Home » Articles » Montague

Voices: Montague

From Exotic to Everyday

Industrial Networking Celebrates Its 10th Birthday. How Does The Industrial Networking Landscape Looks Today Compared to When We Firts Launched in 2002?

By Jim Montague, Executive Editor

Maybe it's just me, but lately years seem to be going by as fast as months and even weeks used to do. Where a decade once seemed like a lifetime, now it's just a couple more seasons, holidays and birthdays zipping by in a blur. So, while it's no surprise that the industrial networking landscape looks much the same as it did when Industrial Networking launched in Spring 2002, many differences have emerged as our quarterly magazine celebrates its 10th birthday this year. Overall, some formerly unusual and seemingly unapproachable technologies—Ethernet, wireless and Internet-enabled networking—have become familiar and gained many friends.

For instance, back in the first "First Bit" column in Spring 2002, Editor Dave Fusaro lamented the "biggest industrial slowdown in recent memory" as a difficult time to start a new magazine, but he said Industrial Networking was committed to "helping you evaluate, design, implement and optimize networked systems in industrial environments," and we still use these four pillars to organize our articles today.

In that issue's "E Pluribus Unum" cover article, then-Senior Technical Editor Paul Studebaker reported that plant-floor engineers were pushing to combine many networks into one, and that Ethernet might fulfill this unifying role if it could extricate itself from its multi-flavored proprietary baggage at the application layer, which it's still trying to do.

Meanwhile, Joe Feeley, Senior Technical Editor at the time, reported in "Wired for Safety" that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was revising and harmonizing its NFPA-79 safety networking standard with Europe's EN 60204 standard, which later helped the NFPA to allow safety and regular operations communications on the same physical network and controllers in 2007.

In the "Cut the Cord" cover article in Fall 2002, Senior Technical Editor Dan Hebert reported that users contemplating wireless networking worried whether it could be reliable enough, but once these concerns were addressed, wireless enabled them to use networking in many applications where it wasn't possible before, including in intelligent, motorized conveyor vehicles, such as those built by Ward Ventures in Grass Valley, Calif.

Following years of covering squabbles over fieldbuses and adoption of the eight-headed IEC 61158 fieldbus standard, the "Packets" news section in the Spring 2003 issue reported that the Fieldbus Foundation, HART Foundation and Profibus Nutszerorganisation were cooperating to standardize the specification for electronic device description language (EDDL) for characteristics of network devices. Similarly, in Summer 2006, the OPC Foundation launched its OPC Unified Architecture (UA) with a common data model for communicating between plant-floor and enterprise systems. In Summer 2007, the EDDL team began working with the Field Device Tool (FDT) group.

In essence, all of these shifts reflected the growing pains and solutions that have gone along with the emergence of Ethernet and Internet-enabled networking over the past 10 years. Sadly, similar squabbles continue between organizers of the WirelessHART and ISA 100 standards over wireless, but hopefully compromise will happen here, too.

Besides covering high-level communication protocols and related issues, Industrial Networking has regularly reported on how to diagnose and fix basic cabling, connector and other hardware issues. For example, Fusaro's "Five Common Problems With Wiring and Connections" in Fall 2002 explained how expert users handle vibration and loose wiring, electrical interference, moisture and corrosion, labeling and identification, and flexibility and stress. And, in Fall 2003, he reported in "Fiberoptics Pass Acid Test" how Germany-based Varta Batteries used fiberoptic cabling and VF-45 connectors to prevent corrosion problems caused by its highly acidic manufacturing process.

It's still hard to know how widely dispersed different readers and control engineers are on the industrial network learning curve, but I think more are on the side of acceptance and knowing they must update to the most useful combination of fieldbuses, Ethernet and wireless from traditional point-to-point, 4–20 mA wiring. So, while it's been a pretty wild 10-year ride up to now, the coming decade looks like it's going to move even quicker. No problem. I'm no doubt biased, but the reason I'm not worried is because, even though it only comes out four times per year, Industrial Networking covers its field better than many monthly publications. Thorough coverage is the antidote for accelerated times.

