Features

Ageing industrial infrastructure can make it difficult to meet daily challenges for industrial plants and manufacturing companies. Fortunately, there are cost-effective ways to solve these challenges. Here, George Walker, managing director at Novotek UK & Ireland shares ten tips on how to modernise your HMI / SCADA system.

1. Get up to date with SCADA and OS versions and patches

Many industrial companies are still on very old versions of their SCADA software. However, regular updates give you access to the latest features and improve system availability. In addition, you avoid the security concerns that arise when the system is not updated.

This is a foundational step. Before proceeding with modernisation, make sure your SCADA and operating system are up to date with versions and patches. This will enable you to start with the right platform, ready for the next steps.

2. Standardise your SCADA implementation

Define standards for the overall SCADA system, including application, configuration, security, architecture, remote access, and the devices people use. Standardisation will help you reduce errors, lower costs, and increase operational efficiency.

Consistent representation and procedures reduce errors across multiple stakeholders. Teams benefit from a shorter learning curve, faster roll-outs and easier maintenance. Standardisation also helps ensure compliance. Lastly, with tag name conventions, you can leverage OPC UA: Browse OPC UA sources and automatically create your SCADA process database.

3. Develop a disaster recovery plan

A disaster recovery plan can start simple, such as a version plan related to backup and restoration. The next step is to lay out a more long-term roadmap. Here you can consider moving to a redundant and failover system with configurations for minimal disruption.

You can build redundancy at all levels: from SCADA server failover to LAN redundancy and client redundancy. The target is having no data lost. Look at your databases, real-time data, and alarm synchronisation, and make the system seamless for remote users. A disaster recovery plan is more than peace of mind – it’s an essential part of improving availability and reliability.

4. Get a good data management system

Create a plan to collect, store and distribute your data securely. To operate a plant efficiently, you need to have all the correct data at the right time.

For more reliable and consistent information, consider a plant-wide historian like Proficy Historian 2022.

Proficy Historian collects information from different data sources and provides the ability to extend and scale as your systems grow, integrating your data management layer with your CMMS or GIS systems. Modern technologies make information available to stakeholders who aren’t directly connected with the SCADA-system, but need data to make decisions, such as demand and planning.

5. Build effective alarm procedures

A good alarm strategy means less noise, faster reactions, increased productivity and efficiency, and safer operations. With a good alarm strategy, you can move from an alarm to a notification, and guide the right action. Many resources for effective alarm management are available, such as through the International Society of Automation (ISA).

6. Digitalise work processes

Every plant has standard operating procedures in some form, mostly printed manuals. Now, you can move from manuals to integrating work processes into your SCADA system. Using SCADA data, you can start a work process, guide operators through steps, and increase operational consistency. Electronic Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) also capture best practices and accelerate new operator training.

Digitalise your procedures to ensure consistency, repeatability, adherence to standards, and accountability on tasks. You can drive the right actions and help prevent mistakes from happening. Additionally, you can record and track work processes for compliance.

7. Drive organisation-wide connectivity

SCADA connectivity across an entire facility, company or organisation provides a holistic view of performance, fills data gaps and increases collaboration. In addition, centralised information management creates consistency across different factories and facilities. By connecting secure thin clients to hardware, information can be made easily accessible to all levels of the company or organisation.

8. Leverage persona-based visualisation

Give each person the information and capabilities they need, rather than the same SCADA screen for every person. Modern HMI/SCADA allows you to equip your workforce with tailored information, remote monitoring, and control capabilities via various devices. This can be a smartphone, tablet, PC, or a legacy device that supports HTML5. You’ll get the right operational information to the people who need it, saving tremendous staff time while speeding response and compliance.

9. Enable model-based HMI navigation

With modern HMI/SCADA, you can leverage industry standards to map your data model to an equipment model, structuring your data and providing standard context across locations and data sources.

Users can quickly navigate in context form the model. Model-based HMI navigation enables a common user experience regardless of the screen, device, equipment, role, or process.

