Control Design

1 week ago | controldesign.com | Anna Townshend

Otek introduces the programable logic controller and transmitter (PLCT), an independent panel with digital meter, controller and current loop transmitter. Otek manufactures measurement and control devices with more than 50 years in operation. Otek President Dr. Otto Fest notes that industry used to largely rely on analog meters, but many are now moving to digital. Otek is a small company by design, Fest says, and it has specialized in upgrading old analog meters with digital.

1 week ago | controldesign.com | Anna Townshend

Industrial networks are generally no longer locked into a specific hardware or communication protocol choice. The vendor-specific design has likely seen its heyday, and the overwhelming majority supports open communication protocols, largely supported by non-profit industry organizations. However, complete system interoperability is not always as easy as adding the latest open protocols or hardware, when upgrading an existing production line with established legacy equipment.

2 weeks ago | controldesign.com | Mike Bacidore

A Control Design reader writes: Here we go again. It was just a year or so ago that we’d recovered from the supply-chain shortage caused by the COVID shutdown. Now we’re looking at a different kind of potential shortage with tariffs about to raise the price of foreign components. We already diversified our supply chain as a result of the COVID backlog. What type of supplier assistance will be available for components and materials?

2 weeks ago | controldesign.com | Mike Bacidore

Rareș Curatu, manager, Industrial Automation & Machinery Industry, MathWorks: Software-defined automation (SDA) increases industrial automation systems' flexibility, adaptability and intelligence, as described by concepts such as flexible manufacturing, autonomous automation and Industry 4.0. By decoupling automation logic from task-specific, fixed-configuration hardware, SDA allows production processes and workflows to be updated in software, with minimal manual intervention to reconfigure...

3 weeks ago | controldesign.com | Anna Townshend

In a factory with no humans, advanced technologies take their place. Even a fully autonomous, lights-out operation may still need human oversight in some form, in case of equipment failure or security risk. Maybe our future factories will run completely by artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled robots and systems. However, with industry’s current technology, experts foresee autonomous machines and systems but within some constraints.