The re­port and cer­ti­fic­ates from UL Solu­tions, fol­low­ing test­ing in ac­cord­ance with IEC 62443, con­firm the ETG’s state­ments: Eth­er­CAT tech­no­logy already meets the re­quire­ments for sys­tems ex­posed to cy­ber at­tacks cor­res­pond­ing to Se­cur­ity Level 2 without any modi­fic­a­tions. In its European ver­sion IEC 62443, the in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ard for cy­ber se­cur­ity of in­dus­tri­al con­trol sys­tems, will also form the basis for the European Cy­ber Re­si­li­ence Act. Fur­ther­more, the in­vest­ig­a­tions show that no hard­ware changes are ne­ces­sary for high­er se­cur­ity re­quire­ments. With tar­geted soft­ware en­hance­ments, high­er se­cur­ity levels can also be achieved based on the Eth­er­CAT sys­tem.

Eval­u­ation of dif­fer­ent scen­ari­os

UL mapped all 100+ Sys­tem Re­quire­ments (SR) of IEC 62443-3-3 to three typ­ic­al Eth­er­CAT sys­tems with dif­fer­ent threat scen­ari­os and eval­u­ated the de­gree of com­pli­ance achieved by Eth­er­CAT.

“We at UL Solu­tions were de­lighted to work with an in­dus­tri­al pro­tocol which has se­cur­ity cap­ab­il­it­ies and en­able­ment-by-design as well as hard­ware im­ple­men­ted se­cur­ity, which is second-to-none in the cat­egory of in­dus­tri­al pro­to­cols”, says Al­ex­an­der W. Koehler, S&S Prin­cip­al Se­cur­ity Ad­visor for Cy­ber­se­cur­ity at UL Solu­tions. “IT and OT-se­cur­ity have not been best friends in the past. IT se­cur­ity re­quire­ments have of­ten been driv­en by typ­ic­al short product li­fe­cycles of of­fice work­er equip­ment, which con­trast with in­dus­tri­al equip­ment with long li­fe­cycles. In con­sequence there are still many products in the in­dus­tri­al field without or weak se­cur­ity built in, la­belled as leg­acy products. Eth­er­CAT is a pos­it­ive ex­cep­tion here.”

Dr. Guido Beck­mann, Chair of the Tech­nic­al Com­mit­tee of the Eth­er­CAT Tech­no­logy Group: “The res­ults of the ex­tens­ive in­vest­ig­a­tions con­firm the ETG’s as­sess­ment: Eth­er­CAT already provides a high level of cy­ber se­cur­ity pro­tec­tion for in­dus­tri­al ap­plic­a­tions today. The tested and doc­u­mented fea­tures and meas­ures form the basis for the re­com­mend­a­tions and spe­cific­a­tions we are de­vel­op­ing for man­u­fac­tur­ers and users of Eth­er­CAT devices.”
 

If mul­tiple col­lab­or­at­ing com­pan­ies feed data in­to an AI, the learn­ing mod­el will con­tain an es­pe­cially wide vari­ety of data. This im­proves the qual­ity and re­li­ab­il­ity of the res­ults it gen­er­ates. Com­pan­ies rely on fed­er­ated, de­cent­ral­ized train­ing ap­proaches to re­tain data sov­er­eignty. In this ap­proach, the data is not sent to a cent­ral serv­er. In­stead, it is fed in­to a loc­al copy of the AI mod­el. The part­ners then ex­change only ab­stract para­met­ers rather than the ac­tu­al data. This en­ables each part­ner to provide data to the AI without hav­ing to dis­close it to the oth­er com­pan­ies.

But there is still a prob­lem: When a com­pany leaves the col­lab­or­at­ive project, its data and para­met­ers still re­main deeply em­bed­ded in the AI mod­el. It has pre­vi­ously been nearly im­possible to ex­tract this data from the “black box” of the AI without com­prom­ising the qual­ity of the res­ults, such as in pre­dic­tions or sim­u­la­tions.

A clean sweep

In col­lab­or­a­tion with in­dus­tri­al part­ner Fujitsu Re­search, the Fraunhofer In­sti­tute for Soft­ware and Sys­tems En­gin­eer­ing ISST in Dortmund has de­veloped a solu­tion: un­learn­ing for de­cent­ral­ized, fed­er­ated AI col­lab­or­at­ive projects. This meth­od goes back through the his­tory of the step-by-step AI learn­ing pro­cess to the point where the rel­ev­ant part­ner in­tro­duced its data. AI train­ing re­sumes from this point—only without the data from the part­ner who has with­drawn. This meth­od en­sures a clean sweep of the AI, re­mov­ing all the in­form­a­tion and data from the com­pany leav­ing the col­lab­or­a­tion. Re­train­ing the mod­el with the stored para­met­ers is also more ef­fi­cient than the first time through.

Fraunhofer ISST re­search sci­ent­ist Flori­an Zi­m­mer ex­plains: “The learn­ing mod­el isn't re­built all the way back from zero with the re­main­ing part­ners’ data. Re­l­at­ively little ef­fort is thus needed to re­store the per­form­ance and in­teg­rity of the AI. De­pend­ing on the ap­plic­a­tion, a cer­tain loss in the qual­ity of the res­ults is un­avoid­able due to the re­mov­al of part of the data, but this is com­pensated for by fur­ther AI learn­ing as time goes on.”

Learn­ing and un­learn­ing in prac­tice

A pos­sible ap­plic­a­tion for AI based on fed­er­ated learn­ing and un­learn­ing meth­ods is the use of ma­chines in the man­u­fac­tur­ing in­dustry. For ex­ample, if mul­tiple com­pan­ies use the same mod­el of a milling ma­chine in dif­fer­ent ways, dif­fer­ent data is also in­tro­duced to train the AI. For ex­ample, one part­ner may provide data ac­count­ing for fail­ure of the ma­chine's mo­tor, and an­oth­er for break­age of the milling head.

In prac­tic­al op­er­a­tion, the AI can thus sim­u­late in ad­vance when the mo­tor will threaten to over­heat or when a milling head will reach its load lim­it. This be­ne­fits all par­ti­cip­at­ing com­pan­ies. Janosch Haber from project part­ner Fujitsu Re­search says: “For pre­vi­ous train­ing ap­proaches, the de­par­ture of a part­ner in cases like this would mean that the de­veloped mod­el would have to be com­pletely re­trained. Be­fore the re­build, the qual­ity of the AI sim­u­la­tion would be severely im­paired at first—no mat­ter how im­port­ant the de­part­ing part­ner's data was. Un­learn­ing largely pre­vents this loss of qual­ity, quickly and ef­fi­ciently restor­ing a high-qual­ity sim­u­la­tion mod­el. In gen­er­al, the de­par­ture of a part­ner hardly has any neg­at­ive im­pact.”

Pro­mot­ing great­er use of AI

The fed­er­ated un­learn­ing meth­od for de­cent­ral­ized AI mod­els de­veloped by Fraunhofer ISST and Fujitsu Re­search al­lows com­pan­ies to en­gage in col­lab­or­at­ive projects without re­ser­va­tions. They can draw on the enorm­ous po­ten­tial of AI to very ef­fi­ciently de­vel­op high-qual­ity solu­tions. At the same time, they can rest as­sured of their abil­ity to with­draw from the col­lab­or­at­ive project without hav­ing to leave be­hind their own pro­pri­et­ary data. This also be­ne­fits com­pan­ies who are re­quired to handle data in com­pli­ance with reg­u­lat­ory con­di­tions such as the Gen­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion (GDPR).

“Our ap­proach could no­tice­ably in­crease the use of AI in cor­por­ate net­works and part­ner­ships. This will also be­ne­fit the in­dustry as a whole and tech­no­lo­gic­al sov­er­eignty in Ger­many and in Europe,” states Zi­m­mer with con­vic­tion.

The award hon­ors a plat­form for highly in­teg­rated ac­tu­at­ors, de­signed es­pe­cially for use in the ar­tic­u­la­tion joints of hu­manoid ro­bots. The plat­form in­cludes high-ef­fi­ciency servo elec­tric mo­tors with in­teg­rated power elec­tron­ics and en­coders, and can be con­figured with two-stage plan­et­ary gear units or shaft-moun­ted gear units, de­pend­ing on the cus­tom­er's re­quire­ments. Throughout the de­vel­op­ment of the ac­tu­at­ors, the over­rid­ing ob­ject­ive was to achieve min­im­um in­stall­a­tion space while de­liv­er­ing high con­tinu­ous torque. The in­stall­a­tion foot­print has been re­duced by ap­prox­im­ately 20 per­cent com­pared to the latest solu­tions cur­rently on the mar­ket. 

The cop­per fill factor in the frame­less PSM ma­chine was in­creased to en­sure a low tem­per­at­ure level at high torques. The ac­tu­at­or plat­form sig­ni­fic­antly re­duces sys­tem costs, thereby cre­at­ing a key pre­requis­ite for the rap­id scal­ing of ser­vice ro­bot­ics.

"My sin­cere con­grat­u­la­tions to this year's award win­ners. As pat­ron of the HER­MES AWARD, I am de­lighted to help raise the vis­ib­il­ity of cut­ting-edge in­nov­a­tions. The firms Schaeffler and BTRY demon­strate that Europe per­forms world-class re­search. With its in­nov­at­ive plat­form for highly in­teg­rated ac­tu­at­ors, Schaeffler is en­han­cing ro­bot­ics in Ger­many. The plat­form is a key com­pon­ent in help­ing ro­bot­ics de­vel­op its vast po­ten­tial in an ex­cel­lent eco­sys­tem that in­volves goods pro­duc­tion and a strong in­dus­tri­al sec­tor. We want to lever­age such po­ten­tial with our High-Tech Agenda Ger­many. At the same time, it is about tech­no­logy made in Europe,” said Dorothee Bär.
 
Star­tup award for fully flex­ible bat­tery

The coveted HER­MES Star­tup Award goes to a young Swiss com­pany. The star­tup im­pressed the jury with the ul­tra-thin, fully flex­ible sol­id-state bat­ter­ies they have de­veloped. 

The product in ques­tion is an out­stand­ing in­nov­a­tion in the form of ul­tra-thin sol­id-state bat­ter­ies. These com­bine fast char­ging, high tem­per­at­ure res­ist­ance, and an ex­cep­tion­al level of safety; in­deed, they out­per­form con­ven­tion­al lith­i­um-ion cells on all these counts. By ap­ply­ing pro­duc­tion tech­no­lo­gies from the semi­con­duct­or in­dustry to bat­tery man­u­fac­tur­ing, BTRY has achieved a ground­break­ing ad­vance in the glob­al shift to­ward smal­ler, safer, and more dur­able en­ergy stor­age solu­tions – pav­ing the way for the next gen­er­a­tion of smart devices. These in­clude wire­less IoT sensors, wear­ables, and ap­plic­a­tions in the field of med­ic­al tech­no­logy. The pro­duc­tion pro­cess is en­tirely free of tox­ic solvents and is char­ac­ter­ized by low ma­ter­i­al con­sump­tion. These bat­ter­ies can op­er­ate at tem­per­at­ures of up to 150 °C and, with a thick­ness start­ing at just 0.1 mm, can be fully charged and dis­charged with­in one minute.
 

