Inductive Automation announces 2021 Ignition Firebrand Awards

Inductive Automation announced the recipients of its 2021 Ignition Firebrand Awards at the virtual Ignition Community Conference (ICC), which took place September 21-22.

The Ignition Firebrand Awards recognize system integrators and industrial organizations that use the Ignition software platform to create new projects. Ignition by Inductive Automation is an industrial application platform with tools for the development of solutions in human-machine interface (HMI), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), manufacturing execution systems (MES) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). 

The Ignition Firebrand Awards are presented every September at ICC. The award-winning projects are selected from the ICC Discover Gallery, which features the best 15 Ignition projects submitted by integrators and industrial organizations.

“We had some unique projects that earned Firebrand Awards this year,” said Don Pearson, chief strategy officer for Inductive Automation. “Whether it was for a well-known organization like Smithfield, or an Australian company making high-speed catamarans, or a team building a large COVID-testing lab in record time, the companies that created these Ignition projects achieved outstanding results. It’s really inspiring for us to see all the innovation from people who are part of the Ignition community.”

The 2021 Ignition Firebrand Award winners are:

• BHP, a mining company, created a high-performance HMI to help technicians monitor data at a large operations center in BHP’s minerals division. Data is collected from more than 30 sites across Australia, thousands of devices and 1.1 million tags. The single user interface has brought benefits including having all data displayed in one place, less downtime in operations, and cost savings. 
• CPM Beta Raven improved feed mill operations for Smithfield Hog Production by deploying a modern SCADA platform at the mill in Milford, Utah. The mill produces 12,000 tons of animal feed per week, which feeds 1.7 million pigs per year. With the new solution, Smithfield has greater access to data and is better able to produce huge batches with strict tolerances.
• Cromarty provided a new Ship Integrated Management System to Incat, a maker of high-speed catamarans used for ferrying passengers, vehicles and more. The new system manages data from various inputs and displays it in a consistent manner on operator workstations throughout a vessel. Incat has made 100 vessels thus far, with the new system being used on several of its most recent ships.
• DMC helped Ginkgo Bioworks create a large, high-capacity lab for COVID testing in nine months.With more than 40 automated work cells, robots, PLCs, lab equipment and vision inspection systems, the automated lab had the capacity to process 100,000 samples per day. The project was developed amidst constantly changing requirements, yet seamlessly combined both industrial and biological automation.