Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
Overview
The 28th annual SPS IPC Drives show in Nuremberg, Germany closed its gates at the end of November with the expected high numbers of visitors and exhibitors. The continued success of the show is due to its clear focus on discrete automation and the high quality of visitors. SPS remains the main autumn event for industrial suppliers, balancing the Hanover Industrial Fair in the spring. For many smaller automation suppliers, it has become the primary trade show.
SPS IPC Drives Still Growing
This year’s attendance numbers were slightly less than last year’s record results. Show organizers welcomed 1,601 exhibitors, a slight drop versus 2015. In total, 63,291 visitors attended the show, just shy of last year’s record count of 64,386; three quarters of those came from Germany and the remaining quarter from abroad. The area occupied by exhibitors dropped slightly to 122,200 m2. This year, the show occupied almost every available square meter at the Nuremberg trade fair grounds. Building activity on the new hall 3C offers a possibility to grow in the future, but the question remains if further expansion would be good for the show.
Industrie 4.0 and IIoT
Some automation suppliers have responded to the Industrie 4.0 trend by including the influence of commercial IT in their visions and product offerings. Several automation suppliers announced partnerships with major IT suppliers such as SAP and IBM, demonstrating that partnerships are the way to go for companies that lack in-depth IT experience.
Tangible Solutions
Beckhoff, B&R, and Hilscher showed compelling visions of the link between the plant floor and the Cloud, and offered practical 
solutions on how to achieve this. Phoenix Contact demonstrated an innovative end-to-end IT solution for its manufacturing customers, which the company has tested extensively in its own factories. The solution includes a company-developed cloud-solution called PROFI CLOUD.
Siemens’ focus this year was on MindSphere, the company’s cloud-based platform for analytics and possibly much more in the future. At the show, Siemens announced plans to make MindSphere available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
Year of the Gateway
After five years of debating the future of commercial information technologies in automation architecture, the industry began moving to practical implementations of Industrie 4.0 in 2016. To address existing plants, many suppliers have introduced “gateways” - devices that link legacy automation systems with the Cloud. Gateways come in many varieties, but are typically “headless,” compact industrial PCs that collect data from installed automation devices. Most gateways simply transmit the data to higher-level devices or into the Cloud for analysis, but some store and analyze data locally. Suppliers and users can add additional application-specific functionality.
Time-Sensitive Networks
While there’s been less talk about industrial communications in recent years, this year’s SPS Drives show was positively buzzing with information and comments about time-sensitive networks (TSN). TSN refers to a set of standards under development by a task group of the IEEE 802.1 working group that was originally called the Audio/Video Bridging task group. As the former name suggests, it enters the automation world from an unusual corner. Automotive industry requirements for time-synchronized, deterministic transmission of data over Ethernet (above and beyond what current industrial Ethernet offers) are driving the need for TSN.
OPC UA and TSN working together soon may become the new real-time Ethernet communication standard providing open, deterministic, real-time communication between automation systems (starting with controllers) and the Cloud for Industrie 4.0/IIoT-based production. Leading suppliers and associations are supporting this initiative. These include ABB, Bosch Rexroth, B&R, Cisco, General Electric, Kuka, National Instruments, Parker Hannifin, Schneider Electric, SEW Eurodrive and TTTech. First solutions were presented early this year at the Hanover Fair.
The compelling vision of OPC UA TSN is that it is set to replace all industrial networks with a single solution – a feat that 30 years of fieldbus wars never achieved. This new solution would use a truly supplier-independent protocol coupled with real-time functionality in standard Ethernet without any special components. In effect, this truly open and independent solution would replace all of the industrial Ethernet solutions developed in the past two decades. That’s big news!
The major automation consortia, including Profinet International, ODVA, SERCOS, AS-i and OPC Foundation, commented on the TSN trend and acknowledged the need for truly standardized real-time, deterministic communication. However, not all support the OPC UA TSN proposed standard yet.
Market Outlook: Views of the Automation Market
The following section summarizes market observations and outlooks of Germany’s two main industry consortia as presented at their press conferences.
ZVEI
ZVEI stated that while the first nine months of 2016 stayed slightly behind expectations, the electronics industry in Germany remains optimistic and expects 3 to 6 percent growth in factory automation and 0 to 3 percent growth in process automation. The board of ZVEI quotes innovations around Industrie 4.0 as the economic locomotive for the sector. Thanks to RAMI 4.0, the ZVEI-developed reference model for Industrie 4.0, the association sees itself in a leading role in the process.
The organization’s electrical drives board expects similar growth rates and notes that energy efficiency in the drive train remains a major topic at the show. The shift in vision, from components to the complete drive train, manifests itself also in the implementation of EN 50598 (assessment of energy consumption in the complete drive train) into the international standard IEC-Norm 61800-9.