The part­ner­ship brings to­geth­er two glob­al tech­no­logy lead­ers in their re­spect­ive do­mains for joint de­vel­op­ments: ABB as an in­nov­at­ive man­u­fac­turer of in­tel­li­gent, net­worked and se­cure power sup­plies, and Rittal as a lead­ing sup­pli­er of switchgear sys­tem tech­no­logy and power dis­tri­bu­tion plat­forms. With 75% faster as­sembly and an in­nov­at­ive plat­form ap­proach, Rittal’s RiLineX bus­bar sys­tem sets the new stand­ard for power dis­tri­bu­tion – fur­ther driv­en by a grow­ing eco­sys­tem of tried-and-tested tech­no­logy part­ners.

"We are de­lighted to be trans­form­ing our long-stand­ing col­lab­or­a­tion with ABB in the field of un­in­ter­rupt­ible power sup­ply for data centres and switchgear and con­trol tech­no­logy for power dis­tri­bu­tion in­to a glob­al tech­no­logy part­ner­ship. We will be ex­pand­ing our RiLineX and Ri4Power plat­forms with joint in­nov­a­tions in the fu­ture," says Uwe Scharf, Man­aging Dir­ect­or Sales Ger­many and Europe at Rittal.

"This part­ner­ship com­bines ad­vanced low-voltage tech­no­logy and proven power dis­tri­bu­tion plat­forms to de­liv­er su­per­i­or res­ults for pan­el build­ers," said Piero-Gior­gio Schi­an­nini, Head of Smart Power & Smart Build­ings Sales and Mar­ket­ing, ABB Elec­tri­fic­a­tion. "Seam­less com­pat­ib­il­ity between ABB solu­tions like Tmax XT and Rittal's Ri4Power sys­tems cre­ates a bet­ter cus­tom­er ex­per­i­ence—one that re­duces com­plex­ity, shortens project timelines, and en­sures re­li­able per­form­ance."

The ifm group ended 2025 on a very pos­it­ive note. Sales, ad­jus­ted for cur­rency ef­fects, in­creased by 10% to EUR 1.47 bil­lion. “This very pos­it­ive res­ult for 2025 is par­tic­u­larly re­mark­able as we were able to achieve strong growth world­wide des­pite on­go­ing geo­pol­it­ic­al chal­lenges – al­most ex­actly in line with our plans,” says Chris­toph von Rosen­berg, CFO of the ifm Group. While de­mand in the Ger­man mar­ket de­clined, caused in par­tic­u­lar by the weak or­der situ­ation in the mech­an­ic­al en­gin­eer­ing sec­tor, this was more than off­set by strong growth in the Asia-Pa­cific re­gion and the Amer­icas. Strong mo­mentum came es­pe­cially from the pro­cess in­dustry, where a num­ber of new products met with a very pos­it­ive cus­tom­er re­sponse and drove sub­stan­tial growth in this seg­ment.

Ex­pand­ing sus­tain­able con­struc­tion ca­pa­cit­ies

Des­pite sig­ni­fic­ant ex­change rate ef­fects, earn­ings be­fore in­terest and taxes (EBIT) in­creased slightly by 1% com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year to reach EUR 69 mil­lion. The work­force grew to around 9,120 em­ploy­ees. More than 5,260 of these are based in Ger­many. The com­pany’s in­nov­at­ive strength is clearly evid­ent in the ap­prox­im­ately 1,500 em­ploy­ees work­ing in re­search and de­vel­op­ment. 

Fol­low­ing the change of name to ifm group se on 1 Janu­ary 2025, the in­vestor KKR has held a minor­ity stake since Oc­to­ber 2025. Through this part­ner­ship, the fam­ily-owned busi­ness aims to se­cure fu­ture suc­cess and sus­tain­able growth for the next gen­er­a­tion. One of the high­lights of the past year was the start of con­struc­tion on a new plant in Su­zhou, China, in April. Pro­duc­tion at this sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion site, which com­plies with the DGNB Gold stand­ard, is sched­uled to be­gin in the first quarter of 2027. This will en­able ifm not only to main­tain its 20-year long sales pres­ence in this im­port­ant mar­ket, but also to re­in­force its po­s­i­tion through loc­al pro­duc­tion and R&D ex­pert­ise. With these mile­stones, ifm sees it­self very well po­si­tioned for the fu­ture and ex­pects pos­it­ive growth again in the cur­rent year.
 

At the Gen­er­al As­sembly of the CAN in Auto­ma­tion (CiA) non­profit as­so­ci­ation the act­ive board of dir­ect­ors has been con­firmed: Mag­nus Hell (In­fin­eon), Chris­ti­an Schle­gel (chs con­sult­ing), and Hol­ger Zelt­wanger (CiA Man­aging Dir­ect­or). Robert Bosch, esd elec­tron­ics, emotas, Mi­cro­Con­trol, and Texas In­stru­ments were elec­ted as the Tech­nic­al Com­mit­tee, chaired by Mag­nus Hell. esd elec­tron­ics, emotas em­bed­ded com­mu­nic­a­tion, Mi­cro­Con­trol, Texas In­stru­ments, and Vec­tor have vot­ing rights in the Busi­ness Com­mit­tee, chaired by Chris­ti­an Schle­gel.

The Gen­er­al As­sembly took place dur­ing the two-days event "CiA Mem­ber Days" in Fre­is­ing. The tech­nic­al present­a­tions on this event in­cluded such top­ics as "CAN and ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence," "CAN XL," "CAN­sec," "Eth­er­ne­ti­fic­a­tion of CAN," and "48-V sup­ply sys­tems." Present­a­tion slides are avail­able for mem­bers to down­load from the CiA web­site.

Next year's Gen­er­al As­sembly will take place on March 5 in Tutz­ing on Lake Star­n­berg (Ger­many), as part of the 19th in­ter­na­tion­al CAN Con­fer­ence (iCC). This day also marks the 35th an­niversary of the in­ter­na­tion­al CAN user as­so­ci­ation, which cur­rently has over 700 mem­bers. CAN (Con­trol­ler Area Net­work), first in­tro­duced in Feb­ru­ary 1986, is one of the most suc­cess­ful seri­al com­mu­nic­a­tion sys­tems, with around four bil­lion newly in­stalled nodes per year. This num­ber con­tin­ues to grow.
 

The part­ner­ship cre­ates a path­way for of­fer­ing cus­tom­ers com­pet­it­ively priced, on-site power gen­er­a­tion, sig­ni­fic­antly re­du­cing ex­pos­ure to whole­sale elec­tri­city mar­ket volat­il­ity and grid ca­pa­city con­straints. The part­ners plan to es­tab­lish a demon­stra­tion site in the UK with­in the next 12 months, with a me­di­um-term goal of de­liv­er­ing MW-scale, rap­idly de­ploy­able 'gas-to-power' solu­tions with­in the next three to five years. Delta’s SOFCs, li­censed by Brit­ish sol­id ox­ide tech­no­logy lead­er Ceres, provide stable, low-car­bon en­ergy fuelled by nat­ur­al gas and reach 60% elec­tric­al ef­fi­ciency - sig­ni­fic­antly high­er than the open-cycle gas tur­bines typ­ic­ally used for on-site and back up gen­er­a­tion (35%-42%). These cells are de­signed to meet the grow­ing power de­mands of data-in­tens­ive di­git­al in­fra­struc­ture in the UK and Europe which un­der­pin eco­nom­ic growth, di­git­al sov­er­eignty and en­ergy trans­ition.

Com­ment­ing on the part­ner­ship, Charles Tsai, Gen­er­al Man­ager of Hy­dro­gen En­ergy Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment at Delta Elec­tron­ics, said: “We chose to part­ner with Cent­rica be­cause they share our com­mit­ment to de­liv­er­ing re­li­able, en­ergy-ef­fi­cient solu­tions for the rap­idly ex­pand­ing en­ergy mar­ket in the UK and Europe. Cent­rica’s deep en­ergy sys­tem ex­pert­ise, strong loc­al pres­ence and in­nov­at­ive ap­proach to off-grid and flex­ible power make them an ideal part­ner as we sup­port both data centre op­er­at­ors and high en­ergy-in­tens­ive in­dus­tries that de­mand re­si­li­ence, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and op­er­a­tion­al ex­cel­lence.”

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Cent­rica, ad­ded: “Busi­nesses across the UK and Europe need more power, and they need it faster than the elec­tri­city grids can de­liv­er. This part­ner­ship brings to­geth­er Cent­rica’s en­ergy ex­pert­ise, Delta’s world class man­u­fac­tur­ing and cut­ting edge fuel cell tech­no­logy to meet this grow­ing en­ergy de­mand with fast, re­li­able off grid power at scale.”

This part­ner­ship en­ables Delta to ex­pand its pres­ence in the European en­ergy in­fra­struc­ture mar­ket while ce­ment­ing Cent­rica’s lead­er­ship in the en­ergy trans­ition and giv­ing cus­tom­ers ac­cess to clean­er, more re­si­li­ent and lower cost power. 
 

IEN Europe: Ig­ni­tion is of­ten de­scribed as more than a tra­di­tion­al SCADA plat­form. How would you define its role today with­in mod­ern in­dus­tri­al ar­chi­tec­tures?
Trav­is Cox: Ig­ni­tion has evolved well bey­ond tra­di­tion­al SCADA in­to what we de­scribe as a uni­ver­sal in­dus­tri­al in­teg­ra­tion plat­form – one that uni­fies data across the en­tire OT/IT stack on a single code­base, from PLCs and field devices all the way to en­ter­prise sys­tems and the cloud. Ask­ing wheth­er Ig­ni­tion is HMI, SCADA, or MES is a bit like ask­ing what a smart­phone is: it's all of those things and fun­da­ment­ally more. 

Its real role today is serving as the found­a­tion­al in­teg­ra­tion plat­form for the en­tire in­dus­tri­al en­ter­prise. Through its serv­er-cent­ric web-de­ploy­ment mod­el, Ig­ni­tion can in­stantly de­liv­er in­dus­tri­al ap­plic­a­tions to an un­lim­ited num­ber of users on vir­tu­ally any device – wheth­er that's a desktop work­sta­tion, an in­dus­tri­al dis­play on the plant floor, or a mo­bile device in the field – without re­quir­ing sep­ar­ate builds or de­ploy­ments for each. It acts as the Uni­fied Namespace of the plant floor, provid­ing a single, or­gan­ized, real-time data lay­er where all sys­tems – from field devices to busi­ness ap­plic­a­tions – can pub­lish and con­sume a com­mon source of truth. This re­moves data silos that have his­tor­ic­ally plagued in­dus­tri­al or­gan­iz­a­tions and re­places them with a live, con­tex­tu­al­ized view of op­er­a­tions that gets in­to the right people's hands, wherever they are. For com­pan­ies pur­su­ing di­git­al trans­form­a­tion, Ig­ni­tion isn't just a tool in the stack – it's the found­a­tion the stack is built on.

IEN Europe: Many man­u­fac­tur­ers are mov­ing to­ward uni­fied IT/OT data en­vir­on­ments. How does Ig­ni­tion fa­cil­it­ate this con­ver­gence in prac­tice?
Trav­is Cox: Ig­ni­tion bridges the IT/OT gap by speak­ing both lan­guages nat­ively and without com­prom­ise. On the OT side, it con­nects to vir­tu­ally any PLC, field device, or in­dus­tri­al pro­tocol – in­clud­ing nat­ive device drivers, OPC UA, MQTT, and CE­SMII i3X – re­gard­less of brand, mod­el, or vendor. On the IT side, it in­teg­rates seam­lessly with SQL data­bases, Kafka, REST APIs, and line-of-busi­ness ap­plic­a­tions, mak­ing it just as cap­able of con­nect­ing en­ter­prise sys­tems as it is plant floor equip­ment. This dual flu­ency means man­u­fac­tur­ers don't have to choose between their op­er­a­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture and their en­ter­prise sys­tems – Ig­ni­tion ties them to­geth­er in­to a single, con­tex­tu­al­ized data en­vir­on­ment.

