The digitalisation of manufacturing towards Industry 4.0 can enable advanced predictive maintenance, bottleneck prevention and optimisation. Yet the challenge for most producers is how to move from a legacy system to Industry 4.0 on…
BPX Product News & Insights
What is the new Sick Monitoring Box all about?
Unplanned downtime is by its nature unpredictable, as well as expensive. For many producers, it results in lost production, scrap materials, missed deadlines and emergency repairs. One way to help predict problems is by…
Where Schneider Electric leads, will others follow?
Most end users rely on more than one automation supplier to build a solution and the need for cost-effective interoperability and integration is strong. Obstacles like the lack of openness of hardware technologies and…
How Edge Processing Leverages IIoT Production Data
Deploying edge processing for efficient data management boosts responsiveness, productivity, and flexibility on the factory floor. It is the key to enhanced IIoT competitiveness and ensuring the successful deployment of modern automation systems.
Jeremy Shinton,…
Analytics Software Achieves Unprecedented Productivity
IIoT benefits like faster time to market, optimising workforce knowledge, increasing productivity, lowering downtime and analytics software have taken time to become practical solutions that benefit OEMs. According to Schneider Electric, EcoStruxure Machine…
Machine Retrofit Reduces Scrappage and Improves Quality
Machines in food and beverage production must be dependable, safe, fast, and maintain production quality over years, if not decades. For older equipment, a machine retrofit to update the control automation provides a cost…
Time Sensitive Networking removes Ethernet Limitations
Information Technology (IT) is becoming a key part of manufacturing operations and we are seeing more convergence between the factory floor and high-level IT levels. Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) offers an interesting way to…
Is a middle layer the key to IT/OT integration?
Moving data between IT and OT systems is a key element of digital integration, but far from straightforward for most manufacturers. Is a middle layer the key to IT/OT integration between the plant floor…
Predicting the future simplifies maintenance
Initiative-taking maintenance is vital for manufacturing operations. As producers know, keeping production lines and systems running well takes more than a skilled maintenance team. It also takes careful planning, scheduling, monitoring, a willingness to…
Why Smart Controllers are Driving Smart Manufacturing
OEM machine builders now find themselves at the heart of the industrial digitisation revolution. New generations of smart controllers are at the heart of smart machines, and the smart machines they build are the…
Manufacturing Digitisation with Edge Box – Part 2
Part one of this article looked at ways smart machine solutions can bolster manufacturing flexibility. Here we look at how one manufacturer put this into practice using Schneider Electric’s IIoT Edge…
Manufacturing Digitisation Bolsters Flexibility – Part 1
Manufacturers are experiencing interesting times as the pandemic has affected workforce availability and consumer demand. Moreover, with a shortage of skilled staff and increased material and energy costs, they need to adapt to survive….
Getting Closer To Robots Improves Safety & Productivity
Over recent years, robots have simplified social distancing and allowed manufacturers to protect human operators whilst maintaining high production throughput. However, getting closer to robots can…
Time Sensitive Networking in Manufacturing Automation
There is much hype about one of the most significant and transformational developments in standard Ethernet technology – Time Sensitive Networking (TSN). Enabling technology for industrial communications, it delivers Information and Operational Technologies (IT/OT)…
The First Steps to becoming a Digital Factory
The promise of Industry 4.0 and IIoT is one of digital technology delivering massive profits for manufacturers. Tech sites lavish praise on the latest connected and synchronised devices running 24/7 in smart factories across…
Embedded Automation Computer Updates Presses for IoT
For Tier 1 automotive parts suppliers, product quality and delivery performance are essential for retaining their position. Advantech’s new generation UNO-2000 embedded automation computers enable manufacturers to upgrade existing machine controls to provide reliable…
End-to-end traceability & How Danone cracked it
With complex global supply chains, increasing regulation and consumer pressure, the food industry needs to provide more complete, traceable and transparent product information along their entire value chain. In this article, we take a…
Radar Sensors: Why are we seeing more in Automation?
Most of us are familiar with passive infrared (PIR) detectors for sensing movement. Popular uses include security applications and controlling lighting in commercial premises to conserve energy. But radar sensors [also known as microwave,…
Universal Automation: Schneider Electric Supports IEC 61499
Schneider Electric is accelerating its drive to help customers unlock the full potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Their vision for universal automation focuses on the benefits of an IEC 61499 open automation platform…
TeSys Giga reinvents the Motor Starter
With new designs and using the latest in manufacturing technology, Schneider Electric recently announced the release of a new generation of TeSys Giga series Motor Starters that go some way…