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rican Society of Business Publication Edit 

controldesign.com 

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Standards and Reusable Modular 

Design Are the Xs and Os of 

Machine Builder Dynasties 

Food Printer Keeps 

an Eye on Delicates 

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 

The Rise of Safety 

And Control 

Is VFD the New 

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336 Volts of Green Engineering 

MEASURE IT – FIX IT 

Developing a commercially viable fuel cell vehicle has been a significant challenge because 

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Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 2009 0834

X 



y of Business Pub 


FEBRUARY 2010 

U.S. TRADE 

PUBLICATIONS 

U.S. TRADE 

PUBLICATIONS 

FEATURES 

28 Cover Story 

Stick to the Playbook 

Standards and Reusable Modular Design Are the Xs and Ox of 


Dan Hebert, PE, senior technical editor 


U.S. TRADE 

PUBLICATIONS 

CONTENTS 

Standards and Reusable Modular 

Design Are the Xs and Os of 


Food Printer Keeps 

an Eye on Delicates 

The Rise of Safety 

And Control 

Is VFD the New 

Stepper Motor? 

28 

35 Measurement, Sensing & Vision 

See More Machine Applications 

Vision System Expands Capabilities of Food Decorating Printer by 

Allowing It to Handle More Delicate Product 

Thomas Houterman, PhD, De Grood Innovations 

40 Product Roundup 

Daylight-Ready and Web-Based 

HMIs Continue to Move Data Into the Most Convenient Places 

Volume 14, No. 2 

COLUMNS 

35 

7 ControlDesign.com 

How-To to the Rescue 

9 Editor’s Page 

Tribes 

10 Machine Builder Mojo 

Get Smart 

21 Live Wire 

Elephants Are the 

Answer—Part II 

27 Embedded Intelligence 

More Fireballs, Please 

39 TechFlash 

Safety and Control 

Converge 

50 OEM Insight 

Self-Sufficient Sortation 

Systems 

19 

CONTROL DESIGN, (ISSN: 1094-3366) is published 12 times a year by 

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HOT BUTTONS 

19 OEM Spotlight 

Give Customers What 

They Need 

22 InDiscrete 

Manufacturing Leaders 

Address VP Biden 

46 Real Answers 

Can VFDs Work Like 

Stepper Motors? 

48 Product Showcase 

February 2010 Control Design 5

New WhITE PaPERS 

How-To to the Rescue 

Industrial Ethernet 

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Active Ethernet I/O: A New 

Generation in IP-Based 

Data Acquisition and 

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approach to IP-based 

data acquisition and control is 

explained. 

To download PDF papers, go 

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Special to the Web 

Industrial Control 

Reference Design This 

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com/wirelesssensorkc. 

Many times, when we hear 

the words “new procedures,” 

our first instinct is to panic. 

Admit it, the reason for our fear 

often lies in our unfamiliarity 

with the subject, our lack of experience 

or our unwillingness 

to learn new technologies. 

Don’t worry. The Internet and 

its massive cyber library always 

come to our rescue with how-to 

materials. Before we can make 

fools of ourselves on the job, 

we log on our computers to 

download training materials. 

Lucky for you, Machine Builder 

Nation, that ControlDesign.com 

has so many industry-related 

how-to online resources from 

which you can learn. 

For example, our senior 

technical editor, Dan Hebert, 

wrote “How to Build an Automation 

Professional,” and while 

this article is not a step-by-step 

manual on how to actually construct 

a professional, the article 

does show steps the industry is 

taking to train the automation 

professionals of the future. 

Visit our website to access 

this article at www.ControlDesign.com/automationpro, 

and learn more about the 

available training material 

and courses; plus read how 

companies are better preparing 

their employees to per- 

also integrate seamlessly with 

the rest of the end user’s operation 

system. 

Access the full article at 

www.ControlDesign.com/trustyourintegrator 

to learn how to 

integrate your control system 

with your operation systems. 

Another important aspect 

of this industry is having good 

client relationships. After all, 

the needs of your customers 

are the ones you want to 

meet, and your clients’ needs 

are the ones that encourage 

innovation and technological 

advances in your business. 

Today, knowing how to listen 

to your customers and how to 

adapt to their needs is more 

than a required skill. It is what 

keeps you in business. 

Columnist Jeremy Pollard 

writes a firsthand account of 

how listening to what customers 

have to say can change the 

overall outcome of your business 

and the relationships 

you build. In “Change How You 

Listen to Customers,” Pollard 

reflects on life experiences 

where many experts, advisors, 

teachers and mentors 

negatively affected his life 

just by not knowing how to 

listen to his needs. Read this 

article at www.ControlDesign. 

com/listentocustomers and 

CONTROLDESIGN.COM Katherine Bonfante • managing editor, digital media • kbonfante@putman.net 

Industrial Control 

form at their best on the job. 

see how listening to your cus- 

Solutions Guide Meet 

the demands for energy 

efficiency that lead to cost 

savings and reduce emissions 

by following this roadmap to 

a greener industrial future 

from Intel. Register to read it 

at www.ControlDesign.com/ 

energyefficiency. 

When it comes to machine 

control systems, trusting your 

integrator is very important. 

CSIA’s executive board chairman, 

Ed Diehl, covers integrator 

trust issues in his article, 

“How to Trust Your Integrator.” 

Diehl says a machine control 

system should not only per- 

tomers’ needs will drive your 

business innovation. 

I hope you take the time to 

browse our site and read our 

how-to materials. Don’t panic 

next time you face new procedures 

or new technologies. 

Just know that the Web and 

especially ControlDesign.com 

form to expectations, it should 

have your back. 

controldesign.com February 2010 Control Design 7

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Tribes 


555 W. Pierce Rd., Suite 301 

Itasca, Illinois 60143 

630/467-1300 

Fax: 630/467-1124 

Editorial team 

editor in chief 

Joseph Feeley 

jfeeley@putman.net 

I went to see “Avatar” in its full 

3D glory last month. 

Relax, I won’t try to ignite 

gravely serious conversation about 

its political meaning and commentary 

on our environmental perils. I 

will say, however, I’m awed by the 

writers’ and directors’ and producers’ 

ability to release a wildly suc- 

“Creative people will tend by 

nature to customize 100%, if not 

coached on the benefits of reusing 

a percentage of existing designs,” 

he says. His business relies on 

building custom machinery on a 

standard, reusable design foundation 

that more easily accommodates 

the inclusion of the means 

editor’s page 

executive editor 

Jim Montague 

jmontague@putman.net 

managing editor 

mike bacidore 

mbacidore@putman.net 

managing editor, digital media 

Katherine Bonfante 

kbonfante@putman.net 

senior technical editor 

Dan Hebert 

dhebert@putman.net 

editorial assistant 

Lori Goldberg 

lgoldberg@putman.net 

columnist 

Jeremy Pollard 

jpollard@tsuonline.com 

Design/Production 

art director 

Derek Chamberlain 

Subscriptions 

customer service 

888/644-1803 

circulation 

audited June 2009 

Air & Gas Compressors 759 

Engineering & Systems 

Integration Services 9,122 

Engines & Turbines 1,541 

Food Products Machinery 1,565 

Industrial Fans, Blowers, 

& Air Purification Equipment 621 

Industrial Heating, Refrigeration, 

& Air Conditioning Equipment 1,335 

Industrial Process Furnaces & Ovens 578 

Machine Tools 5,313 

Materials Handling, Conveyors 

& Conveying Equipment 1,611 

Metalworking Machinery 3,288 

Mining Machinery & Equipment 484 

Oil & Gas Field Machinery & Equipment 1,260 

Packaging Machinery 831 

Paper Industries Machinery 462 

Printing Trades Machinery & Equipment 578 

Pumps & Pumping Equipment 944 

Rolling Mill Machinery & Equipment 162 

Semiconductor 

Manufacturing Machinery 1,092 

Textile Machinery 230 

Woodworking Machinery 243 

Other Industries & Special Industrial 

Machinery & Equipment NEC 10,993 

total 43,012 

cessful movie that seems to have 

infuriated both far-left and farright 

ideologues to equal, frothingat-the-mouth 

degrees. That’s not 

easy to do. 

Viewing the movie intersected 

with my first read of Dan Hebert’s 

cover story (“Reuse That Automation 

Know-How,” p28, www.ControlDesign.com/reuseknowhow) 

about relying less on individual 

automation superstars and more 

on collective skills and holistic 

planning to design machines and 

machine automation based on 

standards and modular reuse. 

I saw a few similarities—none 

of them involved 10-ft-tall tribal 

beings with their own built-in 

network nodes—in the way a cumulative, 

collective approach can 

win the day. You need members 

of the various automation skill 

tribes, who as a combined force 

know their own capabilities and 

their customers’ needs backward 

and forward and don’t need divine 

creative inspiration from one or 

two stars. You, of course, also 

need good leadership to pull it 

all together. At no time do they 

conclude that overpowering their 

clients with the brute force of “better” 

ideas works very well. 

Pat Phillips, engineering 

manager at high-speed assembly 

machine builder, Haumiller, Elgin, 

Ill., reminds us in the article that 

unbridled creativity usually isn’t 

to handle unique customer needs. 

Dan’s article makes it clear that 

reusability is the highly coveted 

“unobtanium” for most machine 

builders. “The goal of automation 

builders for the past three decades 

is to be able to draw from a 

set of standards to create custom 

solutions,” says story participant 

Chris Lovendahl, sales manager, 

Concep Machine, Northbrook, Ill. 

Chris says his new engineers start 

by learning Concep’s engineering 

practices through projects that 

Unbridled creativity 

usually isn’t very 

good for efficient 

machine design. 

need only modification to existing 

programming. In time, they move 

on to writing new programming. 

The contributions of Pat and 

Chris are the basis for the first production 

in a new video series we’ve 

rolled out for 2010. We got their 

thoughts for the article and captured 

additional comments on tape 

for the video you’ll find at www. 

ControlDesign.com/reusevideo. 

If you or your automation 

avatar would like to similarly 

participate in an upcoming video, 

get in touch. We can’t promise 3D 

just yet. 

Joe Feeley • editor in chief • jfeeley@putman.net 

good for efficient machine design. 

February 2010 Control Design 9

Dan Hebert, pe • senior technical editor • dhebert@putman.net 

machine builder mojo 

Get Smart 

When an application requires high-speed 

measurement or control of analog variables, the 

control system designer has two main options. 

The first option is to use a high-speed, high-end 

controller with a high-performance network 

and conventional analog I/O. The second is to 

use a lower-end, less-expensive controller and 

network along with smart analog I/O. 

The second option often will turn out to provide 

a better price/performance ratio, as illustrated 

by the following applications. 

System integrator Malisko Engineering (www. 

malisko.com) in St. Louis was contracted to 

perform a control systems upgrade on a thermal 

processing furnace-control system for Advanced 

Energy (www.advancedenergy.com) in Fort Collins, 

Colo. The furnace is used to fire components 

before they’re integrated into larger systems and 

machines, and it uses various digital I/O along 

with Type K thermocouple analog input and 0-10 

Vdc analog-output modules. 

