Case Studies on Effective Industrial Automation Solutions
Real Time Automation Case Studies
PackML Over OPC UA: Two Technologies that will Make Your Machines Hit a Grand Slam
Unlike managing a playoff baseball game, managing a manufacturing plant used to be simple without much in the way of strategy. Manufacturers are now faced with unprecedented strategic challenges in this Cloud-enabled, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence world. Staffing the factory floor, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and productivity and making technology choices are now exceptionally difficult, strategic challenges in the age of everything online and everything integrated. Read more here…
EtherNet/IP: An Application Layer for Industrial Automation
This paper presents an overview of EtherNet/IP™ (EIP), a high-level industrial application layer protocol for industrial automation applications. Built on the standard TCP/IP protocol suite, EIP uses all the traditional EtherNet hardware and software to define an application layer protocol that structures the task of configuring, accessing and controlling industrial automation devices. EtherNet/IP classifies EtherNet nodes as predefined device types with specific behaviors. The set of device types and the EIP application layer protocol is based on the Control and Information Protocol (CIP) layer used in both DeviceNet™ and ControlNet™. Building on these widely used protocol suites, EtherNet/IP for the first time provides a seamlessly integrated system from the sensor-actuator network to the controller and enterprise networks. Read more here…
The Show Must Go On: RTA Keeps the Bellagio Fountains Running
The Bellagio Hotel and Casino – modeled on the opulent Lake Como Resort in Bellagio, Italy, and known as the pinnacle of luxury in Las Vegas – had a big problem and a small budget with which to fix it. The Vegas landmark’s 200 fountains, drawing crowds from around the world for its spectacular water and light show, was hitting a technical glitz. Some of its automation parts – motor drives installed 11 years before – had become obsolete, no longer for sale or even available on secondary markets. Read more here…
Modbus Router Enables Remote Monitoring
For more than fifteen years, in the town of Sabadell, just north of Barcelona, Spain, Joan Ramon and his team of specialists at Elecsan S.A have supplied the local and international market with counters, timers, indicators, text displays and other types of off-the-shelf and custom controls, much of it communicating over Modbus networks. With many of their Spanish customers requesting more remote monitoring and control from Elecsan’s control products, Ramon faced a significant problem. Most of the controls Elecsan delivered over the years were Modbus RTU, not Modbus TCP, and a large part of their inventory was point-to-point RS232. Read more here…
BACnet/IP Gateway Integrates PLC into Building Automation System for Motorcycle Wind Tunnel Control
Automation Solutions LLC, an electrical contractor specializing in automation technology, based in Germantown, WI, was approached by a leading motorcycle manufacturer to implement a control system for the wind tunnels used to test the bikes. Beyond implementing the control for the wind tunnel, the motorcycle manufacturer in the Milwaukee, WI area required that the system be accessible to its building automation control system via BACnet/IP. With more than 40 years of industrial automation control experience, Automation Solutions LLC was confident they could implement a cost-effective control solution built around Allen-Bradley’s MicroLogix PLC. Read more here…
RTA DF1 Stack Helps Win Quarter Million Dollar Project
Head office of one of the Top Three automotive makers decided that ‘recipe’ data for car assembly should be sent to the shop floor using a new, standardized methodology. The catch: the new controls system would need to communicate seamlessly with legacy equipment, including SLC 500 and Micrologix-controlled machinery too expensive to replace, not to mention requiring downtime the car maker couldn’t afford. Read more here…
Crane Sentry System Adds Allen-Bradley Connectivity with Help from Real Time Automation’s 435NBX Gateway
Laser-View Technologies wanted to offer reliable, consistent Allen-Bradley PLC Connectivity in its Crane Sentry® Location Manager overhead crane positioning system. As the manufacturer of the Crane Sentry® product line and authorized distributor of Dimetix laser distance sensors and accessories in the USA, customers had come to love the laser collision monitoring system as a cost-effective solution to add semi-autonomous control to their overhead crane and hoist applications. Read more here…