What makes this es­pe­cially power­ful in prac­tice is that Ig­ni­tion doesn't just move data – it con­tex­tu­al­izes it. It provides his­tory, alarms, and mean­ing­ful struc­ture so that real-time pro­duc­tion data be­comes genu­inely use­ful to the people and sys­tems across the or­gan­iz­a­tion who need it. En­gin­eers get vis­ib­il­ity in­to pro­cess per­form­ance, IT teams get re­li­able data pipelines, and ex­ec­ut­ives get dash­boards that re­flect what's ac­tu­ally hap­pen­ing on the floor. The res­ult is that the tra­di­tion­al wall between pro­duc­tion and IT doesn't just come down – it be­comes ir­rel­ev­ant, be­cause every­one is work­ing from the same live, trus­ted data source.

IEN Europe: Ig­ni­tion’s mod­u­lar and open ar­chi­tec­ture is fre­quently high­lighted as a key dif­fer­en­ti­at­or. What ad­vant­ages does this bring for sys­tem in­teg­rat­ors and in­dus­tri­al users?
Trav­is Cox: The mod­u­lar ar­chi­tec­ture means in­teg­rat­ors and end users can build ex­actly the sys­tem they need – and ex­pand it in­cre­ment­ally over time without be­ing locked in­to a ri­gid product struc­ture or forced to pay for cap­ab­il­it­ies they don't use. Each mod­ule adds spe­cif­ic func­tion­al­ity, so or­gan­iz­a­tions can start with a fo­cused de­ploy­ment and grow the plat­form as their needs evolve. But what truly sets Ig­ni­tion apart as an it­er­at­ive plat­form is how its un­lim­ited li­cens­ing mod­el re­in­forces this philo­sophy. With un­lim­ited tags, cli­ents, users, and device con­nec­tions all in­cluded un­der a single flat-rate li­cense, teams are nev­er fin­an­cially pen­al­ized for solv­ing the next prob­lem. There are no ar­ti­fi­cial ceil­ings that force a con­ver­sa­tion about cost every time an en­gin­eer wants to add a new data source, ex­tend vis­ib­il­ity to an­oth­er part of the plant, or bring a new group of users in­to the sys­tem. The plat­form act­ively en­cour­ages con­tinu­ous im­prove­ment rather than con­strain­ing it.

Be­cause Ig­ni­tion is built on open, trus­ted tech­no­lo­gies like Py­thon, SQL, OPC UA, and MQTT, in­teg­rat­ors can lever­age ex­ist­ing skills and con­nect to vir­tu­ally any sys­tem without pro­pri­et­ary con­straints or vendor lock-in. The open mod­ule SDK and built-in REST API also makes it straight­for­ward to in­teg­rate Ig­ni­tion with new tools and tech­no­lo­gies as they emerge – wheth­er that's a new cloud ana­lyt­ics ser­vice, a new com­mu­nic­a­tion pro­tocol, or an AI plat­form. This com­bin­a­tion of mod­u­lar flex­ib­il­ity, open ar­chi­tec­ture, and un­lim­ited li­cens­ing cre­ates a plat­form that or­gan­iz­a­tions can keep com­ing back to as their needs evolve – it­er­at­ing, ex­pand­ing, and re­fin­ing their sys­tems over time without ever hit­ting a wall. For in­dus­tri­al users, that means the in­vest­ment made on day one keeps com­pound­ing in value, be­cause the plat­form grows with the or­gan­iz­a­tion rather than be­com­ing a bot­tle­neck the mo­ment am­bi­tions out­pace the ori­gin­al de­ploy­ment.

IEN Europe: In­dus­tri­al com­pan­ies are in­creas­ingly de­ploy­ing ap­plic­a­tions at the edge while con­nect­ing to en­ter­prise sys­tems and the cloud. How does Ig­ni­tion sup­port this dis­trib­uted ar­chi­tec­ture?
Trav­is Cox: Ig­ni­tion was de­signed with ex­actly this kind of dis­trib­uted, multi-tier ar­chi­tec­ture in mind, and it ad­dresses each lay­er with a pur­pose-built edi­tion that works seam­lessly with the oth­ers. At the far edge, Ig­ni­tion Edge ex­tends the plat­form to field devices and OEM equip­ment, en­abling loc­al data col­lec­tion, visu­al­iz­a­tion, and data syncing – even in en­vir­on­ments with lim­ited con­nectiv­ity or com­pute re­sources. This means in­tel­li­gence and vis­ib­il­ity can ex­ist right where the data is gen­er­ated, rather than de­pend­ing on a con­stant con­nec­tion back to a cent­ral sys­tem.

At the plant level, stand­ard Ig­ni­tion serves as the cent­ral hub, ag­greg­at­ing data from all edge nodes, provid­ing con­text and his­tory, and mak­ing that data avail­able to op­er­at­ors and ap­plic­a­tions across the fa­cil­ity. Then, Ig­ni­tion Cloud Edi­tion ex­tends the ar­chi­tec­ture fur­ther, lever­aging elast­ic in­fra­struc­ture on plat­forms like AWS and Azure to provide en­ter­prise-wide dash­boards, long-term data stor­age, and in­teg­ra­tion with ad­vanced ana­lyt­ics and ma­chine learn­ing ser­vices – all on a flex­ible, pay-as-you-go mod­el. What makes this ar­chi­tec­ture par­tic­u­larly com­pel­ling is that all three tiers – edge, plant, and cloud – run on the same Ig­ni­tion plat­form with a con­sist­ent de­vel­op­ment ex­per­i­ence and a uni­fied data mod­el. There's no frag­ment­a­tion, no trans­la­tion lay­ers, and no sep­ar­ate tools to main­tain at each level.

IEN Europe: Cy­ber­se­cur­ity and scalab­il­ity are key con­cerns for in­dus­tri­al op­er­at­ors. What design prin­ciples with­in Ig­ni­tion help ad­dress these chal­lenges?
Trav­is Cox: On the se­cur­ity side, Ig­ni­tion is built on a uni­fied, in­dus­tri­al-grade se­cur­ity ar­chi­tec­ture that takes a de­fense-in-depth ap­proach. It sup­ports TLS 1.2 and 1.3 en­cryp­tion for all com­mu­nic­a­tions – the same stand­ard trus­ted by fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions world­wide – along with fed­er­ated iden­tity, MFA, SSO, SAML, and Open­ID Con­nect in­teg­ra­tion. Role-based ac­cess con­trol and se­cur­ity zones give op­er­at­ors gran­u­lar con­trol over who can ac­cess what and from where, wheth­er they're on the plant floor or con­nect­ing re­motely. Secrets man­age­ment re­moves pass­words and en­cryp­tion keys from gate­way con­fig­ur­a­tion, adding an­oth­er lay­er of pro­tec­tion for sens­it­ive cre­den­tials. Built-in user audit­ing provides ad­min­is­trat­ors with de­tailed vis­ib­il­ity in­to sys­tem activ­ity, help­ing teams quickly identi­fy and re­spond to an­om­alies be­fore they be­come costly in­cid­ents. In­duct­ive Auto­ma­tion also backs this up at the or­gan­iz­a­tion­al level, hold­ing ISA/IEC 62443-4-1 cer­ti­fic­a­tion for their se­cure soft­ware de­vel­op­ment li­fe­cycle and main­tain­ing ISO 9001 com­pli­ance.

On scalab­il­ity, Ig­ni­tion takes an equally prin­cipled ap­proach – one that starts with the li­cens­ing mod­el it­self. Rather than char­ging per tag, per cli­ent, or per user, Ig­ni­tion uses a flat-rate serv­er li­cense that re­moves the ar­ti­fi­cial con­straints that typ­ic­ally lim­it growth in tra­di­tion­al SCADA sys­tems. Or­gan­iz­a­tions can add un­lim­ited tags, con­nect un­lim­ited devices, and de­ploy to un­lim­ited cli­ents without trig­ger­ing ad­di­tion­al li­cens­ing costs. This aligns the plat­form's eco­nom­ics with the or­gan­iz­a­tion's am­bi­tions rather than work­ing against them. Com­bined with the abil­ity to de­ploy on-premise, at the edge, or in the cloud – and to scale cloud in­stances elast­ic­ally up or down as de­mand changes – Ig­ni­tion gives in­dus­tri­al op­er­at­ors a plat­form that grows with them without fin­an­cial pen­alty or ar­chi­tec­tur­al re­work.

IEN Europe: Look­ing ahead, how do you see SCADA and in­dus­tri­al soft­ware plat­forms evolving over the next five years, par­tic­u­larly with the rise of AI and data-driv­en man­u­fac­tur­ing?
Trav­is Cox: The next five years will be defined by two par­al­lel and re­in­for­cing trends: deep­er in­teg­ra­tion and in­tel­li­gent auto­ma­tion. On the in­teg­ra­tion side, we'll see or­gan­iz­a­tions move de­cis­ively to­ward Uni­fied Namespace ar­chi­tec­tures – build­ing rich, con­tex­tu­al­ized data mod­els from the edge up, stand­ard­iz­ing how data is struc­tured and pub­lished, and con­nect­ing those data en­vir­on­ments across plants, busi­ness units, and en­tire en­ter­prises. The days of siloed SCADA sys­tems that only talk to them­selves are numbered. The or­gan­iz­a­tions that move fast­est on this in­teg­ra­tion found­a­tion will be the ones best po­si­tioned to take ad­vant­age of what comes next.

What comes next is AI – and it will re­shape in­dus­tri­al op­er­a­tions in two mean­ing­ful ways. The first is AI-as­sisted de­vel­op­ment, where en­gin­eers use AI tools to build, con­fig­ure, and main­tain Ig­ni­tion ap­plic­a­tions faster and with few­er re­sources. The second, and ar­gu­ably more trans­form­at­ive, is AI agents op­er­at­ing dir­ectly on live in­dus­tri­al data to per­form tasks that today re­quire sig­ni­fic­ant hu­man ex­pert­ise: an­om­aly de­tec­tion, pre­dict­ive main­ten­ance, root cause ana­lys­is, alarm ra­tion­al­iz­a­tion, en­ergy op­tim­iz­a­tion, and pro­cess im­prove­ment. In­duct­ive Auto­ma­tion is already mov­ing in this dir­ec­tion, hav­ing re­leased an early-pre­view MCP mod­ule for AI in­teg­ra­tion, with an am­bi­tion to­ward build­ing full agent work­flows dir­ectly in­to the plat­form. The in­dus­tri­al soft­ware plat­forms that win over the next five years won't just be the ones with the most fea­tures – they'll be the ones that serve as the trus­ted, open, and well-struc­tured found­a­tion on which In­dus­tri­al AI can be re­li­ably built and ad­op­ted.

IEN Europe: Thank you for these in­sights!
 

A crit­ic­al com­pon­ent of the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Cy­ber Re­si­li­ence Act (CRA) is the ca­pa­city of man­u­fac­tur­ers to con­sist­ently mon­it­or se­cur­ity risks throughout the en­tire li­fe­cycle of a di­git­al product, from de­vel­op­ment to post-ship­ment. Con­sequently, mod­ern firm­ware mon­it­or­ing tech­no­lo­gies are be­com­ing in­creas­ingly im­port­ant.

