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CD1902_FPA.indd 4 1/28/19 11:22 AM
 Volume 23, No. 2 table of contents

FEATURES
18 35
24
cover story
machine input

Can stacklights tell

a coherent story?
Roundtable discussion focuses
connections

The sky’s the limit,

and it’s cloudy
OEMs look to analytics to relieve
Energy efficiency on how to reduce confusion and pain points
gets technical complement indications Dave Perkon, technical editor
As the United States Mike Bacidore, editor in chief
becomes a net energy

30 39
exporter, manufacturers
look for best practices in
equipment design

programming product roundup

Once in a control Don’t be a hero
programmer’s lifetime Keep production safe with
Industry veteran recaps the uninterruptible power supplies
rewarding journey he’s made
William Love, Kredit Automation & Controls

CONTROL DESIGN, (ISSN: 1094-3366) is published 12 times a year by Putman Media, 1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N, Schaumburg, Illinois 60173. (Phone 630/467-1300; Fax 630/467-1124.) Periodical postage paid
at Schaumburg, IL, and at additional mailing offices. Address all correspondence to Editorial and Executive Offices, same address. Printed in the United States. ©Putman Media 2019. All rights reserved. The contents of this
publication February not be reproduced in whole or part without consent of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Please send change of address to Putman Media, PO Box 1888, Cedar Rapids IA 52406-1888; SUBSCRIPTIONS:
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INDUSTRY and THE JOURNAL. CONTROL DESIGN assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items reported. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor
information: World Distribution Services, Inc., Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9A 6J5. Printed in the United States.

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 5

CD1902_05_07_TOC.indd 5 1/28/19 10:51 PM

 POWER
We stock enough power to
brew a 12 oz. cup of coffee
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Put that in your mug and drink it.

© Allied Electronics & Automation, 2019 Get your A&C fill at alliedelec.com 1.800.433.5700

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 Volume 23, No. 2 table of contents

COLUMNS
9 editor’s page 16 technology trends

Shake off your winter A proportional valve by

blanket any other application
Mike Bacidore, editor in chief Rick Rice, contributing editor

11 feedback 38 exclusive
Your Problems
Looks can be appealing;
Lefty loosey
Cyclic data and sensor
integration Our Solutions
13 live wire 42 real answers

Automation for the people Can I reduce I/O wiring

Dave Perkon, technical editor in hazardous area?
14 embedded intelligence 46 product showcase Digital Input Digital Input/Output
Is cybersecurity worth 50 automation basics
the money?
Jeremy Pollard, CET Vision is not always
a clear choice
Dave Perkon, technical editor
Safety Output Analog Input or Output

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 editor’s page

In Memory of Julie Cappelletti-Lange, Vice

President 1984-2012

Mike Bacidore
1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N editor in chief
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
630/467-1300 mbacidore@putman.net
Fax: 630/467-1124

editorial team
editor in chief

Shake off your winter blanket

Mike Bacidore
mbacidore@putman.net

technical editor
Dave Perkon
dperkon@putman.net
RIGHT NOW, I’M only thinking about spring in a sort of daydream way, envisioning my toes
digital managing editor
Christopher Palafox
dug deep into the sand of a beach with the sun’s rays enveloping me in warmth. That’s
cpalafox@putman.net a far cry from the 2 ft of snow and subzero temperatures befalling our quiet Chicago
contributing editor
suburb right now. So, how do you even begin to dig out of these frosty mounds of wintry
Rick Rice weariness and plan for better days ahead?
rrice@putman.net
March is just around the corner, and there’s no shortage of conferences to kickstart 2019.
contributing editor In Houston, ABB Customer World will unite industrial engineers with other disciplines
Tom Stevic
tstevic@putman.net
for collaboration and education. With the help of its Customer Advisory Board, ABB builds
an event chock full of new ideas. See how the newer members of the ABB family are
editorial assistant
Lori Goldberg developing technologies that are part of the Ability platform for data and diagnostics. And
lgoldberg@putman.net last year’s customer event featured DJ YuMi, ABB’s robot, as well as Digital Output, the ABB
columnist house band, and headliner the Molly
Jeremy Pollard
Ringwalds. This year is sure to rock
jpollard@tsuonline.com
just as hard. Get more information at
new.abb.com/acw.
March is just around the corner, and
design/production
senior production manager March is also the time of the there’s no shortage of conferences
Anetta Gauthier
annual gathering in Detroit’s Ford to kickstart 2019.
senior art director
Field for Manufacturing in America,
Derek Chamberlain
hosted by Siemens and Electro-Matic.
subscriptions More than 3,000 industry veterans
customer service are expected to gather and share their expertise at the event (www.controldesign.com/
800-553-8878
siemensmia2019). The Summit will feature expert speakers, seminars and workshops. The
circulation automation exhibits focus on emerging technologies, controls, PLM, drive technologies
Air & Gas Compressors 553
Engineering & Systems
and energy management. It’s the perfect mix of executive collaboration and hands-on
Integration Services 11,547 demonstrations, not to mention a great reason to visit the Motor City.
Engines & Turbines 1,025
Food Products Machinery 1,569
Hannover Messe (www.hannovermesse.de), Europe’s premier industrial automation
Industrial Fans, Blowers event, opens April with one of the largest gatherings in all of the world. More than 220,000
& Air Purification Equipment 526
Industrial Heating, Refrigeration visitors are expected to converge in the German city to share the latest innovations
& Air Conditioning Equipment 1,139 in research and development, industrial automation, IT, industrial supply, production
Industrial Process Furnaces & Ovens 472
Machine Tools 2,110 technologies and services. Attendees will also learn the winners of the 16th annual
Materials Handling, Conveyors
Hermes Award, the ninth Robotics Award and the seventh Engineer Powerwoman Award.
& Conveying Equipment 1,507
Metalworking Machinery 2,600 Back in Chicago, Automate 2019 (www.automateshow.com) will provide conference
Mining Machinery & Equipment 510
tracks in automation solutions and innovations; collaborative and mobile robotics; AI,
Oil & Gas Field Machinery & Equipment 1,187
Packaging Machinery 906 digitalization and smart manufacturing; vision; and motion control. Held every two years,
Paper Industries Machinery 312
Printing Trades Machinery & Equipment 441
Automate focuses on robotics, vision and motion control with more than 400 exhibitors.
Pumps & Pumping Equipment 891 The Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Awards also will be presented during Automate.
Rolling Mill Machinery & Equipment 157
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Shake off the cold, and start making your plans for the forthcoming months.
Machinery 817
Textile Machinery 172
Woodworking Machinery 274
Other Industries & Special Industrial
Machinery & Equipment NEC 11,305
TOTAL 40,020

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 9

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Looks can be appealing
I truly appreciated your article on a minimalist HMI (“The mod-
ern, minimalist HMI display,” Control Design, December 2018,
p50, www.controldesign.com/articles/2018/a-modern-mini-
malist-hmi). It’s just as important to draw a line in the sand to
prevent overkill.
I’ve been with Hydromat for more than 30 years and have
taken this same approach in the design of our HMI. From a
single screen, an operator can know the status of up to 32 CNC
machining units with a single glance.
And as you noted, “The HMI doesn’t have to be beautiful or
aesthetically appealing, but it doesn’t hurt.” I’ll have to add that
it should be made to where it’s a pleasure to work with, just not
too busy to where it’s confusing.
The current Hydromat Epic Series was designed to where
someone with minimal to no machining experience could be
taught within a single day on how to run and control a very
high-end high-production machine tool.
One thing I learned more than 40 years ago is that aesthetics
does have a place. A company that I worked for
back then made ball valves. They designed a
higher-rated ball valve from a forging and
were able to market it for somewhat less
than the machined valves.
Guess what? It never sold. It just
didn’t look as nice.
Thomas Hansen, general manager of electrical engineering,
Hydromat (www.hydromat.com)
Lefty loosey
Thank you for your valuable insights into the complex world
of industrial control system cybersecurity (“How to hack a
PLC,” Control Design, November 2018, p20, www.controlde-
sign.com/articles/2018/more-exploits-the-great-plc-hack). The
article raises important issues that certainly deserve greater
attention. Our Bedrock Open Secure Automation (OSA) system
has been designed to resolve some of the key issues that you
raised: namely memory dumping and visibility, integrity checks
and stack-based overflows.
Regarding memory dumping, visibility issues in cyber ex-
ploits, the article states: “What is interesting with these exploits
is that they dump and view memory, and they even execute on
and off commands to the PLC’s central processing unit (CPU). An
example is the remote-memory-viewer exploit, which authenti-
cates using a hard-coded backdoor password in Siemens’ Simatic
CD1902_11_Feedback.indd 11
feedback
S7-300 PLC. In this exploit, the CPU start/stop module executes
shellcode toward the PLC and turns it on/off remotely. The same
start/stop exploit can be found for the S7-1200 series. Further-
more, by injecting shellcode, it is also possible to gain remote
access to the PLC. Bedrock OSA controllers are not vulnerable to
remote-memory-viewer exploits because there are no hard-cod-
ed backdoor passwords in OSA controllers.
Regarding integrity checks, the article states: “Due to the lack
of integrity checks, older PLCs execute commands whether or
not they are delivered from a legitimate source. The reason for
this is that there are no checksums on the network packages. A
range of replay attacks has been shown to work against a large
number of PLCs, which allows the attacker to send execution
commands remotely.”
Bedrock OSA controllers are not vulnerable to these types of
attacks because all communication to the controller must also be
signed for authentication against the controller’s unique private
key. The encryption provided by TLS will prevent an attacker from
eavesdropping on execution commands, and thus from replaying
those execution commands with their own separate connection.
Regarding stack-based overflow, the article states: “Rockwell
Automation has also experienced a stack-based overflow that
could allow remote access to the system by injecting arbitrary
code.” The Bedrock OSA platform is built with a secure real-time
operating system that uses protected virtual address spaces and
hardware memory protection to isolate and protect embedded
applications. Secure partitions guarantee each task
has the resources it needs to run correctly while
simultaneously protecting the OS and user
tasks from errant and malicious code such
as stack-based overflows, denial-of-ser-
vice attacks, worms and Trojan horses.
So, in response to the question,
“Are we screwed?” raised in one of the sub-
headings of the article, Bedrock Automation has
been doing everything possible to ensure that we are not.
Chris Harlow, product manager, Bedrock Automation (www.bedrockautomation.com)
Give us a piece of your mind.
WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS, suggestions, criticism and praise.
We’re particularly fond of the praise, but we really do value the criticism.
EMAIL Chief Editor Mike Bacidore at mbacidore@putman.net
or post a comment on any article at www.controldesign.com.
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 11
1/28/19 11:32 AM
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Dave Perkon
technical editor
dperkon@putman.net
Automation for the people
“ROBOTS DON’T TAKE away jobs. When companies lose to their
competition, that’s when workers lose jobs.” These astute
comments and others by Jeff Burnstein (www.controldesign.
com/burnstein), president at Association for Automation (A3,
www.a3automate.org), were part of a response to a New York
Times column written by Thomas B. Edsall that blames robots
and artificial intelligence for the displacement of large chunks
of Midwestern workers and claims this led to today’s current
political divisions (www.controldesign.com/edsall). Really?
I think it would be far more enter-
taining for us all to check out “Alita:
Battle Angel,” an epic adventure of Our important connection to
hope, empowerment and technology. technology, past, present and
Like robots and automation, Alita has future, will not be stopped.
unique abilities that those in power
will stop at nothing to control. This
20th Century Fox film is the futuris-
tic world of Robert Rodriguez, James Cameron and Jon Landau,
opening Feb. 14.
Our important connection to technology, past, present and
future, will not be stopped.
In his column, Edsall quotes economists at the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology and Boston University: “The Mid-
west and sections of the South have far higher ratios of robots
to population than other regions of the United States.”
It seems to me Edsall doesn’t understand where much of the
manufacturing in the United States is located. He should look
up where manufacturing contributes well to the U.S. economy
and at a higher rate than many other industries.
“In actuality, robots and automation have saved and created
jobs—and will continue to do so,” reads Burnstein’s column. I
strongly agree.
Burnstein also noted that Edsall has a gross misunderstand-
ing of the role automation plays in the American economy.
“Over the last 25 years, many American manufacturers found
themselves unable to compete with the lower costs and higher
productivity of foreign manufacturers,” writes Burnstein. “They
closed their doors or moved their operations. Those jobs left for
another country. They weren’t taken away by machines.”
Burnstein sums it up quite well. “It won’t be robots that take
jobs away,” he writes. “But it may very well be the lack of robots
that costs the American worker.”
CD1902_13_LiveWire.indd 13
live wire
Although not part of the carnage that is often on the front
page of newspapers, some when discussing robots our automa-
tion seem to immediately default to make things sound bad, ap-
ply blame or attack. Unfortunately, I see or hear many examples
where unnamed sources, so-called “subject matter experts” or
professors at prestigious universities are quoted to add to what
I think are often misleading narratives.
I say keep politics out of my automation. If the nontechnical
mindset out there tries to tax, slow down or stop its adoption
and development, it will just make
other countries in the global econ-
omy more successful at it. The bot-
tom line is robots are here to stay,
and, according to the International
Federation of Robotics (IFR), about
a half dozen countries are ahead of
the United States in robot density in
manufacturing industries. We need more robots.
I choose to ignore race, gender or who you voted for when
it comes to robotics and automation. All are welcome to the
technical family, and even the uneducated and those without
college degrees can benefit. Many companies and individuals,
including myself, are happy to train you to collaborate with, de-
sign, program or maintain robotic systems. The sky is the limit.
While color and part-type inspection for quality purposes in
manufacturing are important, any other considerations of color
and type, such as shedding a negative light on automation, is
simply a flaw that must be detected and rejected automatically
into a transparent bad-part bin. A robot is an excellent tool for
this important function.
Embrace these robots and the new ones as they arrive on
the plant floor. They are required to modernize manufactur-
ing in the United States, and their application will continue to
increase. It’s a requirement that cannot be ignored or resisted if
strengthening U.S. manufacturing in a global market and bring-
ing some of it back home are important to you. Robotics are big
in the automotive industry. Let’s learn from that and increase
their use in other U.S. industries. I’ll work hard to help and not
hinder that.
The golden rule of automation is, if you are going to be in-
volved with it or discuss it, be persistent in ways to ensure its
success. Many are counting on you.
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 13
1/28/19 11:33 AM
 embedded intelligence
Is cybersecurity worth the money?
THE GREAT HOT Tub Hack caper, demonstrated by BBC Click
(www.controldesign.com/hottubhack), has turned up the heat
on commercial IoT. The end result could be a burned-out pump
or redder cheeks on exiting, but the message is clear: Be careful.
The brand of hot tub isn’t important, but it is safe to say, with
Christmas behind us, many of us bought or received commer-
cial-grade products that are voice-activated using Alexa or
Google Assistant. I am one of them.
I also got some peripheral devices, which work really well to
control plugs and switches; however,
I am a bit nervous about it all since
Google accesses the account you set
Some think investing in security
up on a third-party website to control
your devices. That’s clever, but what doesn’t translate to the bottom line.
about the security of it all?
As I speak, the only thing a hacker
could do is turn off my fireplace or
turn on my ceiling fan. I have these devices on a separate wire-
less network that has no accessibility to my business network
and no access to shares since it is on a separate IP network. I
have done OK with network segregation. But is it enough?
Imagine being a Fortune 500 executive and wondering if the
company is doing enough to protect intellectual property and
private customer data. Having your secret recipe stolen would
be devastating; then it would no longer be secret.
Boards of directors also need to have a finger in the security
pie. After all, they have responsibilities, don’t they?
In its annual Cyber Governance Survey, financial consulting
firm BDO (www.bdo.com) pinpoints the essential roles of corpo-
rate oversight and who should be doing it.
While companies are hiring more board members with tech-
nical expertise, it seems that the easiest thing to do is throw
more money at the problem. I was surprised to see that only
45% of surveyed companies plan to increase their budgets for
“digital initiatives” pertaining to cybersecurity.
The digital priorities however didn’t address any cyberse-
curity issues in the questioning, but the leader of the pack
was again funding for anticipated business needs. This could
include cybersecurity solutions but wasn’t indicated as such.
Some think investing in security doesn’t translate to the bot-
tom line. If it did, these numbers would have been higher. Until
someone—the government—makes it mandatory to protect
14 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_14_EmbedIntel.indd 14
Jeremy Pollard
jpollard@tsuonline.com
data and systems, this funding will remain a bit muted.
There is no limit to the amount spent on technology that
adds to the growth or profitability of the company. Security
hasn’t made the grade quite yet.
This is very surprising. It’s still about the bottom line, but
progress is being made. Seventy-five percent of respondents
indicate they in fact have increased funding for cybersecu-
rity in the past 12 months. This is the fifth year in a row of
reported increases, which bodes well for the future.
Where the governance seems
to have landed is at the feet of the
masses. Over half of the surveyed
companies did readiness tests
for security, as well as cyber-risk
assessments, which resulted in
changed policies. Twenty-five per-
cent however stated they have not
done any assessments at all. Now that’s scary.
Data privacy is the new abyss that we face. How many times
have we heard of data breaches and from solid companies? It is
these data breaches, as well as the uncounted ones we do not
know about, that can create havoc.
Imagine if a company database that had the logins of all
employees were hacked. Imagine the chaos that would create;
anyone could emulate anyone, resulting in who knows what.
The ability to change one’s own pay scale would be a minor
one. Access to confidential company information is a major one.
The European Union instituted a data protection plan (GDPR)
in 2018; 69% of survey respondents said they are not impacted
by this regulation. BDO believes most of them are wrong.
Having said that, the survey says more than 75% did a gap as-
sessment, meaning they took the regulations seriously enough
to check but probably decided it would cost too much to imple-
ment and so responded it has no impact.
The report brings to light the need for every company’s board
of directors to be more vigilant and to make the decisions nec-
essary to protect the bottom line from a security point of view.
It is about money but also about compliance.
JEREMY POLLARD, CET, has been writing about technology and
software issues for many years. Pollard has been involved in control
system programming and training for more than 25 years.
1/28/19 11:34 AM
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CD1902_FPA.indd 15 1/28/19 11:23 AM
 technology trends
A proportional valve by any other application
IT’S EASY, in this chosen profession of control design, to lose
focus on the little bits that make up our products in deference
to the bigger picture. Vendors are always toting new products;
the Internet is chock full of information on what the “smart”
customers are using to be competitive; and all of that can be a
great distraction when we have a project in front of us.
It is human nature to push the chatter off to the side so we can
stay connected to the task at hand. It was in one of those shrouded
moments when something popped up out of the blue that I
thought I would share with you all.
I was attending an equipment
checkout this past week with several The vendor had sourced a
of my colleagues. The “usual cast of proportional valve, monitored and
characters” attending these events activated by analog signals.
gives our group an opportunity to
view these new products from various
vantage points, based on our particu-
lar areas of expertise.
We have a preference for forming close partnerships with
equipment vendors and leverage these relationships to help
both our vendor and ourselves to think outside the box and try
out new things. This particular machine is no exception.
I mention vendor partnerships often because I really think
these are the future of automation. Coming from an OEM back-
ground, I remember that our livelihood was based entirely on
client need. As a machine builder, we were dependent on the
client having a need to produce a product in a different way.
Sometimes we were lucky and had a sales representative that
was good at helping the client to identify a need where the cli-
ent may not have realized one existed.
This particular partnership probably originated out of conve-
nience at first as the vendor is located less than an hour from our
facilities. Over the years, we’d counted on the vendor’s specific
expertise with replacement parts for our large inventory of hori-
zontal packagers. While aware of the vendor’s capacity to rebuild
and produce new machines, it wasn’t until about two years ago
that we began entertaining the idea of having a new machine
built for us.
Unlike most capital purchases, we didn’t have a particular
product in mind for this new machine, so we decided to put
as many features as possible into this unit to not be limited by
capabilities.
16 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_16_17_TechTrends.indd 16
Rick Rice
contributing editor
rrice@putman.net
It’s easy, with all that was going on with this long build proj-
ect, to overlook the fine details that go into building a packag-
ing machine. The control system is modern, with a PAC driving
multiple servos and variable-frequency drives on a common
Ethernet I/P network.
This base control allowed us to add a lot of wish-list items
to the machine function. There are lots of coordinated motion
activities, and plenty of thought has gone into normal and abnor-
mal stopping of the machine and what actions would take place
to quickly recover the machine to a
known position for restart.
The factory acceptance test that
day generated the usual scrutiny as-
sociated with such an event and the
overall experience was very positive.
The vendor delivered a machine that
was everything we asked for.
Lost in all the hubbub of activity was the function of an
obscure part of the machine that might have been totally
overlooked had I not been admiring the electrical panel and
just happened to notice a device sitting on a cart beside the
machine. While it was being used in the control system, it had
yet to be mounted on the finished assembly.
On many production machines that work with web media,
the passage of the media through the machine is managed
through the use of a sub-assembly called a dancing bar.
The point of this assembly is to isolate the pulling of the roll
linearly from the unwrapping the web off a cylindrical roll.
Traditional control of a dancing bar comes in two forms, me-
chanical springs or motor/servo control to relieve the bar and
then bring it back to a starting position. For this particular type
of machine, the dancing bar is usually mounted on a rack and
pinion with mechanical springs to absorb the pull of the linear
drive and then relax back to the original position to pull out
enough film (web) for the next index.
What was unique about this particular application was the
use of a pair of air-actuated cylinders. Normally, air is not used
for such an action due to the compressibility of air. In this situ-
ation, however, the vendor had sourced a proportional valve,
monitored and activated by analog signals. What was surpris-
ing to me is I have used proportional valves in hydraulic appli-
cations but never even considered that it might be used for air.
1/28/19 11:36 AM
CD201
 This revelation probably has some of you thinking, “What the
heck has Rick Rice been doing all these years?” I have to admit I
was somewhat reluctant to write about this, but I finally decid-
ed to discuss it because we only know what we are exposed to.
I have been so busy doing my job that I missed a develop-
ment that has been in use for at least 14 years and likely more.
I started researching the use of pneumatic proportional valves
and was startled to discover they aren’t very new after all.
What I especially like about the solution I viewed that day
was the use of an analog proximity sensor to monitor a lobe
on a cam at the pivot point of the dancing bar. By using this
feedback single, the control of the valve can be quite precise.
The lobe is shaped so that the full retract of the dancing bar
provides the largest feedback signal while the motion toward
the resting position results in a parabolic feedback that gets
ever finite as it gets closer to the endpoint. The tension on the
film web is very smooth and reduces the tendency to snap as
the dancing bar makes its movements.
There are many lessons to be learned from this particular
situation. The primary one for me was the benefit of collabora-
tion. We learn more when we put our collective minds to an
objective. The unique combination of a world-class machinery
OEM with a company that has been in the contract packag-
ing business since the late ’60s brought about a team of highly
creative individuals who worked for over a year to elevate the
performance of an already well-performing piece of machinery.
The secondary, although perhaps dual primary, lesson in this
was the importance of taking time to expand the focus when
considering our designs. We can build in our own obsolescence
by going back to our successful designs over and over again out
of convenience. Sometimes it is best to take some time and, to
use and old saying, “smell the roses.”
RICK RICE is a controls engineer at Crest Foods (www.crestfoods.com),
a dry-foods manufacturing and packaging company in Ashton, Illinois.

