bring. But Industry 4.0 depends on the data generated by field devices, as Turck product manager Sai Seidel-Sridhavan explained to Mark Simms.

26th June 2017

The future of end of line machinery

The Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 or simply smart manufacturing; whichever way it’s phrased there is little doubt about the impact that the fourth industrial revolution will have on our manufacturing landscape. We look at the impact on the design of end of line machinery.

26th June 2017

Secure remote maintenance of machines

The TC Cloud Client remote maintenance modules from Phoenix Contact connect machines to the mGuard Secure Cloud securely over the Internet. The clients provide an inexpensive basis for scalable remote maintenance of machines. Customers have the choice of TC Cloud Clients, which use the operator network, and variants which use the worldwide 4G-LTE mobile network for Cloud communication. The clients are configured with the help of the Cloud and are ready imme-diately for use in the machine.

26th June 2017

Missing link in Industry 4.0

Much of the promise of Industry 4.0 is based upon seamless interconnectivity between production machines, enterprise systems and sources of data in the wider world. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a key foundation of that interconnectivity, providing low cost, easily integrated sensors, actuators and systems.

26th June 2017

Easy clean hygienic energy chains for food applications

Igus introduces its new hygienic design energy chain, called the TH3 series, developed for use on machines in the food and beverage processing and packaging industries. Its open design, which received a Red Dot Award: Product Design 2017, makes it very easy to clean, while rounded corners and simple, threadless connections prevent dead spaces where debris and germs can build-up. The structure of the e-chain avoids surfaces lying on top of each other; this prevents plastic on plastic abrasion and material shedding.

26th June 2017

Why machine builders should consider digital RCDs

Eaton has published a white paper entitled ‘Increase uptime using digital RCDs’, which discusses the advantages and benefits of applying digital technology to residual current devices (RCDs). Their advanced monitoring and pre-warning capabilities allow machine builders to improve both reliability and safety, while saving time and money for themselves and their customers during export of equipment.

26th June 2017

Everything for the wiring of your control cabinets

Automation24 offers everything you need for the wiring of your control cabinets, including work tools, single core cables, insulated wire end ferrules and cable bushing systems.

21st June 2017

Intelligent industrialization of datacentres

The hugely impressive Lefdal Mine Datacentre (LMD) in Norway has an ambitious vision; it aims to be the most cost-effective, secure, flexible, and green datacentre in Europe. LMD opened on 10th May 2017, and is powered exclusively by low-cost renewable energy. Rittal is a strategic and technology partner, and has provided the datacentre with its top-of-the-range, preconfigured, modular and scalable infrastructure.

6th June 2017