The Düsseldorf-based cy­ber­se­cur­ity com­pany ONEKEY has de­veloped di­git­al twin tech­no­logy that en­ables auto­mated scans to mon­it­or firm­ware around the clock. ONEKEY's mon­it­or­ing sys­tem reana­lyzes the firm­ware daily to en­sure con­tinu­ous se­cur­ity throughout its en­tire li­fe­cycle. When new vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies arise, the con­stantly up­dated data­base and en­hanced de­tec­tion cap­ab­il­it­ies alert users to crit­ic­al de­vel­op­ments that could com­prom­ise a product’s se­cur­ity.

Firm­ware as a Crit­ic­al Vul­ner­ab­il­ity

Firm­ware is the fun­da­ment­al soft­ware lay­er of many tech­nic­al sys­tems, in­clud­ing in­dus­tri­al con­trol sys­tems, IoT devices, med­ic­al sys­tems, and vehicle com­pon­ents. Se­cur­ity vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies at this level are par­tic­u­larly crit­ic­al be­cause they al­low dir­ect ac­cess to hard­ware func­tions and are of­ten dif­fi­cult to fix ret­ro­act­ively.

At the same time, mod­ern devices con­tain a mul­ti­tude of ex­tern­al soft­ware lib­rar­ies, open-source com­pon­ents, and pro­pri­et­ary mod­ules. Each of these com­pon­ents can in­tro­duce new se­cur­ity risks if new vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies are dis­covered after a product’s re­lease.

"Man­u­fac­tur­ers must know which soft­ware com­pon­ents are in­cluded in their products and which new vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies arise in or­der to re­act quickly and ef­fect­ively pro­tect their sys­tems," ex­plained Jan Wenden­burg, CEO of ONEKEY.

Con­tinu­ous Ana­lys­is In­stead of One-Time Re­views

As part of a mod­ern firm­ware mon­it­or­ing ap­proach, a product’s firm­ware is con­tinu­ously mon­itored, not just ana­lyzed once. The goal is to auto­mat­ic­ally de­tect emer­ging se­cur­ity vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies in soft­ware com­pon­ents and as­sess their im­pact on ex­ist­ing products.

First, a de­tailed ana­lys­is of the firm­ware is con­duc­ted to achieve this. This pro­cess iden­ti­fies all the soft­ware com­pon­ents con­tained with­in the firm­ware and cre­ates a struc­tured soft­ware bill of ma­ter­i­als (SBOM). Based on this in­form­a­tion, de­pend­en­cies with­in the soft­ware sup­ply chain can be trans­par­ently mapped.

Next, the SBOM is con­tinu­ously com­pared against glob­al vul­ner­ab­il­ity data­bases. As soon as new se­cur­ity vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies are pub­lished, for ex­ample in an open-source lib­rary, it can auto­mat­ic­ally be de­term­ined wheth­er an af­fected product con­tains the vul­ner­able com­pon­ent.

ONEKEY’s “CRA Fast Start” pro­gram provides con­tinu­ous mon­it­or­ing throughout the en­tire product li­fe­cycle. This pro­gram en­ables man­u­fac­tur­ers of con­nec­ted devices, ma­chines, and sys­tems to rap­idly and struc­tur­ally as­sess com­pli­ance with the Cy­ber Re­si­li­ence Act. The CRA Fast Start ap­proach won the “Best in Show Award” at Em­bed­ded World 2026.

Di­git­al Twins for Scal­able Se­cur­ity Test­ing

One meth­od of im­ple­ment­ing this ap­proach is through the use of di­git­al twins. This in­volves cre­at­ing a vir­tu­al rep­res­ent­a­tion of the firm­ware, en­abling se­cur­ity ana­lyses to be con­duc­ted in­de­pend­ently of the phys­ic­al hard­ware.

These di­git­al mod­els can be con­tinu­ously mon­itored to provide an on­go­ing over­view of a product’s se­cur­ity status. This gives man­u­fac­tur­ers a cent­ral­ized source of in­form­a­tion for identi­fy­ing and ad­dress­ing se­cur­ity risks early on.

Auto­mated Pri­or­it­iz­a­tion and In­cid­ent Man­age­ment

An­oth­er key as­pect of firm­ware mon­it­or­ing is auto­mated risk as­sess­ment. Not every vul­ner­ab­il­ity poses an im­me­di­ate threat. What mat­ters is wheth­er the af­fected soft­ware com­pon­ent is in act­ive use and which func­tions it im­pacts.

There­fore, ONEKEY’s plat­form ana­lyzes con­tex­tu­al in­form­a­tion, such as af­fected com­pon­ents, ex­ploit­ab­il­ity of the vul­ner­ab­il­ity, and po­ten­tial sys­tem im­pact with firm­ware mon­it­or­ing as one of its fea­tures. The res­ult is a pri­or­it­ized list of se­cur­ity is­sues that can be ad­dressed in a tar­geted man­ner.

This in­form­a­tion feeds dir­ectly in­to se­cur­ity in­cid­ent re­sponse pro­cesses, help­ing Product Se­cur­ity In­cid­ent Re­sponse Teams (PSIRTs) de­ploy se­cur­ity up­dates more quickly and ef­fect­ively.

New Re­quire­ments for Man­u­fac­tur­ers

The Cy­ber Re­si­li­ence Act rep­res­ents a fun­da­ment­al shift in se­cur­ity strategy for man­u­fac­tur­ers of di­git­al products. In fu­ture, se­cur­ity ana­lyses must be con­duc­ted throughout a product’s en­tire li­fe­cycle, from de­vel­op­ment to op­er­a­tion to end of life.

Firm­ware mon­it­or­ing is es­sen­tial for this pro­cess. It com­bines auto­mated soft­ware ana­lys­is, con­tinu­ous vul­ner­ab­il­ity mon­it­or­ing, and struc­tured se­cur­ity pro­cesses in­to an in­teg­rated se­cur­ity man­age­ment sys­tem.

"With the in­creas­ing num­ber of con­nec­ted devices and the grow­ing com­plex­ity of mod­ern soft­ware ar­chi­tec­tures, daily vul­ner­ab­il­ity checks are cru­cial for reg­u­lat­ory com­pli­ance and se­cur­ity," said ONEKEY CEO Jan Wenden­burg.
 

Ad­vantech an­nounced the re­lease of its next-gen­er­a­tion but­ton-in­teg­rated HMI series — SPC-800 V2, fea­tur­ing both Pan­el PC and Mon­it­or ver­sions. This series is de­signed to de­liv­er great­er flex­ib­il­ity, dur­ab­il­ity, and ef­fi­ciency across heavy ma­chinery, ro­bot­ics, and auto­mated pro­duc­tion lines.

Build­ing on cus­tom­er feed­back and the ex­per­i­ence of the SPC-800 series in the field, the new SPC-800 V2 in­tro­duces ma­jor mech­an­ic­al and op­er­a­tion­al ad­vance­ments — in­clud­ing cus­tom­iz­able front con­trol pan­els, en­hanced back-hous­ing design for sim­pli­fied cabling. The mon­it­or ver­sion is equipped with HD­Base-T 2.0 tech­no­logy, en­abling long-dis­tance video trans­mis­sion in large-scale in­dus­tri­al en­vir­on­ments.

The 15.6"/21.5" FHD Dis­play mod­els of­fer 16:9 as­pect ra­tio and P-CAP multi-touch con­trol. The Pan­el PC ver­sions are powered by In­tel® Core™ 13th gen­er­a­tion pro­cessors for high per­form­ance with up to 64GB memory cap­ab­il­ity of two DDR5 SODIMM. The rugged sil­ic­one-free en­clos­ures are IP65 pro­tec­ted for re­li­able op­er­a­tion in harsh en­vir­on­ments and of­fer flex­ible mount­ing op­tions.

De­signed for Flex­ib­il­ity 

To ad­apt op­tim­ally to the needs of each ma­chine, both pan­el PC and mon­it­or, of­fers a fully cus­tom­iz­able front con­trol pan­el. This ranges from visu­al ad­apt­a­tions and lo­gos to vari­ous op­er­a­tion­al ele­ments such as emer­gency stops, il­lu­min­ated ring keys, RFID scan­ners, and push but­tons in dif­fer­ent col­ors. This flex­ib­il­ity em­powers ma­chine build­ers, sys­tem in­teg­rat­ors and man­u­fac­tur­ers to design op­er­a­tion­al in­ter­faces that fit spe­cif­ic work­flows, en­sur­ing er­go­nom­ic, safe, and ef­fi­cient ma­chine con­trol.

Sim­pli­fied Cabling and Flex­ible Mount­ing 

Re­designed with an im­proved rear hous­ing struc­ture, SPC-800 V2 sim­pli­fies cable rout­ing, easy ter­min­al block ac­cess and main­ten­ance to re­duce setup time and im­prove ser­vice­ab­il­ity. Its ex­pan­ded wir­ing com­part­ment sup­ports dir­ect ter­min­al con­nec­tions while main­tain­ing full IP65 pro­tec­tion. Sup­port­ing VESA, pole, arm, and ceil­ing mounts, as well as Rittal CP40 and Bern­stein CS-480 B.Flex stand­ards, it en­ables ef­fort­less in­teg­ra­tion in­to di­verse equip­ment lay­outs and space-con­strained en­vir­on­ments.

Long-Dis­tance and High-Re­li­ab­il­ity Op­er­at­ing Com­mu­nic­a­tion

For large-scale pro­duc­tion lines, the SPC-821/815 (M) V2 mon­it­or in­teg­rates HD­Base-T 2.0 tech­no­logy to en­able 100-meter sig­nal trans­mis­sion with 4K/8K ESD pro­tec­tion. This in­nov­a­tion en­hances sys­tem com­mu­nic­a­tion, sup­ports daisy-chain ap­plic­a­tions, and re­duces down­time by al­low­ing quick mon­it­or re­place­ment without re­pla­cing the en­tire con­trol unit. It is ideal for large ma­chines and fact­ory floors where op­er­at­ors need flex­ible visu­al­iz­a­tion ac­cess.

The pan­el PC series, SPC-821/815, and the mon­it­or series, SPC-821/815 (M) V2, are avail­able now.
 

De­veloped by ILGE AI INC., GOZLE is an ad­vanced visu­al in­spec­tion solu­tion that lever­ages ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and in­dus­tri­al ima­ging to de­tect product de­fects in real time. En­gin­eered for de­mand­ing in­dus­tri­al en­vir­on­ments, GOZLE elim­in­ates sub­jectiv­ity and fa­tigue-re­lated er­rors as­so­ci­ated with manu­al in­spec­tion, while en­sur­ing con­sist­ent product qual­ity. The sys­tem fea­tures high-res­ol­u­tion in­dus­tri­al cam­er­as, real-time im­age pro­cessing, and deep learn­ing-based clas­si­fic­a­tion mod­els. GOZLE is cap­able of de­tect­ing sur­face de­fects, di­men­sion­al er­rors, col­or mis­matches, la­bel mis­place­ments, and oth­er non­con­form­it­ies on fast-mov­ing pro­duc­tion lines.