10. Implement high performance HMI

High Performance HMI are screens designed to improve operator efficiency. With a simple and consistent design, High Performance screens increase situational awareness. Operators and technicians recognise and understand information faster, making it easier to detect alarms and monitor productivity, while decreasing the risk of errors. High Performance HMI is based on the ISA 101 standards.

Novotek will be hosting an event day at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester on Friday 24 March 2023. To reserve your place at the event, please visit the Eventbrite page.

In many manufacturing applications object detection commonly deploys optical sensors because when compared to other types of sensors, they provide the important benefits of precise, non-contact detection at very short response times across both long and short distances.

Also, compared to other types of sensors they are extremely compact, so require minimal space.

However, there is one crucial drawback with light barriers and photoelectric sensors. This is because they operate on ambient visible light of the same spectral range as artificial light or sunlight, so are susceptible to detection errors. Furthermore, most sensing applications have hugely variable (and uncontrollable) lighting conditions and therefore reliable, error-free object detection using optical sensors, due to all these factors, can be problematic. 

A recently published, free-to-download White Paper from sensing and instrumentation specialists BAUMER considers all the challenges of why ambient light has such a significant influence on the performance of optical sensors and provides some practical solutions.

As a leading expert in the design and technology of high performing sensors and sensor systems for industrial applications, Baumer are well placed to provide valuable information and advice to help engineers select the most effective sensing solutions – hence the publication of this comprehensive white paper.

Topics include; why optical sensors are very prone to ambient light and why this happens, what effect this can have on certain processes, the efforts in trouble-shooting and counter actions, overcoming these challenges, offering solutions and finally conclusions to be drawn.

Most importantly Baumer outlines the features and benefits of their latest range of optical sensors which provide reliable detection in any lighting conditions, including LED and bright sunlight. 

Finally, the innovative Baumer ‘sensor toolbox’ offers the next generation of optical sensors providing users with all the benefits of unrivalled ambient light immunity and hence the ability to eliminate many error sources in production.

The electronic test and measurement specialist is making this offer in recognition of the increasing preference to use fibre optics for mission-critical links in data centres, networks serving campuses over long distances and backbones in and between buildings. This substantial expansion of the fibre optics market has made it more crucial than ever that users choose the correct fibre test and troubleshooting solution for their installation.

Fluke Networks believes those who are not sure about which fibre testing methodology to use – or want to know more about fibre testing best practices in general – will benefit from an appointment with an expert from the company who will provide free consultation as well as possibly deliver a demonstration on how to determine what the best, most reliable and most cost-effective fibre test solution is for their application.

Those partaking in a demo will receive a free FiberLert detector and a cashback offer to use against buying selected Fluke fibre testers between the 1^st March and the 31^st July 2023. A free, downloadable fibre selection guide is available.

Robert Luijten, Technical Expert and Training Manager at Fluke Networks said, “Now that fibre is increasingly preferred in the marketplace for use with innovative technologies that support exploding bandwidth demands, it is essential that network professionals make sure they use the best fibre testing solution. We want to give them the maximum level of support in that process and believe our free advice, demo and testing equipment will go a long way to achieving that goal.”

Performance characteristics

Expert advice will focus on various scenarios, such as ensuring performance characteristics of a fibre installation comply with such industry standards as ISO/IEC 14763-3, TIA-568-C or EN50173. Fluke would recommend an optical loss test using equipment like its CertiFiber Pro set which improves the efficiency of fiber optics certification. Benefits of using this optical loss test set with wizard-guided set-up include being able to test a fibre TX/RX pair at two wavelengths in under 3 seconds, test both cores bi-directionally in under 10 seconds, and eliminate negative loss errors by ensuring the correct reference setting is used. Built on the Versiv platform, the CertiFiber Pro set offers multi-mode dual wavelength and single-mode dual wavelength in the same unit. It also provides merged Tier 1 (basic) and Tier 2 (extended) testing and reporting when paired with Fluke’s OptiFiber Pro optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR).