Without smart analog I/O, the control 

system would have to send the raw 

thermocouple analog input data to the 

processor for linearization. 

Malisko reconfigured temperature-zone PID 

control for the furnace in a way that used the 

built-in PID capabilities of Opto 22 Snap I/O. 

“The old control hardware executed PID 

control—about four loops per rack—via custom 

commands executed by the controller,” says Dan 

Malyszko, senior systems engineer at Malisko. 

“With the new system, thermocouple linearization 

and PID control can be programmed more 

easily and executed locally at the I/O level.” 

Without smart analog I/O, the control system 

would have to send the raw thermocouple analog 

input data to the processor for linearization. The 

linearized data would have been used as the 

process variable in a PID loop executed at the 

controller. After each execution cycle, the controller 

would have sent a control signal to the furnace 

via an analog-output module. 

With smart analog I/O, the PID loops execute 

locally and much faster. The main processor 

also performs at a higher level, as it’s not 

burdened with PID loop execution. Also, the bus 

traffic on the network connecting the I/O to the 

processor is reduced, further improving performance 

and reliability. 

This clearly applies to machine control, as 

well. For an injection molding machine, a control 

system retrofit employed a new programmable 

automation controller (PAC) with smart analog I/O 

to perform highly accurate, closed-loop control. 

This improved energy efficiency and precision 

and the low temperature variance improved 

injection stability. An Advantech PAC connected 

to high-speed analog input and output modules 

controls the closed-loop process. “The analog I/O 

worked with discrete I/O to control the machine 

via its high-speed calculator module,” explains 

John Wilhite, product manager at Advantech. 

R&B Plastics Machinery (www.rbplasticsmachinery.com) 

in Saline, Mich., makes machine, 

mold, trimming and tooling systems for customers 

in consumer packaged goods, chemical, automotive 

and dairy industries. R&B focuses on continuous 

extrusion blow-molding, and its machines 

are designed to accommodate multiple parisons, 

multilayer coextrusion and in-mold labeling of 

containers ranging from 12 oz to 2.5 gallons. 

R&B specializes in parison control to achieve 

optimal wall thickness of continuously extruded 

profiles. A two-piece mold is injected with plastic 

in an environment that takes temperature, velocity 

and quantity into consideration. The mold is 

then moved to an air-injection station where air 

is blown into the mold, forcing the plastic out to 

form an opening. 

Depending on end-user specifications, R&B 

blow-molding machines use either A-B Control- 

Logix PACs or CompactLogix PACs. The control 

system uses ControlLogix Fast Analog I/O modules 

to meet the processing demands of highspeed 

applications. Using onboard data archival, 

the module increases system throughput by 

reducing the overhead required in collecting data. 

“With four archiving inputs and two outputs, 

the analog module generates fast sample rates 

and decreases backplane traffic for optimized 

system performance,” observes Jake Losee, electrical 

control manager at R&B. “Also, the module 

lengthens the time between I/O data transfers, 

relieving the controller burden and decreasing 

process disruptions.” 

10 Control Design February 2010 controldesign.com

Give Customers What They Need 

Packaging Equipment Builder Meets Needs of Strictest Industries 

ESS TECHNOLOGIES (www. 

WIRED FOR PACKING 

Dan Morgan, systems engineer (left), and Greg Dudding, manufacturing 

manager, discuss the wiring in a case packer/palletizer control panel. 

esstechnologies.com) in Blacksburg, 

Va., founded in 1993, 

focused initially on engineering 

sales and service (ESS). It specialized 

in integrating packaging 

equipment from other 

OEMs. Before long, ESS began 

to design and manufacture its 

own of monoblock filler/capper 

machines and other packaging 

equipment. ESS became 

an authorized system integrator 

for Fanuc Robotics in 2002 

and began integrating robotics 

automation into a number of 

products, including case packers, 

assembly systems, machine 

infeeds and palletizers. 

ESS and its 23 employees 

build machines and equipment 

for a variety of industries with 

different needs and regulations. 

“Pharmaceutical manufacturers 

differ from many industries 

simply because of the 

amount of regulation of their 

processes and products,” explains 

Walt Langosch, director 

of sales and marketing for ESS. 

“Often, the processes require 

Class 10000 cleanroom technology. 

Cosmetics also require 

special handling, especially 

nail polishes and fragrances 

that might contain high levels 

of flammable liquids. ESS 

provides automated equipment 

that includes intrinsically safe 

controls to reduce fire risks in 

these installations.” 

ESS builds vertical robotic 

case packers and robotic case 

packers with palletizer cells, 

stand-alone mini-palletizer 

cells, monoblock filler/cappers, 

robotic assembly systems for 

medical devices and diagnostic 

test kits, robotic machine 

infeeds and any custom equipment 

its customers require. 

The engineering team consists 

of mechanical engineers, 

electrical engineers, robotic 

engineers, CAD draftspeople 

and field service technicians. 

“A typical system includes 

a PLC, touchscreen HMI and 

servo controls,” explains Mike 

Morgan, systems engineer. “We 

typically use Rockwell Automation 

products, but we can 

work with GE, Fanuc, Siemens, 

Omron and B&R Automation, to 

name a few. ” 

ESS usually works with PLCbased 

controls, but does offer 

PC-based controls, depending 

on the system and the customer’s 

requirements. “We offer 

embedded control on some 

systems,” says Morgan. 

ESS builds all robot systems 

to a Category 4 safety rating 

and all machine systems to 

a minimum of a Category 3 

safety rating, says Morgan. 

“We also build all robotic cells 

according to RIA 15.06 safety 

standards, which are over and 

above OSHA’s standards.” 

New technologies in networking 

and communications 

drive innovation in design and 

automation at ESS, explains 

Morgan. “We see more devices 

that are capable of communicating 

on a common network,” 

he says. “This can cut wiring 

time and increase the amount 

of information we can pull from 

that device. The trends that 

will make the biggest impact 

would have to be the availability 

of EtherNet/IP devices and 

new technologies in robotics 

and servo motors. Our machine 

controls will change based on 

availability of more devices on 

the control network, allowing 

us to pull in more information 

from each device for monitoring 

and troubleshooting. This 

also will allow users to make 

changes to device parameters 

without going to each device.” 

ESS TECHNOLOGIES 

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Elephants Are the Answer—Part II 

In my January column, I offered pertinent and 

poignant elephant jokes as vehicles for explaining 

why time is running out on machine builders and 

controls engineers who want to avail themselves of 

the opportunities presented in China. Madcap hilarity 

ensued, and those opportunities were revealed. 

This time, with a bit more emphasis on 

real-world examples and research, I’ll lead the 

elephant that is China back into the middle of 

the room, so that we might give it a closer look 

and make more jokes about it. The fun just never 

stops. If you missed Part I of this piece and would 

prefer to read both parts of this column in its entirety, 

visit www.ControlDesign.com/elephant. 

While the Chinese are dedicated financially 

to improving their machine quality, they appear 

content to stick to their strengths and let the rest 

of the world speak the higher-level machine languages, 

which bring us to our next riddle: What did 

the cat say to the elephant? 

“Meow.” That is what cats say, after all, and 

western machine builders confidently speak 

their own languages and allow software like 

E-CAD to translate. Art Sawall, vice president 

of global electrical business, Bentley Systems 

(www.bentley.com), opened an office in Beijing 

almost 10 years ago when he owned ECT and 

one of his employees, a Chinese native, wanted 

to return home. “I’ve been there 30 times since 

then,” says Sawall. “We were one of the early 

entries in the market. I wondered why companies 

would want to buy our product when they 

could have a Chinese engineer? Then I realized 

it’s the quality of work.” 

Where the Chinese excel at producing things, 

it’s no secret that the quality often is horrendous. 

“Their acceptable standards aren’t the same as 

those in western countries,” says Sawall. “For 

every three Chinese developers, you’d need one 

American developer. The smart Chinese companies 

that want to export their goods figured out 

they need the right tools and engineers to make 

their machines acceptable in foreigners’ eyes. The 

Chinese are clamoring to be accepted.” 

Demand for industrial controls in China is 

forecast to expand 13% per year through 2013, 

according to “Industrial Controls in China,” a 

new study from the Beijing office of The Freedonia 

Group (www.freedoniagroup.com), a Cleveland-based 

industry research firm. Growth will 

result primarily from the ongoing expansion of 

manufacturing output in key industries such 

as motor vehicles and electrical and electronic 

products, according to the study. The Freedonia 

Group also predicts a move toward integrated, 

high-end application performance enabled by 

software-based motion controls in China. 

This begs the question: How do you make an 

elephant float? 

While everyone knows the ingredients include 

one elephant, two scoops of vanilla ice cream 

and 12 oz of root beer, the important takeaway 

here is China requires controls components, 

software and expertise from other countries for 

more-advanced manufacturing technology. It 

needs other ingredients. 

One advantage of foreign-based companies is 

the ability to customize for specific clients, which 

helps in the market for special-purpose industrial 

controls, such as material-handling controls and 

metal-mill controls, says Hanxing Huang, indus- 

Where the Chinese excel at producing 

things, it’s no secret that the quality 

often is horrendous. 

try analyst at Freedonia. Foreign firms participate 

in the Chinese market either by directly exporting 

to China or by establishing a manufacturing presence 

through joint ventures (JVs) or wholly-owned 

foreign enterprises (WOFEs), explains Huang. 

“Both WOFEs and JVs are popular choices for 

foreign companies looking to participate,” he 

says. “Many companies engage in both. When 

foreign firms decide to set up a JV, their work 

revolves around searching for and selecting a 

suitable partner. In the case of setting up a WOFE, 

selecting a location is key, as regional disparities 

in logistics, markets, levels of economic development, 

human capital and government policies 

are enormous in China. Foreign firms seeking to 

export to China are occupied chiefly with searching 

for distributors or agents.” 

Yes, those are a lot of details and options to 

digest before creating a strategy, but making the 

most of the opportunities in China can be accomplished 

by simply remembering the best way to 

eat an elephant—one bite at a time. 

LIVE WIRE 

Mike Bacidore • managing editor • mbacidore@putman.net 


INDISCRETE 

Manufacturing Leaders Address VP Biden 

LEADERS OF U.S. industry 

conveyed ideas for revitalizing 

American manufacturing to 

Vice President Joe Biden and 

other administration officials 

at a recent meeting of Biden’s 

Middle Class Task Force. Dan 

Janka, board chairman of 

the Assn. for Manufacturing 

Technology (AMT, www.amtonline.org) 

and president of 

MAG (www.mag-ias.com), was 

part of a group that included 

representatives of Honeywell, 

Harley-Davidson, Spirit Aero- 

Systems, Dow Corning, International 

Paper and Goodyear. 

The meeting conveyed ideas 

on how the government can 

support growth and revitalization 

of U.S. manufacturing, 

said Janka. “Our most pressing 

interests are extension of the 

current R&D tax credit and the 

50% bonus depreciation for 

capital spending on equipment 

and plant infrastructure. 

Government can also encourage 

innovation through federal 

manufacturing R&D programs. 