With its mod­u­lar and scal­able ar­chi­tec­ture, GOZLE can be in­teg­rated dir­ectly in­to con­vey­ors or used as a stan­dalone qual­ity sta­tion. The in­tu­it­ive user in­ter­face al­lows non-pro­gram­mers to define in­spec­tion rules and train the sys­tem on new product types quickly. In multi-cam­era setups, the sys­tem cap­tures vari­ous angles to en­sure full visu­al cov­er­age and re­li­ab­il­ity in de­tec­tion.

In­spec­tion of up to 100 parts/minute

The sys­tem sup­ports seam­less in­teg­ra­tion with MES/ERP sys­tems, provid­ing in­stant de­fect re­ports, in­spec­tion logs, and trace­ab­il­ity data. It can also trig­ger auto­mated re­ject mech­an­isms or stop sig­nals in case of crit­ic­al faults. With its abil­ity to in­spect up to 100 parts per minute de­pend­ing on ap­plic­a­tion com­plex­ity, the sys­tem im­proves pro­duc­tion through­put and re­duces re­work costs.
 

This is the second part of the article, which looks at the criteria to consider when choosing the right compressor. You can find Part 1, which is designed to help you decide whether to repair or replace, here: https://www.ien.eu/bingo/66726.

If analysis indicates replacement as the optimal path, the following factors become essential to selecting the appropriate new system:

Air Demand Precision: Matching Tool and Process Requirements
Begin with a comprehensive assessment of your actual compressed air requirements. Measure both flow (CFM/m³/min) and pressure (PSI/bar) demands across different operational scenarios. Include peak demands, average consumption, and minimum requirements. This data prevents both over-specification (wasting capital and increasing ongoing energy costs) and under-specification (leading to performance issues and premature replacement).
Modern audit equipment can log demand patterns over extended periods, revealing actual usage profiles rather than relying on theoretical calculations. This empirical data forms the foundation for selecting appropriately sized equipment that matches your precise operational needs.

Compressor Technology Selection: Finding the Right Fit
Different compressor technologies offer distinct advantages for specific applications. Rotary screw compressors provide reliable, continuous operation for industrial applications. Piston compressors suit intermittent use with higher pressure requirements. Centrifugal compressors excel in high-volume, constant-demand environments, while scroll compressors offer oil-free air for sensitive applications at lower volumes.
Evaluate which technology aligns with your operational profile, considering factors like duty cycle, pressure requirements, and air purity needs. The optimal technology selection delivers the required performance while minimising energy consumption and maintenance requirements.

Compressed Air Quality Requirements: Meeting Application Standards
Different processes require different compressed air quality levels. Electronics manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, and food processing typically demand oil-free compressed air (ISO 8573-1 Class 0), while general manufacturing may tolerate standard lubricated compressors with appropriate filtration.
Determine the compressed air purity requirements for your most sensitive applications, considering particulates, moisture, and oil content specifications. Selecting a compressor that inherently meets these requirements may prove more economical than adding extensive downstream purification equipment to a less expensive but less suitable compressor.

Power Infrastructure Compatibility: Ensuring Seamless Integration
Verify that your electrical infrastructure can support your preferred compressor configuration. Check voltage requirements, phase specifications, and starting current demands against your facility's capabilities. Upgrading electrical infrastructure adds significant cost to compressor replacement projects and may impact project viability.
For larger installations, evaluate potential harmonic issues with variable speed drives and confirm that your power supply quality meets the manufacturer's specifications. Proper electrical matching prevents damage to both the compressor and other equipment sharing the same power infrastructure.

Environmental and Acoustical Considerations: Location Matters
The operating environment significantly impacts compressor performance and lifespan. Evaluate temperature ranges, dust levels, and available ventilation at the installation location. Compressors require adequate cooling air and proper ventilation to function efficiently and reliably. Noise constraints may necessitate acoustic enclosures or remote installation locations. If noise reduction is important, compare sound levels (dBA) between models and calculate the cost-benefit of quieter operation versus other features. Remember that ventilation requirements may increase with acoustic enclosures, potentially requiring additional ductwork or cooling provisions.

Air Storage Requirements: Balancing Demand Fluctuations
Properly sized receiver tanks stabilise system pressure and reduce compressor cycling. Determine appropriate air storage capacity based on demand patterns, particularly in applications with high peak demands or rapid fluctuations. Adequate storage can permit smaller compressor specifications by managing short-duration peak demands through accumulated reserve.
Consider both the physical space available for storage and the pressure requirements of your processes when specifying receiver tanks. Multiple smaller tanks strategically placed throughout distribution systems often prove more effective than a single large tank, particularly in extensive installations.

Energy Efficiency Technologies: Maximising Return on Investment
Variable speed drives (VSDs) offer significant energy savings in applications with fluctuating demand by adjusting motor speed to match actual requirements. Heat recovery systems can capture up to 90% of input energy for factory space heating or process water warming. Sequence controllers optimise multiple compressor installations, ensuring the most efficient combination operates based on demand.
Calculate the payback period for these efficiency technologies based on your operating profile, energy costs, and utilisation patterns. While they increase initial investment, they often deliver the most substantial lifecycle cost reductions, particularly in high-usage applications.

Space Utilisation: The Footprint Factor
Modern compressors typically offer smaller footprints than older equivalents, potentially freeing valuable production space. Evaluate installation space requirements including maintenance access, ventilation clearances, and service points. Remember that ancillary equipment like dryers, filters, and receivers requires additional space beyond the compressor footprint.
Consider vertical configurations where floor space is limited, but confirm adequate ceiling clearance and lifting capabilities for installation and maintenance. The smallest footprint may not represent the optimal solution if it compromises serviceability or cooling efficiency.

Total Cost of Ownership: Beyond the Purchase Price
Evaluate prospective compressors based on lifecycle costs rather than initial price. Calculate energy consumption over the anticipated ownership period, typical maintenance expenses, and expected reliability based on warranty terms and service intervals. Longer warranties often signal manufacturer confidence in reliability, potentially indicating lower lifecycle costs despite higher initial investment.
Request references from existing users with similar applications to verify real-world performance and reliability. Manufacturer claims should be substantiated through case studies or testimonials from comparable operations, providing confidence in projected operation costs.

Serviceability: Ensuring Long-Term Support
Assess the ease of routine maintenance and the availability of qualified service providers in your region. Some manufacturers offer comprehensive service packages with guaranteed response times and predictable costs, while others rely on third-party service networks with varying capabilities and availability.
Evaluate parts availability, service intervals, and maintenance requirements against your internal capabilities. A slightly more expensive compressor with better service support and parts availability may prove more economical over its lifespan than a less expensive unit with limited support infrastructure.

The Crucial Compressed Air Audit

Before finalising any replacement decision, conduct a comprehensive compressed air audit. This evaluation should analyse current usage patterns, identify leaks in the distribution system, assess air quality requirements, and determine actual pressure needs at point-of-use.
Professional audits often reveal opportunities to reduce demand through leak repair, pressure optimisation, or inappropriate uses elimination. Addressing these issues before sizing a new compressor often permits smaller, less expensive equipment while improving overall system efficiency. Many compressor manufacturers offer audit services, providing valuable insights before significant capital commitment.

Conclusion

The repair-or-replace decision represents a significant investment consideration with long-term operational implications. By methodically evaluating the factors outlined in this article, maintenance managers can make informed decisions that optimise both immediate operational needs and long-term financial performance.

Remember that compressed air systems typically operate for 10-15 years, making this decision one that impacts operations for over a decade. Prioritise thorough analysis over rushed judgments, considering both immediate costs and long-term implications. The optimal decision balances financial prudence with operational reliability, ensuring your compressed air system remains an asset rather than a liability in your production environment.
 

Mod­ern elec­tron­ic cir­cuit boards and elec­tron­ic com­pon­ents en­able ever-in­creas­ing data trans­fer volumes and faster pro­cessing speeds. As a res­ult, power con­sump­tion and heat gen­er­a­tion of­ten in­crease, which fre­quently leads to warp­ing of the mount­ing board. In ad­di­tion, many elec­tron­ic devices us­ing these com­pon­ents are ex­posed to chan­ging en­vir­on­ment­al con­di­tions, which can cause con­nec­tion fail­ures due to de­form­a­tion of the mount­ing board and sim­il­ar ef­fects. Re­search­ers at ES­PEC CORP., Ja­pan, have de­veloped a com­bined meth­od of 3D di­git­al im­age meas­ure­ment (DIC) and ther­mo­graphy to meas­ure thermal stress-in­duced de­form­a­tion of com­pon­ents as early as the design phase.

At ES­PEC, tests on the de­form­a­tion of mount­ing plates for elec­tron­ic com­pon­ents were pre­vi­ously car­ried out in a ther­mo­stat­ic cham­ber. The in­frared cam­era re­cor­ded the tem­per­at­ures through a meas­ure­ment win­dow in the cham­ber. In the past, this re­peatedly led to prob­lems such as con­dens­a­tion and frost form­a­tion on the win­dow glass and the heat ex­changer. This res­ul­ted in a de­teri­or­a­tion of meas­ure­ment ac­cur­acy and re­stric­tions in the field of view. Fur­ther­more, ther­mo­graph­ic meas­ure­ments through the win­dow of the ther­mo­stat­ic cham­ber re­quired a spe­cial win­dow ma­ter­i­al, such as ger­mani­um or sap­phire, that was trans­par­ent to long-wave IR ra­di­ation.

Veri­fic­a­tion and val­id­a­tion of the meas­ure­ment meth­od 

To avoid the afore­men­tioned prob­lems, the re­search­ers de­veloped a new meth­od that uses a door­less (open) cham­ber in which the sample is tempered with tar­geted air flow. The in­tern­al tem­per­at­ure can be kept at a con­stant level over a longer peri­od by means of an "air cur­tain" at the in­let of the cham­ber, even at very low tem­per­at­ures. The sample, which was at­tached to a sub­strate, was placed in the ther­mo­stat­ic cham­ber in such a way that the sup­plied air flowed evenly around both sides of the sub­strate, thus tem­per­ing it. For the meas­ure­ments, the tem­per­at­ure was var­ied from -30 °C to +140 °C in 10 °C in­cre­ments.

To veri­fy and val­id­ate the suit­ab­il­ity of the test con­di­tions, the re­search­ers used a Vari­oCAM® HD head 780 from In­fraTec. This in­frared cam­era was se­lec­ted be­cause of its geo­met­ric res­ol­u­tion, an im­age format of (1,280 x 960) IR pixels, and its good dis­play cap­ab­il­it­ies for the ex­ten­ded test pat­tern. It was con­firmed that the meth­od en­ables pre­cise meas­ure­ments across the en­tire tem­per­at­ure range in a door­less cham­ber and without spe­cial win­dow ma­ter­i­als.

Meas­ure­ment of Thermal De­form­a­tion 

The three-di­men­sion­al ex­pan­sion of the prin­ted cir­cuit board (PCB) at -30 °C served as a ref­er­ence for the de­form­a­tion tests. Parts of the PCB that de­formed at high­er tem­per­at­ures were shown in red (de­flec­tion away from the sub­strate) or blue (de­flec­tion to­ward the sub­strate). These di­git­al im­age meas­ure­ments were su­per­im­posed on the im­ages of the tem­per­at­ure dis­tri­bu­tion on the sur­face of the cir­cuit board in op­er­a­tion.