A combination of fibre end-face inspection and OTDR is ideal for users investigating a fault or sub-optimal performance in a fibre installation, says Fluke. The OptiFiber Pro OTDR family provides multiple wavelengths (850nm, 1300nm, 1310nm, 1490nm, 1550nm and 1625nm) to support LAN, data centres, passive optical networks (PONs), fibre in the loop (FTTx) and outside plant applications. Other features include Intelligent Autotest which senses fibre characteristics and adjusts output for maximum resolution, while EventMap automatically identifies connectors, splices, bends and splitters. Also, a SmartLoop function reduces Tier 2 certification times by enabling a fibre pair to be certified (testing from one end) in no more than 30 seconds.

End-face inspection

Fluke experts stress that checking fibre end faces for cleanliness and condition is critical, regardless of what other testing may be carried out. End-face inspection confirms that every fibre connection is clean and undamaged, ensuring maximum possible performance. Typically, inspection cameras such as Fluke’s FI-3000 FiberInspector Ultra or FiberInspector Pro are able to provide total visibility with live view from a 32-core MPO connector end-face to a single-core end-face. In particular, the Ultra features a multiple autofocus/auto-centring camera for real-time imaging and offers the ability to obtain automated pass/fail results within seconds.

Documentation and Data Consolidation

Depending on the modules that are inserted in the mainframe, a Versiv transforms itself into a copper cable tester (DSX CableAnalyzer), fibre loss/length tester (CertiFiber Pro), an OTDR (OptiFiber Pro) or with a camera into a fibre inspection instrument (FI-3000 FiberInspector Ultra or FiberInspector Pro), all with a common user interface.

This is unique in the industry and results in great productivity enhancements.

Now being able to operate different testers with a common user interface is great but what perhaps is even more important that the measurement data gathered by all these different testers can be easily consolidated in a single PDF report by LinkWare PC and/or the LinkWare Live cloud service.

Fluke’s free fibre testing guide can be downloaded here and a demo booked here.

Micro Technic, the Danish company that aims to create a more sustainable world through smarter data collection solutions, today unveiled its latest generation of IoT sensor hubs. Skylark is a complete and flexible IoT solution that enables the monitoring and collection of data from any remote application. Simple to set up and connect to any sensor, Skylark comes with an easy device management platform. A resilient, stable and durable IoT solution that ensures cyber-safe data transmission at the edge, Skylark is also an extremely low power, sustainable IoT gateway that can be powered by battery or solar energy and features multiple wireless options.

Although suitable for multiple IoT applications, Micro Technic is positioning Skylark for some specific sectors.

Climate change     

As the Earth warms, increasingly extreme weather conditions are posing threats to our cities, environments and infrastructure. Therefore, it is vital to know gain an early warning of when and where these changes are happening in order to take appropriate action before events become dangerous or worse. Explains CEO, Frank Max Laursen: “Our focus on green energy liberates our Skylark IoT datalogger from needing a traditional power supply, which means that devices can be deployed on the highest mountains, the stormiest coastal areas or the most remote regions in the world.”

Traffic    

Skylark IoT solutions make it possible to analyse traffic patterns by collecting critical data This enables planners to find smarter ways to manage and improve the infrastructure and traffic. By taking this approach, cities can be made smarter and more sustainable, and the number of deaths from road accidents can be reduced.

Manufacturing                                                       

Making the most of resources and eliminating inefficient production processes is essential, both for sustainability and profitability. Inefficiency is caused by a lack of insight into the behaviour and performance of equipment. A faulty machine will produce output of lower quality which can go unnoticed the machine breaks down. Skylark helps manufactures to monitor any process in the production line and make sustainable choices to improve productivity and reduce downtime.

Skylark can be retrofitted to existing equipment easily, adding Industry 4.0 functionality, thereby increasing machine lifetime and supporting circular business models. Adds Laursen: “As well as ensuring product efficiency during its life, IoT can give manufactures insight as to when products are no longer being used, and can also tell the manufactures where their old hardware is located, via the internet-connectivity of the products. This means we can provide a ‘cradle-to-grave’ service.”

