OK, the chances of your industrial machines hunting you down are pretty slim, but if you don't maintain them and keep them up to date, they might malfunction, forcing you to shut down, and that is a scary situation in itself.
New White Papers
Reduce Arc Energies With Current-Limiting Fuses
This paper illustrates the reduction of incident heat energy and the associated flash hazard boundary.
Extend Industrial Reliability to Control Rooms
Find out why networks are more vulnerable in the control room than at field sites.
Cellular RTU Technology for Remote Pipelines
Understand how to face the technical challenges inherent in remote data acquisition.
Unlock Automation Systems for Higher Business Responsiveness
Learn how integrating MES with control systems makes manufacturing more agile.
Special to the Web
IMTS 2012's Machine Builders Take Over Chicago
Is Social Media a Useful Tool or Waste of Time?
Ride the PLC vs. PC Time Machine
Latino Involvement in STEM
Finding a Place for Technicians
Read my column "Scared of Alarms?," where I point you to two different white papers that can help you better understand alarms and better prepare you to deal with them when they go off.
Are you afraid of the dark? You should be, and not just because spooky things happen at midnight when the lights are off. For machine builders and industry professionals, having your equipment down due to power outages means money down the drain.
If you want to learn what you can do to prevent a voltage overload, how to select the right power supply, what the different types of power problems are, and how you can reduce operational expenditures while increasing productivity and efficiency, read my article "Don't Be Left in the Dark."
Have you ever been to a haunted house? Those are packed with unexpected surprises jumping at you — doors flying open, things falling from the ceiling or popping up from the floor. You know what is as scary as a haunted house? An unprotected network system.
In the article "The Only Evil," Executive Editor Jim Montague says that with the emergence and adoption of Ethernet, Internet and wireless technologies, linking thousands of devices worldwide, many control and automaton engineers are scared their networks and applications will be hacked and damaged. Industry professionals continually seek software solutions or hardware modules that can help them protect their applications.
Read Montague's article to learn about solutions that he suggests can protect and strengthen the security of your industrial network.
Have a safe and happy Halloween, and don't let those old machines scare you.