It was ob­served that as the air tem­per­at­ure in­creased, a tem­per­at­ure dif­fer­ence oc­curred between the CPU and the sur­round­ing PCB, and that the cen­ter of the CPU de­formed to­ward the sub­strate. Based on this ob­ser­va­tion, the re­search­ers con­cluded that it is im­port­ant to meas­ure the de­gree of de­form­a­tion of each in­di­vidu­al elec­tron­ic com­pon­ent at dif­fer­ent am­bi­ent tem­per­at­ures rather than just that of the en­tire cir­cuit board. 

The study also shows that 3D di­git­al im­age meas­ure­ment and ther­mo­graph­ic tem­per­at­ure meas­ure­ment must be per­formed in par­al­lel. The use of the door­less cham­ber, in which there is no bar­ri­er between the cam­er­as and the sample, al­lows pre­cise con­clu­sions to be drawn about the de­form­a­tion of the PCB un­der thermal stress of the sample.
 

De­veloped and de­signed for de­mand­ing in­dus­tri­al ap­plic­a­tions, the new AVS701 from E+E Elektronik sets a new stand­ard in air and gas ve­lo­city meas­ure­ment. The op­tic­ally and tech­nic­ally re­designed air and gas ve­lo­city sensor stands out above all for its ac­cur­acy and re­li­ab­il­ity, as well as sig­ni­fic­antly sim­pli­fied in­stall­a­tion. It is op­tim­ised for de­mand­ing in­dus­tri­al ap­plic­a­tions in a meas­ur­ing range from 0 to 40 m/s and –40 to +140 °C and is suit­able for a wide vari­ety of uses – from clean­room and phar­ma­ceut­ic­al ap­plic­a­tions to pro­cess mon­it­or­ing in 3D print­ers. In­creased pro­cess ef­fi­ciency and sensor in­stall­a­tion that is up to 60% quick­er make the AVS701 a good choice.

Thanks to the spe­cially de­veloped align­ment crimp for the re­mote probe, the AVS701 can be po­si­tioned in the pro­cess with high re­peat­ab­il­ity. This en­ables fast, re­pro­du­cible sensor mount­ing and quick sensor re­place­ment, which speeds up com­mis­sion­ing and sig­ni­fic­antly in­creases ef­fi­ciency.

Meas­ure­ment ac­cur­acy for best product qual­ity 

The AVS701 im­presses with ex­cep­tion­al meas­ure­ment ac­cur­acy of ±1% of the meas­ured value and, in the range from 0 to 2 m/s, even ±0.03 m/s. This level of pre­ci­sion en­sures ex­cel­lent pro­cess re­li­ab­il­ity, which is par­tic­u­larly cru­cial in sens­it­ive ap­plic­a­tions such as clean­rooms and phar­ma­ceut­ic­al pro­duc­tion. Highly ac­cur­ate mon­it­or­ing of the air ve­lo­city op­tim­ises product qual­ity and re­duces scrap. Changes in the pro­cess can be de­tec­ted more re­li­ably and pre­ven­ted at an early stage. In ad­di­tion, the long-term sta­bil­ity of the AVS701 min­im­ises main­ten­ance in­ter­vals.

The AVS701 is equipped with a ro­bust thin-film ceram­ic sens­ing ele­ment pro­tec­ted by a dur­able stain­less steel probe head. A spe­cial coat­ing on the sens­ing ele­ment pro­tects it against mois­ture and cor­ros­ive in­flu­ences such as hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide or am­mo­nia. This makes the sensor par­tic­u­larly well suited for use in the most chal­len­ging en­vir­on­ments, for ex­ample in the phar­ma­ceut­ic­al sec­tor or the chem­ic­al in­dustry.
 

To help in­dus­tries in­teg­rate sensor data dir­ectly in­to ex­ist­ing con­trol, auto­ma­tion, and data ac­quis­i­tion sys­tems, HBK has re-in­tro­duced the WSDA-101.
The WSDA-101 is a wire­less gate­way and is ideal for ap­plic­a­tions where pre­dict­able, low latency ana­log sig­nals are re­quired, such as struc­tur­al health mon­it­or­ing, equip­ment per­form­ance mon­it­or­ing, PLC based sys­tem con­trol, and en­vir­on­ment­al mon­it­or­ing. By con­vert­ing wire­less sensor data in­to stand­ard ana­log voltage out­puts, the WSDA 101 en­ables en­gin­eers to use wire­less meas­ure­ments with­in es­tab­lished work­flows that rely on PLCs, DAQs, and con­trol­lers. The WSDA 101 provides eight in­de­pend­ently con­fig­ur­able ana­logue out­put chan­nels, de­liv­er­ing 0–3 VDC sig­nals that can be con­nec­ted dir­ectly to equip­ment re­quir­ing stand­ard ana­log voltage in­puts. This ap­proach al­lows wire­less sensor data to be used in tim­ing crit­ic­al ap­plic­a­tions - in­clud­ing con­trol loops, torque mon­it­or­ing, and real time pro­cess feed­back - without the need for cus­tom hard­ware or com­plex sys­tem in­teg­ra­tion.

Lossless wire­less com­mu­nic­a­tion 

De­signed for flex­ib­il­ity, the WSDA 101 can op­er­ate as a stan­dalone device or in par­al­lel with a host com­puter via USB, sup­port­ing both fact­ory floor and PC based work­flows. Con­fig­ur­a­tion, mon­it­or­ing, and data col­lec­tion are man­aged us­ing Sensor­Con­nect™ soft­ware, provid­ing a straight­for­ward setup pro­cess for en­gin­eers work­ing in test, meas­ure­ment, and auto­ma­tion en­vir­on­ments.

In ad­di­tion to ana­log out­put op­er­a­tion, the WSDA 101 sup­ports LXRS® lossless wire­less com­mu­nic­a­tion when the ana­log out­put mode is dis­abled. This en­ables re­li­able, high fi­del­ity wire­less data trans­mis­sion across long dis­tances for de­mand­ing meas­ure­ment en­vir­on­ments, such as spaces of up to 2 km in line-of-sight con­di­tions. The base sta­tion sup­ports mul­tiple sampling modes, in­clud­ing syn­chron­ised and low duty cycle op­er­a­tion, and is en­gin­eered to de­liv­er con­sist­ent per­form­ance in ap­plic­a­tions re­quir­ing de­term­in­ist­ic be­ha­viour. With its com­bin­a­tion of wire­less flex­ib­il­ity and dir­ect ana­log out­put, the WSDA 101 is in­ten­ded for en­gin­eers seek­ing a prac­tic­al way to in­cor­por­ate wire­less sensor data in­to es­tab­lished in­dus­tri­al and labor­at­ory sys­tems without re­design­ing ex­ist­ing in­fra­struc­ture.
 

TURCK is adding the FS501 flow sensor to its FS+ flu­id sensor series. The ro­bust IP67 device meas­ures flow ve­lo­city and volume flow in li­quid me­dia and also out­puts tem­per­at­ure val­ues. Users can freely con­fig­ure switch­ing and ana­log out­puts and be­ne­fit from easy in­teg­ra­tion in­to IO-Link en­vir­on­ments thanks to Smart Sensor Pro­file. The FS501 is suit­able for pipe dia­met­ers from 15 to 250 mm, cov­er­ing a wide range of ap­plic­a­tions in fact­ory auto­ma­tion.

The IO-Link in­ter­face ac­cord­ing to Smart Sensor Pro­file en­ables ac­cess to pro­cess data and func­tions such as Single Value Teach for stor­ing the cur­rent flow ve­lo­city as a switch­ing point, Dy­nam­ic Teach, and To­tal­izer. In Dy­nam­ic Teach mode, the sensor auto­mat­ic­ally ad­justs switch­ing points to chan­ging con­di­tions. The To­tal­izer func­tion can be used to de­term­ine con­sump­tion data for ma­chines—dir­ectly in the sensor.
 

Lika Elec­tron­ic's SMAR4 ab­so­lute mod­u­lar en­coder is re­mark­ably small: the PCB read­head is one of the smal­lest on the mar­ket and meas­ures only a few mil­li­meters. The SMAR4 com­bines an open PCB read­head with the MRA and RMU mag­net­ic rings with axi­al or ra­di­al mag­net­iz­a­tion in a very com­pact as­sembly. The through bore of the rings ranges from 8 to 70 mm. This design can be eas­ily in­teg­rated in­to high-per­form­ance, space- and weight-crit­ic­al ap­plic­a­tions such as ro­bot­ic joints, ro­bots and co­bots, hu­manoids, sur­gic­al ro­bots, elec­tro-med­ic­al and labor­at­ory devices, and OEM equip­ment.

SSI and BiSS In­ter­faces

The con­struc­tion is frame­less and bearing­less; the meas­ur­ing sys­tem is not equipped with a shaft, bear­ings, flange, and hous­ing. Op­er­a­tion is con­tact­less and no com­pon­ents are sub­ject to wear or mech­an­ic­al fa­tigue. The op­er­at­ing tem­per­at­ure ranges from -25°C to +100°C. The SMAR4 is equipped with SSI and BiSS C-Mode in­ter­faces. It of­fers a res­ol­u­tion of up to 20 bits (1,048,576 cpr). In ad­di­tion, up to sev­en en­coders can be net­worked in a daisy-chain con­fig­ur­a­tion.

Smart con­di­tion mon­it­or­ing based on vi­bra­tion meas­ure­ment makes it easi­er than ever to de­tect dam­age to cent­ri­fu­gal pumps, fans and elec­tric mo­tors at the earli­est stages. This helps to pre­vent ma­chine fail­ures and en­ables cost-ef­fect­ive, de­mand-based main­ten­ance plan­ning. With the new fea­tures of mo­neo As­set Health, part of the mo­neo II­oT plat­form by ifm this type of con­di­tion mon­it­or­ing can be im­ple­men­ted eas­ily and on a scal­able basis. No ex­pert know­ledge of vi­bra­tion ana­lys­is is re­quired. The sys­tem works seam­lessly with ifm’s IO-Link-based VVB con­di­tion mon­it­or­ing sensors, and the set-up of As­set Health is ex­tremely simple. 

Prob­lems can be traced back to their causes

With just a few clicks, users can con­fig­ure mon­it­or­ing for a tar­get ma­chine such as a cent­ri­fu­gal pump, fan or elec­tric mo­tor. Like all fea­tures in mo­neo, As­set Health is also de­signed as a no-code solu­tion, al­low­ing users to set up and op­er­ate the sys­tem without any pro­gram­ming know­ledge. Un­like con­ven­tion­al con­di­tion mon­it­or­ing solu­tions, As­set Health does not simply de­tect a rising trend or an­om­aly; it also iden­ti­fies the un­der­ly­ing cause of the fault. This is done auto­mat­ic­ally, without any com­plex threshold set­tings, open­ing up a wide range of pos­sib­il­it­ies: as soon as a prob­lem is de­tec­ted, the soft­ware auto­mat­ic­ally gen­er­ates main­ten­ance tick­ets de­tail­ing the re­spect­ive dam­age pat­tern, the cause and a spe­cif­ic re­pair re­com­mend­a­tion. With mo­neo As­set Health, main­ten­ance teams gain ac­cess to a sys­tem that sig­ni­fic­antly sim­pli­fies their daily work, im­proves ma­chine avail­ab­il­ity and can be seam­lessly in­teg­rated in­to an ex­ist­ing main­ten­ance strategy. 
 

Beck­hoff’s Vis­ion Unit Il­lu­min­ated (VUI) is a com­pact unit com­pris­ing a cam­era, il­lu­min­a­tion, and fo­cus­able op­tics com­plete with li­quid lens tech­no­logy. The series has now been ex­pan­ded to in­clude 16 devices with new im­age sensors as well as crossed po­lar­iz­ing fil­ters.