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 machine input
Can stacklights tell a coherent story?
Roundtable discussion focuses on how to reduce confusion and complement indications
by Mike Bacidore, chief editor
WHAT ARE STACKLIGHTS, buttons, switches and alarms trying to say to us? And how do we ensure that operators can understand the language
they’re speaking? We asked a panel of industry experts to share their opinions on the use of these time-tested devices.
Red, yellow, green and blue are standard
stacklight colors. But a variety of other colors can
be used to indicate specific conditions and needs.
What are the pros and cons of additional colors or
flashing patterns? Are they helpful, or do they just
create confusion?
Lee Clore, owner/controls designer, Onyx Industries
(www.onyx-industries.com)
The red-yellow-green color assignment is fairly
well agreed upon. Red is bad—machine down, e-stop active,
device faulted. Yellow is typically a warning condition, such as
temperature is at a low boundary but hasn’t reached a low-low
boundary. Green is good—machine running or running at rate.
Flashing these colors can augment their generally accepted
functions. For example, when solid red indicates an e-stop
trip, flashing red is a useful means of indicating the e-stop
circuit is ready for manual reset. When machines operate in
timed cycles, flashing green as the cycle nears setpoint—end of
cycle—can be useful to operators. This simple function allows
operators a quick, visual indication that is useful for planning
and tending to the machine.
Flashing yellow has similar implications. As an example, if
solid yellow indicates the source roll on a web converting line
has run out, then flashing yellow can indicate the low condition
allowing operators to plan for a splice operation.
Indicator lights are simple devices that act as a first line of
defense for operators to know machine states. Keeping imple-
mentations simple makes for the best results. All the specific
process data goes on HMIs. The indicator is meant to get an
operator’s attention, wherever they are at the time, on an event
or change of machine state. Asking them to do much more than
that becomes ineffective. It is often advantageous to standard-
ize, where possible, which functions these indicators perform.
18 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_18_23_MachineInput.indd 18
If that is impractical, we recommend using IEC symbols in the
lenses to backlight specific conditions.
It can also be practical to put placards, or legends, near
the indicator to define conditions indicated by the stacklight.
Operators usually are quite quick to catch on to their intended
meanings. If deviating from the standard red-yellow-green-
blue-white, this is almost a necessity.
Vaidya “Doc” Patel, director, marketing & customer success,
EZAutomation (www.avg.net)
It is difficult for the operators to interpret the mean-
ing of different color codes in different situations. If more colors
are added to the stacklights, it will definitely create a confusion,
which may lead to unnecessary complications on the plant
floor. It is recommended to keep the colors to a minimum. In
fact there are highly visible multi-color LED marquee displays
that can not only communicate with the machine or the process
controller, but also display clear and concise alarm messages
or even production status to the operators and plant manag-
ers. These messages can be read from 100 to 400 feet away. No
guess work is needed to understand the issue.
Robb Weidemann, senior business development manager, lighting
and indication, Banner Engineering (www.bannerengineering.com)
Additional colors and animations are beneficial be-
cause they convey new information not accounted for by tradi-
tional colors, including production details, alarms and support
requests. In complex processes, more colors allow each status
or assembly step to have totally unique indication from other
steps, eliminating confusion and speeding up interpretation of
the signals. For example, if there are seven steps in a process,
each step can be indicated by a distinct color—for example,
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white. Since each
color is unique, it is easy to associate steps to each color and re-
member them quickly. Colors are easily differentiated by most
1/28/19 2:48 PM
 users, and confusion can be minimized through basic training. Peter B. Gasparini, sales manager, Werma-USA (www.werma.com)

Furthermore, flexible RGB-based devices can alternate between
standard color functions and unique states, making a single
device both powerful and flexible.
Michael O’Neill, sales manager, Werma-USA (www.werma.com)
On the pro side, variety will yield multiple solutions
covering many requirements. Various colors are now
available from LEDs that change their color by illuminating
internal red and green and blue LED strips.
On the con side, a small percentage of the male population
is color-blind to various extents. Positioning of the colors can
help. For example, if traffic lights are mounted horizontally
due to height restriction—for example, under low overhead
structures—the colors in North America are always red-yel-
low-green from left to right. Ergonomic attention in design is
needed to not introduce confusion with all of these varieties.
Helpful solutions can result if the response is kept simple and
follows a consistent logic.
It’s been my experience that customers find addi-
tional colors and light effects helpful. It starts with
helping our client to clearly define the conditions/processes/
statuses that are critical to their operations and then imple-
mentation per their requirements. For example, in a stacklight
with green/yellow/red/blue:
• permanent green = optical signal that production/process/
condition operating in best mode possible
• permanent yellow = machinery in tool change mode
• blinking yellow = instructions being delivered and preparing
to proceed with production
• permanent red = error or fault
• blinking red = fault in process of being cleared or vice versa
• blue off = no call for action
• blue permanent = calling for manufacturing engineer or some
special assistance or maintenance
• blue blinking = manufacturing engineer or maintenance or
quality resolving the problem.

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 machine input

Again these are just examples. I have
many.
The bottom line is the lights are as
helpful as the time spent up front iden-
tifying the conditions/processes/sta-
tuses that are critical to operations and
require monitoring, call for action.
FYI, all this can be documented with
a wireless machinery/process/condi-
tion/email/texting solution attached to
stacklights.
Todd Mason Darnell, Ph.D., marketing
manager of services and safety,
Omron Automation Americas
(www.omron247.com)
Generally, we recommend avoiding
adding colors beyond the standard
three—red, yellow and green. Even
when only using those three, things
can get confusing. In some applications,
red can mean the machine is stopped,
it is in a fault condition, or the safety
function has been disabled. Each one
of these conditions requires a different
response from plant personnel. Best
practice is for there is to be a plantwide
standard for interpreting the lights and
to provide regular training that is sup-
ported by placards.
John Curtin, director, automation
solutions, Motion Industries
(www.motionindustries.com)
The availability of many colors and
flashing patterns offers the advantage
of increased flexibility for a control
system at a relatively low cost threshold
versus other options. Users can moni-
tor more status indicators in control
systems without a significant increase
in total system cost.
One negative aspect of this strategy
is that, if too many colors and/or flash-
ing patterns are included, an issue may
arise with regard to communication
and training of the system operators.
Every operator would need to be trained
to recognize each status indicated by
the additional colors/patterns and
implement the proper procedures for
each situation.

Lyon Lee, product marketing manager,

IDEC (www.idec.com)

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indicate machine status and prompt
actions. When it comes to colors and
flashing patterns, it’s about clarity vs.
“clutterity,” or complexity. Just like
traffic lights, three-color stacklights
with blink or solid signaling are among
the most popular. More colors could
be confusing, especially in a busy pro-
duction environment populated with
numerous stacklights.
Steve Olson, IIoT technical specialist,
Hilscher (www.hilscher.com), member
of Control System Integrators
Association (CSIA, www.controlsys.org)
Additional colors create the possibility
of confusion with other colors, such as
orange vs. amber or violet vs. blue.
Flash patterns are good if there is
good definition and adequate space
between repeats.
Position within the stack is very
important for operators that are visually
challenged or color-blind.

