Industry 4.0 / IIoT

Increasing automation in the work place will continue to be a key trend in 2020 according to new research released today, with AI and robots taking on more roles from human employees. From building products to crunching numbers, machines will become ever more present in companies’ workforces.

Companies with a requirement to combine factory floor operational technology (OT) and IT systems now have a new option from Mitsubishi Electric. The MELIPC edge computing solution offers optimisations such as predictive maintenance or quality control with real-time data analysis and early feedback to the operator. 

With Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence continually redefining the limits of what is possible for engineers and scientists, 2020 will be a pivotal year. Here are the key trends we can expect to see over the next 12 months. By Jos Martin, Senior Engineering Manager at MathWorks

The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) will showcase its latest open network technology, CC-Link IE TSN, in action at SPS - Smart Production Solutions 2019. By combining Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) with gigabit bandwidth, CC-Link IE TSN has been established as the pioneer in TSN adoption for open industrial Ethernet development. This leadership position will be clearly demonstrated via products and solutions from CLPA’s key technology partners on Stand 106, in Hall 5 from 26th-28th November 2019, in Nuremberg, Germany. 

A high-end producer of technical fabrics, Samuel Tailored Bonding, has extended its automation control system from the factory to the owners’ house. Using Movicon 11 SCADA from Progea, distributed in the UK through Products4Automaton, it has been made possible to take work home, even when that is manging an entire production plant.

Arrow Electronics has signed an agreement to offer the full range of R3 Communications’ ECHORING wireless networking products in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). ECHORING supports ultra-reliable, low-latency wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communications that deliver similar performance to current wired systems.  

Mitsubishi Electric CNCs has demonstrated support for umati machine tool networking technology at EMO 2019. The implementation of umati (universal machine tool interface), which enables machine tools to exchange and share information efficiently, has tremendous potential for optimising production. 

The industrial IoT (IIoT) differs from the consumer IoT and is probably more important as it helps improve efficiency of industrial processes and optimises resources. It is, in fact, fast becoming a must-have for manufacturing companies – as there is a direct and easy-to-measure return on investment (ROI) based on the higher cost efficiency of their operations. By Suhel Dhanani, Director of Business Development, Industrial & Healthcare Business Unit, Maxim Integrated

Schaffner will be presenting their latest innovations from their EMC, Power Quality and Power Magnetics divisions at SPS 2019. The new FN 3287/88 EMC filter series introduces innovations in 3-phase EMC filters and is now available with low leakage currents (<1mA) versions for general machine and plant construction. 

Increased electromagnetic interference, or EMI, can adversely affect system efficiency and increase down-time by interfering with analogue control signals and industrial communications between devices and systems.  By Dave Armitage, Schaffner USA