Agriculture                                                                          

As the global population expands, the demand for food increases. Yet farmers and growers must deal with volatile and intense weather conditions, which impact the quality and quantity of crop production. Skylark IoT solutions can give insights on soil quality, weather conditions and crop status by measuring variables like humidity, temperature and moisture. Skylark’s low power and robustness means that the IoT dataloggers can be placed remotely in demanding environment with minimal maintenance.

Concludes Laursen: “Our view is that the IoT will playing a vital role supporting the green transition and creating a more sustainable world. We are playing our part by working on realising targets from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 12. We want to be an innovative partner for our customers. To facilitate this, we have created the Engineering Campfire,  a creative IoT workshop where our engineers help transform our customers vision and great ideas into IoT solutions that improve and add value to their businesses.”

TE Connectivity, a world leader in connectors and sensors, has been recognised by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies.

TE has been recognised by Ethisphere for nine years in a row. In 2023, 135 honourees were recognised spanning 19 countries and 46 industries. TE is just one of two companies representing the electronics and components industry.

“When you’re creating technology that is helping to make the world a better place to live, it’s important to do it the right way. That’s why everything we do is driven by integrity, teamwork, accountability and innovation,” said CEO Terrence Curtin. “We are honoured that Ethisphere has once again recognised TE’s dedication to our values and our ethics.”

The World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity, and initiatives that support a strong value chain.

“Ethics matters. Organisations that commit to business integrity through robust programs and practices not only elevate standards and expectations for all, but also have better long-term performance,” said Ethisphere CEO Erica Salmon Byrne. “We continue to be inspired by the World’s Most Ethical Companies honourees and their dedication to making real impact for their stakeholders and displaying exemplary values-based leadership. Congratulations to TE Connectivity for earning a place in the World’s Most Ethical Companies community.”

Third Dimension, manufacturers of the GapGun and Vectro precision-measurement tools, have extended their T-series line of measurement sensor with the new T15. With its optimised field of view and high flexibility of use, the T15 sensor offers the perfect measurement tool for manufacturing.

The T15 sensor is compatible with both the hand-held GapGun or the automated Vectro devices. It measures a range of features including edge profiles, gaps, flush, welds and more, with exceptional precision and accessibility to the component.  

This new sensor addresses a key challenge for metrology and quality teams in the aerospace, automotive, energy and industrial sectors who regularly need to measure small radii and make accurate measurements on all sorts of component parts with total confidence to meet precision, safety and efficiency requirements.  

Francois Froment, CEO at Bristol-based Third Dimension, said: “We are delighted to be bringing this high precision sensor to market to start the year. Working closely with our distributors and customers we know that we have created a solution which meets their high precision metrology needs, including enhancing their industry 4.0 strategies.” 

“Whether for car parts or other industrial equipment, ensuring these fine tolerances through accurate measurement is essential, and in the past has been a labour-intensive activity for metrologists. The T15, which integrates easily with GapGun and Vectro, will help change this.”    

An automotive OEM and a Third Dimension Customer who took part in T15 trials, said: “The Gapgun used with the new T15 sensor offers an efficient tool to measure dashboards quickly and accurately. This tool allows us to digitalise our dashboard control, secure data traceability and provides an overall saving compared to manual gauges. Its exceptional ergonomic design allows operators to use the tool inline or offline.  

The T15 is highly adaptable and comes in two versions: the ‘V’ Universal sensor which can measure a range of surfaces from bright finishes to the very darkest paints and carbon surfaces, and the ‘M’ Metallic sensor for measuring bright machined metal, chrome components and highly reflective surfaces.  

The global automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler has announced the acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares in ECO-Adapt SAS. ECO-Adapt SAS offers innovative solutions for condition monitoring based on electrical signal analysis and systems for the optimisation of energy consumption.

