Rockwell Automation opened its Automation Fair event to nearly 9,000 customers, Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork members, industry analysts and media from around the world at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. Themed “Smart, Safe and Sustainable Manufacturing,” the event provided attendees the opportunity to see the newest technologies and solutions available to help improve plant-wide optimization, machine-builder performance and sustainable production. Specifically:
Plant-Wide Optimization – A changing global economy is driving manufacturers to seek new continuous improvement methodologies – enabled by the convergence of industrial automation and information technology. Through customer round-table discussions, theater presentations and technical sessions, attendees can identify ways to use their automation investment to drive innovative engineering, flexible operations and efficient maintenance across their organization.
Machine-Builder Performance – Machine builders manufacture industrial equipment that uses different levels of automation technology, depending on the end use of the machines. They require flexibility and seek Rockwell Automation solutions to help reduce Total Cost to Design, Develop and Deliver machines and improve time to market.
Sustainable Production – Sustainable production is the only long-term solution to overcoming the rising costs of energy, raw materials, environmental regulations, workers’ compensation and product liability. Rockwell Automation solutions help manufacturers overcome today’s economic pressures, achieve long-term business goals, improve global competitiveness and brand value, and have a more positive impact on society and the environment
Rockwell Automation also distributed a series of product announcements at its Process Solutions User Group conference in conjunction with the 2009 Automation Fair event.
Rockwell Automation Outlines Six Areas of Focus for its PlantPAx Process Automation System
Signaling the continued importance of process control to Rockwell Automation, the company outlines its strategy for delivering new performance optimization capabilities. These advancements help manufacturers better optimize and integrate process applications into their global enterprise to drive greater productivity.
To leverage this competitive advantage and further enhance its process control portfolio, Rockwell Automation concentrated on six key areas of focus, including core process control capabilities, design productivity, process networks and field-device integration, asset management, process safety and critical control, and operations productivity.
Core Process Control
As part of the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system, the PlantPAx Process Automation System leverages a single control platform for discrete, batch, process, safety, drives and motion control. The supervisory-layer visualization servers and operator workstations are delivered ready to configure, helping engineers more efficiently build a process system. Rockwell Automation continues to help ensure customers receive the level of performance and capability they expect from the PlantPAx system by testing it as an entity, rather than relying on individual product testing.
Design Productivity
By integrating standard Integrated Architecture technologies with process-focused system configuration tools, users can experience up to 40 percent reduced project engineering. To further improve design productivity and shorten project execution, Rockwell Automation has extended its rich set of tools and utilities to speed project development. One example is the comprehensive library of standard process control objects comprised of the control logic, visualization components and supporting documentation.
Field-Device Integration
A continuing alliance with Endress+Hauser is a key part of the Rockwell Automation strategy to improve the end user’s field-device integration experience. Together, the two companies conduct interoperability testing between Endress+Hauser field devices and the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx system, including device connectivity verification on HART, Profibus and Foundation fieldbus.
Extending the process device integration options, Endress+Hauser is launching the Promass 83 Coriolis mass flow meter with EtherNet/IP connectivity. The Endress+Hauser flow meter is added to the I/O configuration of a project with easy integration to both the programming and visualization environments. These ongoing efforts help reduce startup costs and configuration time for devices.
Rockwell Automation also has established a leadership position in fieldbus connectivity on EtherNet/IP to further improve the ability to manage and share instrumentation profiles.
Asset Management
As asset management is a cornerstone of safe and productive plant management, Rockwell Automation continues to enhance plant-wide asset management capabilities for control and field device assets. The PlantPAx solution is positioned to help users adopt a consistent asset management strategy across process and factory automation applications, including management of change, engineering configuration security and disaster recover. In addition to Rockwell Automation promoting FDT/DTM technology, the company’s asset performance monitoring, plant-wide information access, and process optimization help users achieve operational excellence and dramatic improvements in manufacturing infrastructure, business performance and global success.
Process Safety and Critical Control
System availability and process uptime are critical for the oil and gas industry and other industry segments. To address these challenges, Rockwell Automation delivers end-to-end high availability with its integrated control and safety system, including new enhancements such as network redundancy and redundant I/O.
Operations Productivity
Rockwell Automation focuses on a data management and decision support framework that helps enable plant-wide operational productivity improvements. Earlier this year, Rockwell Automation launched the FactoryTalk VantagePoint application for web-based reporting and analysis of plant-floor data. The company leverages the application to deliver a single reporting and analysis tool that further helps users access system information to make real-time, value-add decisions.
