Wireless: Products, insights for reliable implementations

By Control Engineering Staff July 5, 2007

Wireless products and education on how to implement wireless technology came in separate announcements from Phoenix Contact , Apprion , and ISA . New industrial digital UHF wireless radio modems and the next generation of a system for industrial application networking are the products. The event intends to provide professionals with insights into the current state of wireless technologies for manufacturing and control systems.

Phoenix Contact’s UHF industrial radios provide protected FCC-licensed wireless communication and a high level of data protection. The radios are said to be the first of their kind to feature collision avoidance, packet-error checking, and security with AES 128-bit encryption, which makes it one of the most advances licensed radio modems available.

Two versions of the Phoenix Contact UHF industrial radios are available; one with advanced features and the other is an economical standard version. Each radio is equipped with remote network diagnostics, while intuitive software allows the network owner full control and management of their system. The radios can support multiple protocols and multiple host stations using the same frequencies, a first in the industry with UHF technology.

Apprion offered the next generation of the ION system , described as a comprehensive wireless application networking system built from the ground up as the first truly open, scalable, and extensible foundation for managing multi-vendor wireless devices and applications. It is said to deliver improved security, management, and integration capabilities to meet the challenges of the evolving process manufacturing environment.

The Apprion ION system was designed to cost-effectively design, deploy, and manage wireless-enabled applications in a unified system that is more secure, more reliable, and easier to extend in the future than current wireless systems. The system is the also the first that gives users perspective from both a geospatial and relational framework, making photographs, maps, or CAD drawings available via a web-based portal, allowing users to record and use information in the form that is most appropriate for their operational responsibilities.

Need a late July vacation? Perhaps plan a few days around an ISA-hosted event. ISA’s Wireless Solutions for Manufacturing Automation : Insights for Technology and Business Success to provide enterprise management and senior technical personnel with business insights into wireless technologies, it will be located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, on July 23-24, 2007. It is intended to facilitate understanding of the technology issues and business considerations that underlie effective decisions on when and where wireless solutions in the industrial environment are appropriate. A pre-conference tutorial will be on July 22 to give attendees a more in-depth understanding of wireless technical issues. John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management and executive vice president of Emerson will present a keynote address entitled, “No Wires. No Limit.” Vice president of strategy and global marketing for Honeywell Process Solutions, Harsh Chitale, is planned to deliver his keynote address called, “Top Considerations When Choosing a Wireless Strategy.”

The event includes topics such as mobilizing work processes, wirelessHART, optimizing wireless technology from the perspective of asset owners, wireless at Boeing, and ISA100. Other topics include an overview of wireless technology, the current state of commercialization and standards of wireless solutions, making the business case for implementing wireless, and case histories of wireless implementations.

Lisa Sutor , Control Engineering System Integration eNewsletter
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