These Honeywell news items are a couple of months old. I’ve had a lot of news—especially coming first from Hannover and then from Automate. But most of my thinking time is about humans using the technology; or, technologies using the humans. Will we be replaced? Or, will we figure out how to use all the technology being developed in order to make life better for us all?
These news items are sent to writers like me to show that these companies have sold something. I’m interested in how people are using the technology and why. So, let’s dive in.
SGP Bioenergy
Much of Honeywell’s efforts have been toward sustainable applications. In this example, Honeywell’s Experion technology solutions will enable the bioenergy leader to centralize its automation, safety control and telecommunications systems to meet rising global demand of clean, low carbon, transportation fuels at SGP Bioenergy’s Golden City Biorefinery in Colón, Panama.
As one of SGP’s key automation contractors, Honeywell will deploy its Experion technology solutions for the plant’s distributed control and safety systems (DCS) and Experion Industrial Security systems for its integrated telecommunications to build a sustainable aviation fuel refinery.
Once fully operational, the biorefinery is expected to produce 180,000 barrels per day of advanced biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and 405,000 metric tons of green hydrogen annually, according to SGP.
According to a National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) report, the traditional approach to lithium-ion cell manufacturing comprises many inefficient manual operations, leading facilities to commonly operate at a 70% production yield at steady-state. As a principal manufacturer of battery cells and modules for the energy storage and e-mobility sectors, it is essential for KORE to implement highly efficient and therefore sustainable production practices.
With continuous closed-loop control, Honeywell’s Battery MXP will enable KORE Power to visualize and control their entire lithium-ion battery (LIB) production process in real-time, from mixing, coating, assembly to formation-finishing area. This centralized approach will allow KORE to reach target capacity faster while improving production yields and improving safety.
The digital Honeywell MXP platform lets users scale up their enterprise and achieve steady-state operations with superior yields starting from the first day of operations. Coupled with production optimization and improved efficiencies, Honeywell’s solution reduces energy consumption, enabling companies to reduce their carbon footprint. Additionally, the platform provides online quality management with complete production traceability/genealogy of the cells produced.
KOREPlex will be the first fully digitized and integrated lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility using Honeywell’s MXP platform. By employing Honeywell’s proven expertise across related industries such as life sciences and sheet manufacturing, this solution builds upon existing technologies to fit the requirements for lithium-ion cell production.
The KOREPlex is expected to be operational in early 2025 and will be among the first U.S. gigafactories built independently of an automotive OEM, enabling the facility to supply cells to a wide range of customers, from innovative e-mobility start-ups to utility customers seeking to improve reliability with energy storage. The KOREPlex is expected to have an annual production capacity of 12 GWh of high-density lithium-ion cells, with lines committed to both NMC and LFP chemistries.
Honeywell Ventures is a co-investor in KORE Power and participated in a funding round in November 2022.
I’m still catching up from the flurry of press releases in April and early May. This one from Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligence and from the PAS group they acquired a couple of years ago. The new version is PAS Cyber Integrity 7.3. Updates include:
Delivering an enterprise-wide, holistic image of multiple risk domains with a clear understanding of vulnerabilities and enhanced risk-based decision-making
Utilizing proprietary risk scoring to rapidly identify risks in the environment of greatest concern while simultaneously considering the vulnerabilities and patching level of various assets
Precisely identifying systems at risk of penetration or exploit and providing meaningful and actionable data regarding risk level, vulnerabilities for remediation and the associated patches and upgrade paths providing the highest value
Prioritizing risk-reducing and vulnerability remediation activities that shrink the attack surface and quickly providing paths that reduce the greatest risk, with the least amount of effort
Honeywell began sending press releases about things called Forge and Connect and Connected Enterprise in 2019. I was puzzled. Then came the pandemic making contact and conversations difficult. I think this was much like initiatives from a few other former automation companies now trying to become software companies—they had some ideas and appointed some GMs, but they were feeling their way forward, as well.
I was confused again this month. There was registration for something called Honeywell Connect, and then pre-brief for Honeywell Connect (for which I never received a link) and then for Honeywell User Group (HUG). I registered for so many things, I wasn’t sure what was next. Then there’s the issue that HUG is in Orlando—and I’m tired of going to Orlando and supporting Florida.
Yesterday was Honeywell Connect—a series of announcements from the Honeywell Connected Enterprise group. The big announcement that concerns me follows. HUG follows June 19 for the process systems group. That one is live. As it stands now, I’ll be there. If you’d like to connect and give me your thoughts on using all this new technology or where AR/VR is going, ping me at [email protected].
The big news from Connect is the release of Cyber Insights for operational technology applications. Its focus is improving the availability, reliability and safety of their industrial control systems and operations. Cyber Insights is designed to integrate information from multiple OT data sources in order to provide a customer with actionable insights into their facility’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities, threats and compliance, thereby helping reduce their overall cybersecurity risks.