VDMA
According to VDMA, the global machinery market is in a state of standstill. German machinery production has experienced its fifth year without any noteworthy growth. Electric and process automation showed good growth over the last year, and the industry expects a small plus for next year of about 1 percent.
Special interest was shown to the US and the Chinese machinery markets, the two main export markets for the German machinery industry. These markets are influenced by the low oil prices, fluctuating exchange rates, and ongoing unrest and political insecurities. VDMA sees opportunities in the moderate recovery of the European market, the economic support of the Chinese market by its government, and opportunities in smaller markets.
Industrial Consortia
FDT Group announced a collaboration with OPC Foundation on sensor-to-cloud interoperability as well as the release of an FDT technology annex for OPC UA. Furthermore, the group is strengthening its cooperation with ODVA by releasing a CIP Annex and integrating the AutomationML Data Exchange Standard.
Profinet International (PI) announced the forming of teams to assess a variety of new topics related to Industrie 4.0 that likely will be integrated into the consortium’s portfolio of industrial communications solutions. These include TSN, IPv6, semantics, security, and OPC UA.
ODVA and PI both announced collaborations with NAMUR aimed at optimizing Industrial Ethernet for the process industries. PLCopen announced the release of an OPC UA Client for IEC 61131-3.
Product and Technology Announcements
ABB
ABB presented products and solutions for flexible automation and economical engineering with a focus on machinery and the food & beverage industries. Highlights were smart sensors for remote condition monitoring of low voltage motors, Ekip SmartVision, a platform in the cloud, and the 2016 version of the Freelance DCS.
B&R
B&R presented products and solutions for networked production according to IIoT and Industrie 4.0. Highlights included expansions for Mapp View, allowing web-based visualization without programming knowledge; the APROL DCS, which can now be installed and run in the Cloud; further applications for OPC UA; and the openSAFETY protocol.
Beckhoff
Beckhoff introduced the compact C6015 Industrial PC (82x82x40mm), designed for universal use in automation, visualization and communication, as well as in EtherCAT-based applications. The company sees it as an inexpensive, compact and flexibly-mounted solution, which could open up new application areas for IPC technology.
Bosch Rexroth
Bosch Rexroth showed an IoT gateway that connects to Industrie 4.0 environments without intervening in the automation logic. It collects sensor and process data and transfers them to higher-level IT-based solutions allowing the inclusion of existing machines and plants.
Mitsubishi Electric
Mitsubishi introduced the Smart Condition Monitoring (SCM) Kit for preventive condition monitoring. The preconfigured control cabinet can be installed and integrated in existing applications. Another focus was on edge computing and cloud solutions based on an open platform C-controller, MES interface module, and the MAPS SCADA platform.
Pilz
Pilz presented Industrie 4.0 solutions in its Smart-Factory demonstrator. The company also showed how people and robots can work together without safety fences using the company’s collision measurement device.
Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation showed the new CompactLogix 5480 that runs an instance of Windows 10 IoT Enterprise in parallel with the Logix control engine to support embedded Windows applications such as analytics, data gathering, and predictive computations. Essentially, this embeds a gateway right into the PLC.
Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric showed the augmented reality software, Vijeo 360, which allows real-time data and virtual objects to be superimposed onto machines, giving operators immediate access to relevant information. Another highlight was the Altivar Machine ATV320, a variable-speed drive designed for OEMs for three-phase synchronous and asynchronous motors.
Siemens
Siemens presented a comprehensive display of automation solutions at the show. The company reported a new alliance with Bentley Systems to enhance COMOS’ 2D plant design engineering tools with 3D capability. Siemens also announced plans to make MindSphere, its cloud-based platform for analytics, available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
Wago
Wago demonstrated solutions for modularizing machines and plants, presenting a complete portfolio for automating modules in the processing industries using DIMA (decentralized intelligence for modular applications).
Recommendations
The most striking takeaways from the show in ARC’s view were the tangible applications of the IIoT/Industrie 4.0 vision, suggesting that companies of every size can now begin with practical implementation. We expect the introduction of TSN (time-sensitive networks) in automation architectures to have a strong impact on the realization of IIoT/Industrie 4.0 production projects in the near future.
Another remarkable point is the level of cooperation and alliances among automation suppliers, between automation suppliers and IT suppliers, and the partnerships between associations that are helping to make different systems and protocols compatible for end users.
With the current restricted travel budgets, companies might feel tempted to scrap visits to industrial shows and events. This year’s SPS IPC Drives demonstrated that events like this are unparalleled sources of information and inspiration.
Keywords: SPS IPC Drives, Factory Automation, Discrete Production, IIoT, Industrie 4.0, Gateways, OPC UA TSN, TSN, ARC Advisory Group.
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