CD1902_18_23_MachineInput.indd 20 1/28/19 2:46 PM

 Tom Rosenberg, vice president of
Alarms are frequently performed via warns, but also has an overall alerting
marketing and engineering, Balluff
display terminals, visual and audible effect. Auditory signals are quite useful
(www.balluff.com)
forms. It was found that sound not only when visual information is limited.
Color overload can be a problem if not
planned out properly. The best planning
utilizes a dual-color approach where col-
ors are defined by personnel responsible
and machine/process status at the point
of use. An example would be yellow/
blue indication wherein yellow = process
slowdown and blue = line supervisor is
responsible. This responsibility is clearly
on the line supervisor to fi x the slow-
down at the point of indication. Flashing
multiple colors is one method to dual-
color indication, but that has proven to
be confusing. A much more intuitive
approach is to segment the indicators
based on your communication plan.
Even small, point-of-use indicators can
be segmented to exceed your goals.
We have also seen customers mixing
their own colors to achieve a level of dif-
ferentiation. This differentiation could
be simple appearance preference or
adherence to their corporate color iden-
tity—all very achievable with the new
class of smart, LED-based stacklights
and indicators.

Michael Doebelin, Advanced Engineering

(www.adveng.com), member of
Control System Integrators Association
(CSIA, www.controlsys.org)

In any process industry, safety issues

are of primary importance since any
accident can have catastrophic conse-
quences for both people and the environ-
ment. Therefore, efforts must be made to
prevent or limit the hazards of the plant.
To achieve this aim, an increasing num-
ber of industrial quality and reliability
systems are applied. In these systems, the
operators pay attention to present process
states and predict their future states using
information from alarm systems.

CD1902_18_23_MachineInput.indd 21 1/28/19 2:46 PM

 machine input
For standalone machinery, typically a stacklight is a
means of alerting not only operators, but also other employ-
ees in the area.
Red means e-stop condition present, safety fence door open,
safety light curtain triggered, area scanner triggered or general
machine malfunction, to name a few.
Yellow indicates warning zone for area scanner violated,
typically in conjunction with a signal horn.
Green means the machine in production, running.
Blue could be used for general alert, used various in industry.
Unfortunately many programmers get carried away and
create blinking states to different functions and colors, even
with different frequencies. This will lead to confusion, keep
it simple is the best solution. All the above conditions are
nowadays complemented by a HMI display to get more detail
of the alert.
Illuminated pushbuttons are typically operator/machine
level only, not for safety. They may be used to reset a safety
circuit. A green blinking button machine ready, startup condi-
tions met, if pushed turns solid. In addition a red illuminated
light would indicate fault or e-stop on the operator panel to
alert the operator.
Startup of a machine should be controlled, once the ready
indication is met—all safety gates closed, light curtains
reset, area is verified that no personnel is in a danger spot.
The start button blinks and a horn sounds to alert operator
and personnel of the start of the machine. Only after a few
seconds pass, is it now possible to press the start button—
timer interlocked.
Juergen Duemmler, manager, product management & engineering,
Siemens (www.siemens.com)
Having multiple color lights and flashing patterns
allow manufacturers the flexibility they need to monitor their
machinery to ensure production time is managed with limited
downtime while providing a safe work environment.
What types of signaling devices make the most
sense in hazardous locations?
Michael O’Neill, sales manager, Werma-USA (www.werma.com)
The main difference between equipment in hazard-
ous and ordinary locations is the enclosure it resides
in. For explosion-proof solutions getting a visual indication
through a window of proper design to be explosion-proof is
straightforward. Visual signals are commonly used. Issues
22 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_18_23_MachineInput.indd 22
occur when an audible signal is desired. Typically enclosures
designed for explosion-proof areas—Class I, Div. 1 and Zone
1—do not vent sound well. For these applications if sound is
required an intrinsically safe (IS) sounder with an IS Zener bar-
rier is required. Since this design is inherently current limited,
volume levels need to be considered. Additional sounders in
strategic locations often resolve these concerns.
Juergen Duemmler, manager, product management & engineering,
Siemens (www.siemens.com)
When using control devices in a hazardous location,
special precautions must be taken to ensure the signaling
device used doesn’t have the potential for igniting the fiber or
gases that are present during operation. Class 51 pilot devices
that are rated for NEMA 7 and 9 hazardous-location applica-
tions are suitable for most hazardous environments. There are
several guidelines that have been set up to guide you with your
product selection based on your specific hazardous environ-
ment. You should always reference your local codes and guide-
lines setup in the NFPA and/or ATEX, depending on which local
codes apply in your region.
Vaidya “Doc” Patel, director, marketing & customer success,
EZAutomation (www.avg.net)
Hazardous locations definitely need audio and video
signaling devices to alert plant personnel. Visual devices
should not only indicate the problem but also corrective action
that needs to be taken to ensure safety of the plant personnel
or evacuation procedure or directions.
Tom Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and engineering,
Balluff (www.balluff.com)
Signaling devices for hazardous locations are more
expensive; therefore, we typically see remote monitoring
implemented. If operators are required in the hazardous area,
fixed mounted signaling should focus on environmental condi-
tions. As safe conditions decline, progressive warnings must be
issued until an all-out evacuation signaling is required. At that
point, signaling is augmented with high-intensity strobe and
audible alarms with voice prompts.
John Curtin, director, automation solutions, Motion Industries
(www.motionindustries.com)
Several manufacturers make signal devices specifi-
cally designed for hazardous locations. These signaling devices
are different in construction and method of installation than
1/28/19 2:48 PM
 standard products used in nonhazardous applications. In order
to select the proper device, the exact nature of the hazard in
the area must be defined.
Alex Dzatko, proposals specialist, process automation,
Pepperl+Fuchs (www.pepperl-fuchs.us)
There are very few hazardous-location rated stack-
lights. However, there are many hazardous-location-rated
buzzers, horns and operating elements, such as pilot lights,
illuminated pushbuttons and more. Also, there are many HMIs
that are certified for use in hazardous areas. These HMIs can
comparable indicators modified to meet defined design and
installation requirements. Electronic equipment that utilizes
an intrinsically safe (IS) design can be used to mitigate risk in
hazardous areas. IS design limits the power and heat created
by an electronic device to a level below that required to ignite
a specific hazardous atmosphere. This eliminates the need to
isolate electronic equipment in explosion-proof enclosures,
reducing the overall cost of a deployment and simplifying
implementation.
Lyon Lee, product marketing manager, IDEC (www.idec.com)

work with the hazardous-location-rated buzzers, horns and
pilot lights to help to diagnose and control an operation.
Robb Weidemann, senior business development manager, lighting
and indication, Banner Engineering (www.bannerengineering.com
Hazardous locations have similar indication needs
as general-purpose environments and therefore should use
First off, the signaling devices, such as the pilot
light, must be certified for hazardous-location ap-
plication, according to industry standards. Moreover, the
equipment that controls the signaling devices shall also be
hazardous-location-compatible. A number of PLCs, smart re-
lays and HMI touchscreen products are certified in hazardous
location for Class I, Div. 2 Group A, B, C, D.

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CD1902_18_23_MachineInput.indd 23 Design 1/28/19 2:47 PM
 cover story

Energy efficiency gets technical

As the United States becomes a net energy exporter,
manufacturers look for best practices in equipment design

IN 2020, FOR the first time in almost 70
years, the United States will export more
energy than it imports, and that reversal
should continue for more than 25 years,
according to a report from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA). The
Annual Energy Outlook 2019 (AEO2019)
Reference case projects continued
development of U.S. oil and natural gas
resources, as well as continued growth in
the use of renewable resources.
Driven by record oil and natural gas
production, petroleum exports are
predicted to remain strong through 2050.
In fact, U.S. crude oil production should
stay above 14 million barrels per day
until 2040, according to the AEO2019
Reference case.
Net exports of natural gas will
continue to grow, as liquefied natural gas
(LNG) becomes more significant as an
export to Mexico and Canada, according
to the EIA.
An abundance of energy is good for
manufacturing, but increased energy-
efficiency practices are what will
keep consumption relatively stable,
regardless of the economy’s expansion.
Due to increased data availability, more
organizations are taking a closer look
at energy practices and their impact on
the bottom line.
Engineers are doing their part with
technical expertise that goes deep
in the weeds, addressing efficiency
at the component level—from
motors to power supplies. These two
examples could energize almost any
manufacturing operation.

Efficiency and quality start with the motor

By Tom Wyatt, Heidenhain

ACCURACY AND SURFACE quality are the goals of superior
production processes. This is why machining companies
invest a great deal of time and expense in tools, machine
tools, controls with special functions and options, measuring
technology and, of course, employee skills. Unfortunately, axis
motors still receive very little attention in this arrangement,
despite being a decisive factor in production quality.
When it comes to axis motors in machine tools, for example,
torque ripple and the inertia ratio between the motor and
the load are crucial factors, along with the maximum torque.
These criteria have a direct effect on the quality of the
workpiece to be manufactured. Axis motors for machine tools
offer a balanced inertia ratio and very low torque ripple for
exceptional machining results and dynamic motion control.

24 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com

CD1902_24_29_CoverStory.indd 24 1/29/19 11:21 AM

 Withstanding disturbances
A system’s rigidity is a crucial factor in its resilience to vibrations or
milling forces—the greater the rigidity, the better. Rigidity, in turn,

Force Required in N
is heavily influenced by the inertia ratio between the motor and the
moving mass of the feed axis (load). This means that larger motors
provide greater system rigidity against milling forces or vibrations.
Figure 1 shows, as a function of the inertia ratio between the motor
and the load, how high a sudden load reversal must be in order to
temporarily cause a given position error in a drive (Figure 1).
By way of illustration, a lightweight trailer attached to a large, high-

(SOURCE: HEIDENHAIN)
torque vehicle will introduce fewer disturbances into the entire system
when exposed to wind gusts or road damage than will a heavy trailer
pulled by a lightweight vehicle of the same torque. This is true even
though the lighter trailer is obviously much more susceptible to these
influences than the heavier one. For a machine tool, this means that 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

the largest possible motor should be moving the lightest possible table Ratio of motor: load

in order to minimize the effect of disturbances on the entire system

Higher force, less disturbance
such as milling forces or vibrations arising at the table. Figure 1: The graph demonstrates necessary load reversal
Unfortunately, if there is a significant difference between the force (y axis) for a given position error as a factor of the
inertias of the motor and the load, it is also necessary to lower the loop inertia ratio between the motor and the load (x axis)
gains. Lowering the loop gains leads to lower rigidity, meaning that the
entire system reacts more strongly to load disturbances, for example,
from milling forces or vibrations.
For a machine tool, a balanced inertia ratio between the motor and
Acceleration Capacity in rad / s²

the load should therefore be selected. A balanced ratio provides the

amount of rigidity needed to make the entire system insusceptible to
external influences exerted on the load, meaning that these influences
have no effect on the machining result, and, at the same time, making
it possible to work with high loop gains. In other words, the trailer and
the vehicle pulling it should be correctly matched to each other.

(SOURCE: HEIDENHAIN)
The right dynamics
A motor design featuring the highest possible moment of inertia
would contradict the next requirement, namely the highest possible
acceleration capability. This is because the motor’s own inertia has
a significant influence on the acceleration capability of the entire 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

system. A direct correlation can be demonstrated using the following Ratio of motor: load

formula for calculating the acceleration capability seen in Figure 2.

Less inertia, more acceleration
Figure 2: The graph demonstrates the acceleration capability
of a motor (y axis) as a factor of the inertia ratio between the
motor and the load (x axis).
For a given maximum torque of the motor Mmax and a given load
inertia Jload, the acceleration capability of the entire system becomes
smaller as the inertia of the motor Jmotor increases. Simply stated, this
implies that a motor with low inertia achieves rapid acceleration—the
more inertia a motor has, the more torque it must produce in order to
accelerate the load as desired.

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 25

CD1902_24_29_CoverStory.indd 25 1/29/19 11:22 AM

 cover story
When it comes to the amount of torque needed, economic
viability becomes a factor, as well, because the higher the
maximum torque required, the more expensive the motor
becomes. This is due to the fact that higher performance requires
more or better magnetic materials for larger or optimized motors.
Thus, both acceleration behavior and cost considerations make a
case for a ratio between the motor and the load that is balanced
and well-adapted to the intended application.
Motor speed stability
In addition to the above-mentioned external influences, the
motor itself can introduce disturbances into the system that
influence the machining and surface quality of a workpiece.
Of most importance in this case is the torque ripple, which
is produced by the motor despite the sinusoidal current. The
amount of motor torque outputted thus fluctuates slightly over
the course of a complete revolution of the motor shaft.
For the comparative measurements used in analyzing the
torque ripple of various motor designs, the z axis of the same
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The new SKZ shield brackets,
which are based on the
classic SK shield brackets,
have a feature for additional
strain relief to prevent
damage of the cable shield.
icotek’s new shield terminal
can be mounted on DIN
rails, 10 x 3 bus bars, C-rails
and with one screw on
mounting plates in a very
user-friendly way.
4 FREom
NE
T O ek-u 5
GE fo@icot 43-231
in -6
312
www.icotek-usa.com
CD1902_24_29_CoverStory.indd 26
170
160
z in mm
150
140
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
y in mm
Contour errors
Figure 3: An axis motor with low torque ripple (green line) and the adapted
motor with considerably higher deviations (red line) using a 1000x magnifi-
cation factor for the contour errors.
machine tool under exactly the same test conditions was first
moved by an axis motor made for the machine tool and then
by an axis motor taken from the automation industry and not
specifically designed for the machine tool but rather merely
adapted to the particular application. A machining operation
was performed to mill an oblique surface on a sample
workpiece. During face milling, the z axis was moved at a feed
rate of F = 6,250 mm/min for 60 mm in the y direction and for
17.5 mm in the z direction.
These tests confirm the anticipated effect of the torque
ripple, not just by means of the contour error measurement
data, the difference between the desired contour and the
contour actually milled, but also through the visible effects
on the sample workpiece surface (Figure 3). An axis motor
that had been optimized for the machine tool features a low
torque ripple and generates an evenly angled, machined
surface without visible shadings. With the axis motor that had
been taken from the automation industry and adapted to the
machine tool, the effects of the torque ripple are clearly visible
in the form of shadings on the oblique surfaces.
Expressed in measured values, the low torque ripple axis
motor achieved an effective contour error of 0.2 µm at the level
of visually discernible deviations. By contrast, the effective
deviation of the axis motor adapted to the machine tool came
in at 1.2 µm, which is greater by a factor of five.
A considerably higher torque ripple is considered acceptable
for these motors. This higher torque ripple manifests itself in
the form of visibly inferior surface quality.
By contrast, axis motors can be designed specifically for
the machine tool and feature not only balanced rigidity and
excellent acceleration capability, but also low torque ripple.
E!
sa.
c
Tom Wyatt is marketing manager at Heidenhain.
Contact him at twyatt@heidenhain.com.
1/29/19 11:22 AM