In addition, we emphasized the 

urgent need for reform of U.S. 

export controls and business 

visa requirements.” 

Export controls put the domestic 

machine tool industry 

at a competitive disadvantage 

by forbidding export of certain 

products, said Janka. “These 

same products, such as fiveaxis 

machine tools, are freely 

produced and exported by our 

European and Asian competitors,” 

he explained. “Commerce 

Secretary Gary Locke 

expressed his commitment to 

support export control reform 

and business visa reform,” 

added Janka. “Our industry’s 

inability to export is costing 

many high-paying jobs.” 

Cable Assembly Key to Mars Exploration 

MARS SCIENCE Laboratory 

(MSL), scheduled to launch in 

2011, is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration 

Program, a long-term 

robotic exploration of the red 

planet. The MSL rover will assess 

whether Mars’ environment 

can support, or has supported, 

microbial life. Essential to the 

mission is the MSL’s robot arm 

that holds and maneuvers the 

instruments that help scientists 

get up-close and personal with 

Martian rocks and soil. Running 

the arm is a custom-formed 

Cicoil (www.cicoil.com) cable 

assembly conducting power, signals 

and video from the instruments 

to the main electronics 

within the rover’s body. Rigorous 

testing is now being done at 

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

(JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. 

Custom contour forming of 

the cable assembly allows JPL 

engineers to fit the cabling along 

the actual shape of the robotic 

arm, providing a clean design, 

READY FOR LIFT-OFF 

The Mars Science Laboratory will be subjected to severe vibration, G-forces, 

extreme temperatures, water and shock. 

without cables interfering with 

the extreme flexibility of the 

robotic testing. In addition to 

fit and flexing issues, the robot 

arm is undergoing extreme 

environmental testing, including 

high heat, freezing cold, sand, 

salt, fog and water. One test will 

involve exposure to blowing, red 

“Mars sand,” which is extremely 

fine and abrasive. 

The MSL will need to 

withstand severe vibration, G- 

forces, extreme temperatures, 

water, shock and the rigors 

of supersonic flight. Cicoil’s 

specialized silicone jacket 

functions as a shock-absorbing 

material, surrounding and supporting 

each component. 

CICOIL 


more than 

just a pretty 

interface. 

15" 

10" 

8" 

3" LCD 

only 

2 1 /2" 

deep 

6" 

The G3 Operator Interface Series. 

Connect. Convert. Acquire. Control. Anywhere. 

Red Lion’s G3 Series HMIs not only provide an intuitive interface for your 

connected devices, they give them a communications makeover. With the most 

on-board comms ports of any HMI available, you can monitor, control or acquire data from 

seven or more types of devices simultaneously—including PLCs, PCs, drives, PID controllers 

and more. Add even more connections with DeviceNet , CANopen and PROFIBUS, or with 

additional serial ports. G3 Series HMIs also feature integrated Ethernet, plus a built-in web server 

and gateway to web-enable even your serial devices, allowing remote 

monitoring, operation and diagnostics. Pass-through communication 

capabilities let you use a G3 HMI as a conduit to your PLCs via 

industry-standard protocols, while a built-in protocol converter lets 

you share data between dissimilar devices. All G3s can log data in 

IT-ready CSV format that can be remotely accessed via the web server 

or automatically uploaded to an FTP site. And G3s can trigger an 

email or SMS message to your mobile device in response to an 

alarm condition. 

An attractive price too, made even more attractive by 

Red Lion’s free Crimson ® programming software. G3 models are available in a 

compact 3" LCD keypad panel, plus 6", 8", 10" and new 15" color touchscreens. 

See all the features at www.redlion.net/G3 

Operator Interface Protocol Conversion Signal Conditioning Panel Meters Data Acquisition 

Red Lion Controls ph: (717) 767-6511 fax: (717) 764-0839 www.redlion.net

Catch the one that got away 

Smart Vision Sensor 

The simple, affordable answer to complex Vision Systems 

Why pay thousands of dollars for a complex Vision System that takes hours of 

training when you can do it all with a Smart Vision Sensor from Datasensor? SVS 

sensors combine sophisticated technology with an extremely simple configuration 

that costs less and only takes minutes to setup. 

Datasensor Smart Vision Sensors offer advanced features that precisely detect 

errors, eliminating manual inspections and increasing line speed. Check labels 

and caps for printing problems, confirm brightness, count products, verify 

characters and much more. SVS1 models offer quick and easy setup via a handheld 

configurator. SVS2 models can be connected to a PC and offer multiple 

controls including unique 360° recognition, which allows product recognition no 

matter what the orientation is. Datasensor SVS sensors offer the most features 

at the best price on the market. 

• Fast frame rate of 60 fps (60 images per second) 

• High 640 x 480 pixel image resolution 

• Ethernet communication 

• 9 inspection tools including 360-degree recognition 

• 360˚ Recognition 

• Pattern Match 

• Contour Match 

• Position Verification 

• Width Comparison 

• Edge Count 

• Contrast Comparison 

• Brightness Check 

• OCV-Character Check 

See a quick video 

www.idec-ds.com/vision 

A DATALOGIC COMPANY

A Tale of 

Two Europes 

EASTERN EUROPE offers 

significant new growth opportunities 

for the automation 

and control solutions (ACS) 

market as industrial activity 

in Western Europe reaches 

maturity. According to new 

research from Frost & Sullivan 

(www.industrialautomation.frost.com), 

European 

Union accession has generated 

investments in the new 

Eastern European member 

states, since the end users are 

obliged to accomplish new 

European standards. 

The end-user segments 

covered in this research service 

are power, chemicals, oil and 

gas, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, 

pulp and paper, 

water and wastewater and others 

such as metals and mining, 

cement, glass and textiles. 

“The foremost priority of end 

users has been to invest in the 

development of their existing 

automation and control solutions,” 

says Katarzyna Owczarczyk, 

research analyst. “This 

is to fulfill the new European 

standards imposed on the region 

since accession to the EU.” 

ACS manufacturers are 

making considerable effort to 

adhere to these regulations and 

serve their respective end-user 

industries, the report says. 

The most significant challenge 

in the Eastern European 

ACS market is to provide solutions 

with greater compatibility. 

In the former communist 

countries in this region, almost 

all the privatized old factories 

have outdated technology that 

needs to be modernized. 

MERGERS, 

ALLIANCES 

& ACQUISITIONS 

Southwire (www.southwire. 

com) acquired Rhode Islandbased 

American Insulated 

Wire, a subsidiary of Leviton 

Manufacturing. 

Measurement Computing 

(www.mccdaq.com) 

integrated IOtech’s DAQ 

products to its product line. 

controldesign.com

m1500 transmitter shown ConneCted 

to a meriam laminar flow unit 

perfeCt for hundreds of appliCations 

lab data acquisition 

test and monitoring applications 

barometric pressure reference 

production skids 

pneumatic / hydraulic go, no go testing 

pressure leak testing 

process control applications 

plant instrumentation 

oem applications 

laminar flow systems 

wet/wet differential monitoring and control 

Head type flow metering 

Calibrators CommuniCators 

transmitters flow produCts manometers gauges 

powered by 

EPI 

output & CommuniCation options for any appliCation 

• usb: power up and communicate through usb type b female 

connector 

• rs-232: db9 female or terminal block connector for point-to-point 

communication 

• rs-485: db9 female or terminal block connector for multi-point 

(up to 254 addresses), half duplex communication 

• Analog: scalable 4-20mA (2-wire) or 0-5VDC (4-wire), field 

selectable 

digital communications via meriam digital protocol or modbus rtu protocol (pending) 

Convenient field set up and re-calibration using supplied PC software or protocol commands 

Compact size perfect for din rail or panel mounting; 4.625” l x 2.125” w x 1.25” h, 10 to 16 ounces 

pressure ranges from 10” h20 (pending) to 3000 psi full scale 

±0.025% of f.s. traceable to nist including all affects of linearity, repeatability, hysteresis and 

temperature over operating range of -20º to +50º C (-4º to +122º f). 

14 pressure updates per second or dampen to suit application 

differential (dry/dry or wet/wet), gauge, compound and absolute pressure versions for process 

media compatible with 316ss 

power with 8-36 VdC or “power over usb” with the usb option 

T h e Tr u s t e d L e a d e r i n M e a s u r e m e n t & C a l i b r a t i o n S o l u t i o n s 

S a L e S @ M e r i a M . C o M 8 0 0 . 8 1 7 . 7 8 4 9 w w w. M e r i a M . C o M

More Fireballs, Please 

I’ve harped on training since forever. Now is no 

different. It’s probably more important than ever. 

Remember Gus, the guy I wrote about who 

was promoted to manager before he turned 30? 

He was going to leave his company and spoke up 

about it. He was willing to change things, and 

look where it got him. Management. 

Gus was born to be an engineer, but he really 

didn’t know it. He told me about a program that 

McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, offered 

when he was in secondary (high) school. 

University officials introduced his rural Ontario 

school to the sciences, including engineering. 

The program is called the Fireball Show. McMaster 

also runs a four-week program called Learning 

Enrichment Advancement Program (LEAP) on 

campus, designed to give high-school students an 

intense, hands-on experience with engineering. 

Sure, it gets them students, and that is a main reason, 

but their passion for teaching and developing 

young minds I’m sure is the main objective. 

Gus said that without the Fireball Show, he never 

would have entertained the idea of becoming an EE. 

There are competitions everywhere, but which 

ones actually come to you? ISA’s Young Automation 

Professional (YAP) program at its conference 

last year appeared to be a huge success. However, 

it reaches only a few, and really is geared to 

people already in the biz. 

I’d challenge ISA to encourage its local chapters 

and provide some budget money for them to put 

on a Fireball-type show. If each chapter finds a 

Gus or two, the rewards far outweigh any risk. 

I’m pretty sure Tiger Woods had no idea he 

could play golf as well as he does, but his father 

knew. Earl Woods arguably nurtured a young Tigger 

into a Tiger. How many people do you know 

whose kids follow in their footsteps? Mechanics, 

carpenters, doctors and the like. The engineering 

profession? Not so much. 

We don’t exalt the discoveries and innovations 

of engineering to draw people into it. Too many 

people watch plasma TVs, but they don’t care how 

the technology was developed. 

My brother is a mechanical PhD specializing in 

turbulence in T-junctions. Boring, eh? 

He works with the medical community to 

refine a delivery system for inhalers. Turbulence, 

you see, is the main reason most of the 

medicine doesn’t get absorbed. Now that’s not 

boring. But who will know? 

Engineering isn’t a pocket-protected, spectacled, 

white-shirted, problem-solving profession. 

It is a thought process about thinking generally, 

finding solutions and providing a big wow factor 

on the satisfaction meter. It offers reasonable pay, 

and it is very rewarding work. But who knew? 

Gerald Beaudoin is the automation coordinator 

for Leahy Orchards in Quebec. He sent me an 

email after reading a column I wrote. 

He believes that teaching technologies and engineering 

as the art of problem-solving at an early 

age is beneficial. He reduced his work week to three 

days so that he could work in the community. 