Ex­ten­ded sensor range

The VUI is in­dustry-ready and de­signed for the harsh day-to-day con­di­tions of ma­chine build­ing, com­pact, ro­bust, and en­gin­eered for easy in­teg­ra­tion in­to the con­trol sys­tem. The ex­tens­ive port­fo­lio of units now in­cludes 16 ad­di­tion­al devices with new im­age sensors. With res­ol­u­tions of 5.1, 8.1, and 12.4 MP, they are suit­able for a wide range of de­mand­ing ap­plic­a­tions – from fast cycle de­tec­tion to de­tailed qual­ity in­spec­tion with el­ev­ated meas­ure­ment and de­tec­tion ac­cur­acy.

The devices are also avail­able with crossed po­lar­iz­ing fil­ters. This ex­pands the range of ap­plic­a­tions, as the easy-to-use unit en­ables ad­di­tion­al vis­ion tasks to be solved by sup­press­ing sur­face re­flec­tions. In this way, fea­tures can be cap­tured with high con­trast and without re­flec­tions, even through shiny trans­par­ent sur­faces such as glass, plastic, and wa­ter.
Cap­tion: The VUI vis­ion series sig­ni­fic­antly re­duces in­stall­a­tion and com­mis­sion­ing ef­fort, and has been ex­pan­ded to in­clude ad­di­tion­al func­tions and 16 new devices.
 

When it comes to auto­ma­tion sys­tems, com­plex­ity tends to grow faster than per­form­ance. Each new gen­er­a­tion of ma­chines prom­ises high­er pre­ci­sion, great­er flex­ib­il­ity, and faster com­mis­sion­ing – but the real­ity is that these am­bi­tions of­ten trans­late in­to more wir­ing, more con­fig­ur­a­tion, and more in­teg­ra­tion head­aches. The res­ult is a de­vel­op­ment cycle that’s harder to con­trol, at a point when cus­tom­ers ex­pect short­er lead times and lower costs.

That’s the chal­lenge fa­cing today’s ma­chine build­ers. They’re un­der pres­sure to de­liv­er high-per­form­ing sys­tems in re­cord time while nav­ig­at­ing un­pre­dict­able sup­ply chains, com­pet­ing glob­al stand­ards, and shift­ing com­pon­ent avail­ab­il­ity. In that en­vir­on­ment, the biggest ad­vances don’t al­ways come from adding new fea­tures or exot­ic cap­ab­il­it­ies, but from re­think­ing the fun­da­ment­als.

That shift in­volves three key ideas. The first is right-siz­ing: en­sur­ing that sys­tems in­clude only the func­tions and fea­tures that add value, rather than pay­ing for cap­ab­il­it­ies that will nev­er be used. The second is open­ness: cre­at­ing mo­tion sys­tems that can con­nect freely across dif­fer­ent con­trol­lers, pro­to­cols, and mar­kets without lock­ing users in­to closed eco­sys­tems. Fi­nally, the third is re­si­li­ence: design­ing equip­ment that can be built and sup­por­ted re­li­ably, even amid glob­al un­cer­tainty.

To­geth­er, these prin­ciples define a new ap­proach to mo­tion con­trol; one where flex­ib­il­ity, re­li­ab­il­ity, and sim­pli­city are not in con­flict, but part of the same design philo­sophy.

The cost of un­ne­ces­sary com­plex­ity

In the ef­fort to design flex­ible ma­chines, many OEMs end up over-spe­cify­ing their mo­tion sys­tems. They se­lect servo drives and mo­tors packed with ad­vanced fea­tures that have plenty of po­ten­tial be­ne­fits in the­ory but, in prac­tice, will nev­er be used.

Now, the mo­tiv­a­tion be­hind this is very un­der­stand­able. Buy­ing the “top-end” op­tion can seem like a safe hedge against fu­ture re­quire­ments and edge-cases.

However, this ap­proach car­ries hid­den (and, some­times, not-so-hid­den) costs. Each un­used fea­ture adds over­heads in en­gin­eer­ing ef­fort, con­fig­ur­a­tion time, and in­vent­ory man­age­ment. Over-spe­cified sys­tems also tend to de­mand more from the con­trol en­vir­on­ment, all the way from safety val­id­a­tion to thermal man­age­ment. Mul­tiply that by dozens of axes, and the cost of com­plex­ity can be­come a ser­i­ous drag on de­vel­op­ment ef­fi­ciency and real-world us­age.

In our ex­per­i­ence, we’ve found that around 80% of ap­plic­a­tions only use a re­l­at­ively ba­sic set of es­sen­tial fea­tures. As such, a more ef­fect­ive design strategy is to take a mod­u­lar view of ma­chine design – choos­ing mo­tion com­pon­ents that de­liv­er ex­actly the cap­ab­il­it­ies re­quired for a giv­en task, without the ex­cess. That doesn’t mean com­prom­ising on per­form­ance; rather, it’s about ap­ply­ing the same pre­ci­sion we value in mo­tion con­trol to sys­tem design it­self.

This “right-siz­ing” philo­sophy is gain­ing trac­tion across the auto­ma­tion world. It’s re­flec­ted in the grow­ing de­mand for servo plat­forms that can cov­er the ma­jor­ity of ap­plic­a­tions with stand­ard­ized, stream­lined op­tions. By elim­in­at­ing un­ne­ces­sary fea­tures and fo­cus­ing on what most users ac­tu­ally need, ma­chine build­ers can sim­pli­fy their en­gin­eer­ing pro­cess and im­prove time to mar­ket, while still meet­ing de­mand­ing per­form­ance stand­ards.

Open sys­tems, not closed eco­sys­tems

Many con­trol plat­forms form what can only be de­scribed as closed eco­sys­tems: the con­trol­ler, drives, soft­ware, and even cabling are de­signed to work only with each oth­er. 

In the­ory, this en­sures com­pat­ib­il­ity. In prac­tice, however, it of­ten cre­ates in­ef­fi­cien­cies. It ties ma­chine build­ers to a single vendor, re­strict­ing flex­ib­il­ity and cre­at­ing dif­fi­culties when sup­ply is­sues arise or when a cus­tom­er prefers a dif­fer­ent PLC en­vir­on­ment.

A more open, in­ter­op­er­able ap­proach is now emer­ging, one that aims to give OEMs free­dom without sac­ri­fi­cing re­li­ab­il­ity. Multi-pro­tocol servo drives, for in­stance, can op­er­ate across Eth­er­CAT, PROFINET, and Eth­er­Net/IP net­works through simple soft­ware con­fig­ur­a­tion rather than hard­ware changes. This al­lows the same drive and mo­tor plat­form to in­teg­rate with a wide range of con­trol­lers and field­bus ar­chi­tec­tures, re­gard­less of geo­graphy or cus­tom­er pref­er­ence.

For glob­al ma­chine build­ers, that’s a ma­jor ad­vant­age. A ma­chine de­signed for one mar­ket can be de­ployed in an­oth­er without re­work­ing the con­trol ar­chi­tec­ture or main­tain­ing sep­ar­ate bills of ma­ter­i­als for each pro­tocol. This sim­pli­fies cer­ti­fic­a­tion, re­duces en­gin­eer­ing over­heads, and im­proves long-term ser­vice­ab­il­ity.

Open sys­tems also make it easi­er to mix and match tech­no­logy part­ners. Drives and mo­tors can come from one sup­pli­er, PLCs and HMIs from an­oth­er. So long as every­one speaks the same “lan­guage” through stand­ard­ized com­mu­nic­a­tion lay­ers, they can work to­geth­er ef­fect­ively.

This not only helps to sim­pli­fy set-up and avoid com­pat­ib­il­ity is­sues, it also helps OEMs build re­si­li­ent sys­tems and re­spond quickly when com­pon­ents are scarce or delayed – something that re­mains front-of-mind for many busi­nesses after the dis­rup­tions we’ve seen over re­cent years.

Meet­ing mod­ern ex­pect­a­tions

For ma­chine build­ers, the value of open­ness and sim­pli­city goes bey­ond con­veni­ence. It en­ables bet­ter busi­ness de­cisions. When hard­ware can be de­ployed across mul­tiple re­gions and con­trol ar­chi­tec­tures, in­vent­ory man­age­ment be­comes easi­er. When drive sys­tems are avail­able from stock with pre­dict­able lead times, project plan­ning be­comes more re­li­able; and when soft­ware tools min­im­ize the risk of setup er­rors, com­mis­sion­ing be­comes faster and more con­sist­ent across teams and sites.

That’s why the in­dustry is be­gin­ning to see a quiet shift in mind­set. The old equa­tion – more fea­tures = more cap­ab­il­ity – is giv­ing way to something more nu­anced. Enough fea­tures, ap­plied in­tel­li­gently, equals bet­ter out­comes.

Man­u­fac­tur­ers like Koll­mor­gen have re­spon­ded to this change by de­vel­op­ing servo plat­forms built around the es­sen­tial fea­tures most users need, rather than every fea­ture that could be ima­gined. Sys­tems like the Koll­mor­gen Es­sen­tials range re­flect a prag­mat­ic ap­proach to auto­ma­tion: main­tain­ing high-qual­ity per­form­ance and glob­al in­ter­op­er­ab­il­ity while trim­ming away un­ne­ces­sary com­plex­ity.

The res­ult isn’t a com­prom­ise, but rather a re­cal­ib­ra­tion. It’s about re­cog­niz­ing that not every ax­is needs to be over-en­gin­eered, not every ma­chine needs be­spoke in­teg­ra­tion, and not every com­pon­ent needs to be tied to a single eco­sys­tem.

The world of auto­ma­tion is ad­van­cing rap­idly, and it’s easy to fall in­to the trap of think­ing that the best way to meet the chal­lenges of to­mor­row is to jam every piece of tech­no­logy pos­sible in­to your sys­tem. However, the smartest pro­gress of­ten comes from sim­pli­fy­ing rather than adding.

By fo­cus­ing on open­ness, re­si­li­ence, and right-sized design, ma­chine build­ers can achieve faster de­vel­op­ment, lower cost, and great­er con­fid­ence in their sys­tems — even as the world around them be­comes more com­plex.
 

Alva In­dus­tries an­nounced the launch of SlimT­orq™ STM-190-35, a new lar­ger size in its SlimT­orq™ frame­less, slot­less mo­tor port­fo­lio. The STM-190-35 ex­pands the STM range with in­creased torque cap­ab­il­ity and pre­ci­sion, en­abling de­mand­ing dir­ect-drive ap­plic­a­tions where per­form­ance, com­pact­ness, and design flex­ib­il­ity are crit­ic­al. Like all SlimT­orq™ mo­tors, the STM-190-35 is man­u­fac­tured us­ing Alva’s pat­en­ted Fiber­Print­ing™ tech­no­logy, de­liv­er­ing iron­less, slot­less wind­ings with high cop­per fill factor and zero cog­ging. The mo­tor is avail­able with mul­tiple wind­ing op­tions, dif­fer­ent ter­min­al block designs, and op­tion­al tem­per­at­ure sensors and Hall sensors, sup­port­ing pre­cise con­trol and sys­tem-level op­tim­iz­a­tion.