The acquisition expands the Industrial division’s portfolio of lifetime solutions and strengthens its position in the field of digitally-based predictive maintenance. The Lifetime Solutions portfolio contains an extensive range of service offerings for industrial maintenance of machines throughout their entire operating life – from heating devices, alignment tools and condition monitoring solutions through to a wide selection of lubricants and matching automated lubricators.

Complementing existing OPTIME solutions with functions based on electrical signal diagnosis

OPTIME Condition Monitoring now offers a reliable predictive maintenance solution for industrial machinery based on signal analysis of vibration and temperature data. ECO-Adapt completes this scope by offering maintenance information on the basis of electrical signal analysis, providing additional security against potential failures of electrical components. Operators have the advantage of covering both mechanical and electrical issues with a holistic predictive maintenance system. This is a significant step towards the more sustainable operation of machines.

With ECO-Adapt Schaeffler offers a new range of products covering the optimisation of energy consumption during machine operation

The ECO-Adapt product line offers a comprehensive range of products that also covers customers energy monitoring needs. ECO-Adapt answers a constant request from customers: make monitoring easy to implement and use. The ECO-Adapt product line also provides revolutionary multi-circuit meters to facilitate industrial sub-metering, with a full cloud-based solution, including customised analytics and dashboards. Energy monitoring makes it possible to optimise overall energy consumption and provides information to find the optimum operating points of the machines in the most energy-intensive industries, for example, in cement, steel, pulp and paper, and many more.

“Condition monitoring of all critical powertrain components is a challenge for our customers in all industrial sectors. Our customers need scalable and holistic monitoring solutions that provide detailed insights into the condition of the mechanical parts, as well as the electrical components of electric motors in rotating machines. By working with ECO-Adapt, we can offer our customers top-quality services and solutions for bearings and electric powertrain components – throughout the entire lifecycle,” said Rauli Hantikainen, head of Schaeffler’s Lifetime Solutions strategic business unit.

Established in 2012 and headquartered in Paris, France, ECO-Adapt combines smart hardware and data analytics to provide solutions for the analysis and optimisation of energy consumption and the predictive maintenance of electric rotating machines. ECO-Adapt’s solutions are used by hundreds of customers in the production and maintenance departments of MRO and OEM companies, as well as in commercial buildings.

“Schaeffler is the ideal owner and strategic partner for us to continue our successful course in the future. Its expertise in industrial automation will allow us to scale up our offering and win many new customers. By combining our strengths in R&D, we will be able to launch promising new products in the field of innovative condition monitoring onto the market,” said Laurent Laparra, CEO of ECO-Adapt.

The acquisition will be effected by means of a share purchase agreement for 100 per cent of the shares. The parties have agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction, which is scheduled to close during the first half of the year 2023 subject to customary closing conditions being met.

Expansion of Lifetime Solutions portfolio under “Roadmap 2025”

In accordance with the strategic direction set under its “Roadmap 2025,” Schaeffler is pushing ahead with the expansion of its portfolio of asset lifecycle products and services. As part of this, its Industrial division provides a comprehensive range of highly reliable products and services to help its customers manage today’s challenges and seize emerging opportunities. The aim is for plant operators to achieve greater planning certainty by minimising their unscheduled downtime, maximising their bearing and machine service life, enhancing their sustainability, and improving their operational reliability.

The acquisition of ECO-Adapt is a further strategic step in the strengthening of Schaeffler’s Lifetime Solutions portfolio. It follows the acquisition of BEGA International B.V. (Bega), a leading manufacturer of special tools for mounting and dismounting rolling bearings, in 2021.

Applications that offer limited space for hardware, for example in a military aircraft, pose unique challenges when it comes to finding the right connector solution. Applications like military and aerospace require smaller, more compact electrical connectors that are still capable of withstanding harsh environments. Here, Sean Fitall, European product manager at interconnect solutions supplier PEI-Genesis, explores how micro-miniature circular connectors can provide significant savings in both space and weight requirements while ensuring a reliable connection.