He started an after-school program for sixth 

graders that uses Lego’s Mindstorm platform to 

create a buzz in the technology-dormant minds of 

10- and 11-year-olds. 

“I’m just blown away by their interest, curiosity, 

determination and ability to use computers.” 

he wrote. “The Lego platform allows the 

students to fully explore the world of logic, 

Engineering isn’t a pocket-protected, 

spectacled, white-shirted, problemsolving 

profession. 

programming and basic mechanics.” 

His philosophy, he says, is to catch them young. 

He says that as we, the current holders of the guru 

bottleneck, begin to age and focus in a different 

direction, it is time to pass along some of our enthusiasm 

for our technologies and our careers. 

Maybe vendors can do more to create school 

programs to further an enthusiasm for technology 

in young minds. If McMaster can do it, then institutions, 

vendors and trade association can, too. 

I will be learning and sharing this year in my 

columns. First will be FPGAs and how they can 

work in discrete control. Other topics will include 

server-based HMIs, SQL vs. Access for database 

engines, VB-based HMI, wireless sensors, safetyrelated 

applications and more. Suggestions? 

jeremy Pollard has been writing about technology and 

software issues for many years. Publisher of The Software 

User Online, he has been involved in control system 

programming and training for more than 25 years. 

embedded intelligence 

Jeremy Pollard, CET • jpollard@tsuonline.com 


he customers of machine and robot builders 

demand more nowadays, from lower cost to 

higher performance and greater flexibility. 

Machine builders must meet those demands while 

dealing with inevitable internal constraints. 

The most important of these constraints is finding 

the right people to design and build their machines. 

“The availability of design engineering resources is 

a constraint to growth,” says Craig Souser, president 

of JLS Automation (www.jlsautomation.com) in York, 

Pa. JLS provides robotic-based automation systems 

for primary packaging applications, with a major 

focus on the food-processing segment. 

The push toward greater 

integration between IT and 

automation exacerbates the 

problem. “Our automation 

engineers need both IT and 

networking knowledge,” notes 

Ryan Thompson, automation 

“One needs to consider the entire scope of work.” 

So an automation professional needs to know automation, 

be strong in IT and understand the customer’s 

entire manufacturing process. It goes without saying 

that the best automation pros must also know their 

own machines and robots inside out. 

The brute-force way to deal with the resource constraint 

is to find a large number of superstars and hire 

them. This is, of course, extremely expensive to the 

point of not being entirely realistic. 

A more intelligent approach is to create machines 

that can be developed and maintained by fewer highly 

skilled automation pros using a team approach. These 

products are easier to build 

and simpler to maintain. This 

approach requires an entirely 

different method of designing 

machines, one that relies on 

standards and modules instead 

of custom designs. 

and electrical supervisor at 

Wolf-tec (www.wolf-tec.com) 

in Kingston, N.Y. Wolf-tec 

is an OEM in the meat and 

poultry and fish-processing 

industries. “We’ve discovered 

that more and more automation 

decisions are made by our 

customers’ IT departments,” 

adds Thompson. “Having 

people with an IT or computer 

programming background also 

Figure 1: Standards and modular design enable 

Haumiller’s approach to designing high-speed, 

Heroes Are 

Hard to Find 

Haumiller Engineering 

(www.haumiller.com), Elgin, 

Ill., carved out a niche in 

high-speed, automated assembly 

machines, often in 

the form of continuous motion 

(Figure 1). Haumiller’s 

top goal is reliable, accurate 

machines that exceed 

automated assembly machines so that, no matter 

helps us with newer technologies 

such as class and control production, the results should be the same. 

“But consistency is also 

performance expectations. 

who works on a project from engineering or 

development that have been a 

standard in computer programming and are starting 

to be used in machine programming. 

So machine builders need excellent automation 

engineers with IT experience, but that’s not enough. 

“Automation professionals need an understanding of 

the impact that their designs have in the manufacturing 

world,” says Robert McConnell, controls engineering 

manager at Kuka Systems (www.kuka-systems. 

com) in Sterling Heights, Mich. Kuka is a manufacturer 

and integrator of tooling and robotic applications. “It’s 

relatively easy for a controls engineer to design a new 

tool and hand it off to manufacturing, but to take an 

existing tool and provide a design that simplifies installation 

takes a bit more foresight,” adds McConnell. 

important,” says Pat Phillips, 

Haumiller’s engineering manager. “No matter who 

works on a project from engineering or production, 

the results should be the same. So standards and 

modular design become even more important.” 

Phillips says it can be very difficult to design or 

construct machine modules or segments in advance. 

“What we can do, however, is document and 

use standard methods to execute specific controls 

and design tasks, to debug our processes in-house 

and to handle customer changes.” 

Besides the standard methods it follows, Phillips says 

Haumiller is lucky to have a very robust experience repository. 

“This isn’t just people,” he states. “It’s drawings 

and solutions logged over 45 years in the high-speed, 

Haumiller

BRADBURY 

Figure 2: Bradbury’s Quick Telescopic Rollformer, designed and built using an approach called “total system control,” 

produces purlins used in the construction of metal buildings. 

continuous motion business. If we get a project, often 

we have ideas for solutions in the first five minutes. 

While custom solutions are most of what we do, prior 

methods and solutions are often applicable, lowering 

the risk of an automated assembly project.” 

Designing a custom machine for each project is the 

most straightforward and often lowest-cost method of 

producing a product. The product does only what it’s 

supposed to do and no more. 

“Unfortunately, single-purpose 

custom machines that 

can’t be retrofitted easily for 

different applications are not 

saleable,” says Pavel Bouška, 

area sales manager for 

Velteko CZ (www.velteko.cz) 

in the Czech Republic. Velteko makes vertical form fill 

and seal packaging machines and accessories. 

Standards Require Investment 

Bradbury (www.bradburygroup.com) in Moundridge, 

Kan., builds machines for metal forming and coil processing, 

with its largest customers in the metal building 

and garage door industries (Figure 2). It calls its 

approach “total system control.” It consists of a control 

solution framework, a control system architecture and 

control solution standards. 

The control solution framework identifies project 

deliverables, milestones and team member responsibilities. 

The control system’s architecture defines the hardware 

components, software components and communications, 

as well as the overall design and construction of 

the automation system. The control solution standards 

are based on collective years of internal controls experience, 

along with industry standards and best practices. 

“Our team members work together to develop a 

solution that we all can maintain and support,” sums 

up Larry Asher, controls engineering manager at 

Bradbury. “It’s a process designed to make us more 

efficient by reusing existing 

solutions. Designing a 

system for reuse requires 

more time up front, since 

you have to consider all 

known variations and do 

your best to predict the 

future. This is an overwhelming 

task if there are no limits, so it’s necessary 

to have a vision for your automation system and 

everything you want it to be.” 

Companies have different labels for their standards 

programs, but all agree that significant investment is 

required. “We invest a lot of up-front time to develop 

highly structured intelligent systems,” notes Tim 

Jager, project director at DMC (www.dmcinfo.com), a 

system integrator based in Chicago. “We use an object-oriented 

approach to software design, including 

modularity, encapsulation of code and well-organized 

data structures. We take the time to design each system 

so that it can be reused easily.” 

Reusability is a clear objective for machine builders. 

“The goal of automation builders for the past 


® 

three decades has been to be able 

to draw from a set of standards to 

create custom solutions,” says Chris 

Lovendahl, sales manager, Concep 

Machine, Northbrook, Ill. “Market 

forces also contribute to this need, 

among them the compression of the 

manufacturing phase in the schedules 

for new product launches, price 

pressures from adoption of online, 

reverse-auction purchasing by the 

automotive industry and migration 

of engineering talent from traditional 

manufacturing jobs to hightech 

manufacturing jobs.” 

Technology has contributed to 

the promotion of standardization 

at Concep in several ways. “Tremendous 

advances in CAD—from 

replication of drafting in electronic 

2D to streamlined, fast 3D—have 

reduced the need for engineering 

rework of parts that interfere or do 

not fit together in the build phase,” 

says Lovendahl. “Plug-and-play 

device technology enables simpler 

bus connection of the hundreds 

of devices that are integrated in a 

custom machine (Figure 3). Further, 

the solid models make it simple to 

add them to the CAD design.” 

Avoiding proprietary solutions 

helps customers reduce maintenance 

costs. “For our application, 

we need a controller with flexibility 

and programmability,” says 

Amir Khajepour, founder and president 

of AEMK Systems, Waterloo, 

Ontario, and also a professor in 

the Department of Mechanical 

and Mechatronics Engineering at 

the University of Waterloo. AEMK 

(www.aemksystems.com) makes 

high-speed cable robots with an 

optional vision control system 

for use in flexible and fixtureless 

automation lines (Figure 4). These 

robots have arms made of steel cables 

instead of rigid metal, thereby 

reducing moving inertia, cutting 

cost and lowering maintenance. 

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“We also require compatibility with a wide range 

of digital and analog input/output cards, motor drives 

and encoders,” adds Khajepour. AEMK uses off-theshelf 

components, including Beckhoff Automation 

controllers and drives. 

Creating standard robots that can be deployed in a 

wide variety of applications requires up-front effort. 

“Parallel robots have complex kinematics, so we’ve 

developed our own controller loops to maximize robot 

performance. These loops were developed using an offthe-shelf 

controller along with its PID and input/output 

libraries,” concludes Khajepour. 

A case in point for standardized modular solutions is 

a recent project DMC completed for a Tier-1 automotive 

engine assembly-line equipment supplier. A bare engine 

block starts at the beginning of an assembly line 

and makes its way through each station, ultimately 

ending up as a complete engine. At each station one or 

more components are added to the engine. 

The challenging aspect of the process is that each 

engine can be different. A particular make of car could 

have 20 or more different engine combinations. Depending 

on an engine’s build manifest, each station in the 

assembly line might have to perform different actions. 

“We wrote a highly modular and flexible system from 

the ground up that didn’t require a programmer for 

software maintenance,” says Jager. “All of the sequencing 

logic is user-configurable and stored in a recipe 

system. The end user can modify any of the sequences 

completely by using an intuitive configuration screen in 

the software. When sequence changes are requested, 

the user simply goes to the sequence editor page and 

makes the appropriate 

changes, often in 

a matter of minutes.” 

The code itself, 

adds Jager, was written 

in such a modular 

fashion that the 

exact same base 

code is now used in 

five different production facilities making completely 

different products: engines, instrument panels, wheels, 

consoles and cooling modules. “This is virtually unheard 

of in the industry,” claims Jager. “The customer 

now can deploy new production lines without our help. 

We’ve encapsulated complex functionality into reusable 

functions that don’t require advanced programming 

capabilities for deployment.” 

Rare is the case in which Haumiller can reuse a 

complete existing design—except for the standard 

1. Ability to develop designs from scratch 

2. Willingness to give heroic individual effort 

3. Ability to work independently 

4. In-depth knowledge of wide range of 

technologies 

5. A big ego 

CONCEP 

Figure 3: The goal of custom machine builder Concep Machine, for the 

past three decades, has been to draw from a set of standards to create 

high-performing solutions. 

product line that accounts for about 25% of its business. 

