'Hard core data trumps hearsay anytime.' That’s how Tom Braydich, director of controls and maintenance systems engineering at Campbell Soup Co., describes one of the benefits of the automated data collection and reporting software that his firm uses. Braydich talked about the software today at The Automation Conference, running May 14-15 at the Chicago Marriott O’Hare and produced by Summit Media Group magazines Automation World and Packaging World.
Full PostPackaging Automation Desk
May 15, 2013 |
By Pat Reynolds
Tom Braydich, Campbell's director of controls and maintenance systems engineering, doesn't want to pound his PLCs full of code to enjoy the benefits of the automated data collection. So he found another way, and told attendees at The Automation Conference about it.
FILED IN:Event Coverage
May 03, 2013 |
By Pat Reynolds | Editor
Coca-Cola and other food and beverage makers look to the chemical industry for 100% bio-based PET containers.
Coca-Cola officials have been quoted as saying that their objective to develop a 100% bio-based PET for Coke's PlantBottles will not be achieved until 2020, but now it appears there may be a quicker way to get there.
Micromidas Inc., a leader in enabling renewable bio-plastics, today announced that its CEO and co-founder, John Bissell, will be the luncheon keynote speaker at the "BioPlastek 2013 Forum on Bioplastics Today & Tomorrow" on Thursday, June 27, 2013. The forum will take place on June 26-28, 2013 at the San Francisco Hilton (Financial District) in San Francisco. More information can be found by visiting the Forum's website.
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Networks: Wired & Wireless
Sign up to receive timely updates from our editors and download this FREE Special Report exploring the most widely adopted protocols for fieldbus, Ethernet and wireless networking in the process industries, as well as the latest trends in wireless applications.
April 02, 2013 |
By Pat Reynolds
It should come as no big surprise that Fieldbus protocols are losing ground as makers of industrial automation components increasingly offer Ethernet as standard on their devices.
But it’s always useful to see such shifts quantified, and that’s what IMS Research has done in a recent study called “The world market for Industrial Ethernet and Fieldbus technologies—2013 edition.” Key results of the study are:
• Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of Ethernet-based automation components was 16.4 percent in 2012 and is projected to be 15 percent in 2016.
• CAGR of fieldbus-based automation components was 8.5 percent in 2012 and is projected to be about 9 percent in 2016.
• When it comes to market share, in 2012 about 73 percent of automation components were fieldbus-based, but by 2016 just 69 percent of automation components will be fieldbus-based.
Full Post FILED IN:Networking
March 27, 2013 |
By Pat Reynolds
Change intro to: A few years back, a now widely held observation emerged about the future: In 1980, 80 percent of the complexity of equipment was mechanical, but by 2020, only 20 percent of it would be mechanical, and electronics will replace the mechanics.
And so it was that mechatronics—the synergistic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control, and system thinking in the design of packaging machinery and other systems—was born. By including mechatronics in the curricula at the world’s educational institutions, it was thought, we’d increase the likelihood that the workforce of the future would be prepared for a world where 80 percent of equipment’s complexity revolves around electronics.
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February 11, 2013 |
By Pat Reynolds
When 60 Minutes suggested that the growth of robotics and automation in the U.S. comes at the cost of jobs, many people took exception.
Henrik I. Christensen, Kuka chair of robotics & director of robotics at Georgia Tech, tackled that premise head on in his keynote at the co-located ProMat and Automate 2013 shows in Chicago.
Christensen argued convincingly that because automation drives productivity as it does, it grows jobs. The best example of this, he noted, is the formation of the Tesla Motors in Palo Alto, CA, where wages are as high as they are anywhere in the world. But because the business model behind Tesla leans heavily on automation strategies that optimize productivity and efficiency, the firm has brought job growth to Calif.
Full Post FILED IN:Industry Trends