Future Market Insights predicts that the micro-miniature coaxial adaptor market will increase from $3.7 million USD in 2018 to $5.8 million by 2028. Likely drivers of this growth are the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the expectation that global air traffic will increase at a rate of 4.4 per cent per year over the next 20 years.

This is because microminiature connectors offer significant savings in both weight and space, owing to their small size and the level of performance equal to their larger, circular counterparts. In industries where extra ounces of equipment cuts payload capacity and uses more fuel, saving weight is important. In fact, Virgin Atlantic has estimated that losing a pound in weight from every plane in its fleet could save 53,000 litres of fuel a year, amounting to tens of thousands of US dollars in savings.

With this in mind, let’s discuss how aircraft manufacturers can tackle the challenge of space and weight restrictions at no sacrifice to connector performance.

Meeting the needs of the application

For manufacturers of military and aerospace devices, all electrical components must be able to operate in demanding conditions. For example, tactical equipment in a military aircraft is regularly exposed to vibrational forces, which can interrupt connections, loosen fastenings or, in a worse case scenario, damage the internal contacts. It is crucial, therefore, that micro-miniature connectors comply to MIL-DTL-38999 specifications for vibration and shielding.

The Amphenol 2M series of micro-miniature connectors are fully compliant to MIL-DTL specifications, meaning they have undergone rigorous testing to ensure they remain sealed in harsh environments and rated for temperatures of -65 to 175 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, on average this series offers 71 per cent weight savings compared to the MIL-DTL-38999 standard and are 52 per cent smaller.

Saving space and weight doesn’t mean you sacrifice performance, however. Most micro-miniature connectors are manufactured with a higher contact density than most other connectors in the same class, ensuring a strong and reliable signal transmission in small spaces. This is ideal for mission-critical applications like airframes, avionics boxes, tactical equipment and headsets, where a whole operation relies on the efficient transmission of information.

Design flexibility is also important when choosing a military or aerospace connector, particularly when an accidental disconnect could be detrimental to operations. Some applications, like communications systems in a military ground vehicle, will require bayonet coupling for faster mating and disconnect.

Therefore, choosing a connector that can be assembled with many coupling options, such as bayonet, threaded or breakaway, will offer this design flexibility. With this, customers are guaranteed a customised interconnect solution suitable for satellites, industrial equipment, military support technology, like hand-held radios, GPS devices and missile systems.

PEI-Genesis’ selection of connectors for the military and aerospace markets includes Amphenol’s MIL-DTL-38999 2M connectors and ITT Cannon MKJ series. This variety will ensure you get the best connectors to simplify your assembly process and improve the quality and reliability of your military and aerospace designs.

Learn more about PEI-Genesis in mission-critical applications www.peigenesis.com/military/military-connectors.

Teledyne DALSA has introduced the Z-Trak LP2C 3D profile sensor family for in-line 3D measurement and inspection applications. As the latest member of the Z-Trak family, the LP2C 4K sensors deliver 4,096 samples per profile and an x resolution down to 3.5 microns, allowing customers to measure and inspect parts with tighter tolerances, and to identify smaller defects cost effectively.

Ready to use straight out of the box, Teledyne’s Z-Trak LP2C 4K sensors are factory calibrated and combine high scanning speeds with easy-to-use software tools, delivering highly repeatable and accurate height, width, and length measurements. With its compact size and simplified cabling, Z-Trak LP2C is ideal for applications in battery, automotive, factory automation, robotics, and logistics markets.

Z-Trak models are available for measurement ranges of up to 650mm and have a horizontal field-of-view of up to 1200mm. The LP2C 4K series can also handle a wide variety of surface and material types with its red and blue eye-safe lasers.

Z-Trak LP2C features in-line processing capabilities to improve and enhance the profiles. In addition, it can generate additional metadata that up-stream algorithms can use to eliminate un-wanted reflections. Cleaner 3D scans help applications to produce more accurate and dependable results.