Mechatronics Key to Better Machine Performance
There’s little argument that machine builders face a very competitive environment, in which manufacturers are demanding ever–increasing levels of productivity, flexibility and, these days, sustainability and energy efficiency.

To accomplish these sometimes seemingly disparate objectives, some leading machine builders–together with their customers and automation suppliers–are turning to mechatronics, the holistic consideration of all aspects of machine performance, starting with the first day of the machine design process.

Today’s Global Machine Builders Forum at Rockwell Automation’s Automation Fair 2008 event in Nashville, Tenn., provided an overview of the key mechatronic terms and definitions, as well as evidence of its successful deployment by a machine builder.

To open the session, Chrisopher Zei, vice president and general manager of Rockwell Automation’s OEM business, presented a few data points about the OEM marketplace, noting that "the predominance of European builders’ share in this $51 billion OEM automation market has declined to about 50%, compared with 63% two years ago, a clear reflection of the growing influence of Asia–Pacific builders on the market." North America stands at about 15% share, according to Zei’s data.

» Read more

"We knew we had a different set of components that would provide faster performance and drastically reduce cycle time." Eagle Technologies’ Michael Koziel explained how the machine builder used simultaneous design principles to dramatically increase the performance of its customers’ machines.

Sustainability Footprint Making Big Impression
Efficiency has always been important, but for many process automation users it’s now taking on a heightened environmental, safety and even moral dimension, too.

In general, sustainability refers to production processes and technologies that use minimal energy and resources, create minimal waste and leave future production capabilities unhindered. However, Rockwell Automation reports that sustainable production goes beyond this definition to embrace workplace safety, product safety, product reliability and reuse of formerly wasted materials in a reverse supply chain.

Rockwell Automation’s Jennifer Wright reported that its customers began asking for sustainable solutions about a year ago and that the larger manufacturing market also indicated a growing interest in and need for sustainability.

"So, over the past six months, we went through all of our solutions and took a look at how they might help aid sustainability efforts," said Wright. "We then sorted them into three sustainability areas–energy, environmental and safety. As a result, if a user needs power for their printing application, for example, we can quickly come up with all the solutions to help them do it, and do it in a sustainable manner."

» Read more

Rockwell Automation’s Ron Malloy, HVAC product manager, explained the energy–saving potential of the company’s PowerFlex FanMaster solution. Consisting of a variable speed drive and associated controls, the solution essentially converts a constant–volume HVAC fan to variable speed operation. Pre–programmed with typical weather conditions in 75 U.S. cities, the unit even displays annual energy savings being achieved.

OneGear, PowerFlex 755 Headline New Intelligent Motor Controls
This week on the Automation Fair exhibit hall floor, Rockwell Automation is demonstrating the latest in Intelligent Motor Control technology with the release of the Allen–Bradley OneGear product line, which provides a full range of medium–voltage motor control center and power control center options.

"The OneGear product line is the next generation of medium–voltage motor control specifically designed for use with full–voltage and solid–state, reduced–voltage applications, supporting operating voltages up to 15 kV," reported John Kay, engineering manager, packaged control products business.

"Using vacuum–contactor and circuit–breaker switching technology, the OneGear product family offers customers a wide range of flexible product solutions to help meet their application needs," he said.

» Read more

New additions to Rockwell Automation’s range of Intelligent Motor Control solutions unveiled at Automation Fair were the OneGear medium voltage line as well as the new PowerFlex 755 drive.

PlantPAx Continues Rockwell Automation’s Process Push
Rockwell Automation has re–branded the company’s process industry offering as PlantPAx: systems and solutions for obtaining plant automation excellence. "This is the unification of all of our investments to date," said Kevin Zaba, business director of process automation for Rockwell Automation, "and the integration of our core capabilities. It is the exemplification of the leadership of Rockwell Automation in process."

"It strengthens our capability, gives us more steps toward end–to–end, higher availability, more fieldbus, better engineering," Zaba said. "It allows Rockwell Automation to integrate very closely the Pavilion and Incuity acquisitions as part of PlantPAx and will allow us more easily, for example, to optimize energy management for sustainable manufacturing."

Visitors to this week’s Automation Fair event in Nashville, Tenn., were able to see the current range of the PlantPAx offering to date. Further, attendees of the Process Solutions User Group (PSUG) meeting, held the two days prior to Automation Fair, got a glimpse into the future development plans for PlantPAx.

» Read more

"This is the next generation of process control, asset optimization and decision–support tools." Rockwell Automation’s Kevin Zaba outlined the company’s rapidly developing solutions capability for process manufacturers.

It’s All About the Information, See?
"The Logix platform made convergence between all the disciplines on the plant floor possible," Rockwell Software’s director, commercial marketing, Matt Bauer said. "With our acquisition of Pavilion Technologies and Incuity, and their ongoing integration into the FactoryTalk Integrated Architecture platform, we are now able to move convergence off the plant floor."

Bauer demonstrated the latest additions to the FactoryTalk suite of manufacturing software applications during a tour of the exhibit floor booth at this week’s Automation Fair 2008.

"We’ve made Pavilion8 FactoryTalk services enabled, just like we said we would," Bauer said. "This is only the first step. Next is full integration with FactoryTalk." FactoryTalk Services is a service–oriented architecture (SOA) that provides a common set of software services running across the entire manufacturing application.

» Read more

Click image to see larger view.

Rockwell Automation’s new FactoryTalk VantagePoint allows end users to easily self–configure rich Web–based dashboards, trends and reports. The software leverages FactoryTalk’s service–oriented architecture, together with technology acquired through the company’s purchase of Incuity.

Safety Takes the Easy (to Use) Way Out
If you build a safety system that’s simpler to use, more folks will come and use it.

At first, this idea might not seem that innovative or groundbreaking. However, given how hard many safety systems and devices are to use, and how often users seek to disable or circumvent them, making safety easy to use is downright revolutionary.

However, there’s a catch. To achieve this much–sought–after ease of use, developers and end users have to understand a few common–sense rules and follow them religiously. "Basically, you have to complete a good risk assessment (RA) for your application or process, or you must use traditional lock–out/tag–out devices," said Kelly Schachenman, safety system marketing manager, who conducted tours of Rockwell Automation’s safety exhibits at the company’s Automation Fair event this week in Nashville, Tenn. "This is why our Integrated Safety program seeks to make safety systems easier for people to use."

» Read more

Among the new safety capabilities on display at this year’s Automation Fair is safe motion. This functionality allows users to directly control operator access based on machine speed, acceleration and direction.