One of the themes arising out of Schneider Electric’s recent international media day held at its Paris headquarters, le Hive, was the increasing convergence of the worlds of information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT). IT is focused on storing and analysing data, while OT focuses on making things work. Schneider Electric’s Michael Sing explains it like this: “From the top down, IT focuses on the business, operations and enterprise information systems required to operate and support a business. Such systems are based on well-published IT standards for the integration of large volumes of information across different applications. From the bottom up, OT concentrates on the plant, processes and equipment required to perform the actual processing operations. These OT systems are often based on vendor-specific, proprietary technologies.”
What struck me was that these are very different disciplines, but Schneider, originally an OT company, is making it work. Senior vice president for press relations, Thierry Nicolet says partnering is a way of life for Schneider. “We differentiate by being customer-obsessive and creating partnership relationships with our suppliers. Even relationships with electricians are important.” This has paid off in the partnerships Schneider has developed with its customers such as Cisco and SAP France.
In this issue we describe how Schneider has recognised the huge opportunity presented by the Internet of Things (IoT), which is creating a step change in its mission to make the world more energy efficient. The company expects IoT to revolutionise its business. “The speed and scale of change is unbelievable,” says chief marketing officer, Chris Leong. “We are combining IT and OT solutions to bring industries to life. Our success is built on our vertical segment expertise.”
Jim Pinto agrees. He says that the new automation leaders will be those who can demonstrate that their products and services can yield significant productivity improvements, and navigate the complexities of global markets; but growth in 2015 will be bottom-up, not top-down. He also quotes predictions that two billion jobs will be jettisoned by 2030, replaced by jobs that are still developing. I can think of a few – energy engineers, robot maintenance technicians, or bionics managers triggered by Festo’s Bionic Learning Network.
In another look into the not-so-distant future, ARC Advisory Group looks at the advent of smart sensors and how they are reshaping the automation landscape through companies such as Schneider. SKF is also up front in the IoT area. We have an account of the company’s wireless shaft alignment system, while in previous issues we have also covered SKF’s intelligent bearing technology, which allows bearings to communicate their operating conditions.
This leads on to our Technews Industry Guide: Maintenance, Reliability & Asset Optimisation, which introduces the benefits of this new technology. Our aim is to provide the maintenance professional with a one-stop definitive resource that covers everything from in-situ sensor-based solutions for condition monitoring, to handheld portable devices for periodic maintenance-related checks, to software solutions for analysis and reporting, to customised services like hoist monitoring and reliability management consulting. Our Industry Guide: Maintenance, Reliability & Asset Optimisation will be posted free of charge to readers of both Motion Control and SA Instrumentation and Control magazines.
A local energy efficiency success story comes from NMMU’s very successful Institute of Chemical Technology, InnoVenton, which has developed innovative algae technology that could turn millions of tons of waste coal dust into high quality clean coal. This project has huge potential for the production of export quality coal as well as biofuel products.
For a bit of fun Motion Control spoke to the vice president for safety engineering at Cedar Fair in Ohio about his extreme ride, Power Tower, which uses pneumatics to launch and drop thrillseekers – ‘pneumatics on steroids’ as he calls it.
Our cover story describes how Beckhoff’s integrated PC control allowed visual inspection to be replaced with a fully automated test cell using delta robots in a complex application in the metalworking industry. Together with this, our metalworking section covers Parker’s contribution about frameless motors for demanding machine tool spindle applications. In the same vein is Tectra Automation’s story about drive components for CNC plasma cutting tables, which greatly improve machine output.
It’s nice to have a larger than usual pneumatics section in this issue. This coincides with the entry into the South African market of Japanese company, SMC Pneumatics, and we are likely to hear a lot more about this new development. Another major international development is the recent joint venture between Hytec and Bosch Rexroth and we have some new appointments to the board here as well.
Kim Roberts
Editor
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