News

RS Components (RS) is celebrating 10 years of DesignSpark, the company’s online design engineering platform, with the introduction of brand new features for its website and a new design, to reflect the usability and functionality requirements of its 970,000+ community members. To mark its 10th anniversary, RS will be hosting a number of celebratory initiatives throughout the rest of 2020.

The new-look DesignSpark website, which has localised versions available in China, France, Germany, Japan, North America and the UK, has been developed with the help of user feedback to create a cleaner, simpler interface for finding and using content. Enhanced search and filtering tools and colour-coded sections will also ease navigation and improve the user’s experience onsite.

Since its launch in July 2010, DesignSpark has become recognised across the global engineering community as a high-value resource, providing design solutions and support for accelerating cycle times through rapid prototyping, to bring ideas to market quickly. The freely available professional DesignSpark software suite of PCB, mechanical and electrical tools provide the accessibility that has enabled millions of design projects across the world to come to fruition, with professional engineers, tech makers and students all playing a part.

With a new engineer signing up to the DesignSpark platform every two minutes, the DesignSpark community is rapidly approaching one million members. Some notable statistics demonstrate the very high levels of online engagement and popularity of DesignSpark, such as: every 20 seconds and engineer opens its professional design software; design support assets such as CAD-neutral models and footprints are downloaded every 12 seconds, and; a piece of content shared by the engineering community is viewed every 4 seconds.

In addition to offering 24-hour online design support, DesignSpark has hosted many entertaining initiatives over the decade, including the launch of a Superman action figure into outer space with the aid of a Raspberry Pi module, and working with technology entrepreneur Richard Browning to showcase his innovative human propulsion flight suit. The DesignSpark Podcast series, which takes a light-hearted approach to technology, has proved so popular that it reached a high of number 4 in the Apple Podcasts Technology Chart.

DesignSpark is also an educational platform, hosting projects and competitions to inspire the younger generation to get involved in STEM activities. A number of competitions will be launched over the course of the year on the new DesignSpark website, and across the DesignSpark social media channels, as part of the 10-year celebrations, offering prize-induced interactive design challenges for engineers of all ages.

Mike Bray, Group VP of Innovation and DesignSpark, commented: “When we launched DesignSpark back in 2010, it was to support design engineers at every level, from student and hobbyist to professional engineers, who were facing the challenges of reduced design teams and the need to complete their designs more quickly amid rising competition. Those foundations still hold true today, and through active and continual engagement with our community, and acting on feedback from our members, we have gone further to establish DesignSpark as a trusted online support destination for engineers everywhere.”

The new DesignSpark website is live at www.rs-online.com/designspark.

In July 2020, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology announced a standardised UK system for detecting coronavirus in wastewater, to provide an early warning of future outbreaks, reducing the reliance of testing large populations. Sewage surveillance is one of the most promising methods to identify hotspots. The virus can be detected in the sewerage and wastewater supplies and indicate the potential for a major outbreak.

Using sensors to detect pollutants in wastewater is not a new concept. Currently, facilities require checks of pollution levels such as COD, BOD, and trace metals. Instant identification of viruses in the wastewater can narrow locations to a potential outbreak, preventing further harm before the virus has had a chance to take hold. This type of sensor network will have a lasting positive impact on many communities.

The UK detection system is being orchestrated by the UK government, consulting with universities, water companies and public research bodies. It aims to act in a similar way to that used in the Netherlands, run by the RIVM (the national institute for public health). This type of research will be beneficial as it will provide the funding for developing new and creative sensor solutions to monitoring wastewater from residential and industrial locations. But why are new sensors useful?

The methods by which waste-water companies have their supplies monitored for pollution incident identification have not changed in many years. These tried and tested processes require a worker to physically remove a sample, store it, and then take it to a lab where it is analysed. For some pollution identifying contaminants, this process from start-to-finish can take up to 10 days. As a result, it is common to log pollution incidents after it has had an impact on the community and environment. This raises the question – why the sensors cannot operate remotely? If they could, they would provide continuous monitoring levels, and give the waste-water companies a chance to identify pollution incidents earlier. The main barriers to adoption are simple: a lack of funding and a lack of desire to change. However, the plight of COVID will likely be the match to start this change. IDTechEx predicts that the monitoring of the water and waste-water industry will be over £2Bn by 2030. These monitoring sensors will be beneficial to the population and their surrounding environments. Overall, although there are sizeable start-up costs, research by IDTechEx predicts that the benefits will outweigh these costs.

