When we announce a new product, we want you—our loyal customers and OptoBlog readers—to be the first to hear about it.
And this isn't just one product. This is EPIC: the world's first Edge Programmable Industrial Control system—a brand-new I/O and control system built for the future of automation and designed for the way you work.
Topics: Energy management, Process control, Food & beverage, Discrete control, groov, Internet of Things, PLCs, Remote monitoring, Water & wastewater, IoT, Machine builder, PACs, OEM, New products, Integrators, I/O, PAC Project, Building management, Oil & gas, PAC Control, IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things, Node-RED, Data acquisition, MQTT, Ignition Edge, EPIC
Process control systems are used in everything from advanced manufacturing to run-of-the-mill activities at home, like heating your house and brewing your beer. (You do brew your own beer, don't you?)
A control system that manufactures a product requires monitoring and control of many different process variables, while some at home require little more than a timer. For example, in manufacturing we may use flow meters to make sure fluids flow through pipes at a certain rate, or float meters to ensure ingredients fill a vat to a specified level.
When I brew beer at home, I may use a temperature sensor in my mash tun, wired to a controller that’s controlling my heating element to keep the mash tun at just the right temperature for optimum starch-to-sugar conversion. This is an example of a closed-loop control system.
(To see how small closed-loop control principles are scaled up to build industrial process control applications, check out the New Belgium Brewery case study and see how they use Opto 22 gear to brew their world-famous Fat Tire and other beers.)
Topics: Food & beverage, PLCs, Tips, PACs, Oil & gas
ATEX is the name commonly given to the two European Directives for controlling explosive atmospheres in workplaces.
Several Opto 22 products are now approved for both standards and offer you options for applications in potentially explosive areas.
Topics: Process control, Food & beverage, Discrete control, Machine builder, optonews, PACs, OEM, Integrators, I/O, Oil & gas, OptoNews 2016-06-08
Join us in Houston, Texas, November 9-12, 2015, for the ISA Process Control & Safety Symposium.
You'll learn about instrumentation, communications, control systems, safety, and security.
The symposium is geared toward engineers, technicians, and plant managers from oil and gas, refining, chemical, petrochemical, and other process industries.
Topics: Process control, groov, optonews, Events & conferences, Oil & gas, OptoNews 2015-11-04
Take a look at what Pioneer Energy is doing with waste flare gas from drilling sites.
With Pioneer's Mobile Alkane Gas Separator (MAGS) installed on site, oil producers can add up to 30% to their revenue stream—from waste that would otherwise be burned off and lost.
Topics: Energy management, Case studies, Videos, Process control, Remote monitoring, optonews, Oil & gas, OptoNews 2015-08-26