Emerson Exchange 365

In a recent article published by ARC Advisory Group, Philip Keating, vice president, sales, Asia Pacific, for Emerson Automation Solutions’ fluid control & pneumatics business, refers to the acquisition of GE Intelligent Platforms announced in October 2018 and completed in February this year as adding a significant discrete-automation range – notably, programmable logic controllers – to Emerson’s expansive offerings for process automation.

This addition is making possible many new systems including the fluid control and pneumatics IIoT solution, which is designed to be delivered and deployed as a package comprised of a four-layer hierarchy of Components, Connectivity, Control, and Analytics:

• Components are the constituent devices of the particular fluid automation application, e.g. sensors, valves and pneumatic cylinders
• Connectivity denotes the I/O and fieldbus communications network, which given the discrete nature of the applications, tends to be one of either Profibus, Profinet, EtherNet/IP or EtherCAT
• Control is normally a programmable logic controller (PLC) or programmable automation controller (PAC) from Emerson’s machine automation solutions business
• Analytics establish the necessary insights into the equipment operations through dashboard graphics, which can be displayed locally on a nearby HMI or remotely via a web browser

Over 100 companies in the Asia Pacific region are in phases of discovery or adoption of the new IIoT solution. Click here to see more details of this new system for discrete applications, which is both digital transformation for specific customers and an excellent model for discrete manufacturers in a wide range of industries.

What discrete/hybrid manufacturing requirements do you have?