When engineers at Automated Interface Solutions go into sheet goods production facilities to install gauge systems, communicating with some of the commonly used hardware often poses a big problem. Installed equipment uses a range of systems, forcing engineers to employ gateways that don’t help achieve the goal of increasing productivity and precision.

In a recent installation that mirrors many others, the gateways were already a source of headaches, causing many shutdowns. The AIS customer that produces an array of polypropylene-based products wanted both improved quality control and enhanced reliability. That meant AIS had to fix the networking problem.

“In the old system, the networking schemes were mostly serial links, with data that had to go through custom-built gateways. There were a lot of issues with reliability that resulted in many thousands of dollars in lost productivity,” says Glenn Wrightsman II, senior software engineer at AIS.

The Terre Haute, Ind., system house had to resolve that while adding its sophisticated systems, which constantly measure the weight, moisture and thickness of sheet goods. They turned to Ethernet, extending it down to the input/output (I/O) of its measurement system. Reliability issues disappeared and AIS realized benefits such as simplified installation. “We use an Opto 22 package that’s very dependable and has a low cost per I/O point,” Wrightsman says. “It’s very easy to use and you can put a rack of I/O anywhere in the plant.” Opto 22 is an automation supplier located in Temecula, Calif.

These simplified installations and improvements in reliability are key reasons that a growing number of system integrators and plant managers are extending Ethernet down to the I/O level. Leveraging the popular network also drives down costs, both during installation and over the lifetime of a system.

The long-term savings come in part from simplified diagnostics that help AIS customers and many others reduce downtime. Ethernet gives users more insight into the health and usage of their equipment, reducing failures and improving productivity. These diagnostic tools, like the network itself, leverage the huge consumer and business base, which drives costs down while bringing benefits such as ease of use.

Searching for simplicity

When companies replace fieldbuses with Ethernet, the payoffs continue well beyond the initial installation. Ethernet comes with a wealth of diagnostic tools that help keep equipment running efficiently. The vast array of troubleshooting tools gives technicians more options than they have with fieldbuses. At the same time, technicians know that upgrades will continue. Everything connected with the network is within the mainstream.

“When you’ve got real-time communications based on Internet protocols or Ethernet protocols, you can use a normal laptop and its tools,” says Stephan Stricker, product manager at B&R Industrial Automation Corp., an Austrian automation supplier with U.S. headquarters in Roswell, Ga. “When you go with something like CANopen, you need an analyzer or a third-party device.”

Many product developers are taking advantage of the processing power and memory space of today’s systems to add monitoring software into their hardware. When machines have this sort of self-checking capability, technicians don’t need any specialized equipment to peer beneath the covers to see how their equipment is performing. “With Ethernet, you can build diagnostics right into the controller,” says Jason Haldeman, automation marketing specialist for vendor Phoenix Contact Inc.’s Automation Systems Group, in Harrisburg, Pa. “Building diagnostics into the device lets you use diagnostic tools like Internet Explorer that let you go to an address and see what’s going on at that point.”

It’s not only the array of monitoring tools that make it simpler to pinpoint problems in Ethernet networks. Many of the human-machine interfaces (HMIs) include software that warns operators when problems arise. “There are a number of Simple Network Management Protocol tools, like SNMP OPC servers that help you bring information into the HMI so operators can act on alerts,” says Carl Henning, deputy director at the Profibus Trade Organization, based in Scottsdale, Ariz. That’s possible because information is in both the controller and the HMI, he explains.

Sending alerts to equipment operators facilitates the quick responses that are necessary on production lines that run at high speeds. “Alarms at the I/O level send messages to a technician or engineer, alerting them of an issue. This facilitates quick decision making and gets the job done faster,” says Karie Daudt, senior product manager with automation component vendor Turck Inc.’s network and interface division, based in Minneapolis.

Updating these alerts constantly makes it more likely that operators will be able to respond in time to prevent ...