Power supplies move
closer to devices
By Pat Murphy, Emerson Automation Solutions
MOVING PLCS, I/O and other control
equipment closer to the input and
output devices they manage has
become standard practice among
design professionals. It offers a number
of advantages, one of which is that it
allows for modular design of industrial
manufacturing systems.
Modular system design means
that individual subsystems can be
completely fabricated, tested and
function as standalone subsystems at
the OEM before being delivered to an
end user’s factory. This step greatly
simplifies on-site installation and
commissioning of a new manufacturing
system and aids in future upgrades
and expansion. It stands to reason
that these same advantages can be
realized if the necessary power devices,
typically power supplies, are also
moved closer to the devices they power.
The emerging distributed-power
trend has multiple advantages. A unique
approach to designing cost-effective
systems using the standalone IP67 power
supply has been increasingly adopted in
the automotive manufacturing industry.
Early modular system
design trends
In the early days of PLCs and other
types of industrial control, it was
common to put large controllers at a
central location to control an entire
manufacturing system. The industry
evolved over the years with remote
I/O, smaller controllers and various
CD1902_24_29_CoverStory.indd 27
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devices themselves.
One of the many advantages of
this trend is that it allows larger
industrial manufacturing systems
to be broken down into groups of
smaller subsystems, which are then
interconnected together. Smaller
subsystems typically make it much
easier to design the control programs,
especially when the subsystems can be
well-isolated from the other subsystems
in the overall system. In addition to
software design advantages, there are
hardware advantages. Because the
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Installation and commissioning
One of the most important advantages
of the distributed-control model is that
on-site installation and commissioning
is much more straightforward. With a
typical centralized system, final system
test at the OEM is often not practical,
especially if the OEM is upgrading an
existing system. As a result, all of the 724.775.7926
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1/29/19 11:22 AM
 cover story

components must be first shipped from

the OEM to the end user’s factory.
Thermal savings
Next, extensive on-site hardware Figure 1: A standalone power supply with an IP67 rating not only saves the physical
installation, wiring and software space that the power supply would have required, but it also eliminates the need to dis-
installation is required. Finally, the sipate heat generated by a standard power supply.
system is commissioned, which entails
starting up the equipment, adjusting
various parameters, testing for proper
operation and troubleshooting any
problems that come up. Unfortunately, a
third party that is less familiar with the
intricacies of the equipment than the
OEM often performs these steps.
With a modular-system control
design, installation and commissioning
at the end-user location can be greatly
simplified because the subsystem is
isolated from the overall system. Much
of the installation and commissioning
work that was necessary in the
centralized system can be done at the
OEM location, even before shipping
the equipment to the end-user facility.
Obviously, this reduces the amount of
work required at the end-user location.
In addition, it provides the OEM
with more control over the reliability
of the subsystem, thus improving the
quality of the installed system and
drastically reducing the amount of
troubleshooting required. Ideally the
subsystem is truly plug-and-play, so
end users don’t need to be concerned
with the ins and outs of getting the
manufacturing subsystem to work.
and input and output devices to be reduces the on-site power concerns to
Closer to devices powered by 24 Vdc, so it makes sense to merely connecting incoming power.
Of course, all this depends on how distribute the power supplies closer to Some years ago, the automotive
well-isolated the subsystem is from the input and output devices, as well. manufacturing industry recognized
the rest of the system, since it still That way, many of the same advantages the potential for distributed power
needs to be integrated into the overall described earlier can be realized in and started moving the power supply
arrangement. On the hardware side, the power wiring. Wire runs from closer to input and output devices.
one of the difficulties of isolating a the power supply to the devices they Initially, automotive manufacturers
subsystem is the power source. power are shorter and simpler. More deployed DIN-rail power supplies with
It is very common for the majority importantly, the wiring can be wholly lower wattages than required in a more
of PLCs or controllers, I/O, peripherals done at the OEM location, a step that centralized system.

28 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com

CD1902_24_29_CoverStory.indd 28 1/29/19 11:22 AM

 IP67 power supplies
There were still challenges to overcome. In
a modular design, positioning components
closer to the input and output devices
usually meant that there was less physical
space available for mounting those
components. Also, traditional DIN-rail
power supplies must be mounted in an
enclosure, and the enclosure was often
shared with other components.
Since power supplies are heat-
generating devices, oversize enclosures
are usually required to dissipate
the heat. This often resulted in an
enclosure size that was too large to
fit in the subsystem. Even worse, heat
generated by the power supply increases
the ambient temperature inside the
enclosure, which can shorten the life of
components in the enclosure.
The design solution that has proven
successful within the automotive
industry is to utilize power supplies that
do not require mounting in an enclosure.
Compact and rugged, a standalone power
supply with an IP67 rating can be easily
mounted directly on the equipment,
right next to the components it is
powering. Enclosures required for a PLC
or any other components can be much
smaller. This not only saves the physical
space that the power supply would have
required, but it also eliminates the need
to dissipate heat generated by a standard
power supply (Figure 1).
Standalone power
The installed cost of an IP67 standalone
power supply compares very favorably
with DIN-rail power supplies. The
following simple cost analysis,
comparing a traditional 100-W, 24-Vdc
DIN-rail power supply configuration to
that of an equivalent IP67 power supply,
provides a comparison of the overall
installed costs involved.
CD1902_24_29_CoverStory.indd 29
The comparison chart demonstrates
that the traditional enclosed DIN-rail
START NOW
power supply is much more labor-
intensive, allowing substantial savings
with the overall installed cost of the
IP67 power supply. Labor costs are for
ASi-5
assembly and installation only and do
not include the expense of researching,
specifying and ordering parts. This
analysis also assumes that there would
AUTOMATION
even be enough physical space on the
subsystem to mount the larger enclosure
required for the DIN-rail power supply. REINVENTED.
Conclusion
Modular-design techniques offer a variety
of economical, performance-driven
benefits when designing industrial
manufacturing systems. While this
practice has been common with control
equipment, modular distribution of
power equipment provides substantial
additional benefits in terms of reliability,
ease of installation and commissioning
and installed cost. By mounting the
power supply on the subsystem close
to the devices it is powering, higher
reliability is possible because the majority
of connections are made before the
subsystem even leaves the OEM’s factory.
This also simplifies commissioning, so the
subsystem can be up and running with
a minimum of on-site installation and
troubleshooting time and cost.
Although distributing power can be
accomplished with traditional DIN-rail
power supplies, standalone power supplies
are an ideal cost-effective alternative
and can be installed in locations where
available space is restricted.
Pat Murphy is product
manager, SolaHD, at Emerson
Automation Solutions.
Contact him at
patrick.murphy@emerson.com.
1/29/19 11:22 AM
 programming
Once in a control programmer’s lifetime
Industry veteran recaps the rewarding journey he’s made
by William Love, Kredit Automation & Controls
THE WORLD STILL used typewriters and film when I was in
school. But computers were in the public imagination and pro-
gramming was taking off. I learned what programming actually
was when I took a FORTRAN class. Then schoolmates started
using HP-41C calculators to get an edge, and I jumped on that
bandwagon. One night I coded up two things I thought might be
on the test. Both were. I got a better grade. Programming was
no longer just an abstraction.
I got a summer job at Garrett Turbine Engine. A paperwork
accident put me in the programming group instead of me-
chanical design. That would have bothered some of my fellow
mechanical engineering students. But I didn’t mind. I got to
modify a big FORTRAN program so it would run on a MicroVAX.
The code was full of tricks to make it run on an old Cyber main-
frame. I had to rewrite it to take out the tricks.
The programmers were laid back. Some of them came in at
noon and worked into the evening. That suited me. It was a
good job and a good summer in my life.
Fisher Controls gave me a mechanical design job in its mea-
surement instrumentation group. But the company soon closed
the group and asked me if I wanted to try process instrumenta-
tion. Sure, I decided. Why not? I didn’t even know what process
instrumentation was. I just said yes. Process instrumentation
was DCS. I landed in the pulp-and-paper-industry group.
So, by accident or fate, I was now a DCS programmer. When
a pulp-and-paper customer ordered a turnkey system, I might
be the one who programmed it for them. I didn’t fully grasp it at
the time, but this was a great opportunity for me. I just remem-
ber being glad I still had a job.
My new programming language was called function se-
quence tables (FST). My experience programming those HP
calculators helped a lot. Registers and lines of code like “VAL
SFP1, DATA1” were not as strange as they might otherwise have
been. I went to several paper mills to help to start up systems
that I had written the code for. It was a great privilege that I had
kind of fallen into.
I do wish I’d done two things earlier. Call this advice. The
first would be to pay more attention to learning the process.
30 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_30_34_Feature1.indd 30
If you’re programming a lime kiln, read up on lime kilns. And
paper mills. That’s extra work.
DCS is hard when you’re just thrown in. You hustle to get the
hang of it and start writing a program. I wanted to leave work at
5 PM and do other things. You should, too. But I recommend you
study the process more than the minimum needed just to write
the program.
The second thing is to learn more about the hardware and
instrumentation. I barely saw the panels, and I learned little
about the hardware. That is actually a testament to how good
the controller design and software environment were. I could
just sit at the MicroVAX debugging and modifying my code to
make it run the boiler or kiln correctly. I learned how to develop
sequential logic and PID control strategies. I thrived and en-
joyed life, too. But get out in the plant, and get your nose in as
much stuff as you can.
One control strategy we used was quite innovative. It com-
bined techniques for controlling a large and small control valve.
One valve had a large range, but course resolution and the
other valve had fine resolution but a small range. There were
some simple control strategies to control two valves that were
developed before DCS.
Our hybrid strategy combined the best features of those
control strategies. It is in wide use today. The engineer who
invented it was mentoring me. He started on his idea pre-DCS
when controls were still hard to configure for anything compli-
cated. There were all kinds of rewiring and other hoops.
Distributed control systems and programmable logic con-
trollers were transformative. You could do anything. All you
needed was a good programmer who could be taught the con-
trol strategy. It helps if the program is well written so it can be
tweaked and expanded.
I came along at a perfect time to work for this engineer.
We applied his hybrid control strategy to controlling a steam
header on a boiler (Figure 1). He asked me to write an article
about it, which was then published in 1992 issue.
I’m glad he asked me to get this published because now I was
aware of all the control magazines. I started reading them. I
1/28/19 11:38 AM

1200-psi header
FT FT Turbine
Generator
Low-flow High flow
Pic
High-flow
valve
Low-flow
valve
PT
Controlled
pressure
450-psi header
Code construct
Figure 1: There was a lot of innovation and code in that little PIC hexagon.
had very little knowledge of PLCs or ladder logic. I became in-
trigued as I read each issue and learned new things about mo-
tion control, PLCs, field instrumentation, I/O, advanced process
control and so much more.
Code and programming
I decided to take a job with an OEM programming Allen Bradley
PLC-5 devices. My first project was a burner management
system with 1,200 I/O points. My new employer did not realize I
did not know ladder logic, Allen-Bradley or discrete control.
I had some quick catching up to do. This application required
a lot of sequencers. I applied myself, and soon it was fun again.
I was young and still had other interests. I would usually leave
by 6 PM to roam the new city. But I did start becoming more
aware of what a career is. And I worked late when I got in the
zone. Lots of coffee, pizza and candy bars—programmer style.
Another thing my new employer had not known was how
little I knew about panels, I/O components, instruments or
even the controllers. Most automation and controls guys know
some of that. Luckily, I had good techs available. Their disap-
pointment was offset by the fact that my code worked well.
The techs liked the code because it was structured and com-
mented. I did that because it helped me to revise and reuse my
own code. But it was always well received by techs and others.
When comments are done as a perfunctory chore, they are
often just a redundant English translation of the code. That’s a
CD1902_30_34_Feature1.indd 31
mistake. What really helps is explaining why you did some-
thing. For example, a poor comment might say: “The timer
finishes, and then the adjusted weight is recalculated.”
This is not very helpful. You can just look at the code and see
that. It’s better to say: “This rung is needed because without it
the scan order of the routines sometimes leaves a stale value of
the adjusted weight.” See the difference?
Good comments will extend the life of your systems. If there
is an ancillary component such as a database, an ERP connection
or a Visual Basic program, write some notes about it in the main
PLC or DCS program. Write helpful notes, not a rehash of the
code. Explain the roles and purposes. I sometimes outline the
architecture in a few rung comments at the top of the main PLC
program. Your system might not get replaced in five years if they
can figure out how to work on it. I know because I worked at a
place where our big moneymaker was replacing systems.
Sometimes a system was replaced because no one could
work on the code. Another nice thing to do with comments is
to explain parameters, drive settings, and network settings, es-
pecially if you sweat blood to figure them out. You will be doing
people a favor and adding value.
Just after I mastered Allen-Bradley programming, my per-
sonal life threw me some curves. I drove out west and started
over. I did manual labor, car sales and CNC machining. Then I
got a job programming for a small integrator in Phoenix.
The owner fixed plant problems, and grateful customers
often accepted his idea to retrofit the controls and clean stuff
up. He needed a programmer. I didn’t know that. I just phoned
his office on a cold call. I was invited over by his wife. I was a
bit overdressed in my IBM suit, and I had to step around grimy
industrial equipment on the way into the back office.
We did retrofits that developed from service calls—ma-
chines, process lines, packaging lines and just about any kind
of manufacturing system you can think of. I’d learn how a
machine worked or needed to work, and then I would write a
PLC program and make an HMI. Chemicals, casting, cement,
dairy farms, plating, food sorting, pyrotechnics, chip fabs,
aluminum extrusion—you name it—with customers ranging
from one-man shops to large plants. Some customers were just
daring entrepreneurs who bought machines and made stuff.
Others were large, well-established companies. Sometimes it
was culture shock going from one project to the next.
My first project was using an SLC-500 to control fans and
misters at a dairy farm to keep cows comfortable in the roiling
Arizona summer. This was so they would still produce milk
when it got to 110 °F. The sequence would turn cooling off so
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 31
1/28/19 11:38 AM
 programming

the cows would be more willing to get up and go inside to get

milked, and it switched cooling to the food troughs to entice
the cows to go over there and eat.
There was some other logic, too. You’d be surprised what a
dairy farmer will ask for when he realizes he can. I had a little
routine to predict the sun angle from a lookup table. I made
an HMI that the herdsman used to change the sequence and
manually operate. This was early HMI days, and this is a good
example of computers starting to permeate everywhere. The
next project was a plating line with a 4,000-A rectifier. Part of
the controls was a standalone embedded unit with a C pro-
gram. There was no source code. Out it came. In went a PLC.
Next up was the palletizer at a little place that mixed up laun-
dry bleach, bottled and boxed it and sold it to low-cost stores. The
chemicals had corroded the sensors and wiring. There’s no telling
what it did to my lungs, but I was only there a few days. There
were lots of those places. The smaller companies were focused on
staying open and making money.
We did a complete retrofit on a Taiwanese injection-mold
machine whose embedded controls board died. It had all kinds
of nonstandard equipment we had to figure out. The good news
was we had a manual. The bad news was it was in Chinese.
I went over to the Arizona State University library and searched
for a Chinese speaker who might want to make some money. The
shy, startled graduate student I picked was straight out of central
casting. He was polite but wary. We had an audience, too.
I might have been tossed out soon if it didn’t go well. But the
offer was too good for him to pass up. I gave him the manual
and a cash down payment, and I got while the getting was
good. His written English was good, and he got on it. We were
building panels and programming very soon after that.
One customer bought big paper rolls that weighed about
10,000 lb. It was a family business of hard workers from Iran.
They bought slitter-rewinders and a variety of machines on the
used, as-is market. They made tissue, toilet paper and napkins.
There was a lot of ingenuity involved, as you can imagine.
I programmed some of the machines and HMIs. They made
money and eventually built a pristine new plant with a paper
machine. Now they didn’t have to buy the starting paper rolls. It
was an American success story.
Some places were dirty and dangerous and full of duct tape
and bailing wire (Figure 2). One time we went into a casting shop
where every square inch of the shop floor was coated in soot.
Other places were big and clean and organized to the extreme,
like an Intel chip fab or the potato-chip line at a Frito-Lay plant.
Big or small, clean or dirty, these customers had things in com-
Odd jobs
Figure 2: An arc welder on a tube mill is down and dirty but interesting and
fun to get working.
mon. Something was down and needed to get running again fast.
Or they had some troublesome system they wanted to fix. Often
the fix ended up being a control system retrofit. And I got to write
the new controller program and create the new HMI.
When the Net was young
Occasionally I would get to write a program for an elaborate
machine. When you have motion control, vision and complex
sequences you’d better like challenges, especially if the ma-
chine is no longer running and there is no documentation.
A few years ago, we got a machine with an intricate sequence
and four axes of motion to work again. All we had to help figure
out the sequence was a poor quality video of it running. This is
not for everyone. Some jobs are easy but boring. Other jobs are
stressful but interesting. Which one would you pick?
I started out pre-Internet. Cybersecurity was not a big concern
for plant-floor control systems. I had complete freedom on HMI
design (Figure 3). Some of my early screens look like a black-light
poster. I got an alarm banner to play a .wav file of Tom Hanks
saying, “Houston, we have a problem.” That lasted a couple
weeks until the novelty wore off and drove the operator nuts.
We were even worse than some of the gaudy Web designers
of that time. We gradually learned to tone it down and keep it
simple. Integration with databases and information technology
was taking off. Like many of you, I remember getting a cell in a
spreadsheet to display a live PLC value. This was a fun time.

