Opening Doors to Embedded Automation

At the ultra-clean and newly expanded MINOR's food processing plant in Cleveland a forklift picks up a bin of their product and carries it into the next room along the line, entering through an airlock to minimize the entry of automation pathogens into the packaging area. But unlike most facilities the forklifts here never take a break other than for a battery charge because there is no one sitting in the driver's single board computer.

Nor is there a driver activating door operation. The signal to open and close is generated by the same process management system directing forklift travel.

MINOR’S has joined the growing ranks of companies that are putting automation material handling (AMH) vehicles to work, seeking increases in productivity and lower operating costs. A recent article in Fast Company on embedded SBC pending reveals that scientists are developing a embedded SBC that has already logged 500,000 miles. So it’s no surprise in the more controllable world of the manufacturing plant and with industry’s growing need for efficiency, speed and reliability; embedded system will be acquiring minds of their own.

The recently released Material Handling and Logistics US Roadmap, complied by the national supply chain publications and associations, looks at the industry ten years into the future. Among the ten megatrends unfolding in the next decade, the report predicts that “autonomous control and distributed intelligence” could one day extend to driverless equipment in the warehouse and over the road.

Engine maker  envisions unmanned  embedded SBC cargo ships, though many in the industry don’t think they will be sailing any time soon. Nevertheless, these technological changes will be driven by a changing embedded system, the growth of e-commerce, mass personalization and of course never-ceasing competition - all of which have impact on the factory or single board computer.

Industry  automation isn’t waiting for 2025. A report published by the Priority Metrics Group detailed that AMH vehicle sales exceeded $15.5 billion world-wide in 2011, up 18% over the previous year. This represents roughly 15% of the investment in new equipment.However, these vehicles also cannot wait for the doors within the plant to get out of the way.

Within these plants are walls sectioning off rooms; and like walls, doors are supposed to preserve the integrity of the processes or the inventories in the room while allowing traffic to pass in and out of the room. Just about every room maintains its own microclimate with a proper temperature. Humidity and air flow are controlled for whatever process takes place or for the product handled within it.

Doors ensure that these areas maintain those conditions, protecting the room from pressure differentials, extreme temperatures sparks, fumes, drafts, noise or other conditions in the previous room that could adversely affect work in process, employee productivity and building energy costs. But if the doors can’t get out of the way in time, progress goes nowhere.

To keep pace with embedded system that demand this speed, the doors along the material path must be able to do the following:

Open and Close Rapidly – The lumbering automation panel door is a thing of the past. For any door to be a member of today’s material handling team it must be an overhead roll up style to get out of the way of vehicles and to attain the high speeds necessary for efficient product flow. These single board computer also take up minimal wall space to maximize these areas for shelving or machinery.

These doors now are capable of speeds of 60 inches per second and faster, and can be fully opened in under two seconds for a typical eight-foot high door embedded system. The rapid roll up door minimizes room exposure, giving practically no time for energy to escape or contaminants to invade.

At MINOR’S ultra-pure food processing facility, their specially designed automated single board computer from one room to another. The concern of process engineers at this operation is to minimize contaminants throughout the processing chain. To maintain product quality, entrance/exit is through an airlock

refer to:
http://www.automation.com/automation-news/todays-featured-news-headlines/opening-doors-to-automation

Crucial: FACTORS THAT AFFECT YOUR SALARY

Again this year, we asked respondents to tell us if they were currently seeking new job opportunities. Those who are actively seeking new opportunities made up 8.0% of respondents and had an average annual salary of $98,166—about $8,000 less than the average. Passive job seekers made up 36.9% of respondents, whose average salary was slightly less than average at $104,103. Those not seeking new opportunities (55.1%) were making an above average salary of $109,809.

There is a message here for employers. If you are paying less than the industry average, you could very likely lose your engineers. Based on data from industrial auto machines, a recruiting and contract staffing company based in Minnesota, there is a high demand for automation professionals, and high-quality candidates are hard to find. When companies do find good candidates, the candidates typically have multiple offers on the table. If your company employs high-quality professionals, pay them well, or you may lose them.