---

More Voices

From Exotic to Everyday
02/08/2012
Industrial Networking Celebrates Its 10th Birthday. How Does The Industrial Networking Landscape Looks Today Compared to When We Firts Launched in 2002?

Reasons to be Modular--or Not
02/01/2012
Considering the Pros and Cons as They Relate to Your Machine and Its Users

Modular Machine Building Succeeds in Sections
02/01/2012
Modular Machines and Production Lines Enable Quick Disconnects and Speedy Changeovers. This Flexible Approach Inspires Builders to Combine Modular Equipment in Ever More Innovative Ways

Linear Motion Moves Up and Out
01/09/2012
Machine Builders Use Variations on Basic Linear Motion Technologies to Bring Precision and Accuracy to Non-Traditional Applications

A Handle on Better Packaging
12/06/2011
Switch to PC-Based Control Gives Machine Builder Better, More Affordable Performance, Improved Efficiency, and Reduction in Control Panel Space

A Recipe for Mechatronics
12/06/2011
Steps to Implement a Mechatronics-Based Design and Build Program

Cooperate Sooner and Better With Mechatronics
12/06/2011
Mechatronics Helps Mechanical, Electrical, Controls and Software Engineers Cooperate Sooner and More Closely on Machine Designs

Machine User Becomes Its Own Rebuilder
11/28/2011
Parts Manufacturer Rebuilds Its Machining Centers With New Automation, and Ties Them Together With a CC-Link Network To Reduce Wiring And simplify design

Heart of the Network
11/28/2011
Microprocessors and Software Are the Underlying Technologies Driving Advances in Industrial Networking. Here's How You Benefit From the Evolution

Panel Meters Take Control
10/11/2011
Panel Meters Now Can Do Control in the Process, and so Many Users Don't Need All the PLCs and SCADA Software They Had to Use in the Past

Retro Fits
10/07/2011
A Few Subtle Upgrades Might Be All It Takes to Make That Old Machine Perform Like New

Simulation: Prescription for Success
09/11/2011
Machine Builder Uses Simulation Software to Design and Test Feeders, Robots and Pallets in a Complex Medication Packaging System

Hardware Rules, Software Drools
08/22/2011
Without Networking Hardware, All of Software's Invisible Ones and Zeros Would Be Lying Around on Chips--Truly Doing Nothing. Hardware Is Still the Pathway That Brings Them into a Useful Existence

Connectors in Unexpected Settings
08/22/2011
Connector Are Showing Up In So Many Applications Outside of Factory Automation

Global Machine Builder Markets: Handle With Care
08/10/2011
Enter the Global Machine Market With a Lot of Research and Good Partners, and Be Ready to Make Difficult Decisions. The Rewards Could Be Earth-Shaking

Flexibility Pulls Cables to New Areas
06/09/2011
Ethernet Is Proliferating Everywhere... So They All Need More High-Flexibility, Longer-Life Cables

Use the Club, Not the Rotisserie
05/09/2011
How to Keep Vulnerability and the Chance of Any Problems as Small as Possible

OIs Eye Tablets, Smart Phones
04/12/2011
All those iPads and Androids Have a Long Way to Go Before They Can Be Used in Many Dirty, Wet, Harsh and Hazardous Manufacturing Settings

Digital Speed Breathes Life Into Analog I/O
02/10/2011
Analog I/O Components Are Using Faster, Cheaper and More Powerful Data Processors to Do A/D Converting, Analyses and Other Calculations in Local Controllers in the Field. This Means They No Longer Need Special Communications to a PLC or Centralized Controller, and Can Be Deployed in More Locations and Applications

Network Security
01/27/2011
No Help for Naked Turtles - Do Not Slip Up on Security. As a Plant Manager, My First Impulse Would Be to Cut All Ties with Ethernet-based Networking and the Internet