Rockwell Automation Announces Availability of Integrated Motion on EtherNet/IP Portfolio
Rockwell Automation also announced a portfolio of products and enhancements which help provide high-performance, closed- and open-loop drive control on EtherNet/IP. This new portfolio helps increase machine design flexibility, improve system performance, and reduce system cost by providing all the capabilities of Integrated Motion solution for the new Allen Bradley Kinetix 6500 servo drive and enhanced Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 755 AC drive on EtherNet/IP. Rockwell Automation Integrated Motion on EtherNet/IP uses Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) Motion and CIP Sync technology from the Open Device Vendors Association (ODVA).
Using the Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000 software, machine builders can now access all the features and benefits of Integrated Motion for configuring, programming, commissioning and maintaining the Kinetix 6500 and PowerFlex 755 drives on EtherNet/IP. In addition to standardized operation and consistent behavior of the drive products, this new portfolio significantly extends the power range of the Integrated Motion solution and provides support for servo and variable speed AC drives. The EtherNet/IP drive support also eliminates the need for a dedicated motion network and allows high-performance drives, I/O, smart actuators and any other EtherNet/IP-connected device to be supported on a common network.
Products included in the portfolio will become available for sale in late 2009 and early 2010:
The new Allen-Bradley ControlLogix L73 and ControlLogix L75 programmable automation controllers (PACs) offer users enhanced memory technology, high-performance EtherNet/IP motion control, and redundancy performance improvements. These PACs are ideal for rapidly expanding and information-intensive applications, such as batch processing, where additional memory is needed for recipe management. As part of the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system, the ControlLogix PACs offer users all of the benefits inherent in the company’s popular Logix Control Platform – a common programming environment, common network and common control engine – for maximum ease of use.
The new Kinetix 6500 servo drive is a high-performance, modular servo drive with embedded EtherNet/IP. When used with the ControlLogix PAC, the Kinetix 6500 servo drive provides an integrated drive solution on EtherNet/IP. With the addition of the Kinetix 6500 drive, EtherNet/IP can integrate high-performance drive control, I/O, smart actuators and any other EtherNet/IP-connected device, helping to lower system cost, and improve system performance and ease of use. Linear and Device Level Ring (DLR) topologies are fully supported with the embedded switch technology.
The PowerFlex 755 AC drive with an embedded Ethernet port is being updated with CIP Motion support. The PowerFlex 755 AC drive can now be configured, programmed, commissioned, and maintained using motion profile and instruction sets within RSLogix 5000 software. This allows integrated motion instructions to be used for coordinated drive control and provides a common solution for PowerFlex 755 AC drives and Kinetix 6500 servo drives. With the addition of the PowerFlex 755 AC drive, Integrated Motion can now be used to control drives from 1 Hp to 350 Hp.
For end users and machine builders, the latest version of RSLogix 5000 software includes more than 30 product enhancements, including support for integrated motion on EtherNet/IP, ControlLogix L73 and ControlLogix L75 PACs, Kinetix 6500 servo drives and PowerFlex 755 AC drives, as well as additional controller support and usability, reporting and security features. These new features help simplify programming and configuration, and ease maintenance and troubleshooting of control and information systems.
Rockwell Automation Supports Virtualization with VMware Ready Software
To bring virtualization capabilities to the manufacturing environment, Rockwell Automation is supporting the use of its automation software on virtualization solutions from Silicon Valley-based VMware. Virtualization helps manufacturers build an infrastructure that better leverages resources and delivers high availability. Rockwell Automation will also participate in the VMware Ready program, with plans to validate its Rockwell Software configuration, human interface and information products.
Virtualization fundamentally changes the way hardware resources are used. Virtualization works by inserting a thin layer of software called a “hypervisor” directly on the computer hardware or on a host operating system. This layer contains virtual machines that can be transparently allocated to hardware resources when and where they are needed. Multiple operating systems run concurrently in isolated virtual machines on a single physical computer and share hardware resources with each other.
By encapsulating an entire machine, including CPU, memory, operating system and network devices, a virtual machine is completely compatible with all standard x86 operating systems, applications and device drivers. Virtual machines can be run on any virtualization-enabled physical server, creating a pool of compute resources that helps ensure the end user’s highest-priority applications will always have the resources they need without wasting money on excess hardware only needed for peak times.
Virtualization technology also simplifies the distribution of bundled offers, such as the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx Process Automation System, and extends the life of software. Rather than upgrading software every two to three years or testing “old” Windows versions, virtualization technology helps enable end users to run the same software on a particular PC or operating system for more than 10 years.
Craig Resnick, ARC Advisory Group, commented, “One of the primary issues that manufacturing end users continuously site is the great disparity between the long product lifecycle of their automation hardware versus the short product lifecycle of their automation software. VMware Ready products extend the product lifecycle of automation software, as well as help manufacturing end users fulfill their energy savings and sustainability objectives, through the more efficient utilization of their automation infrastructure. This results in improved key performance indicators (KPIs), a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and a shorter return on investment (ROI).”