32 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com

CD1902_30_34_Feature1.indd 32 1/28/19 11:38 AM


Color me displayful
Figure 3: A well-received HMI in its day might now be too colorful and busy.
The lure of embedded control
On a Venn diagram, the circle for embedded controls overlaps
a little with the one for industrial automation and controls. I
had been reading snippets about embedded control for years in
Control magazine (www.controlglobal.com). The Borders book-
store in Phoenix had shelves of books on science, engineering,
computers and, most of all, programming. I sometimes gazed
longingly at embedded controls as fertile new ground. That’s
the hardcore coder in me. But the closest I could get to them
was taking them out. We did that a half dozen times.
One customer even had the source code, but it was not
commented. He wanted it out of there. He was tired of hearing
how hard it was to work on. We put in a PLC, and I wrote a new
program. It was kind of a shame.
Our projects used PLC/HMI. That’s what sold. It would have
required almost a career change for me to use things like C or ASP.
I considered it. I imagined writing the guidance system for a mis-
sile or the operating system for a camera. Or the website for Orb-
itz. But I liked industrial controls and automation just fine. I didn’t
really want to leave it. I just wanted to expand my repertoire.
I sat in the opulent café at Borders, examining books. Remem-
ber those days? After a few cups and a few hours, I picked a
book. I then spent about six months learning and practicing C++
in my spare time. It became a hobby. That is not as dumb as it
sounds because with my engineering degree and programming
background, I could have clawed my way into embedded control.
CD1902_30_34_Feature1.indd 33
But I didn’t change jobs, and the truth is I only found one oppor-
tunity to use C on a project. I used .net (ASP.net and C#) to build
a server-side Internet application with a client-side interface.
And then there was VB
I had a much better result when I decided to study Visual Basic. I
learned how to use VBA in Microsoft Office and in our HMI applica-
tions. This paid off immediately, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Before structured text, writing certain algorithms was a lot
of work and created complex ladder logic. I wrote nested loop-
ing structures in ladder occasionally. You had to watch out, or
you’d set off the watchdog timer. It was hard for others to work
on that ladder logic, no matter how good my rung comments
were. I needed something better. I needed a way to write some
routines in traditional code, not ladder. Since I’d started my
career with code, being limited to ladder was always confining.
Structured text eventually solved part of this problem. But
before that came along, Rockwell put VBA in its RSView32 HMI.
Rockwell did this for a different reason than giving me a place
to write code. It did it because VBA turned out to be a great
macro language. VBA made programming all kinds of advanced
functionality possible. Traditional macros were limited. VBA
combined with a fully exposed object model gave us much
more power. That’s what Rockwell had in mind.
But I also used it as a place to write code not amenable to
ladder. The first time I used VBA in RSView32 I wrote a routine
to analyze an order against some formulas and business rules.
Lots of “If-Then-Else” and “Do-Until” stuff. One really great thing
was you had a rock-solid driver to the PLC data table because the
VBA was part of the HMI. And, in the example I just gave, I had
an easy way to open a database. The VBA could operate the data-
base just like a person and return results from that process.
But you had to know what you were doing. There were a few
lessons, such as don’t prompt the user with a VB message box.
That totally stops the HMI until the answer is given. Whoops.
But, if you avoided a few things, the code was not fragile
and worked great. It was not an add-on part either. When you
installed the HMI software at a site you didn’t have to do any-
thing extra. For me, it was transformative. I could do complex
things without creating really arcane ladder logic.
Rockwell’s tech support used to tell me the organization
resisted promoting this type of use and refused to help much.
But it gradually realized a lot of people were using and relying
on this tool.
People do great things when they have good tools and
problems to solve. So Rockwell relented. I started seeing better
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 33
1/28/19 11:38 AM
 programming
documentation and knowledge-base
articles with good tips.
Here’s a little aside about Visual
Basic. Everyone knows the significance
of Microsoft owning and licensing DOS
and Windows. But the story of Basic and
Visual Basic is also interesting. In 1975,
Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and
Paul Allen realized if ordinary people
could program business and personal
applications on the new microcomput-
ers it would be a game changer. They
didn’t just talk; they acted. There is a
famous story about Gates hogging pro-
cessing time at the Harvard computer
center while he worked on his Basic
complier. In 1975, he left college and
started Microsoft. In 1977, nearly every
microcomputer of any significance
came with Microsoft Basic. Then in the
early 1990s they had a similar intuition
about a visual programming language
and its ability to boost Windows. Micro-
soft married a visual tool called Ruby
to Basic. Now ordinary people could
make Windows applications that really
worked. This is an unheralded factor in
the success of Windows.
Pardon the disruption
Of course, now the PLC has structured
text and object-oriented capability.
That’s a better way to write code than
VBA in the HMI in most, but not all,
cases. I’ve been using that more and
more. The object-oriented aspect in the
Rockwell world is achieved by using
structures and add-on instructions
(AOIs). It’s not quite the same as object-
oriented programming (OOP) as done in
languages like C.
Warning: traditional techs hate this
stuff. They think it’s obtuse and unnec-
essary (Figure 4). They have a point. Al-
ways keep things as simple as possible.
But, when you can program 30 burners
34 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_30_34_Feature1.indd 34
Change volcano
Figure 4: A disruptor can be an evolution or a revolution.
or 90 mixers with one routine, it’s bad
business and bad practice not to. I had
an application with 96 mixers. I had six
alarms for each. That’s 576 alarms to
maintain. But only six if you use an AOI.
Once the tech realizes he doesn’t have
to edit 96 routines to make a change to
the mixer logic, he will become a fan. And
with an AOI you can watch the logic for
any specific burner. With the old subrou-
tine method you just saw a blur since the
same code was executing all 30 burners.
I’ve followed the PC vs. PLC debate for
a long time. After all these years, the PLC
is stronger than ever.
Occasionally we would recommend a
PC, but only a few customers accepted it,
and they were later replaced with PLCs.
I know PC technology can be put on
the plant floor for control. I know they
blow the doors off a PLC in some ways.
I personally love PCs. They just haven’t
penetrated the markets or customers
I’ve had the fortune to serve.
Companies such as Cognex make de-
vices that connect to the PLC and provide
profiles and add-on instructions that are
very pleasant to work with. In the old
days it was different. One time we inte-
grated a servo to an SLC over DeviceNet.
It took a site visit by the servo vendor
to get it all working without hiccups.
The servo was a top-notch device—fast,
accurate, durable—but the DeviceNet
interface had variations you had to sort
out from one application to another.
This situation has been improving
steadily. We recently integrated an ABB
robot to a ControlLogix controller. The
profiles and add-on instructions worked
right from the get-go. A lot of energy and
innovation seem based on the PLC as a
focal point.
The field of automation was great to
fall into, and its future seems bright.
There is a bounty of technology and ap-
plications—robots, vision, deterministic
Ethernet, function blocks, the rise of
servos, safety PLCs, not to mention inno-
vations in modeling and advanced pro-
cess control, the Industrial Internet of
Things, which is still in its infancy, and
so much innovation and opportunity.
There are some problems reported in
the media, such as the aging workforce,
loss of expertise and a lack of upcoming
STEM talent. Diversify your skill set and
interests. Who knows where the bound-
aries of automation, IT, embedded control
and other branches of technology will be
or what opportunities will exist?
William Love is control
systems engineer at Kredit
Automation & Controls
(www.kreditautomation.com)
in Mesa, Arizona. Contact him at
williamlove@live.com.
1/28/19 11:39 AM
 connections

The sky’s the limit, and it’s cloudy

OEMs look to analytics to relieve pain points

by Dave Perkon, technical editor

JEFF BROWN IS Sierra Monitor’s new CEO,

and he looks to grow the company’s
emerging IIoT business. “You can do just
about anything you want to do, but the
question is what is most beneficial to
you as an OEM,” says Brown, who will
be heading up a company celebrating 40
years of business in the Silicon Valley.
Brown has been working with Chair-
man Gordon R. Arnold, a founding
member of the company in 1978. While
Arnold is retiring, he’ll stay on as chair-
man while he rides off into sunset of

(Source: Sierra Monitor)

Texas. There is a lot work Arnold and
Sierra Monitor have done in the past that
is very relevant now, especially in the
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) space.
He also has some insight on how OEMs
are starting to look to cloud and analytics
going forward (Figure 1).
Sierra Monitor (www.sierramonitor.
com) sells a line of industrial gas/flame
detectors as well as the FieldServer family
of protocol gateways and routers. It’s the
FieldServer products that comprise its
IIoT system, connecting OEM equipment
to local building management systems, as
well as passing data to the cloud (Figure
2). Many OEMs are using the cloud to
handle monitoring and notification, and
the data visualization is provided through
dashboarding and is the first step toward
more advanced analytics/ software qual-
ity assurance programs.
Plumb in the data
The data has been collected for years, but
now it is easier to get your hands on it.
The new guy
Figure 1: The new CEO Jeff Brown (left) at Sierra Monitor has been working closely with Chairman Gordon
R. Arnold, who is retired in June 2018.
“We have actually been generating lots of
data for many years, both in gas-detection
products we call, ‘Protect,’ and gateways
we call, ‘Connect,’” says Arnold. “Most us-
ers in the control world don’t use a large
amount of that data because they never
had access to it—not the way they can
have it in IIoT. Now, it’s a natural for us to
deliver it as IoT data and then help them
to find the critical pieces to fine tune what
they are doing as an OEM, an end user or
anywhere in between.”
It’s an interesting company, says
Brown. “What intrigued me about Sierra
Monitor is Gordon (Arnold) and the team
have been building the most complete
and one of the best protocol conversion
gateway products in the world,” he says.
“It’s been sitting there for years with tens
of thousands of units out there doing
its job generating this data, and now we
have the ability to bring it into the cloud,
analytics and data visualization.”
And more intelligence can be put in the
end unit to be able to do edge computing
type things, continues Brown. “It’s a really
fun place to be—you are at the creation of
the data,” he says. “Very few companies
can get to the plumbing area of the data
where we can source that data.”

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 35

CD1902_35_37_Feature2.indd 35 1/28/19 11:40 AM

 connections

A significant amount of information

is available for use within a product or
controller. However, engineers often
have little ability to compare what’s
going on inside a machine with another
machine. With Sierra Monitor’s proto-
col conversion, they don’t write partial
code—it doesn’t look at one parameter—
it looks at all parameters and moves
them through.

It’s big data in the sky

“We knew we’re handling valuable data
that, in the past, only one machine could
take advantage of,” says Arnold. “The
last few years we have been developing
the ability to collectively or selectively
put the data in a cloud base where the
customer could then start analyzing it to
determine what’s going well, where they
should send the service man or fine tune
the OEM equipment based on a much
bigger sample of data.”
Sierra Monitor has its own cloud that
runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
and also works with other third parties
as some OEMs have their own cloud
solutions (Figure 3). “It’s all about the
analytics and the things going on now,
where we can take that data and actu-

(Source: Sierra Monitor)

ally provide something that those OEMs
can act on,” says Brown. “The OEMs are
really starting to embrace the concept
and are asking, ‘How fast can you get us
this information?’ It helps them to get
IIoT system
ahead of the curve with their custom- Figure 2: FieldServer products are connecting OEM equipment to local building management systems as
ers when they can take a deep dive into well as passing data to the cloud.
these datasets.”
What’s interesting is that some of the
least technologically advanced systems things they want to know about it— protocol that we can pull from and gate-
are all of a sudden really zooming into cycle counts, ignition sequence—things way the information out.”
the latest and greatest in terms of ca- that help them fine tune the operation
pabilities, says Brown. A good example and possibly extend the life of it for Does data cost money?
is boiler/hot-water industry, he says. their customers. Whether it’s an older “Sierra Monitor is not the people who
“In the past they may know if the boiler boiler or a new boiler, it doesn’t matter; select the data to be collected,” says
is on or not. But there are all kinds of we can collect data as long as it has a Arnold. “The people who know their