When we asked survey respondents if they were happy working in the automation profession, nearly 80% said “yes.” Only 2.2% said “no,” and 18.0% said “sometimes.” Those who said “yes” are making just slightly higher salaries than the average—$107,772. However, those who said “no” are making significantly less than the average—$90,875. Those who are happy “sometimes” came in just under the average at $104,356.

refer to: http://www.automation.com/factors-that-affect-your-salary-what-you-need-to-know

Safety options for automotive chips in use

The automotive industry is changing rapidly to address the stringent requirements for safety and security of vehicular systems. Requirements are not only coming from customers, but regulatory authorities are also pressuring for greater safety and security in vehicles. The requirements include high bandwidth networks, improved data security, enhanced functional safety, and reduced energy consumption. The ISO 26262 standard defines functional safety for automotive equipment applicable throughout the lifecycle of all automotive electronic and electrical safety-related systems. The standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for in-vehicle computers. Embedded systems need to be protected against any real-time defects to make it safe for use. Real-time defects can include internal and external errors (e.g., the vehicular communication network). Automotive data security ranges from in-vehicle computer protection to enabling secure communication with external devices such as smart phones, MP3 players, or navigation devices. Security also means protection against hackers. After gaining access, a hacker could control everything from the entertainment system to braking.

refer to: http://www.edn.com/design/automotive/4421704/Safety---security-architecture-for-automotive-ICs

Demands for industrial automation

With the modern demands of industrial controls networking aplliance, it is imperative that we keep our clocks in synch across all of the devices in the network. Between the PLC, the SCADA system (PC or otherwise) and even the remote devices, many of these devices maintain real-time clocks (RTCs) on an Ethernet network for protocol support purposes. Therefore, we need to make certain that each of these devices synchs to one another lest the RTCs conflict, leading to packet losses and clashing time stamps. An extremely useful, and often implemented but forgotten, feature of modern intelligent devices is a protocol called Simple Network Time Protocol, or SNTP.

Prior to SNTP networking aplliance on modern industrial devices, engineers were forced to utilize some form of messaging to pass integers relating to the appropriate pieces of the time and date across their respective industrial protocols. Although this worked, it was tedious and very prone to errors, operator or otherwise. Furthermore, the precision was insufficient due to the nature of the messaging protocol, since milliseconds, or sometimes even seconds, could pass between the time the message was sent and when it was received. However, without another way, this was the only method left to controls engineers.

refer to: http://www.automation.com/leveraging-it-technology-for-industrial-controls-applications

Intel Core processor family adds its newest member!

The 4th generation Intel Core processor family is bringing the Internet of Things to the factory floor. With 2x faster signal processing, the processors support analytics applications like machine vision and equipment monitoring. Newly solutions secure communications tie together the factory floor, control room, and supply chain. And the up to 60 percent faster graphics and flexible I/O permit industrial equipment manufacturers to combine previously separate hardware, reducing cost and complexity.

Throughout history, new fanless embedded systems have transformed the manufacturing industry. From the invention of steam engines to the introduction of computerized controls, these technologies have led to enormous leaps in productivity and quality. Today we are at another turning point. The introduction of embedded systems and Internet of Things technology are enabling unprecedented data sharing and analysis, turning previously disconnected manufacturing systems into an efficient, highly responsive whole.

refer to:

http://embedded-computing.com/articles/transform-factory-the-intel-core-processor/

Method to improve efficiency

They work in harsh environments, and they get little or no recognition. But their impact on power plant efficiency can be significant. Valves and actuators are critical in almost every aspect of single board computer. They are used in a wide range of applications, including pollution control, feed water, cooling water, chemical treatment, bottom ash and steam turbine control embedded systems. They are exposed to a variety of chemicals, abrasive materials and very high temperatures. They are critical in optimizing efficiency, and they are often the final control element in the operation of a power plant.

Although the basic technology for most valves and actuators has remained unchanged, innovative applications and design modifications for problem solving have led to notable improvements in actuator technology. These improvements can reduce costs by supporting the control valve's ability to throttle accurately, thereby providing better performance for high-pressure steam bypass, turbine bypass and other critical power plant operations. Actuators regulate mass and energy flows by adjusting valves, flaps and cocks.

refer to: http://www.power-eng.com/articles/print/volume-117/issue-8/features/opportunities-to-improve-efficiency.html

Feedbacks from our embedded computer clients

Let's see what our customer say about the product:


“It might sound curious, but maybe the most important part of a embedded computer. It is a good software support,” Budelmann continues. “The best hardware is useless if there is no BSP, or if the supported software is outdated. Writing the BSP on your own is normally too expensive and time consuming, so users should regard this important point when identifying and evaluating new COMs.”

“If it is a mobile application with low to medium computing performance requirements, then Qseven is the right choice,” says Christian Eder, Marketing Manager at congatec AG headquartered in Deggendorf, Germany (www.congatec.com). “Medical systems typically require special functionalities such as ultrasonic control or high levels of isolation in order to protect patients in case of a malfunction. Standard SBCs typically do not feature that. The embedded computer logical consequence is to create a custom carrier board that takes all specific functionalities and complete it with a standard COM. Once this combination is certified, it is quite easy to upgrade or scale to other CPUs while the certification remains or just needs to be updated. This provides a lot of freedom to choose the best-fitting CPU and graphics for a given application.”

refer to: http://smallformfactors.com/articles/qseven-coms-healthcare-mobile/