“When we can reuse a portion, it often is for an 

existing customer where the machine is going to the 

same plant,” says Phillips. “Often our customers have 

greatly differing specs from plant to plant for virtually 

the same piece of equipment.” 

However, adds Phillips, even though it is extremely 

rare that Haumiller would ever repeat an existing 

machine, “we’re always repeating methods, modules, 

programming and other ways of doing things. The 

trick is to have a system that uses pieces from previous 

machines, projects and customers.” 

Standard electrical schematic blocks, logic blocks 

and an index provide reference to data and shared 

institutional knowledge, “whether you’ve been with 

the company for years or only recently,” says Phillips. 

“When we get a project in house, the first thing we go 

to is our reference index and menus to look for programming 

similar to what we’ll need. For some aspects 

of a new system, we can reuse a previous design or 

solution.” Direct reuse, he admits, represents a small 

percentage of any new project. 

“Next, we see where we can modify an existing design, 

which helps control costs and lower risk on custom 

projects for both Haumiller and the customer,” adds 


AEMK 

Figure 4: AEMK’s high-speed cable robot for use in flexible and 

fixtureless automation lines requires compatability with a wide 

range of off-the-shelf components. 

Phillips. “Finally, we look at what needs to be designed 

from scratch. It’s important to identify these items right 

away as they become top priority when it comes to designing, 

building and testing each new function.” 

Team Players Needed 

Besides investment, standards programs also require a 

different type of employee mentality. 

“This is not a black-and-white topic, but rather a general 

goal that needs to be agreed upon and reinforced 

and monitored,” believes Phillips. “Creative people will 

tend by nature to customize 100% if not coached on the 

benefits of reusing a percentage of existing designs.” 

Sometimes, adds Phillips, the customer needs to 

be educated that with some specification concessions, 

complexity can be reduced and costs lowered. 

“A simple design change sometimes can transform a 

project from one that’s mostly from scratch to one in 

which many concepts from previous projects are reused. 

Careful collaboration between the customer and 

our team will help reveal these opportunities and see if 

they make sense in each specific instance.” 

CBW Automation (www.cbwautomation.com) in 

Fort Collins, Colo., manufactures high-speed retrieval 

systems for injection-molding applications. Vice president 

of customer support Steve Corwine describes how 

teamwork enables reuse of automation know-how at 

his company by “using standard designs and existing 

components and merging them to complete a unit, 

per the requirements of the project. Standards allow 

us to use junior designers 

instead of senior 

engineers. The more 

senior personnel 

are freed to do more 

advanced design for 

custom systems such 

as complex end-ofarm 

tooling.” 

Reusing standards 

requires the team 

player to work with 

others across the industry, and reuse of know-how 

created elsewhere requires engineers to put aside 

ego and appreciate that many of the best solutions 

already exist. But does resuse somehow limit creativity 

and innovation? “I’ve found the opposite to 

be true,” observes Bradbury’s Asher. “We now have 

more time for innovation vs. redesigning the same 

old functionality over and over again.” 

Mad Skills 

1. Ability to work with others 

2. Discipline to use standards 

3. Understanding of modular programming 

4. Cross-training throughout company 

5. Knowledge of industry standards 

6. Knowledge of available products 

7. Humility 

To deal with skill sets needed by machine automation 

engineers to reuse existing best practices, and which 

might differ from those needed for completely new designs, 

Concep’s engineers work on both types of projects 

at some point. “As I mentioned, the development of new 

programs requires that our engineers be experienced 

with developing programs that can be used in the future 

with as little additional engineering as possible,” says 

Lovendahl. “So those new programs rely on prior engineering 

experience. Most of the time, our less-senior 

engineers start by learning our engineering practices 

through the projects that only need modification to 

existing programming. With time, they move on to writing 

new programming. In addition, development of new 

programming is an enjoyable task for our experienced 

engineers who like a change of pace in their project 

loads or want to update themselves to what is going on 

the industry by looking at the state of the art.” 

Phillips doesn’t see much difference in skill sets, 

saying “it’s the recordkeeping system that makes 

reference and documentation of existing designs 

essential. The discipline to correctly document all 

designs is vital. This has to be a cultural goal within 

the company.” 


“Okay. So we’re not in the 

wedded bliss business.” 

But how about a series of one-on-one 

problem-solving sessions, designed specifically 

to address your most pressing automation 

needs? In the weeks leading up to 

AutomationXchange, our editors will put you 

through a rigorous needs evaluation process, 

identifying solution providers 

best suited to your particular automation 

priorities. Network with 

your peers, share best practices, 

and hear ideas for solving your 

specific automation problems – 

all in a first-class setting. Come 

to AutomationXchange and find 

out why, for a growing number 

of industry leaders, it’s how the 

business of automation gets done. 

AUTOMATIONXCHANGE 

SOLUTION PROVIDER PROFILE 

Among the industry-leading solution providers 

represented at AutomationXchange 2010 

is Eaton Corporation, global manufacturer of 

a broad range of power management products 

for industrial applications. Eaton’s solutions 

include a complete line of motor protection, 

control and logic devices—all the latest 

in technology. From contactors, starters and 

drives to pushbuttons, programmable controllers 

and operator interface, trust Eaton to deliver 

the products and solutions that will make 

your process more efficient and effective. 

AUGUST 8-11, 2010 PARK CITY, UTAH 

For more information on attending AutomationXchange, 

contact Andy Wuebben, Executive Director, at 952.224.7640

MEASUREMENT, SENSING & VISION 

See More Machine Applications 

Vision System Expands Capabilities of Food Decorating Printer by Allowing It 

to Handle More Delicate Product 

by Thomas Houterman, PhD, De Grood Innovations 

DE GROOD INNOVATIONS is a family-owned and 

-operated business that specializes in machining 

and constructing stainless steel, ferrous and nonferrous 

metals and plastics into parts for the medical, 

industrial and food industries. 

Shortly after joining the business four years ago, 

Pascal de Grood, managing director, spoke with a 

potential customer who was looking for a printer that 

could print chocolate on pastries. 

De Grood previously worked for a Dutch research 

institute and developed printer heads for industrial 

applications. With his knowledge of printing, he 

saw possibilities for food manufacturers and began 

working on a prototype that could digitally print 

custom-designed, edible, high-viscosity decorations 

onto mass-produced food products. This food printer 

also would need to quickly switch from one decoration 

or design to another and from one food product 

to another with minimal production downtime. 

Entrepreneurial Spirit 

Initially, de Grood conducted the design work in his 

spare time, spending a year developing and testing 

the printer head. He spent the next two years 

optimizing the system. During that time, De Grood 

received patents for the technology in Europe and 

North America. 

“We invested three years and a lot of money, which 

was not an easy feat for a small business,” says de 

Grood. “But we managed, and our first machines generated 

a lot of interest from potential customers.” 

SEEING IS ICING 

Adding a vision system to an existing machine 

can enable it to handle new applications, such 

as identifying and positioning delicate pastries 

so icing can be applied in printed patterns. Which 

applications have you expanded by adding vision? 

Explain them at www.ControlDesign.com/icing. 

ALL THE FOOD THAT’S 

FIT TO PRINT 

Figure 1: The FoodJet printer deposits materials such as icing 

onto food substrates at up to 30 dpi. The accuracy of the 

printer with the smart camera is better than ±1 mm. 

The FoodJet printer is designed to have a low 

maintenance requirement, ease of cleaning and low 

price per droplet, targeting primarily bakeries and 

manufacturers of ice cream and dairy products. The 

FoodJet printer is designed to deposit a variety of thick 

food materials such as frosting or yogurt onto food 

substrates (Figure 1). The system’s series of pneumatic 

membrane nozzle jets deposits small drops onto the 

moving food products. These drops then form a digital 

image in the shape of a decoration or a surface fill. 

Decorating requires higher resolution and smaller 

nozzle or droplet size, while filling can be done using 

big drops and lower resolution. 

Configurable Printing System 

The FoodJet printer has a flexible, modular architecture 

that can be configured to any production process. 

This allows for a vast number of decorating and filling 

options. Changing the angle between the printer head 

and movement direction of the conveyor allows the 

resolution to be set. Using heads behind one another 

DE GROOD INNOVATIONS 



WHAT’S YOUR ANGLE? 

Figure 2: Changing the angle between the printer head and movement direction of 

the conveyor allows the resolution to be set. Using heads behind one another permits 

multicolor printing. Placing heads next to each other allows for a wider working area. 

permits multicolor printing, where 

colors are applied in different layers 

on top of each other (Figure 2). 

Placing heads next to each other 

allows for a wider working area. 

While the physical placement 

of the printer head offers a lot of 

possible configurations, other variables 

like nozzles, pressure and 

dispensing time also increase the 

printing possibilities. 

Two PLCs control the printer and 

the means to program the various 

dispensing-pattern options is 

a homegrown solution, explains 

de Grood. Proximity switches and 

photocells are used for alignment. 

The speed of the printer can be up 

to 30 m/min with resolution to 30 

dpi. The system has a reaction time 

of 200 µs. And with camera, the 

system accuracy is better than ±1 

mm. The HMI allows the operator to 

choose product, pressure and shutter 

times of valves. However, the 

camera runs autonomously. 

Overnight Mode 

Typical for the food industry, many 

products need to be manufactured 

continuously, and, once a process 

stops, the machine needs to be 

shut down and cleaned because 

products cool down and harden 

or dry. “The FoodJet printer is a 

closed system, which prevents the 

product from drying or cooling,” 

explains de Grood. “This means 

that it has no problem standing idle 

for hours or even overnight.” 

The traditional food decorating 

method is manual application or, 

if the process is automated, using 

masks and mechanical restraints. 

Area filling is done by applying 

a liquid curtain under which the 

food products are moved on a 

mesh conveyor. Another filling 

method involves partially submerging 

the products in a bath to 

apply the substance. 

The baths and curtain processes 

require an extensive cleaning 

procedure when switching , for example, 

to a different color frosting 

or switching from milk chocolate 

to dark chocolate. Because the 

FoodJet printer is a closed system, 

the switch can be done by connecting 

the reservoir with the new 


MEASUREMENT, SENSING & VISION 

LOOP POWERED 

> 2O MODELS (3 PATENTS) 

product and flushing the system 

before connecting the return flow 

to the reservoir. “A closed system 

prevents mixing of product 

ingredients or environmental 

contamination to ensure the best 

possible hygiene and food safety,” 

says de Grood. “One of our customers 

reduced the time it took him to 

switch between decoration fluids 

by 90%, as he no longer needed to 

spend four or five hours cleaning 

his machine. The transition time 

with the FoodJet printer now only 

takes several minutes.” 

Machine Vision 

The addition of a machine vision 

option to the FoodJet printer came 

about after a customer approached 

De Grood with an application 

where the food product needed to 

be aligned mechanically so it could 

be decorated properly. 

“A lot of bakery products would 

be almost impossible to handle 

by the FoodJet printer if it did not 

offer a vision option,” explains 

de Grood. “These include fragile 

products that get damaged if 

handled too much by mechanical 

means for alignment and products 

with non-uniform shapes. 