36 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com

CD1902_35_37_Feature2.indd 36 1/28/19 11:40 AM


(Source: Sierra Monitor)
Realized data values
Figure 3: Sierra Monitor works with other third parties as some OEMs have
their own cloud solutions.
product determine what they want to see. For OEMs, we can
read it with our IIoT gateways. The data can then be stored
in the cloud, and, even before analytics are used, there are
dashboards. Dashboards are provided for the customers to look
at with a smartphone app or on the computer to visualize the
data. They can also take the data off the cloud and use it in
whatever analytics they want, and we are and will continue to
build analytic capabilities into our cloud.”
A very important lesson is to think about who has the
expense and who has the benefit of this process—an OEM or a
customer, says Arnold. “If an OEM thinks in terms of: ‘This is
a benefit to my customer,’ then the OEM may be unwilling to
pay for the cloud side,” he says. “If the OEM sees it as a great
benefit, maybe it is willing to pay for it. We have figured out
the challenges in selling the capability, and we now know how
to sell it to avoid the pitfall of who pays for it. OEMs need to
understand the ability of the system, and then they can decide
how they want to pursue it.”
Understanding is key, or it needs to be simple because,
without the right hardware and software, it’s not easy to work
with the data. “We went into it with a preconceived notion
that, if we delivered data, the customer knew what to do with
it,” says Arnold. “When you think in the terms of big data-
CD1902_35_37_Feature2.indd 37
bases, such as Oracle and SAP, that’s an assumption going in
to designing a system. But we really found that the customers
didn’t know what to do with the data, didn’t have the techni-
cal skills to develop their own dashboard or even their own
data handling. We needed to tack on those capabilities, so
the customer could get to visualization quickly and only then
start working towards the analytics side.”
Just like the cost of PCs decreasing while the capabilities
are increasing, the same is occurring in the cloud, says Brown.
“We have gotten to a cost point where a new customer is put-
ting small gateway devices on residential water heaters,” he
says. “Connecting to the heaters enables them to be serviced
more effectively.”
You must have data
“Right now, a manufacturer of a controller has almost no
ability to change the capability of the control once it is in the
field,” says Arnold. “Remote downloads are possible, but by
computing in our connect box and in the cloud, going forward,
we will be able to utilize the data to make smart control
changes in the devices in the field. For example, the data may
show that running motors at 25% duty cycle causes many
more failures than at 30% duty cycle. That data, available from
the cloud, could feed an algorithm to run the motor at a more
optimum rate. Edge computing is going to happen because of
the cloud capabilities.”
OEMs don’t realize how valuable the data is yet, says Arnold.
“Therefore, the OEM decision makers may not be ready to
spend the money on data, cloud and analytic capabilities,”
he says. “However, they will be begging for it in a few years.
I have been in the gas-detection business for 40 years. There
have been numerous times where I have regretted not being
able to see the data from multiple units in the field to under-
stand something that is going on. In some cases, sensors were
misbehaving, and, if we knew what lot they came from or what
the process was, what the date of manufacture was and how
they were misbehaving, we could have nailed down a solution
in weeks, but instead it took a year.”
People will be seeing the value of the data, understand-
ing the need of data, and they will want it. While receiving a
weekly email from Cadillac showing the number of panic stops
may not be valuable, because you are just hotrodding around,
a text message stating that your hybrid car is fully charged, is
useful. While the OEM may still be trying to figure out what
data is important, it is still being stored in the cloud so it will be
available when needed.
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 37
1/28/19 11:40 AM
 exclusive
Cyclic data and sensor integration
“THE BUS SYSTEM AS-INTERFACE (ASI) and IO-Link with its
point-to-point wiring are ideal partners on the field level,” says
Jan Melter, head of marketing at Bihl+Wiedemann. “ASi is a
simple, robust and cost-efficient way to connect sensors and
actuators in the field with just a single profile cable. With the
ASi-5 Slave/IO-Link Master with four ports, intelligent IO-Link
sensors and actuators can now also be integrated into ASi net-
works, right where they are required.”
The yellow ASi cable transmits power and
data at the same time.
Important benefits of ASi include:
• drastically reduced wiring effort
• free choice of topology
• cost-efficient integration of safety
on the same infrastructure.
In addition, ASi doesn’t need any plugs for
the connection of data and power.
ASi-5 is the latest generation of the
globally standardized fieldbus system for
the first level of automation. “It replaces
centralized solutions with complex parallel
wiring, as well as field devices with expen-
sive Ethernet-based fieldbus interfaces,”
explains Melter.
As former generations, ASi-5 was again
jointly developed by multiple manufacturers. For more information
The result is an extension to the sophisticated Call 616/345-0680,
email mail@bihl-wiedemann.us
ASi technique with high data bandwidth and
or browse www.bihl-wiedemann.com.
the short cycle times.
This opens up new options, such as trans-
mitting analog values faster and making it
easier to integrate IO-Link sensors with up to 32 bytes.
“IO-Link is a perfect way to give sensors and actuators some
kind of intelligence, as it provides the interface for giving ad-
ditional diagnostic data,” says Melter. “In order to connect the
sensors and actuators in a simple, robust and cost-efficient way,
ASi is the perfect match.”
ASi-5 also is backward-compatible, so slaves of multiple gen-
erations can be combined in existing or new ASi networks by
using the Bihl+Wiedemann ASi-5/ASi-3 Gateways.
38 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_38_Exclusive.indd 38
The ASi-5 Slave/IO-Link Master with four ports allows intel-
ligent IO-Link sensors to be integrated in the ASi network, right
where they’re needed.
The ASi-5 slave can cyclically transmit up to 32 bytes of I/O
data. In default mode, the Bihl+Wiedemann ASi-5 Slave/IO-Link
Master transmits 8 bytes—2 bytes/port—in 1.27 ms.
“The all-new ASi-5 as the latest generation of the globally
standardized cabling system gives the ASi-5 Slave/IO-Link
Master power to transmit the rising amount of cyclic
data, as well as acyclic diagnostic data,” explains
Melter. “We are talking about up to 16-bit
cyclic data per port in 1.27ms.”
The ASi-5 Slave/IO-Link Master is avail-
able rated IP67 with M12 connectors and
IP20 with terminals.
Both offer two Class A and two Class B
IO-Link ports in one housing, including
power supply of IO-Link ports out of the
auxiliary, as well as passive-safety with a
performance level up to PLe.
Configuration of IO-Link sensors and ac-
tuators is easy and convenient using the ASi
Control Tools360/ASIMON360.
With the live view the parameters can
be set and changes observed directly over
the network. Even in case of a sensor fault
the system is easy to use, as a new sen-
sor will be parametrized automatically
exactly like the replaced one.
“With the extended diagnostic informa-
tion coming with most IO-Link modules,
the industry has the base of data avail-
able for what one could call Industry 4.0 or
digitalization,” says Melter.
“Most of the Industry 4.0 applications rely on these data,
for example, big-data analysis and predictive mainte-
nance,” says Melter. “With the integrated OPC UA server, the
Bihl+Wiedemann ASi-5/ASi-3 Gateway also comes with the per-
fect interface to easily have access to all of the collected data.”
In 1995, the first ASi Master certified by the AS-International
Association was introduced by Bihl+Wiedeman. ASi-5 products
were introduced by Bihl+Wiedemann in 2018.
1/28/19 11:41 AM
 CONTACT US CDRoundup@putman.net product roundup

Don’t be a hero
Keep production safe with uninterruptible power supplies

Energy-efficient ac/dc power supplies Network-ready control cabinet UPS

These CP series energy-efficient ac/dc power supplies are The Quint dc UPS provides real-
available in 12 models ranging from 192 to 480 W with output time information about a battery’s
voltages from 12 to 56 Vdc. The 39-mm-wide CP10 series health over standard industrial
(240 W) has a power density of 1 W/4.7 cm3, networking protocols, such as
offers efficiencies to 95.2% and a power loss EtherNet/IP, Profinet, EtherCAT and
of only 12.1 W at full load. The 48-mm CP20 USB to let users know the state of
series (480 W) has efficiencies up to 95.6% the UPS system before a problem
with a power loss totaling only 22.1 W. Both occurs. This modular solution
units reduce the mounting space needed in provides critical system backup to
control enclosures and because of their low supply loads in the event of mains
heat losses may allow the use of smaller failures and indicates the operating and battery states. The bat-
control enclosures. tery management system (BMS) with IQ technology and a pow-
Puls / pulspower.us erful battery charger ensure power reliability within a control
system. Device variants are available with industrial Ethernet
network interfaces or as status contacts only. Networking
UL 508 power supplies enables the system to be monitored, configured or shut down
The Epsitron Classic line of one-, two- and safely from any location.
three-phase power supplies has a matching Phoenix Contact / 800-322-3225 / www.phoenixcontact.com.
housing profile and wide input voltage range.
It offers an ambient operating temperature
range of 25 to 70 °C, with a -40 °C type tested High-efficiency and ruggedized dc power supplies
cold start, a high transient protection level of Rhino high-efficiency PSH series 12-, 24- and 48-Vdc power sup-
up to 4 kV and UL 508 approval of the Classic plies offer efficiencies up to 94.5%, a temperature performance
family of power supplies. range of -25 to 70 °C. The DIN rail clips can be moved to the side
Wago / www.wago.us of the power supply for side mounting in flat panels. The power
supplies are hazardous
location-listed and ATEX-
Ultra-slim ac/dc DIN rail power supplies certified. Ruggedized Rhino
The DSR series ac/dc DIN rail power sup- PSX series power supplies
plies come in an ultra-slim design with are Class I, Div. 2 hazardous
an available output wattage of 75, 120 and location-rated with 12- and
240 W. They offer 150% peak load for 3 24-Vdc output voltages,
seconds and full load at 60 °C. Additional universal 120-/240-Vac input
features include as great as 94% high- voltage, adjustable dc output,
efficiency, volt-free contact for dc OK, dc-OK LED indication and output current limitation. They are
selectable parallel operation and ambient IP67- and NEMA 4X-rated. Both series are UL 508-listed, UL
operation from -25 to 70 °C. 60950-recognized, CE-marked and RoHS-compliant.
Newark element14 / www.newark.com AutomationDirect / 800-633-0405 / www.automationdirect.com

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 39

CD1902_39_41_Roundup.indd 39 1/28/19 11:42 AM

 product roundup

IIot-ready power supplies impending failures. This pro-

The PROtop series power supplies are designed and engineered
for challenging industrial environments. The series combines
dynamic current lim-
iting (DCL) technol-
ogy for safe triggering
of circuit breakers
with efficiencies of
as much as 95.4% for
longer life spans. An integrated ORing MOSFET for redundancy
or parallel operation without a diode, along with the optional
communications interface for data monitoring and transfer
to control systems, makes the power supplies Industry 4.0-
and IIoT-ready. The DCL technology provides unique impulse
energy reserves for optimal system availability. A peak current
reserve of 600% for 20 ms provides safe and reliable circuit
breaker triggering.
Weidmuller / 800-849-9343 / www.weidmuller.com
Decentralized power supply
The Emparro67 hybrid switch mode power supply allows users
to relocate the power supply from the control cabinet to the
field and also monitor currents using two integrated 24-Vdc
load circuit monitoring chan-
nels. An IO-Link interface per-
mits extensive and transpar-
ent communication. The fully
encapsulated IP67-rated power
supply has a robust metal
housing and a 93.8% efficiency
rating. It allows voltage conver-
sion (from 230 Vac to 24 Vdc) to
take place directly at the load,
keeping power loss to a minimum. This power supply reloca-
tion allows smaller cabinets to be used, and, in some applica-
tions, it may be possible to get rid of a cabinet all together.
Murrelektronik / 770-497-9292 / murrinc.com
Power supply diagnostic module
PS3500 diagnostic module monitors continuously the health
and efficiency of PS3500 power supplies and primary side
power conditions. The module provides real-time diagnostics
with configurable warning and alarm levels and alerts main-
tenance and operations personnel to irregularities, faults and
motes proactive maintenance
to help eliminate unexpected
and expensive downtime. The
diagnostic module is modular
and hot-swappable and inte-
grates easily into plant asset
management systems through RS-485/HART, EDDL or FDT/DTM
technologies. The power supplies are up to 91% efficient and
feature a modular design with selectable wiring configurations,
enabling them to be configured in N+1 or N+N redundant mode.
Pepperl+Fuchs / www.pepperl-fuchs.us
Combination dc-to-dc converter and dc UPS
The combination ASIDCW20 20-A DIN rail dc-to-dc converter
and dc UPS provides 960 W of power to any 12- to 48-Vdc
industrial application. It monitors the voltage coming from a
dc power supply and in the event of a power failure switches
power to the backup battery source. During normal operation,
the battery is kept charged by an integrated battery
charger that supports various battery chem-
istries. The programmable keys or Powermas-
ter software is used to set input and output
voltages. The dc UPS function has the option
of using one 12-V battery independently of the
operating load voltage.
ASI / 717-259-3867 / www.asi-ez.com
Slimline power supplies
These two single-phase ac
DIN rail switch mode power
supplies are available in
compact housings. The
SPDM series is a general-
purpose family with industry-
standard features in the most common output
configurations. These models are available in ranges from
30 up to 240 W, in 12 and 24 V outputs. The SPDC series features
efficiency levels above 90% and built-in power factor correction
and can provide 150% power boost for up to 3 seconds, making
them suitable for applications with high inrush currents. They
have a built-in parallel function and an output-ready relay and
are available in 120, 240 and 480 W output versions.
Carlo Gavazzi / 847-465-6100 / www.gavazzionline.com

