Sometimes our search for one thing leads us instead to something equally wonderful yet totally unexpected. This happened to me again today as my Internet search for one remembered title in the Advantech resource library led me instead to the discovery of a 25-page Advantech-sponsored tactical brief by Automation World entitled Fieldbus I/O. This focused publication is comprised of five articles, titled:
- Networked I/O Rides the Ethernet Wave;
- Ethernet Enters New Field;
- Reader Feedback: All-Digital Diagnostics Solves Today’s Problems;
- Automation World Survey: Ethernet and Wireless in Production Facilities; and
- Real-Time Ethernet/IP – PROFINET Technology.
While each of the articles offered much value, I found the Automation World Survey to be especially enlightening, given that our day-to-day focuses on our individual micro challenges and solutions can leave us blind to the macro-scale issues faced by our specific industries. For example, while I was not surprised to learn that fewer than 7% of plant managers and engineers today oppose deployment of Ethernet in their plants, I did not recall that they were in the majority as recently as 10 years ago. Now, 74 % use Ethernet to connect machine-level devices – nearly as many as report using Ethernet to connect front-office instruments (77 %t), evidence that historic strains between production and IT engineers may, at last, be vanishing.
The survey also reveals ways in which plant-floor deployment of Ethernet is expected to change within the next 5 years. Predicted trends include:
- Remote switching of power-distribution networks;
- Increased reliance on Power-over-Ethernet;
- Real-time feeds of instrument data via Ethernet;
- Conversion of process-control stations to Ethernet links;
- Connection of servo drives via Ethernet; and
- Implementation of precision IEEE1588 time control.
This is the second independent, Advantech-sponsored publication that has caught my attention in as many days, reminding me, once again, that Advantech’s leadership role in industrial automation yields far more than the cutting-edge industrial automation technologies that it makes available today. Advantech’s investments in quality independent publications also yields insight into the forces that are shaping the industrial-automation technologies of tomorrow.