Both of these situations can be 

The software allowed De Grood to create a flow chart 

of the application instead of coding programs or scripts. 

This eliminates the need to program in any standard 

programming language like Basic, C, C++ or C#. 

GRADES: 

INDUSTRIAL 

MIL-SPEC 

*10CFR50 

*EPRI 102323 

NUCLEAR 

A.C. SIGNAL POWERED 

> 2O MODELS (2 PATENTS) 

D. C. (V& mA) SIGNAL 

POWERED (1 PATENT) 


MOISTUREPROOF HOUSING 

Figure 3: The IP67-rated housing was welcomed since it made for easy integration in 

the system, without the need for additional protection against moisture. 

solved by the vision system, 

which measures the product’s 

exact position and dimension.” 

The vision system also allows 

for switching between food 

products, with no need to change 

mechanical alignment tools or 

other sensors to work with a larger 

or differently shaped product. 

The FoodJet’s vision system is 

based on a Matrox Iris GT smart 

camera. The application was developed 

with Matrox Design Assistant, 

an integrated development environcontroldesign.com 

February 2010 Control Design 37 

INTELLIGENT INSTRUMENTS 

4016 E. Tennessee Street 

Tucson, Arizona 85714 

(520) 748-7900 

Toll Free: 1-877-BAR-OTEK 

Fax: (520) 790-2828 

Email: sales@otekcorp.com 

www.otekcorp.com

Measurement, Sensing & Vision 

ment that runs on a PC and then uploads 

to the camera. The software 

allowed De Grood to create a flow 

chart of the application instead of 

coding programs or scripts. This 

eliminates the need to program in 

any standard programming language 

like Basic, C, C++ or C#. 

A number of Design Assistant 

tools or flow-chart steps were 

used. The location and size of 

products need to be measured, so 

calibration of the system is necessary. 

Image processing filters, blob 

analysis and model-finder—geometric 

pattern recognition—steps 

were also used to get the required 

results. “The flow chart is configured 

and tested in Design Assistant 

and then uploaded to the 

camera,” explains de Grood. 

With the software, you create 

an application by constructing a 

flow chart from ready-made or 

custom tools instead of writing 

traditional program code, explains 

Fabio Perelli, smart camera product 

manager for Matrox Imaging 

(www.matroximaging.com). “Once 

development is complete, the project, 

or flow chart, is uploaded and 

stored locally on the Matrox Iris 

GT smart camera,” he says. “The 

project is then executed on the 

smart camera independent of any 

PC and, in this case, is monitored 

and controlled from the PLC.” 

DVC (www.machinevision.nl), 

the Dutch distributor for Matrox 

Imaging, developed a custom step 

for communicating with the PLC. 

The ability to create custom steps 

is one of the features of the Matrox 

Design Assistant environment, 

“One of our customers reduced the time it took him to 

switch between decoration fluids by 90%, as he no longer 

needed to spend four or five hours cleaning his machine.” 

enabling users to insert application-specific 

logic on their own. 

This step calls an .exe file that DVC 

wrote for communicating with the 

PLC. The timing of the communication 

between the Iris GT smart 

camera and PLC is critical. 

“It took a while to get the 

camera and the PLC in sync, but 

after a day of tweaking, the communication 

ran very smoothly,” 

explains de Grood. 

Several smart camera vendors 

were evaluated, but Matrox assured 

de Grood that the application 

was possible and the Iris GT’s 

price was less than other alternatives, 

he explains. 

It also offered the IP67 form 

factor de Grood wanted. “The 

IP67-rated housing makes for 

easy integration in the system, 

without the need for additional 

protection against moisture,” he 

says (Figure 3). “To keep the system 

as compact as possible, we 

wanted to have the camera and 

processing combined into one 

package.” The printers also link 

back to the enterprise system, 

offering the possibility of full 

remote assistance worldwide. 

Thomas Houterman, PhD, is system 

engineer at De Grood Innovations 

(www.foodjet.nl) in Nijmegen, 

Netherlands. 

controldesign.com

Safety and Control Converge 

Some revolutions take a while to get moving. 

It’s been more than a few years since the 

National Fire Protection Assn. (NFPA) amended its 

NFPA-79 regulations to allow safety and control 

communications on the same network, but it took 

longer for suppliers to release updated programmable 

safety controllers, and it’s taking even 

longer for users to adopt them. 

“Because it’s about safety, people are even 

more hesitant to change what they did in the 

past,” says Jeff Gellendin, Rockwell Automation’s 

(www.rockwellautomation.com) product 

manager for safety PLCs. “However, when they 

see the potential savings in setup, maintenance 

and troubleshooting, then attitudes begin to 

change. For example, a machine that can show 

which gate is open can be up and running again 

more quickly. This usually takes a lot more 

time and work because problems are harder to 

find, and so users just shut everything down. 

Now, once the light bulb goes on, they might 

add a safety controller in a pilot project and 

then convert more lines.” 

This acceptance and growing emergence of programmable 

safety controllers enable suppliers to 

bring safety and control components together in 

more closely unified devices, explains Christian 

Vitale, Turck’s (www.turck.com) senior product 

manager for network I/O. Turck has been drawn 

further into safety technologies by its recent partnership 

with Bihl+Wiedemann, which designed 

its own AS-i safety monitor. The AS-i protocol’s 

Safety at Work specification uses its physical 

layer to transmit and receive safety signals on the 

same wire as standard communications. 

“Users want their machines to be safe, but they 

also want more data on everything from uptime 

to e-stops, and old safety systems don’t have the 

data to do it,” says Vitale. “So, where we used to 

need multiple devices to collect data, process it 

safely and transmit it to higher levels, we now 

can do it all in one device.” 

Mike Carlson, Banner Engineering’s (www. 

bannerengineering.com) safety product marketing 

manager, adds, “About five or six years ago, a middle 

area opened up for safety controllers that were 

easier to configure, that had more straightforward 

software and that could do safety PLC functions 

without a lot of complexity. Now, the most recent 

push by these devices is into the safety bus worlds, 

using DeviceNet Safety or Profisafe.” 

Gellendin believes that most people love the idea 

of co-joining control and safety. “Once they get their 

heads around having third-party safety certification 

by an organization like TÜV, users learn they can 

take it at face value and run with it and put their 

machines together much more easily,” he says. “So, 

instead of having a separate safety controller with 

separate software, and instead of having to do a second 

set of safety tags to corresponding tags in the 

controller database, customers implement one controller, 

one software package and one tag database, 

and they can cut their development times in half.” 

Gellendin says programmable safety controllers 

aren’t adding many new core capabilities these 

days, but they are easier to implement with predefined 

instructions for e-stops and light curtains 

and with pre-configured HMI faceplates that make 

it easier to see what’s going on in the safety system. 

In the future, he says Rockwell Automation will 

push GuardLogix’s integrated safety functions ever 

lower into the overall control platform. 

“Customers implement one controller, 

one software package and one tag 

database, and they can cut their 

development times in half.” 

Mark Nehrkorn, Omron STI’s (www.sti.com) 

division manager for safety integration, adds that 

programmable safety controllers are taking off 

along with the rise in Ethernet-based control in 

automation. “Automation end users and OEMs 

finally see a reason to use integrated safety platforms 

with general automation and welcome in 

this technology to help them solve problems,” says 

Nehkorn. “For instance, safety screens that used 

to run off to the side of the regular process screens 

are now integrated and run safety I/O, general purpose 

I/O, configuration and reporting all seamlessly 

together. We develop a lot of end-user systems 

and retrofit a lot of process lines and machinery to 

meet safety standards, and now we can augment 

the control system and its process by seamlessly 

interweaving the safety layer with it.” 

When machine builders create new equipment, 

they can add safety at the beginning, which is a 

lot better than doing it later, says Nehkorn. 

techflash 

Jim Montague • executive editor • jmontague@putman.net 


cdroundup@putman.net 

PRODUCT ROUNDUP 

Daylight-Ready and Web-Based 

HMIs Continue to Move Data Into the Most Convenient Places 

Virtually, any HMI application 

can benefit from a Webbased 

HMI software solution, 

says Rocco Colauto, president 

of Kaspro Group (www.kasprousa.com). 

“The usability of 

the Web interface is related or 

tied to the type of information 

being manipulated,” he says. 

“However, local HMI operation 

and Web-based HMI operation 

are not mutually exclusive. 

For example, screens designed 

for the local operation, such 

as starting and stopping the 

machine, are usually useful 

only on the local station 

where the operator can control 

the operation. However, the 

same application can provide 

other screens that are used to 

calibrate the machine from 

Web browsers hosted in mobile 

devices like PDAs, which can 

be conveniently carried by the 

operator to the specific physical 

location where the calibration 

is being done.” 

Automation systems benefiting 

from a Web-browser-based 

HMI include applications requiring 

connectivity to equipment 

in remote locations or machines 

in unmanned areas of a manufacturing 

facility, says Paul 

Ruland, product marketing— 

automation systems, Siemens 

Industry (www.usa.siemens. 

com/automation). “This accessibility 

enables diagnostics, 

alarming, reporting and even 

control in some cases,” he says. 

“It also provides more accurate 

troubleshooting while greatly 

reducing the need for on-site 

maintenance support.” 

Applications that benefit 

most from Web-browser-based 

HMI/SCADA solutions don’t require 

constant monitoring and 

are accessed only on demand, 

says Kyle Reissner, product 

marketing manager, GE Intelligent 

Platforms (www.ge-ip. 

com). “These typically control 

or monitor simplistic systems 

where tag counts are relatively 

low and have no dedicated access 

terminals,” he says. “When 

something of note occurs, such 

as an alarm or a warning, the 

HMI/SCADA system enunciates 

it through automatic emails or 

text messaging, and the HMI 

is launched on demand by the 

technicians for debug.” 

However, there is a place 

for mixing Web-based and 

traditional thick clients into 

mid- to large-scale HMI/SCADA 

systems, says Reissner. “Businesses 

typically do this to 

expand the usage of the HMI/ 

SCADA system, enable instant 

ad hoc access for their mobile 

employees and streamline client 

licensing,” he says. 

VTS SOFTWARE 

VTS 9.1 monitoring and control 

system software builds upon 

event-driven execution, combined 

with optional support for 

64-bit processors. Fully tested 

for Windows 7, the software 

also supports up to 2 GB of additional 

memory for 32-bit versions 

of VTS. Up to 30 users can 

be notified sequentially until 

the alarm is acknowledged. The 

enhanced WAP interface allows 

remote updates of analog 

control values and significant 

digits for analog displays. 

Trihedral; 800/463-2783; 

www.trihedral.com 

TRANSFLECTIVE LCD 

15 in. flat panel monitors with 

transflective LCD technology 

are available as a UL-listed 

Class I, Div. 2, devices. These 

flat panel monitors are rated 

for use in temperatures ranging 

from -10 °C to 55 °C. They accept 

standard VGA or NTSC inputs 

from a PC or video camera 

source. They can multi-sync to 

any standard video mode from 

640x480 to 1600x1200 at scan 

rates from 60 to 75 Hz. 