Per­form­ance and high pre­ci­sion in com­pact design

The STM-190-35 is de­signed for high-pre­ci­sion dir­ect-drive sys­tems such as elec­tro-op­tic­al plat­forms, gim­bals, ro­bot­ics, and oth­er mo­tion-crit­ic­al ap­plic­a­tions. With a fa­vor­able in­ner-to-out­er dia­met­er ra­tio and com­pact axi­al length, the mo­tor sup­ports space-ef­fi­cient sys­tem designs without com­prom­ising torque dens­ity or con­trol per­form­ance. To sup­port sys­tem-level design and eval­u­ation, the STM-190-35 is fully sup­por­ted in Alva’s TorqStu­dio design and sim­u­la­tion plat­form. TorqStu­dio al­lows en­gin­eers to eval­u­ate mo­tor per­form­ance, ex­plore wind­ing op­tions, and op­tim­ize mo­tor se­lec­tion early in the design pro­cess based on ap­plic­a­tion-spe­cif­ic re­quire­ments. This new size gives sys­tem de­sign­ers more free­dom to op­tim­ize per­form­ance and mech­an­ic­al in­teg­ra­tion, es­pe­cially in dir­ect-drive solu­tions where pre­ci­sion and smooth mo­tion are es­sen­tial.

The ad­di­tion of the STM-190-35 brings the SlimT­orq™ STM port­fo­lio to nine avail­able mo­tor sizes, span­ning dif­fer­ent out­er dia­met­ers and lengths. Each size can be con­figured with mul­tiple in­ner dia­met­er op­tions, wind­ing pat­terns, and cus­tom con­fig­ur­a­tions, al­low­ing en­gin­eers to tail­or the mo­tor to their spe­cif­ic ap­plic­a­tion re­quire­ments.
 

Rodrig­uez of­fers the BRXH series of pro­file rail guides in an op­tim­ized design. The up­date com­prises three key points: an en­hanced lub­ric­a­tion concept, a new seal­ing sys­tem, and great­er pre­ci­sion. This makes pro­cesses even safer while main­tain­ing sys­tem com­pat­ib­il­ity. With the modi­fic­a­tions to its BRXH pro­file rail guides, Rodrig­uez is re­spond­ing to the in­creased de­mands in mech­an­ic­al en­gin­eer­ing and auto­ma­tion. The ba­sic tech­nic­al data re­mains un­changed, while tar­geted op­tim­iz­a­tion meas­ures im­prove pro­cess re­li­ab­il­ity and en­sure longer ser­vice life and re­pro­du­cible pre­ci­sion.

More lub­ric­a­tion points and new seal­ing concept

The guide car­riages now have ad­di­tion­al lub­ric­a­tion points, which dis­trib­ute the lub­ric­ant bet­ter and more evenly with­in the re­cir­cu­lat­ing ball unit. The sys­tems are still de­livered pre-lub­ric­ated. When lub­ric­at­ing from above, an ad­apter en­sures tar­geted dis­tri­bu­tion in the car­riage. A cent­ral ele­ment of the re­design is the new seal­ing sys­tem. Double lip seals on the front and double lip seals on the sides are used as stand­ard, provid­ing ef­fect­ive pro­tec­tion against particles and con­tam­in­a­tion. Ad­di­tion­al vari­ants are avail­able as op­tions: non-ab­ras­ive seals, ad­di­tion­al ab­ras­ive seals, and met­al wipers.

High­er ac­cur­acy be­comes stand­ard

The pre­vi­ous stand­ard ac­cur­acy N is no longer avail­able. In­stead, class H be­comes the new stand­ard. The tol­er­ances for height and width have been re­duced by around 50 per­cent com­pared to the pre­vi­ous N ver­sion. Ac­cur­acy class P will only be avail­able on re­quest in fu­ture. Class Z2 is no longer avail­able for pre­load; Z0, Z1, and Z3 re­main avail­able. Spe­cific­ally, this means high­er re­peat ac­cur­acy – par­tic­u­larly rel­ev­ant in ro­bot­ics and auto­ma­tion – and bet­ter par­al­lel­ism, i.e., mul­tiple guides run more smoothly in par­al­lel.

Fur­ther design modi­fic­a­tions

In ad­di­tion, the num­ber of ground car­riage sur­faces has been in­creased from two to three. Cov­er caps made of plastic or, op­tion­ally, brass are avail­able for the rails.
Some of the series' proven fea­tures re­main un­changed, in­clud­ing the design with four rows of balls ar­ranged in an X with a 45° con­tact angle to ac­cept loads in all main dir­ec­tions, coat­ing op­tions, in­ter­change­ab­il­ity with­in pre­ci­sion and pre­load classes, and avail­ab­il­ity in in­di­vidu­al lengths of up to 3,900 mm. 
 

Servo drives, mo­tors, and PLCs from In­ovance have en­abled pack­aging ma­chinery OEM Spir­al­tech to auto­mate a ma­chine cap­able of cut­ting card­board cores from 60 mm up to 1,250 mm in dia­met­er. The brand-new Edge 1250 has been de­veloped by Spir­al­tech us­ing In­ovance tech­no­logy from CAPSS, a UK-based dis­trib­ut­or of in­dus­tri­al auto­ma­tion products. Thanks to the con­sist­ent, high-level of sup­port from CAPSS and the high-per­form­ance products from In­ovance, Spir­al­tech was able to provide an auto­mated ver­sion of its cut­ting ma­chine. 

Cost-com­pet­it­ive, flex­ible and com­pact solu­tion 

Spir­al­tech wanted to re­place its mech­an­ic­al card­board core cut­ting ma­chine with a safer, more user-friendly auto­mated ver­sion. The com­pany was de­term­ined to re­tain a ‘good square cut’ even on large-scale jobs, while also seek­ing re­peat­ab­il­ity, ease of op­er­a­tion, and more ef­fi­cient changeovers. In or­der to achieve those goals, it needed ro­bust products for in­dus­tri­al set­tings and harsh en­vir­on­ments, with high levels of ac­cur­acy and re­peat­ab­il­ity. The Edge 1250 was de­veloped quickly and ef­fi­ciently with tech­nic­al sup­port from CAPSS, and the new ma­chine is able to util­ise a hy­brid sys­tem. It al­lows end-users to se­lect either a saw blade or a knife blade, de­pend­ing on the type of cut re­quired.

In­ovance products used in the Edge 1250 in­clude a range of products in­clud­ing the AM500 PLC, GL 20 I/O mod­ules, IS810N single and dual ax­is servo drives, the MD810 mul­tid­rive sys­tem and MS1 servo mo­tors. 

Key con­sid­er­a­tions when Spir­al­tech was se­lect­ing servo drives, mo­tors and PLCs for the Edge 1250 in­cluded com­pon­ent size, strength, and cost com­pet­it­ive­ness. The In­ovance products are ro­bust and com­pact without com­prom­ising per­form­ance, en­abling more servo mo­tors and servo drives to be used, de­liv­er­ing great­er ma­chine flex­ib­il­ity and auto­ma­tion. 

Safer, faster, re­peat­able res­ults 

The Edge 1250 can cut card­board cores of 60 mm up to 1,250 mm in dia­met­er, mak­ing it suit­able for a wide range of in­dus­tries and ap­plic­a­tions; from the­at­ric­al set dress­ing and stor­ing 
fab­ric for de­sign­er chairs, to con­struc­tion and steel pro­cessing. The Edge 1250 also has en­hanced safety fea­tures, with op­er­at­ors pro­tec­ted from the blades, and changeovers made quick­er, safer and easi­er through auto­ma­tion. 

Spir­al­tech dif­fer­en­ti­ates it­self through in­nov­at­ive ma­chine design, and its fo­cus is on ma­chines that can be changed over two to three times per day to en­able small batch work. To achieve this, the ma­chines have double the num­ber of ser­vos com­pared with lead­ing com­pet­it­ors. 

Steven Bel­wood, Man­aging Dir­ect­or of Spir­al­tech, says: “We have a really good ex­ist­ing re­la­tion­ship with CAPSS and ex­cel­lent ex­per­i­ences with In­ovance products, as they are com­pact, ac­cur­ate, per­form well, and are cost-com­pet­it­ive. We plan on work­ing with In­ovance and CAPSS again mov­ing for­ward. This is the second big ma­chine we have worked on with them, and it is per­form­ing well. It has been a pleas­ure to work with CAPSS and we look for­ward to us­ing In­ovance ser­vos and mo­tion products for more auto­ma­tion in the fu­ture.”

Paul Seale, Dir­ect­or of CAPSS, adds: “It was great to work with the Spir­al­tech team again, and we hope to build on the pos­it­ive re­la­tion­ship and joint com­mit­ment to in­nov­a­tion mov­ing for­ward. To be in­volved with a project that de­liv­ers above and bey­ond the brief is al­ways a pleas­ure and the Edge 1250 is test­a­ment to what is achiev­able with in­dus­tri­al auto­ma­tion solu­tions.”
 

The new Exxelia CM-HVLP series (High-Voltage Low-Profile Reconstituted Mica Capacitors) addresses growing demand for high-voltage, robust, and low-profile components in volume-constrained electronic systems. The new capacitors are engineered to meet the requirements of applications where high voltage handling, fast charge/discharge cycles, and reliability under repetitive stress are essential. Their design enables use in both pulse applications, such as charge and discharge circuits, and high-voltage filtering functions, offering a versatile solution for advanced electronic architectures.

The CM-HVLP series combines the intrinsic stability of reconstituted mica dielectric technology without any drift under voltage of the capacitance value and a breakthrough compact SMD footprint, supporting the ongoing miniaturization of high-power electronic systems. The capacitors provide high energy density, very low Equivalent Series Inductance (ESL), and the capability to withstand extreme dV/dt rates, enabling ultrafast discharge performance even under intensive repetitive cycles. The design is also optimized to propose low ESR value.

Extreme Reliability

Building on our demonstrated historical experience with Space QPL family lines, Exxelia is now extending this expertise to diversify markets (Defense, Space, New Space, Medical, Industry, Aviaton). To ensure mission-critical reliability, qualification tests are performed according to the most stringent MIL standards, e.g. on mechanical and thermal stress, to allow for long-term use.

Unmatched Miniaturization

Designed with integration in mind, the components feature a reduced footprint that facilitates placement in dense PCB layouts. The series offers a significant size advantage, with a format (8080) measuring only 20x20mm. This balance between miniaturization and power capability makes the technology particularly relevant for systems, where reliability and electrical stability are critical.
 

TDK-Lambda introduces the i1R ORing FET modules, capable of operating at 60 or 80 A with a maximum input voltage of 60 Vdc. These ORing modules are designed to replace traditional diodes in applications that require ORing functionality for power supply redundancy or parallel operation. The i1R series uses MOSFET-based circuitry to provide a superior level of performance while reducing reverse current transients.

Compact metal packages

Applications for the i1R modules include communications, test and measurement equipment, plus harsh environment industrial and robotics requiring a high degree of shock and vibration. While the i1R series was designed to complement other TDK-Lambda solutions, including the i7A and i7C non-isolated converters, GQA and HQA industrial and defense COTS-grade isolated DC-DC converters, and RGF differential mode filter modules, its flexible architecture allows it to be deployed alongside other power solutions. The i1R series has a fast 500 ns (typ) turn-off response, blocking reverse current transients during fault conditions for better protection. The product has a typical low on-resistance of 2.5 and 1.5 mΩ, reducing power losses and waste heat, simplifying the thermal design. The product’s shielded metal package size is a compact 1 x 1” (26.3 x 26.3 mm), saving valuable board space and supporting efficient cooling. For added convenience and simplicity, the series operates without the need for any external components.