Sensors, Vision

Figure 6: “The architecture of the RCS allows you to achieve very high safety and reliability,” said Dr. Angela Summers. “And by designing it into the manifold, you also can eliminate many sources of maintenance errors, which further improves the reliability of your installation.” Courtesy: Emerson

Sensors, Actuators November 15, 2019

Double up on solenoid safety

Adding two solenoid valves to a safety instrumented system keeps equipment, facility and personnel safe and the system online.

By Joseph D. McHugh II

Figure 1: Packaging lines benefit from the increased controllability of electromechanical actuators as they often eliminate the need for changeover when switching from one product to another. Courtesy: Thomson Industries Inc.

Sensors, Actuators November 12, 2019

Eight selection criteria for actuation components

Electromechanical systems offer advantages over hydraulic and pneumatic actuators

By Chad Carlberg and Chris Diak

Sensors, Vision October 29, 2019

Improve the supply chain with drone-based image recognition

Warehouses are turning to drone-based image recognition to improve supply chain efficiencies.

By AIA

Mobile HMIs may be hand-held, or on a cart as shown here, but can serve to widen the area where control and information tasks can be performed, from the central control room to the plant floor. Courtesy: Emerson

HMI, OI October 29, 2019

HMIs enable operations and maintenance collaboration

Mobile interfaces facilitate convergence of operations and maintenance.

By Rich Carpenter

Sensors, Actuators October 29, 2019

How information ascends to the cloud for greater utilization

Modern instrumentation delivers data, but too often it serves no purpose.

By Ryan Williams

Shown are three panels used for a fire, gas detection and releasing panel. The three networked panels are for a large application. Image courtesy: Honeywell Industrial Fire

Safety October 10, 2019

Industrial fire systems: Defining the key players

A team is made up of skilled individuals.

By Edward Doherty

Advances in connectivity are allowing for a restructuring of how machines and humans collaborate. Courtesy: Ripcord

IIoT, Industrie 4.0 October 9, 2019

Four trends changing manufacturing as we know it

Addressing manufacturing use cases that deal with unstructured inputs.

By Kevin Hall

Wireless sensors are easy to install, even on assets in dangerous or hard-to-reach places. Once installed, maintenance team members can avoid repeated trips to such assets to take regular measurements. Courtesy: Fluke Corp.

Wireless October 1, 2019

Choose the right industrial wireless technologies for condition monitoring

Wireless sensors can help discover maintenance issues with machines before they happen and give users access to real-time information. See four methods and four steps.

By John Bernet

Endress+Hauser’s booth at WEFTEC had several sensors and tools designed to gather quick and accurate readings that could be sent to a display for the user so they know when something is wrong. Courtesy: Chris Vavra, CFE Media

Sensors, Actuators September 27, 2019

Water, wastewater industry is going digital and getting smarter

The water and wastewater industry is improving digitalization and automation with smarter sensors designed to make operations safer.

By Chris Vavra

A flexible, porous lattice structure is threaded with stretchable optical fibers containing more than a dozen mechanosensors and attached to an LED light. When the lattice structure is pressed, the sensors pinpoint changes in the photon flow. Courtesy: Cornell University

Robotics September 20, 2019

Optical lace developed to heighten robots’ sensors

Cornell University researchers are using optical lace to create a linked sensory network similar to a biological nervous system for robots to improve their actions.

By David Nutt