Pepperl+Fuchs; 330/486-0002; 

www.pepperl-fuchs.com 

RUNTIME-FREE 

.NET HMI development components 

add realistic control panel 

look and feel to Visual Studio. 

NET applications by simulating 

buttons, switches, lights, meters, 

gauges, sliders, panels and 

displays. Point-click configuration 

gives custom applications 

a real-world feel. The solution 


is designed to speed operator 

training and acceptance. The 

software works on touchscreen 

PCs. It allows runtime free licensing 

for custom applications. 

Free trial version is available. 

Software Toolbox; 704/849-2773; 

www.industrialgadgets.net 

HMI DEVELOPMENT 

PAC Display Windows-based 

HMI development application 

can create graphical interfaces 

that mimic a process. Support 

for alarm management, recipe 

handling, operator logging, 

real-time and historical trending, 

multimedia and unlimited 

tags are included. 

be installed to scale the total 

application to a larger distributed 

architecture. iFIX WebSpace 

screens are ported instantly from 

the iFIX application. The iFIX 

WebSpace is created as a fullfeatured 

HMI/SCADA client. 

GE Intelligent Platforms; 

800/433-2682; www.ge-ip.com 

TOUCH PANEL PC 

TPC-1780H is a versatile fanless 

Touch Panel PC with a Core 2 

Duo CPU, 17-in. SXGA TFT LCD, 

ultra-slim design (only 3.66-in. 

depth) and a die-cast aluminum 

front panel. The TPC-1780H has 

one expansion slot to allow RS- 

422/485, PCI-104, CAN-bus and 

more to be connected. It uses a 

personnel need mobility, realtime 

graphics, system monitoring, 

interaction and troubleshooting 

come pre-installed 

with Windows XP, InTouch 10.0 

software and 3000 Tag Runtime 

license. Optional versions 

are offered depending on the 

regional integrated wireless LAN 

IEEE802.11a/b/g requirements for 

Americas or EU. 

Invensys/Wonderware; 949/727- 

3200; www.wonderware.com 

CONNECTION OPTIONS 

Magelis XBT GC HMI is designed 

to streamline setup, integration 

and use by adapting 

to the typology of a machine 

with three screen types and a 

choice of connection options 

(USB, serial link, CANopen 

and Ethernet). It reduces the 

number of electrical diagrams 

and uses the Telefast quick- 


Opto 22; 951/695-opto; 

www.opto22.com 

WEBSPACE 

Proficy HMI/SCADA—iFIX 

WebSpace, a Web client for the 

iFIX visualization solution, is 

designed to enable informed decisions 

from anywhere, anytime. 

This application has flexible 

configuration topologies and features 

the ability to be installed 

on an independent dedicated 

server or on the main iFIX server. 

Multiple WebSpace servers can 

low-voltage processor and heat 

sink to achieve a fanless design 

and has a NEMA4/IP65 front 

panel. The TPC-1780H provides 

multiple standard communication 

ports. 

Advantech; 800/205-7940; 

www.advantech.com/ea 

MOBILE HMI 

Tablets for mobile HMI users 

where operators or maintenance 

connect wiring system. The 

Magelis XBT GC uses a single 

HMI to control application 

downloads via USB key and a 

mounting system that is interchangeable 

with the Magelis 

XBT GT terminals. 

Schneider Electric; 847/397-2600; 

www.schneider-electric.us 



G3 OI 

G3GSM modem card allows the 

G3 operator interface products 

to communicate with operators 

via cellular technology. The 

expansion card is configured 

with Red Lion’s free Crimson 

software and uses a SIM card. 

The modem card includes a 

built-in Web server, allows 

viewing of the same screens 

that are displayed on the G3 or 

viewing of data only or logged 

files, the ability to upload/download 

G3 databases without being 

on-site and an auto-dial function 

to send out alarm or event 

information via text message. 

Red Lion Controls; 717/767-6511; 

www.redlion.net 

FACTORYTALK 

FactoryTalk View Machine 

Edition (ME) and FactoryTalk 

View Site Edition (SE) version 

5.1 software, along with the 

FactoryTalk ViewPoint software, 

allow for remote monitoring of 

manufacturing processes from 

an Internet browser. Both FactoryTalk 

View ME and FactoryTalk 

View SE visualization software 

include operating system support 

for Windows XP Service 

Pack 3, Windows Vista Business 

Edition and Windows Server 

2008. The FactoryTalk View ME 

software also supports Windows 

Vista Home Basic. An application 

documenter provides 

comprehensive documentation 

of HMI applications. 

Rockwell Automation; 

414/382-2000; 

www.rockwellautomation.com 

EZ HMI 

EZ SE Series offers 10.4-in. TFT 

color with Ethernet IP for SLC 

500, MicroLogix, ControlLogix, 

CompactLogix with array support. 

Field-selectable Ethernet 

protocols include Ethernet IP, 

Modbus TCP/IP, SRTP, Direct- 

Logix K-Sequence and EZIP. 

EZAutomation; 877/774-easy; 

www.ezautomation.net 

POWER PANEL 

Power Panel PP45 uses Ethernet 

and X2X Link for its communication 

system. These devices 

have been equipped with a slot 

for interface cards. Depending 

on the requirement, the power 

panel can be expanded using 

CAN bus, Profibus DP or RS485/ 

RS232. All components and the 

5.7-in. QVGA LCD display are 

contained within a compact 

housing. B/W or color displays 

are available, optionally with 

function keys or a touchscreen. 

The PP45 is operated fan-free 

and is front-side IP65-protected. 

B&R Industrial Automation; 

770/772-0400; 

www.br-automation.com 

5.7-IN. DISPLAY 

Control panels and panel PCs 

with 5.7-in. displays feature 

rugged aluminum fronts with 

IP65-rated protection. These 

panels, with resolution of 640 x 

480 pixels, are available in versions 

from a basic control-panel 

display without processor to a 

compact PC controller with an 

integrated Intel Atom CPU. All 

panel PCs are equipped with a 

3½-in. motherboard and can be 

expanded with a Compact Flash 

card. The operating range for all 

types of panels is 32–131 °F. 

Beckhoff Automation; 952/890- 

0000; www.beckhoff.com 

DAYLIGHT READABLE 

Engineered with transflective 

technology, the MP 377 15-in. 

HMI includes a UV-protected exterior 

and 3-mm-thick glass that 

resists sunlight discoloration 

and ensures a rugged IP66 environmental 

rating for outdoor installation. 

The HMI comes with 

a TFT color display and built-in 

Profinet/Ethernet and Profibus/ 

MPI communication ports. The 


panel includes two USB ports 

for peripheral connection to 

flash drives, keyboard, mouse 

or printer and 12 MB of onboard 

application memory that can be 

expanded with an integrated SD 

memory slot or CF card slot. 

Siemens Industry; 800/964-4114; 

www.usa.siemens.com/tiadisplays 

WIDE SUPPORT 

GP-Pro EX v. 2.2 HMI application 

development software has 

multimedia capability, remote 

PC access, high-speed device 

linking and built-in controllogic 

editor. The software 

speeds application development 

for OEMs and end users 

who need to standardize on 

one HMI package that supports 

Windows-based systems and 

dedicated operator interfaces. 

Pro-face America; 734/429-4971; 

www.profaceamerica.com 

C-MORE 

C-more operator interfaces line 

includes 6-in. TFT color panels 

with LED backlights. The base 

model EA7-T6CL-R panel is a 

320x240 resolution QVGA display, 

which supports up to 65536 

colors. The analog resistive 

touchscreen supports unlimited 

touch areas, two USB ports, serial 

PLC interface (RS-232/422/485) 

and 10 MB project memory. The 

panel is equipped with an LED 

backlight with a 50000-hour 

half-life. Additional capabilities 

on the full-feature EA7-T6CL 

unit include an Ethernet 10/100 

base-T communication port, 

remote Internet access and data 

logging. Both panels are NEMA 

4/4X, IP65 compliant. 

AutomationDirect; 770/889-2858; 

www.automationdirect.com/c-more 

CUSTOMIZE YOUR HMI 

Touch panel deployment option 

adds decision-making capabilities 

to an HMI using LabView 

analysis and logic functionality. 

Use built-in presentation tools to 

display vital information to operators 

and communicate through 

the shared variable, TCP/IP and 

other protocols. Program HMI, as 

well as your NI programmable 

automation controller (PAC). It 

targets touch panel computers 

running Windows CE devices 

such as the NI TPC-2006. 


National Instruments; 

800/258-7022; www.ni.com


OPERATOR INTERFACES 

5.7-in. HG2G operator interfaces 

measure 35-mm deep, have a 

monochrome or 256-color touchscreen 

display and come with 2 

Macro programming handles 

applications, storing and manipulating 

trends, data and communications 

bewteen PLCs. The 

multi-language interface in three 

models has blue-mode, grayscale 

(1920x1200) with analog and 

digital input sources. It has a 

16:10 aspect ratio, 250 nits of 

brightness, 160° viewing angles 

and a contrast of 1000:1. Units 

have anti-reflective, tempered 

glass protective overlay or 

MB memory. An optional built-in 

or color screen versions. 

capacitive touchscreen. 

Ethernet port allows remote 

Omega Engineering; 203/359-1660; 

Stealth.com; 888/stealth; 

communication with PLCs. 

www.omega.com 

www.stealth.com 

IDEC; 800/262-4332; 

www.idec.com/usa 

HMI ON THE RUN 

POWERVIEW 

Fanless Panel PCs 

QTerm-G58 wireless, batterypowered, 

mobile industrial HMI 

PowerView operator interfaces 

from 4.3 in. up to 15 in. are pow- 

Gold Series 10-, 15-, and 17-in. 

handheld computer uses a 200 

ered by 24 Vdc and use TFT LCDs 

fanless panel PCs have Intel 

MHz processor and a transflec- 

and analog-resistive touch- 

processors and Windows XP 

screens. The units are fan-less, 

Pro. The panels draw less 

disk-less and have NEMA 4/IP65 

power, produce less heat and 

sealed panel mount front panels. 

prevent particulates from 

ViewBuilder 8000 development 

system is free with each unit. All 

tive color TFT display. Interfaces 

include EIA-232/422/485 and 

10/100 BaseT Ethernet. Memory 

is up to 32 MB SDRAM, 8 MB 

NOR flash, or 8 GB NAND flash. 

NEMA 12/14 are optional. It has 

are CE-marked, and most units 

being drawn into the unit and 

24- or 40-key steel dome mem- 

have UL/cUL approvals. 

operate in a sealed environ- 

brane keyboard with customiz- 

Nematron; 734/214-2000; 

ment with no air flow. Solid- 

able keypad legend and logo. 

www.nematron.com 

state hard drives are available. 

Maple Systems; 425/745-3229; 

QSI; 801/466-8700; 

www.qsicorp.com 

More, More, More 

www.maplesystems.com 

Find more HMIs from Beijer 

Electronics, Bosch Rexroth, 

WIDESCREEN MONITOR 

Kaspro Group, Kepware, 

TOUCHSCREEN 

HMI is a customizable, true 

analog touchscreen with programmable 

function buttons. 

