Ethernet-APL, Industry 4.0 and industrial automation

Did Industry 4.0 go away? No. It seems that, behind the scenes, the open-source platform community is just working along, developing the next go-around of competitive devices for the traditional automaton folks to keep up with.

Data is still king, and, regardless of the platform you favor, protocols and network devices are advancing to make the industrial automation architecture easier to integrate.

Beckhoff introduced an Ethernet advanced physical layer (APL) card recently. It piqued my curiosity since brownfield applications include old protocols. Can this APL device help? They’re combining standard Ethernet protocols, such as Profinet, Ethernet/IP and OPC UA. The device is also designed to be compatible with HART communications, which is advantageous, but what about old General Electric protocols or Mitsubishi?

Standard Ethernet-based protocols are include Modbus and Profibus and EtherCAT. These are not brand-definitive. Siemens, Emerson and Rockwell Automation have their devices, as well.

APL covers a lot—not every protocol, but it does give advantages. The other advantages of Beckhoff’s new card are that it’s intrinsically safe, and the transmission speeds are at 300 times faster and at 1000 meters. This means a cost savings for longer runs. But we must consider the power of Ethernet and whether your architecture is set up for that.

Also, what it the APL communication standard? Beckhoff explains Ethernet-APL as a new “communication technology is based on the 10BASE-T1L Ethernet standard, which allows a maximum cable length of 1,000 meters and a transmission rate of 10 Mbit/s. Power supply limits in all zones throughout the hazardous area are defined by IEC specification 60079-47 (2-WISE).”

Beckhoff also talks about the application of the NAMUR open architecture as being implemented with the ELX6233 card or the EL6233. NAMUR User Association of Automation Technology in Process Industries is about using Industry 4.0. NAMUR open architecture (NOA) is an improvement on past structures based on field instruments being at the base of the pyramid and then the programmable logic controller (PLC) layer, human-machine interface (HMI) layer, manufacturing execution system (MES) layer and enterprise resource planning (ERP) layer on top.

It’s critical for the OPC UA information model, with the idea of bringing data from the instrument to the MES quickly, or having co-channels so that the process continues while higher-level applications monitor the process. Why does this matter?

For the advancement of smart manufacturing, the data from a field instrument must be used in process and for ordering parts or identifying failures with prediction models. Typically, the PLC could monitor an analog valve for stiction and then count the number of open/closed actions, and alarm on wear and tear, or the PLC programmer alarms when the limit switches on open/closed are not made, but smart devices could send status data to a system at a higher level than the PLC and have that monitor for failures while the PLC just worries about process.

Think artificial-intelligence and machine-learning applications for reliability. Or think about functional safety and monitoring safety inputs on a separate processor to raise alarms outside of process.

This concept falls in line with the idea of using an external control for monitoring functional safety. Expanding on this allows the process to continue, while safety devices are monitored and act on everything related to functional safety, without disturbing process control, unless a safety hazard is detected. As such, it would be easy to slow process or change process based on an upset condition, before a detrimental causation occurred—like cars with assisted braking based on vision that the operator might not see in the field of view.

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In short, Beckhoff is building on the IoT and Industry 4.0 technology push. This is not new in the sense that we have seen other protocol trends take off in the past 10 years. OPC UA is the vendor-agnostic interoperability standard for secure networking of devices. Message queuing technology transfer (MQTT) has taken off with its ability to publish/subscribe IoT data streams. Ethernet-APL is extending field-device reach in hazardous process environments. Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is ensuring deterministic industrial control in real time. IO-Link has simplified point-to-point communications for sensors and actuators.

Profibus and Profinet International (PI) started Industry Foursight in 2019. As expected, Industry Foursight integrates TSN, OPC-UA and Ethernet-APL with Profinet. PI is investigating horizontal integration with vendor-neutral integration. They are also advancing vertical integration across enterprises and bringing 5G to the plant floor.

PI has partnered with NAMUR and ZVEI, the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association, to define NOA as an open standard for secure, feedback-free data transmissions for field devices. Why does it matter? The automation backbone is changing. Installing miles of Ethernet cable is not necessarily going to sustain us for the long term.

Plus, like robots and other devices, providing a system with an open data channel that allows monitoring, predictive maintenance and safety collaboration among all systems allows decentralization of cabling and computers but keeps data sources on the same playing field—not to mention, at one point, someone always wants things to be “faster.”

Before then, someone will want their devices to be “smarter.” By the time the new ideas are applied, the instruments in the field should be able to tell when they are broken or if the environment is wrong and send an alarm saying they need to be replaced. Maybe at the same time, a signal can request the part be sent to the maintenance desk and the mechanic will get the work request simultaneously.

For process control, Ethernet-APL will change the game. For designing machines and the industries that combine instrumentation process control and automation, not to worry, the technology applications overlap. The takeaways are having longer distances for Ethernet transmissions and the ability to have faster speeds, while having an outside data channel that allows for safety, reliability and data exchange from the field to the ERP systems. This makes the plant smaller, in that, if you have the correct HMI, the CEO can be on the floor with the maintenance tech during downtimes and not get her shoes dirty.

Read Control Global's Ethernet-APL resource page.