Improve Safety, Improve Production
loading… “One in-depth study conducted by a group … with a combined exposure of over 50 billion hours, concluded that production increased as safety increased,” reports Charles M. Fialkowski in “Safety Instrumented System design is all about the process.” Although this is somehow counterintuitive, better safety equals better production. We’ve been preaching this for years. …
Yellow is the new Green
loading… “Yellow is the new Green.” In order to avoid confusing this observation with pronouncements to Curious George’s friend in the yellow hat, I might add “Purple is the new Green.” In fact, “Green is the new Green.” (Or, more accurately “PROFINET Green is the new Green.”) Yellow represents AS-I; purple, PROFIBUS; and green, PROFINET. …
And so it begins…
loading… And so it begins… My travel season, that is. After two months in the office (except for that Hawaiian vacation), it’s time to go back on the road. I’ll be in Portland, OR for a PROFINET one-day training event and PROFINET Developer Workshop March 11 and 12, but next week I’m attending the AS-interface…
Response to the 4th power
loading… That white paper we published really sparked some discussion, but it is now to the point where experts arguing with experts is only interesting to the arguing experts. So, I’m stepping back from the fray. This is my parting advice as posted as a comment at Emerson Process Experts: I guess we could continue…
Judging a Fieldbus by the Number of Books
loading… Over at the Factory Automation Software Blog, Tony posted a comparison of the number of fieldbus books available on Amazon: “Fieldbus Book Wars”. Of course, not all fieldbus books are available from Amazon, so I felt compelled to direct interested readers to our book page for two more books. I would add a comparison…
Responding to the Response
loading… Four main points of contention were raised by Jim Cahill in his blog responding to our white paper “PROFIBUS PA vs. Foundation Fieldbus, a cost comparison”: Pricing Linking Devices on a segment Easier Pricing. Jim points out that other factors beside cost determine the selling price of automation devices. That’s…
Blogging Around
loading… In case you missed some of these items in other blogs, let me point you in the right direction. Gary Mintchell has recently blogged about PROFIBUS and PROFINET. In “ProfiNews” (I knew we should have trademarked that word), Gary points out that GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has standardized on PROFIBUS and PROFINET. ABB has…
PROFIBUS Sunrise
loading… Gary Mintchell blogged about Sun’s reentry into industrial automation in “The Sun Also Rises (Again).” Seems they put together a demo system running Java that includes a PROFIBUS port and 4 Ethernet ports. We need to have them use one of those Ethernet ports for PROFINET. (PROFINET is standard unmodified Ethernet, after all). Gary,…
Switch Education
loading… “When Should I Invest in a Managed Ethernet Switch?” is the question posed in the latest issue of the Industrial Ethernet Book. I’ve heard it said elsewhere that you’ll either use a managed switch or wish you had. The logic is that an unmanaged switch has diagnostic information consisting of blinking LEDs. If your…
Reviewed Resource
loading… Control Engineering presents a Reviewed Resource: the PTO white paper “PROFIBUS PA vs. Foundation Fieldbus, a cost comparison.” Read the review, then read the actual paper. (Unfortunately, the Control Engineering link to the paper itself is broken, but you can find the paper on the PTO’s White Papers page, including an audio version.) Feel…