Model SV-2400 24-in., NEMA 

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Can VFDs Work Like Stepper Motors? 

real answers 

RealAnswers@putman.net 

We’ve always used stepper motors in our 

semiconductor processing machinery with 

great success, but we’re looking to cut costs. I’ve 

heard that it’s possible to combine some of the 

newer VFDs with standard induction motors 

and attain performance close to stepper levels 

for less money. 

Does anyone have any experience with this 

type of an application? If so, what are the pluses 

and minuses? 

—from December ‘09 Control Design 

ANSWERS 

Questions Beget Questions 

There are a couple of things to consider in order 

to determine which technology is the best 

value. In terms of torque per dollar, stepper motors 

are virtually unbeatable, often selling for 

less than $30 in volume quantities. The mating 

drive, however, could add to the system price, if 

not carefully selected. 

This brings me to Question 1. How many axes 

of motion are on your system? 

If there are multiple axes, then you can deploy 

a dc input stepper driver with said motor. The 

combination of stepper motor and driver can sell 

for less than $150 per system in volume. Commercially 

available off-the-shelf (COTS) ac inverters 

wire to the ac line. Such an ac inverter might be 

similar in cost to an ac-input stepper driver but is 

more expensive than a dc-input stepper driver. 

So if you have multiple axes, a stepper motor 

could be less-expensive. 

If you must use ac-input drivers, then another 

question might arise. 

Are you trying to precisely control velocity 

only, or velocity and/or position? Stepper motors 

and drives are terrific at precise velocity control, 

as well as position control. If you must precisely 

position or accurately control speed —especially 

at low speeds— steppers will perform well, while 

ac motors will not. 

If you are trying to precisely control velocity 

but it is always a certain fixed speed, a stepper 

motor variation —the ac synchronous motor— 

could be a less-expensive bet than either of the 

above-mentioned technologies. 

In short, an ac inverter might be as cost-effective 

as a stepper solution if you are wiring the 

driver to an ac line and you are trying to control 

velocity. Otherwise, stepper still will be the best 

bet for your application. 

Scott Evans, business unit director, 

Kollmorgen, www.kollmorgen.com 

Low-Frequency Operation 

Stepper motors are unique. They have preferred 

rotor positions such that when energized they 

rotate in a discrete number of degrees or radians. 

These movements are called “steps.” This action 

is repeatable and predictable. 

Stepper motors, unlike a high-performance, 

low-inertia, ac-induction motor, which is designed 

with skewed rotors to prevent the occurrence 

of “cogging” at low speeds—which could 

be called a form of stepping—are designed to 

perform with a pronounced cog or step. 

Drives now are made to operate at very low 

frequencies, and motor designers have come 

along with motor designs to prevent these discrete 

movements at these low frequencies. Your 

typical ac motor and drive today can operate at 

1 Hz, or 30 rpm for a four-pole machine, with 

very smooth rotation. 

Mark Kenyon, product marketing manager, LV Drives, 

ABB, www.abb.com 

VFDs Aren’t for Positioning 

Step motors are at the bottom of the motion control 

positioning food chain. There is no cheaper 

solution for getting something to make a controlled 

position move than a step motor and controller. 

The controller can be as simple as a single 

chip or a $50 module on the higher power end. 

Variable-freuquency drives inherently are not 

positioning devices, so making them control 

position would involve adding feedback to the 

induction motor and an additional layer of 

control, which adds dollars and complexity that 

ultimately takes the form of added cost. And it 

still won’t be very good at positioning. 

At best, there could seem to be a cost crossover 

in some very specific applications on the 

higher power end (>1 hp), but, there again, the 

added complexity will bite you later. 

Robert Bigler, CEO, 

Animatics, www.animatics.com 


Stepper Still King 

The best answer depends on the details of your 

application. If you are dealing with a velocityregulating 

system, then the advances in VFD 

technology can produce a competitively priced 

solution that can do a fine job of maintaining 

desired set point even down to a very low speed. 

There are many manufacturers of VFDs, and most 

of them make quality products. This provides 

great flexibility for the engineer when laying out 

his system. There are some manufacturers that 

offer rudimentary positioning in their VFDs, but 

this is not seen in the low-cost base models. 

For cost-effective motion control, stepper motor 

technology is still king. Especially with the trend 

toward integrated stepper technology, with the 

motor, drive and, in some cases, motion controller 

integrated into one package. Not only does 

this allow for inherently low-cost components, it 

also saves when considering installation, wiring 

and panel space requirements. Stepper motor 

technology also has advanced, allowing steppers 

to infringe on many applications previously 

reserved for servos. 

For low-cost speed control, VFDs can be a very 

effective answer. For positioning, stepper technology 

is still the best cost-effective, high-performance 

solution. 

Clark Hummel, applications engineering manager, 

Intelligent Motion Systems, www.imshome.com 

Lost Torque and Vibration 

The stepper motor is a synchronous motor, 

meaning it precisely follows the electrical 

signal it receives. This lets users control the 

stepper motor’s position without feedback. Its 

control system typically consists of a stepper 

motor positioning system and an amplifier that 

sends pulses to the stepper motor. For example, 

if a user wants to move the machine 100 ft, 

a stepper motor that receives 1024 pulses/ft 

would require 102400 pulses from the control 

system. The stepper motor then steps through 

the pulses to arrive at 100 ft. 

Stepper motors have two disadvantages. They 

are susceptibile to lost torque and vibration. If the 

load is too high, the stepper motor can “pull out.” 

The stepper motor loses the ability to produce 

torque, causing it to stall out and lose its position. 

When this happens, the system needs to be 

“homed” to a known position. 

A stepper motor also has issues with vibration, 

due to its “stepping” process. 

When considering a VFD, users should think 

about the positioning precision required for 

the application. Applications that require 

high-precision positioning will need a highperformance 

VFD that has a position loop and 

feedback capabilities. These capabilities allow 

VFDs to position a standard induction motor 

with encoder feedback. 

The position loop is given a position command, 

an acceleration rate, top speed and deceleration 

rate. Using these commands, drives ramp the 

motor to the desired speed and decelerate it to 

the correct position. With the encoder, the drive 

does not pull out like a stepper motor. Instead, it 

remains in a stalled condition and doesn’t lose 

the actual position. 

VFDs offer bottom-line results, as well. By 

precisely matching motor speed to load requirements, 

VFDs reduce energy consumption, improve 

process performance and preserve equipment. 

Todd R. Jaremko, senior project support engineer, 

Rockwell Automation, www.rockwellautomation.com 

APRIL’S PROBLEM 

Our semiconductor processing machinery 

is controlled by our proprietary embedded 

controller with a mature homegrown operating 

system. We’re looking to upgrade, and we’re 

wondering what’s the best choice for an industrial 

strength OS. There are lots of options at various 

price points, and we’re a bit confused about the 

best way to go. We’re used to supporting our 

own OS, so our level of technical expertise is 

pretty high. Does anyone have machine control 

experience with an off-the-shelf OS for embedded 

control that they’d like to share? 

send us Your CommenTS, suggesTions or 

soluTions FOR THIS proBlem. We’ll include 

it in the April ’10 issue, and post it on www. 

ControlDesign.com. Send visuals if you’d like— 

a sketch is fine. Email us at RealAnswers@putman. 

net. Please include your company, location and title 

in the response. 

HAVE A PROBlem YOU’D like TO pose to the 

readers? Send it along, too. 

real answers 


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Self-Sufficient Sortation Systems 

Roger Potter • roger.potter@tgw-ermanco.com oem insight 

When you look at the history of distribution 

centers, the technologies associated with 

operating and maintaining these facilities have 

evolved significantly over the past 30 years. From 

the material handling perspective, relay logic 

and reams of paper schematics are technologies 

of the past. These have been replaced with supervisory 

control and data acquisition (SCADA) 

solutions that typically include the application of 

programmable logic controllers (PLCs), visualization 

systems, electronic documentation, Web 

interfaces and remote diagnostics. 

With the advancements of these integrated and 

more complex solutions comes the introduction 

of new skill set requirements in order to maintain 

them. In a typical automated distribution environment, 

there might only be a few operations 

personnel at a facility responsible for overseeing 

what literally could be miles of conveyor or 

hundreds of thousands of automated storage locations. 

These new automated systems are not just 

mechanical any more. They’re integrated with 

Operations people monitor the day-today 

operation of the system but don’t 

often have the high-level diagnostics 

skill sets required to troubleshoot. 

sophisticated controls working to orchestrate 

systems where the customers’ product now is delivered 

to workers at ergonomic goods-to-person 

picking and order fulfillment stations. 

These operations people monitor the day-today 

operation of the system but don’t often have 

the high-level diagnostics skill sets required to 

troubleshoot and maintain these systems. This 

typically falls on the shoulders of their maintenance 

personnel. 

Depending on the facility configuration and 

customer requirements, particular technologies 

included in a SCADA solution could include 

integration of a warehouse management system 

(WMS), warehouse control system (WCS), 

automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), 

carton and tote conveyor, sortation and induction, 

lighting control, HVAC interface, Web camera and 

remote diagnostics. 

A key aspect of designing these automation 

products from the engineering perspective is our 

use of tool sets, such as auto code generators, 

hardware configurators and automatic tag definition 

that can be exported to a database and used 

for tag-based programming. We use the auto code 

generator to create standardized code blocks from 

a library of tested, proven and repeatable code. 

Using technology to automate these material 

handling systems requires a balance between 

costs and features. Bells and whistles, including 

advanced self-monitoring, equipment effectiveness 

and maintenance monitoring, increase the 

cost. Leave out functionality and the systems 

require too much human intervention. As more 

companies adopt the technologies used to make 

these systems user- and maintenance-friendly, 

they become more scalable and affordable. 

One example of how these systems are becoming 

more advanced involves remote diagnostics 

over a VPN high-speed connection to the SCADA 

system. This can be from within the distribution 

facility from an operations control room or from 

thousands of miles away by qualified technical 

support analysts. Being able to remotely troubleshoot 

a system is one method of reducing the 

overall support cost to a customer. 

Some companies prefer to not have external 

VPN access to their systems. In those cases, the 

SCADA system still gives them the necessary 

tools for diagnostics. 

The holy grail of designing automated material 

handling systems is to create a system that can, 

in essence, manage itself, or at least manage by 

exception. This means the system automatically 

collects real-time data, and, if things are operating 

as they should, you don’t meddle. If something 

happens, you can dive in and see what the 

issue is and more quickly solve the problem. 

Connecting the mechanical and the control 

side of material handling automation systems is 

taking the WMS and WCS to new levels. Having 

conveyors that just keep rolling 24/7 is no longer 

the way to go. Connecting the mechanical pieces 

of equipment to advanced, engineered controls 

creates systems that are more efficient and costeffective 

to operate, adding value and reducing 

costs for the companies that use them. 

Roger Potter is controls engineering manager at TGW- 

Ermanco (www.tgw-ermanco.com) in Spring Lake, Mich. 


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