40 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com

CD1902_39_41_Roundup.indd 40 1/28/19 11:42 AM

 On-machine power supply
PSU67 on-machine power supply units are IP67-rated and can
be mounted in the field. Short power drops of maximally 50 ms
are bypassed independently by the devices. Failsafe operation
is enhanced through no-load and short-circuit protection as
well as passive air cooling. The out-
put current is 2, 4 or 8 A, depend-
ing on the type. Because of their
universal ac/dc input, these power
supplies can be used worldwide.
Turck / 800-544-7769 / www.turck.us
Programmable power supplies
EZ programmable power supplies include both a three- and
two-digit LED display for voltage and current readouts and
feature a maintenance timer to alert users to a unit’s expected
lifetime. They are available in 30-, 60-, 90-, 120- and 240-W
models. Each unit keeps track of total number of hours it has
been on and provides an alarm for preventive maintenance
and replacement before an unanticipated outage. It includes a
built-in display that provides, at a glance, ad-
ditional information without having to
connect a meter. Through the built-in
displays, the NEC Class 2 models add
flexibility through field-program-
mable current-limit using the LED
displays and two buttons.
EZAutomation / www.ezautomation.net
Ultra-compact power supplies
The PSC series of power supplies are ultra-compact and
designed for industrial applications requiring reliable power
within a tight space. The series features
IP20 finger-safe screw terminals and pro-
vides protection from overvoltage, over-
current and overtemperature. The series
also is fully compliant with RoHS Directive
2011/65/EU for environmental protection.
Eaton / www.eaton.com
DIN rail power supplies for harsh environments
The TIB-EX 80-, 120-, 240- and 480-W DIN rail power supplies
are designed for harsh environments and hazardous locations.
CD1902_39_41_Roundup.indd 41
They are certified to meet ATEX
II3G and UL HazLoc Class I, Div.
2 standards. The models include
expanded full load thermal per-
formance, enhanced shock and
vibration specifications and ad-
ditional outputs of 12 and 48 Vdc.
They offer high efficiency operation of 88 to 95% and 150% peak
power for 4 seconds. Protection circuits include back power im-
munity, short-circuit and overload protection and a dc-OK dry
signal contact. Outputs are radio-interference-suppressed to
impede radiation at long output lines.
Traco Power / www.tracopower.com
Narrow-width DIN rail power supplies
These DRB series ac/dc DIN rail mount power supplies are
rated to 120 and 240 W for continuous operation. Their narrow
width allows additional devices to be installed on the rail, sav-
ing cabinet space. Their 93% efficiency produces less internal
waste heat, enabling electrolytic capacitors to run cooler,
extending field operating life to greater than seven years at
75% load, 230-Vac input. The power supplies can deliver a +20%
peak load for up to 10 seconds.
They are available with a 24-V
output, adjustable from 24 to 28
V, and can accept an 85- to 264-
Vac input withstanding surges of
300 Vac for 5 seconds.
TDK-Lambda Americas / www.tdk-lambda.com
TPPL technology-based batteries
DataSafe XE batteries are designed for critical UPS applications
and to address the evolving data center space. Engineered with
thin-plate pure lead (TPPL) technology, the batteries provide
high power that can support short-duration runtimes under five
minutes. The absorbed glass mat (AGM) construction and TPPL
technology help to reduce both grid corrosion and grid growth
common in conventional alloyed lead acid batteries. The use of
high-purity materials also reduces gas generation within the cell.
The batteries have an extended operat-
ing temperature range of -40 to 122
°F (-40 to 50 °C), enabling users to
reduce cooling costs.
EnerSys / www.enersys.com
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 41
1/28/19 11:43 AM
 real answers CONTACT US ControlDesign@putman.net
Can I reduce I/O wiring in hazardous area?
A CONTROL DESIGN reader writes: Our
facility processes propellants and ex-
plosives with many areas classified as
hazardous—Class II, Div. 1. Normally, we
install the controller and I/O in a suit-
ably purged enclosure and use intrinsi-
cally safe barriers for most field device
connections. I’m not sure this is the
best solution on a large canister-filling
project, where there are nearly 500 I/O
points on the hazardous-area automa-
tion. Because of the large installation
and space limitations in the hazardous
area, the main control panel will need to
be located outside the hazardous area.
How do I keep from running more than
500 wires, about 70 ft each, between
hazardous and nonhazardous areas?
What are my options?
Answers
Reduce wire runs
This method—running a cable from each
I/O point in the control cabinet through
intrinsically safe barriers to the sensor
or other device in the hazardous area—is
certainly the way engineers have dealt
with intrinsic safety for years. Fortu-
nately, there are new options to reduce
the number of lengthy wire runs, which
can be very cost-intensive in terms of
expense and installation effort. New
methods and technologies could reduce
the effort down to one cable rather than
500 in some instances.
First, consider reducing the number of
cables and the size of the control cabinet
by locating intrinsically safe components
in the production area. Intrinsically
safe I/O terminals can be installed in
Zone 2/22 and connect with intrinsi-
42 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_42_45_RealAnswers.indd 42
Bridge the gap
Figure 1: Terminals rated for Zone 2/22 bridge the gap between intrinsically safe sensors and
actuators in Zone 0/20 and cloud-connected controllers.
cally safe sensors and actuators in Zone
0/20 (Figure 1). In process environments,
IP20-rated I/O terminals can be mounted
on DIN rail in separate enclosures. A
single cable can connect each segment
of intrinsically safe I/O terminals to the
controller, reducing the required cables
and intrinsically safe barriers.
Second, explore the benefits of plug-
gable, circuit board-mounted I/O modules
(Figure 2). These can be placed in Zone
1/21 when located inside an explosion-
proof Ex d housing. As a result, only one
Ethernet cable would need to run from the
control panel to the I/O enclosure, allow-
ing much shorter cable runs from the I/O
to the sensors without requiring multiple
barriers. Because this requires the design
of a custom circuit board to plug the I/O
terminals into, it might not be the best Save the space
solution for a one-off project. However, it Figure 2: Space-saving, pluggable terminals
is an excellent option when completing can be used in Zone 1/21 when located inside
explosion-proof Ex d enclosures.
multiple machine/equipment builds or
installations in this facility or others.
1/28/19 11:44 AM
 The EtherCAT industrial Ethernet pro-
tocol provides benefits for both of these
solutions. Because EtherCAT can support
more than 65,000 devices on one network
with real-time performance, the relatively
small number of sensors in this instance
will not cause problems. In addition,
EtherCAT is an inherently open solution,
easily integrating with multiple fieldbus
and network protocols, such as HART, Pro-
fibus, DeviceNet, CANopen or EtherNet/
IP. Once data from all these protocols are
gathered from all connected sources, they
can be transmitted over a single Ethernet
cable once it reaches an EtherCAT I/O
segment. This should eliminate the bulk
of long cable runs into the Class II, Div. 1
environment without requiring changes
in the existing machine controller or net-
work architecture.
SREE POTLURI
I/O product specialist / Beckhoff Automation /
www.beckhoff.com
Two options
Because the reader believes he or she
is unable to install any remote I/O, due
to space constraints in the hazardous
area, the best solution at this point is
using junction boxes to consolidate
the intrinsically safe (IS) wiring in the
hazardous area back to the PLC in the
unclassified area.
Two options are described below.
Option 1: I/O possibilities
If there is some space to install remote
I/O, then Type X pressurization enclo-
sure—although generally done with
Class I rather than Class II, it makes Div.
1 areas essentially non-hazardous—is
certainly an option (Figure 3). The reader
could put the PLC with IS barriers in the
Type X pressurized enclosure, or I/O in
the Type X pressurized enclosure and
run Profibus DP back to the PLC. Then
CD1902_42_45_RealAnswers.indd 43
Elbow room
Figure 3: If there is some space to install remote I/O, then Type X pressurization enclosure—although generally
done with Class I rather than Class II, it makes Div. 1 areas essentially non-hazardous—is certainly an option.
put IS process wiring receptacles, or IS
glands, on the Type X pressurized en-
closure because they carry FM approval
for intrinsically safe, and by definition IS
wiring only requires Div. 2 seals.
Under NFPA 496 Standard for Purged
and Pressurized Enclosures for Electri-
cal Equipment, 2008 Ed., Section 4.2.3,
all Div. 1 seals not part of the pressur-
ized system need to be explosion-proof,
although I would make the case for IS
wiring since by definition it is energy
limited and our EX receptacles do not
allow the mitigation of gas, and, as dust
particles are larger than gas, they would
never pass dust either.
Our largest backplane I/O system from
allows for 192 intrinsically safe I/O dis-
crete connections or 96 analog connec-
tions, which would mean, for 500 I/O, the
reader would need at a minimum three
racks. In addition to the racks, the reader
would need to purchase all the I/O cards
but would not have to buy IS barriers and
install them in the pressurized enclo-
sure, so is saving money and space.
Again, three or more racks may or may
not be possible depending on the space
constraints of the hazardous area. Our I/O
system comes with a redundant Profibus
DP communication card that will allow for
both a smaller footprint in the hazard-
ous area by not requiring IS barriers, and
it’s possible to consolidate the 500 cables
down to two, approximately a 99% reduc-
tion in cabling from the PLC in the unclas-
sified area to the hazardous area.
Option 2:
Junction boxes with homerun cables
If there is no space in the hazardous
area for multiple I/O system racks, then,
to reduce the amount of cables from
the hazardous to unclassified area, the
reader would simply install the PLC with
IS barriers in the nonhazardous area,
then install process wiring junction
boxes in the hazardous area and then
run homerun cables back to the unclas-
sified area.
With eight-port junction boxes, it’s
possible to consolidate the 500 cables
ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 43
1/28/19 11:44 AM
 real answers
It’s possible to consolidate the 500 cables
down to two, approximately a 99% reduction
in cabling from the PLC in the unclassified
area to the hazardous area.
down to 63 cables, approximately an 87%
reduction in cabling. The only drawback
is the reader would have to purchase field
wireables or overmolded cables for all the
junction boxes and/or field devices.
JOHN VU
product engineer for interfaces, fieldbus technology divi-
sion / Turck / www.turck.com
Make the connection
One thing to consider before you aban-
don the idea of 500 I/O points worth
of intrinsically safe (IS) wiring is the
advantages of running IS connections
into the hazardous area. It greatly eases
the wiring since there are several wiring
and cabling methods permitted for IS
connections into a Class II, Div. 1 area.
Without IS, any wiring you take into the
hazardous area will be limited. As you
likely know, this usually means threaded
metal conduit, metal-clad cable or simi-
lar types of approved wiring methods for
non-IS signals in Class II, Div. 1.
In keeping with the all-IS approach,
you may be able to reduce the number
of wires that need to be run for your
installation and still maintain IS for all
of your signals. There are IS barriers
that support connecting to two-contact
switch type or NAMUR type sensors
over a single pair of wires, cutting the
needed wire run back to the safe area in
half. This method does come with some
switching-speed limitations but can be
an option to reduce wire count.
A second method that could be consid-
ered to maintain all IS signals but reduce
44 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_42_45_RealAnswers.indd 44
the number of wires is to power several
4-20 mA devices with a single IS barrier
and run them in complete digital mode
via HART signals. There would be some
obvious limitations on the number of
devices and what could be done with this
method, but it is an option to consider.
Another option to reduce the wire
count from the safe area to the hazard-
ous area would be to use a bus system
like fieldbus or Profibus to communicate
to a number of hubs, each hub having
a number of spurs or I/O connection
points. Each hub used to distribute I/O
around the hazardous area could have IS
connections out to IS devices for the I/O
point data, easing this part of the wiring
install. So the advantage is a reduced
number of wires that would need to be
run a long distance, and the connections
to each I/O point would be IS. The disad-
vantage is that it introduces the Class II,
Div. 1 installation and wiring methods for
hubs and for the bus cabling.
Depending on the nature of the I/O
data, a wireless network for some num-
ber of the data points could be deployed,
and direct IS wiring for the rest of the
points could be done. WirelessHART or
other wireless protocols can be used in
A few smaller control cabinets could
be in the hazardous area with
protection by pressurization.
hazardous areas to allow for communica-
tion back to a control system. This could
eliminate some the IS wiring that would
be needed and also limit the amount
of Class II, Div. 1 wiring that would be
needed. There may still be a need to deal
with power to the devices, so some sort
of power bus installation may still be
needed to Class II, Div. 1 requirements,
or batteries to power the device and the
radio attached, but the overall number of
wires would be reduced.
Finally, you could also consider break-
ing up the single large control cabinet. If
there is room, a few smaller control cabi-
nets could be in the hazardous area with
protection by pressurization, and IS I/O
from the pressurized enclosures could be
used. This might have been passed over
based on the assumption that a pressur-
ization control system would be needed at
each enclosure. However, this would not
necessarily be required. There are meth-
ods to connect a number of enclosures
together and treat them as a single enclo-
sure, as far as pressurization monitoring
and control is concerned. There are also
pressurization control systems that can
monitor two separate enclosures at the
same time. So, it may be possible to have
two or four smaller enclosures placed
around the hazardous area controlling
your process and have them connected
such that a single pressurization control
system could monitor them all.
RYAN BROWNLEE
compliance and technology consultant, product manage-
ment team / Pepperl+Fuchs / www.pepperl-fuchs.us
1/28/19 11:44 AM
 CUSTOM REPRINTS
Use reprints to maximize your marketing
initiatives and strengthen your brand’s value.
Remote I/O
A wireless approach would seem to be the best possible solu-
tion approach, but an additional option could be to use remote
Reprints are a simple
I/O. You would collect the data in the XP area into the remote way to put information
I/O hardware. Transmit it via fiberoptic, if necessary, or cable
to the safe area where a PLC can process the data. This would
directly into the hands
eliminate the 35,000 feet of cabling. of your target audience.
TED COWIE
vice president, sales, safety and industrial products / Motion Industries /
Having been featured
www.motionindustries.com in a well-respected
Distribute the I/O
publication adds the
One option is an intrinsically safe distributed I/O platform. credibility of a third-party
One of the benefits of a distributed I/O solution is that it allows
mounting of I/O away from the main control panel and nearer
endorsement.
to field devices and instruments. The I/O modules should carry
a Zone 2/Class I, Div. 2 approval and be suitable for Zone 2/Class REPRINTS ARE IDEAL FOR:
I, Div. 2 gas hazardous area mounting in an appropriate enclo-
n New Product Announcements
sure. For dust hazardous area mounting (Zone 22/Class II, Div.
2), do note that additional special cabinet specifications must be n Sales Aid For Your Field Force
met. As intrinsically safe applications vary by the required level n PR Materials & Media Kits
of safety and security aspects, I recommend discussing your
n Direct Mail Enclosures
system layout and architecture with your vendor.
ZIN MAY THANT n Customer & Prospect
senior product specialist / Rockwell Automation / www.rockwellautomation.com Communications/Presentations
n Trade Shows/Promotional Events
What is nonhazardous?
To be a bit clearer on what is meant by nonhazardous area, n Conferences & Speaking Engagements
I’ll add in the reference to a Div. 2 area. To me, nonhazardous n Recruitment & Training Packages
means safe area, but I’ve heard people refer to a Div. 2 area as
nonhazardous.
I am not aware of any wiring reducing options for runs from
the Div. 1 area to the Div. 2 area. If looking to reduce the length
Give yourself a competitive advantage
of the wiring runs from the Div. 1 area to the safe area, then with reprints. Call us today!
there are options by ending your wiring runs in the Div 2 area.
The two options I can think of are using remote intrinsic safety
For additional information,
I/O or using an intrinsic safety fieldbus system. With both of
these technologies, there are manufacturers that make Div.
please contact Foster Printing Service,
2-approved devices that offer network cabling interfaces to take the official reprint provider for Control Design.
your data to the safe area. My first choice would be the remote
intrinsic safety I/O because it’s the most flexible system when it Call 866.879.9144 or
comes to input and output options. sales@fosterprinting.com
DEREK SACKETT
senior product marketing specialist for interface analog and enterface Ex /