Motor Starters Don't Slow Down
12/08/2010
Motor Starters Are Getting Smaller, Even Less Costly Due to Better Designs, Even More Reliable, and More Globally Standardized and Accepted

Shake Them Up
11/09/2010
A Black Box Won't Do It This Time. You and Many Others of Us Need to Get Up, Stand Up, Get Out and Push Some Buttons-On Some People

Freaky Integration
04/28/2010
The Amount of Technical Overlap of Control and Automation Topics is Getting to the Point Where There Is Only Overlap and Little Else.

Wider-Scope Security
02/04/2010
Security. What Does It Really Mean for You and Your Industrial Systems?

Panel Meters Show Off
10/13/2009
Users Who Used to Buy Temperature Controllers or PID Controllers and a PLC Now Only Need to Buy One Piece of Equipment

Who Keeps RS-485 and RJ45 Apart?
05/14/2009
It Feels Like Suppliers Are Holding Machine Builders Hostage

Networking for a New Age
02/05/2009
Evaluate Your Application and Its Needs, Test Potentially Useful Solutions in Non-Critical Areas and Then Implement the Network Solution that Works Best for You

Panel Meters Take on New Jobs
06/23/2008
Panel Meters Also Can Be Used in Conjunction With PLCs as Part of a Redundant System to Help Ensure the Safety of Production Equipment and Operators

A Little Help
04/25/2008
There Are Only Two Kinds of Important People in This World—Those Who Are Suffering and Those Who Are Helping them

Ease of Users
01/28/2008
Now is the Time to Move Beyond Point-to-Point Hardwiring, Save Some Copper and Collect Some of the Values Your Colleagues Can Use to Run Your Business Better

How Seeing Became Doing
10/31/2007
We basically went from an Etch-a-Sketch type of CAD system to a true engineering design package.

Power Plant Goes Wireless Three Ways
08/24/2007
Next-Door-neighbor Power Plants Merge and Install three wireless technologies to Integrate Communications and Control

Networking in the Sisterhood
08/22/2007
"What does this look like?” I ask that question a lot to help understand what I’m talking about in automation, control and industrial networking.

ISU Manufacturing Lab Builds Future Engineers
08/01/2007
Flexible conveyors, framing, robots, PLCs, networking teach students latest small-batch applications

Making sense of standards
03/08/2007
As we look back at how machine automation has changed since 1997, Senior Tech Editor Jim Montague notes that standards, like any tools, are only good if they’re built right and applied correctly.

On the same page
03/06/2007
Many plant-floor engineers and IT technicians report they’re coming to a new appreciation of the efficiencies and savings that can be generated by simply integrating their industrial and corporate networks.

Giddy for GigE vision
02/01/2007
It’s important to note that, from day one, the GigE Vision framework was designed to support a range of different performance levels and feature sets. Control Design Executive Editor Jim Montague explains why.

Essential alarm management
11/08/2006
Executive Editor Jim Montague takes a look at a new book covering how to justify alarm management, deciding what should be an alarm, real-time alarm handling methods, and the future of alarm management.

The only evil
09/20/2006
There are two kinds of network security. Real and imagined, and it can be hard to tell them apart, especially if you don't know how they work and the problems they're supposed to solve.

Servos provide pharma packaging flexibility
05/15/2006
OEM Spotlight shines on a machine builder's monoblock servo bottle filler/capper motion control system that uses four servo axes and three variable-speed motors to accurately control its motion.

Use your own head
03/15/2006
Executive Editor Jim Montague implores us to think and act like a reporter, don’t trust opinions (including mine and yours), remember to take all stories with a grain of salt, and of course, don't despair.

RFID needs a little help from friends
10/09/2005
Perhaps the ultimate potentially enabling technology for RFID is wireless mesh networking, which would free RFID tags from having to communicate with one or a few readers or antennas.