By Paul Reszka, Application Engineer, Wago Corp.
INDUSTRIAL automation is no longer limited by the walls of a production facility. More and more automation is being handled via remote communication, whether its from the office or from the comfort of your own home. Todays PLCs give you the ability to access your control system to handle such tasks as monitoring via a website to determine the condition of a machine or check other statistics.
By applying these simple techniques to modern day control networks, new options are available for the control design. Data collection over great distances is one of the best uses for this technology. Control systems can be more easily integrated within a business network for coupling the supply chain management to the factory floor.