Phoenix Contact USA / www.phoenixcontact.com

CD1902_42_45_RealAnswers.indd 45 1/28/19 11:44 AM

 product showcase CONTACT US ControlDesign@putman.net
EMC spring-loaded shield clamps with strain relief
Icotek’s spring-loaded EMC shield clamps have an adaptable
portfolio and now includes an SKZ version with an integrated
strain relief shield. The clamps can be used for the safe dissipa-
tion of high-frequency interference. The cable outer sheath,
which is mechanically designed for tensile forces, reduces
strain but also also protects the
cable shield. This shield terminal
can be mounted on DIN rails, 10
x 3 bus bars, C-rails and with one
screw on mounting plates.
Icotek / www.icotek.com
Mounted bearings smart sensor
The ABB Ability Smart Sensor for Dodge mounted bearings is
part of the ABB Ability Digital Powertrain and provides an early
indicator of potential problems by assessing the condition of
bearings from vibration and temperature information. The
sensors assess, manage and ensure performance of
components as 80 percent of bearing fail-
ures are lubrication related. The sensors
mount to the bearing and can communi-
cates wirelessly via a smartphones or
other device.
ABB Motors / new.abb.com/motors-generators
Planetary robotic gearbox
GAM GPL-V (shaft) and GPL-H (hollow) are low-backlash (≤ 0.1
arc-minute) planetary gearboxes for horizontal and
vertical robotic applications. A patented design
guarantees that the backlash will not increase
over the gearbox’s lifetime. High tilting rigidity
results in positioning accuracy with a rated
20,000 hours. Features include a torque range
from 400 to 3,000 Nm, 90% efficiency, 65 dB
noise level, seven frame sizes from 180 to 330 mm
and subassembly and fully enclosed versions.
Electromate / 877-737-8698 / www.electromate.com
Measurement and monitoring software
Delphin Technology’s ProfiSignal Web software package for
measurement and monitoring allows decentralized data acqui-
sition, centralized data storage and browser-based monitor-
46 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
CD1902_46_49_Showcase.indd 46
ing using a PC or mobile device.
It allows separation of the data
source and the visualization. Data
collection and preprocessing take
place locally within a measurement
device. Measurement data from one
or multiple devices can be stored at a central location—in the
device itself, in the cloud or on a server in a company intranet.
The software, installed at the destination, acts as a data man-
ager to process data and make it ready for presentation.
CAS DataLoggers / 800-956-4437 / www.dataloggerinc.com
Controller with support for two industrial
safety networks
The NX-series safety controller
supports the CIP Safety network-
ing protocol as well as Safety over
EtherCAT (FSoE). The controller is
optimized to support applications in
such industries as automotive manufacturing and food facto-
ries where a variety of products are produced and production
lines frequently are modified. It offers an integrated develop-
ment environment—Sysmac Studio—for accelerated safety
programming. Sysmac Studio offers functions such as auto-
matic programming, safety data logging, online functional test
and third-party CIP Safety device connectivity that includes
industrial robots. As the largest safety networking protocol, CIP
Safety enables communication between nodes such as PLCs, I/O
blocks, light curtains and interlock switches.
Omron Automation / omron247.com
Voice coil positioning stage with 1-micron resolution
The VCS13-108-LB-01-MCF voice coil positioning stage is
equipped with voice coil motor NCC13-30-108-1SH to generate
a continuous/peak force of 10.8 lb (48.0 N)/32.4 lb (144 N) with a
total stroke length of 1.3 in (31.8 mm). The 1-micron-resolution
encoder allows for precise positioning. The load cell with signal
conditioner (100-N capacity and 1-N
resolution) allows for 1 to 100 N of
push/pull force feedback. It comes
supplied with a rigid recirculating
ball linear bearing. The motor coil is
the moving part of the assembly to
reduce the system’s moving mass. The
1/28/19 11:45 AM
 motor’s power is supplied via a high-flex, high-reliability flat
ribbon cable.
H2W Technologies / 888-702-0540 / www.h2wtech.com
Camera modules for embedded vision
MIPI camera modules’ ultra-compact boards support the MIPI
CSI-2 specification. They are available with different image
sensors, including global shutter sensors and rolling shutter
sensors. The modules
contain mounting
holes and precision
fittings. A ceramic
LGA chip helps en-
sure mechanical sta-
bility and accuracy. It
is placed on a copper layer with edge metallization for optimal
heat dissipation and minimal noise. The eight-layer board has
a connector for a 22-pin flexprint cable, and the sensors can
be triggered via this interface. The 200-mm flexprint cable
included in delivery features a fully shielded backside and dif-
ferential line pairs, ensuring noise-free MIPI transmission.
Vision Components / www.vision-components.com
SIL 2-compliant pulse frequency conditioners
The ProLine P 16000 pulse frequency conditioner is SIL 2-com-
pliant and enables functionally safe decoupling of speed sensor
signals as well as of standard signals. It converts these signals
into galvanically isolated, analog 4-20 mA or 0-10 V standard
signals that can be directly trans-
mitted to the controller or other
subsystems. The pulse input repro-
duces the measuring ranges 0-500
Hz or 0-20 kHz with a ≤0.2% full-
scale accuracy. The signal inputs
are designed according to the SIL 2
safety integrity level so that there can be no unwanted impact
on the signal source, which could distort measured values.
Knick Elektronische Messgeräte / www.knick.de
Space-saving flat-pack photoelectric sensors
These compact flat-pack photoelectric sensors can detect objects
at small to medium ranges in confined locations and are resis-
tant to aggressive cleaning agents, chemicals, coolants or other
media. Their fully enclosed stainless steel
housing has an IP67/IP69K rating, which
means they can withstand demanding
environments. The sensors are available in
multiple versions: diffuse with ranges up
to 100 mm, polarized retroreflective with
ranges up to 1 m and through-beam with
ranges up to 2.2 m. With a precise, uniform
visible red-light beam, alignment is easy.
Balluff / www.balluff.com
Integrated motors
The PLC-based SMD series all-in-one stepper motor + drive +
controllers uses E2 technology, which facilitates moving from
one industrial Ethernet
protocol to another without
the need to switch parts.
The series comes standard
with EtherNet/IP, Modbus-
TCP and Profinet built into
each unit, and integration
eliminates the need to purchase multiple components. These
integrated solutions are suitable for new installations and for
retrofitting new machinery used in rapid-changeover manu-
facturing. The embedded dual-port network switch simplifies
product daisy chaining, adds flexibility to any network archi-
tecture and supports redundant protocols such as device level
ring (DLR) and media redundancy protocol (MRP).
AMCI / 860-585-1254 / www.amci.com
Angle sensors with easy mounting
The Vert-X 2900 series of sensors measure angular position and
are available in single or redundant versions. Elongated holes
help make mounting easier. Users can specify configurations,
including start and end angles for
less than 360° maximum range,
index point, cw or ccw indication
and nonlinear curves. Measure-
ment range is 0 to 360° with
repeatability of 0.1°. Mechanical
range is 360° continuous. Avail-
able analog outputs are 10 to 90% of supply voltage and 5 to 95%
of supply voltage. The sensors are sealed to IP67.
Novotechnik U.S. / 508-485-2244 / www.novotechnik.com

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 47

CD1902_46_49_Showcase.indd 47 1/28/19 11:45 AM

 product showcase

M12 product line with female cable connector Distribution block range with modular design
The M12-X product line has been extended to include a female DBL distribution blocks have a compact and modular design,
cable connector and RJ45 to female feedthrough for control allowing easy installation and flexible use. They provide three
cabinets. The cable connectors are part of the 825 series, which configurations in one product: single pole splitter — a split of
features data transmis- the power main circuit input into several outputs; multiple
sion four-paired up to 10 poles splitter — an interlocking function and ready-to-use
Gbit/s. They are avail- marking kit (L1, L2,
able straight or angled L3, N, PE, + and -)
with eight gold-plated delivered with each
contacts. The line offers an IP67 degree of protection, with the block; and grouping
RJ45 being rated IP20. The rated current is 0.5 A and the rated — a combination
voltage is 50 Vac and 60 Vdc. of several inputs
Binder USA / www.binder-connector.us into one output
(solar application). The distribution blocks are equipped with a
flexible and reversible cover featuring a two-direction opening
Industrial motherboards updated to ease the wiring. All wiring data and specifications also are
with 8th generation processor visible on top for a clear identification.
A range of platforms, including industrial ATX mother- TE Connectivity / www.te.com
boards, slot single-board computers (SBCs), modular IPCs,
industrial server boards and transportation platforms,
has been upgraded with 8th generation Intel Core i/Xeon E Industrial protocol gateways for
family processors. These processors deliver a 25% perfor- legacy systems integration
mance boost with six cores. Equipped with a 9th generation The protocol gateway series supports Modbus RTU, Modbus
Intel graphics engine, they offer rapid video acceleration TCP, Profinet RT/IRT, DNP3.0 Ethernet, DNP3.0 Serial, IEC
and three independent 4K ultra HD 60870-5-101, IEC 60870-5-103, IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850 devices
displays and and support USB 3.1 Gen and PLCs. Eighty protocol combinations can be selected in the
2 (10 Gb/s). The upgraded products firmware and integrated with 10 hardware platforms based on
feature multiple OS and SUSI Access the network and application requirements, which gives end
and WISE-Cloud software platforms. users hundreds of flexible options to choose from. The series
Advantech / 888-576-9668 / www.advantech.com/ea is equipped with hardware
platforms and a software to
manage the translation from
Integrated stepper motor protocol to protocol. It is
JVL Industri Elektronik’s ServoStep integrated stepper motor designed to withstand harsh
series MIS171 to MIS176 has a NEMA 17 42- by 42-mm flange and environments with temper-
includes a controller with six industrial Ethernet protocols, an atures ranging between -40
absolute multiturn encoder, closed loop and M12 connectors. and 85 °C degrees with up to
All the necessary electronics in a stepper system are integrated 95% humidity.
in the motor itself. The compact and slim motor Mencom / www.mencom.com
contains everything needed to solve a modern
control task, either as a stand-alone with its
own easy programmable motion controller or Compact motorized rotary stage
controlled from an external PLC or PC. Eight The AY110-100-SC high-precision, low-profile, compact motor-
I/O points can be configured individually as ized rotary stage is 1.772 in (45 mm) high with a footprint of
digital input, digital output or analog input. 4.764 by 6.693 in (121 by 170 mm). The stage has a pattern of
Electromate / 877-737-8698 / www.electromate.com threaded mounting holes in the rotary table and holes in the

48 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com

CD1902_46_49_Showcase.indd 48 1/28/19 11:45 AM

 The only magazine exclusively
dedicated to the original equipment manufactur-
ing (OEM) market for
instrumentation and controls—the
largest market for industrial controls.

1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N

base for easy integration into new and existing applications. Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
630/467-1300
The table diameter is 3.937 in (100 mm), the range of travel Fax: 630/467-1124
is a full 360°, and it is capable of continuous rotation. The
table is driven by a 180:1 worm gear at up to 14° per second publishing team
and has a resolution of 0.0001° with a 10 micro-step per step group publisher & vp, content

stepper motor driver. Keith Larson klarson@putman.net

vp, sales & publishing director
Optimal Engineering Systems / 888-777-1826 / www.oesincorp.com

sales team
Continuous-flexing cut-to-length motor supply cables northeastern and mid-atlantic regional manager

Continuous flexing motor supply cable is offered in cus- Dave Fisher dfisher@putman.net

tomer-specified 1-ft-increment lengths. The igus Chainflex 508/543-5172 Fax: 508/543-3061

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million cycles. The cables are available with four unshielded midwestern and southern regional manager

(CF30 series) or four shielded (CF31 series) conductors in 16 Greg Zamin gzamin@putman.net
704/256-5433 Fax: 704/256-5434
to 2 AWG sizes. Individual conductors are bare copper and
1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 400N
stranded for flexing applications. Conductor insulation is a black TPE mixture that is sunlight-
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
and oil-resistant and flame-retardant.
AutomationDirect / 800-633-0405 / www.automationdirect.com
western and mountain regional manager

Jeff Mylin jmylin@putman.net

847/516-5879 Fax: 630/625-1124
Power supplies with optional 5-V standby outputs
This isolated 5-V 1-A standby voltage option is available for the RWS1000B and RWS1500B
digital sales specialist
industrial ac/dc power supplies. Rated at 1,000 W and 1,500 W, the additions are available with
Jeanne Freedland
12-, 15-, 24-, 36- and 48-V main outputs and can accept
jfreedland@putman.net
an 85- to 265-Vac input. The standby voltage option is
805/773-4299 Fax: 805/773-0451
required if key circuitry has to be kept active when the
main high-power output is inhibited for energy saving
classified manager
purposes, or during an overload condition. This avoids Lori Goldberg lgoldberg@putman.net
the need for an often lengthy hard system re-start. 630/467-1300 Fax: 630/467-1124

TDK-Lambda /800-lambda-4 / www.tdk-lambda.com

executive staff
president & ceo
Programmable motion controller for servo and stepper motors John M. Cappelletti
The Galil DMC-40x0 motion controller accepts encoder inputs up to 22 MHz, provides cfo
servo update rates as high as 32 kHz and processes commands as fast as 40 mi- Rick Kasper
croseconds. The full-featured controller is packaged with optional multi-axis vp, creative services, production

drives in a compact, metal enclosure. The unit operates standalone or interfac- Steve Herner
es to a PC with Ethernet 10/100Base-T or RS-232. It includes
optically isolated I/O, high-power outputs capable of driving reprints
brakes or relays and analog inputs for interfacing to analog Foster Reprints • www.fosterprinting.com
sensors. The controller and drive unit accept power from Jill Kaletha
a single 20- to 80-Vdc source. jillk@fosterprinting.com

Electromate / 877-737-8698 / www.electromate.com 866-879-9144 ext. 194

ControlDesign.com / February 2019 / 49

CD1902_46_49_Showcase.indd 49 1/28/19 11:45 AM

 automation basics
Vision is not always a clear choice
WHEN IT COMES to machine vision, don’t oversimplify. Ap-
plications range from simple to complex, and there are many
pixels in between. The gross inspections, such as presence and
absence, tend to be the simple ones. Add some fine dimensional
checks, contamination and defect detection, vision-guided
motion or color recognition and a vision application can quickly
become difficult.
Machine vision exploded in the 1980s. I vaguely recall the bil-
lions of dollars spent by venture capitalists on its development.
What I clearly remember are the
dozens, dare I say hundreds, of vision
manufacturers at that time. I can The illumination chosen also
also clearly remember the difficulty determines how robust and
working with the custom vision sys- repeatable a vision system is.
tems and the custom programming
needed, through personal experience
as a programmer and integrator.
Fortunately the machine-vision tree of manufacturers has
been greatly thinned. All players in the machine-vision seg-
ment have simplified using the vision hardware with much
better programming platforms.
Expect more in the future, but it will be several years before
we see smarter vision sensors that use artificial intelligence
(AI) for much better image analysis and improved LED lighting
techniques to help eliminate the glare or see through it.
There is still no one-size-fits-all solution for machine vision,
although many are working in that direction. If you read or hear
about autonomous machine vision that installs in minutes with
no need for an integrator, that’s great. But they are only telling
you a short story that has been told for decades.
Considering the new machine-vision hardware and pro-
gramming available, many vision applications do not require a
system integrator. Being told that vision systems are difficult
to support, especially by another vision-system manufacturer,
is just not the case. With the smart-senor cameras and ease
of programming, a machine-vision project can be done by
in-house personnel and supported with little training. Some
machine-vision projects most certainly will need outside
resources to ensure proper implementation. It’s important to
know the difference.
A big part of machine-vision integration includes selection of
camera, lens and lighting. The vision system must also be prop-
50 / February 2019 / ControlDesign.com
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Dave Perkon
technical editor
dperkon@putman.net
erly mounted and guarded to protect from vibration, unauthor-
ized adjustments and stray light, all common problems.
Beyond well-developed part-presence-sensing machine-
vision applications, there are more difficult applications, such
as measurement, position and color, that benefit from the use
of experienced integrators. It is likely these applications require
careful selection of camera resolution and lens type. The il-
lumination chosen also determines how robust and repeatable
a vision system is, as does careful mounting of the camera and
the position of the lighting.
I saw a video of an all-in-one
machine vision solution that claims
to do it all, simply, a total quality
check. The solution included the
camera, lens, light and mount-
ing hardware. The video example
showed excellent part-presence
capability and even what appeared to be defect inspection.
It appeared the video and the camera focused on simple
applications. The products had easy-to-inspect, muted surface
finishes. Real-life applications have shiny or varying surface
finishes. Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning in ma-
chine vision helps with the wide variations in surface finishes.
Difficult vision applications will become easier. Take the time
to check, for your application, if they already have.
Here is a basic fact of vision inspections—while inspections
appear simple, remember there are an infinite number of ways
a product can vary, which adversely affects the inspection. AI
will help this, but careful selection of a lighting method mini-
mizes reflections, just as it helps the human eye.
The AI in machine vision corrects for varying surface fin-
ishes and some improper lighting, but not all of it. Poor lighting
can and will affect vision inspections. Nearby lights turning
on and off may affect inspections, as well, so consider opaque
guarding around the camera to make it easier for the camera
algorithm and AI when or if available.
When it comes to vision, if it sounds too good to be true, be
sure to understand the machine-vision system’s limits. Spend
the time specifying the proper components for a particular
application. There is not a single, universal solution to camera,
lens, lighting and mounting thus far, no matter how intelligent
the camera vendor’s marketing materials or camera is.
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