Cyber Insights brings a tailored approach by providing a purpose-built cybersecurity solution for OT environments and users. It is designed to offer a site-level view of a facility’s cybersecurity posture and provide insights into security events, vulnerabilities, active threats and to manage compliance. Cyber Insights can help organizations strengthen their cyber resilience and respond faster to incidents through access to critical information at the right time.
Cyber Insights is pre-configured for OT use, with already available customization options designed to address certain needs specific to different industrial environments, while being vendor agnostic so that it can deployed on Honeywell control systems as well as many other systems. It is also deployed, supported and maintained by Honeywell Cyber Care services during the applicable subscription license term to help customers maintain continuous tuning and optimization as required for any system to run in peak form.
I remember my introduction to industrial “fieldbus” technology that came even before I became an editor with Control Engineering. That was in the 90s. Another indication of the maturity of the automation and control market lies in this announcement from the EtherCat Technology Group.
I love press releases. The writers are not bashful about proclaiming their virtues. I’m sure there are a couple of others who would contest some of the proclamations. But, this network did bring Ethernet early on and works well with motion control more so than some others.
Beckhoff Automation, a pioneer in automation solutions, proudly commemorates the 20th anniversary of EtherCAT, the groundbreaking industrial Ethernet ystem that transformed the world of industrial networking. Since its introduction at Hannover Messe in 2003, EtherCAT has emerged as the leader in speed, flexibility and openness, solidifying its position in the global market through its reliability and continuous technical advancements. Today, EtherCAT remains an open IEC standard and empowers companies across industries to leverage its key technological advantages.
EtherCAT combines the standard Ethernet protocol with the reliability, performance and stability required for industrial communication, delivering significant advantages:
Fast communication and nanosecond synchronization via distributed clocks
Reduce CPU loads by up to 30%
Flexible topology: tree, star, drop, line, circle, etc. – or any combination of these is possible
Automatic addressing of nodes
Comprehensive and highly localized diagnostics
Noise immunity and high bandwidth
Integrated safety
No switches are necessary, masters only need an Ethernet port, and sub-devices can use a variety of ESC chips – all of which keep expenses near or less than legacy fieldbus costs.
While I see companies that are predominantly American rushing to capture open technology initiatives and make them as proprietary as possible, here is another predominantly German initiative pushing for using standards to move manufacturing technology forward.
This news came to me indirectly from the PI (Profibus and Profinet standards organization). Check it out. Do you find this potentially useful?
What is MTP?
By now, we all know OPC UA is really good at supporting the use-cases for not only horizontal integration like machine to machine, but also vertical integration like device to cloud. Now, most recently, OPC UA is being applied to those industries considered to be process control or hybrid industries with factory automation.
Rather than have every single I/O point controlled by one large distributed control system (DCS), MTP seeks to modularize the process into more manageable pieces. The point is to construct a plant with modular equipment to ease integration and allow for better flexibility should changes be required. With the help of a Process Orchestration Layer (POL), MTP-enabled equipment can “Plug & Operate” reducing the amount of time to commission a process or make changes to that process… pretty cutting-edge stuff.
The POL is the superordinate software into which an MTP file is imported. When an MTP file is imported into the POL, offline service engineering (orchestration) is performed along with communication configuration (OPC UA). Note: if recipe/batch engineering is applicable, MTP utilizes the ISA 88 standard here. The next step is an Orchestration Test (“Plug”) and then to begin (“Operate”). It is truly “Plug & Operate”.
Why should you care?
MTP files describe Equipment Assemblies. These are individual automated units providing the functionality to realize a step in a process. They have their own mechanical equipment, sensors, actuators, and controller. A great example would be skid integration. Here, an end-user can quickly integrate skids into their plant DCS to reduce engineering effort. The MTP file describing the skid is employed to shorten the time-to-market. According to ZVEI the benefits from first pilot projects can be summarized as follows:
Quick news update from Festo—who is certainly keeping their PR machine busy.
Festo now offers CPX valve manifold configuration to Emerson DeltaV DCS systems for fast, simple, and effective programming, commissioning, and validation of Festo-based pneumatics for skids and machines.
This first-of-its-kind third-party commissioning solution brings one of the world’s most versatile valve manifold control platforms, CPX, to the DeltaV DCS ecosystem. Fast commissioning enables system integrators to speed up time to market, lower engineering overhead, and design new, innovative, and unique distributed control solutions. Simple CPX configuration commissioning is available for the Rockwell ecosystem as well.
The CPX electric terminal is a modular peripheral system for valve terminals. System integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) adapt CPX to a wide range of applications. The modular design of the CPX enables a virtually endless range of pneumatic system configurations.