Continuous monitoring of waste-water systems occurs in other industries (such as semi-conductor manufacturing), to monitor trace metals. These sensors and technologies could be used in potable water and waste-water supplies for similar monitoring. Not only this, but waste-water plants which closely monitor their processes can also increase their power efficiency. Pumps and blowers, for example, can be run at higher power levels only when they are required, based off monitoring measurements. The introduction of sensors into these industries can lead to increases in efficiency for the plants, reduction in pollution from contaminants or waste materials, and more. The plight of COVID has highlighted this is a market which can benefit from the collaboration between technology companies and water and waste-water providers.

For a complete overview of the sensors used in waste-water, please refer to the IDTechEx report, “Sensors in the Water and Wastewater Treatment Industries 2020-2030” by visiting www.IDTechEx.com/DigitalWater.

AVEVA has today announced the launch of the AVEVA Insight OMI app, a first in the industry to infuse real-time artificial intelligence into an operator’s decision-making as well as improve overall operational agility.

The smart app provides industrial businesses with an accelerated path toward implementing artificial intelligence in the control room or on the plant floor, presenting real-time anomaly detection in a context-aware OMI visualization display. It will benefit operators, engineers, and operations managers from various industries including Water and Wastewater, Energy, Food & Beverage amongst others.

The AVEVA Insight OMI app introduces AI capabilities into the AVEVA System Platform, formerly Wonderware, and leverages predictive early warning and automatic detection of unusual operational behavior. This provides users with early notification so they can quickly resolve issues before they become critical business problems such as unplanned downtime and production losses.

A simple management interface enables operations, maintenance and production teams to quickly train the AI engine to adapt to the enterprise’s specific implementation. An intuitive thumbs-up or thumbs-down confirmation ensures AI-driven notifications are relevant to the needs of the user and support overall enterprise objectives, with no programming or data science knowledge required. This closed-loop feedback improves the accuracy of the AI prediction engine over time and enables users to see what matters. As anomalous patterns are identified, they can be captured and presented by the app within an organization’s on-premise HMI/SCADA solution, delivering insights directly where operators need it.

“IIoT applications have driven a massive increase in the collection of real-time operations and manufacturing data. As a result, operators face alarm overload and often cannot effectively react to or distinguish between process-critical situations and false positive alarm conditions, resulting in the loss of operational time and resources. By harnessing the power of AI and advanced cloud analytics, AVEVA is enabling operators to take proactive action, before process and maintenance problems occur,” commented Rashesh Mody, Vice President, Monitoring and Control, AVEVA.

“In today’s climate of increased demand for innovative technology solutions, the launch of our new AVEVA Insight OMI app is a significant development because it serves as a single interface into operations by bridging the information technology and operational technology divide for increased agility and situational awareness. We are very excited to introduce a solution that will help our customers manage critical operations and improve decision support for maximum profitability in these fast-changing times,” Mody concludes.

AVEVA System Platform is a responsive, scalable solution for supervisory, SCADA, HMI, and IIoT applications that integrates with the enterprise processes. It provides a collaborative, standards-based foundation that unifies assets across all facilities for continuous operational improvement and real-time decision support. It offers enterprise-wide standards compliance across processes, functional teams, and sites.

Throughout 2020, the UK will be witnessing the wider rollout of 5G telecommunications networks, allowing for greater speeds and reduced latency. The introduction of these networks will support the development of more advanced computing applications like autonomous vehicles, and it’s got many businesses considering edge computing. For manufacturing businesses, more effective edge computing doesn’t need new telecoms technologies — it just requires consideration of industrial PCs (IPCs) at the edge. Stephen Hayes, managing director of Beckhoff Automation UK, explains.

Computing at the edge is not a new concept. In industries where connected devices or systems are active in the field, it’s beneficial for those systems to complete some functions, like data processing or compression, without transmitting information. This helps avoid bottlenecks in data communication and reduces the response time of systems.

As the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) becomes more popular among industrial businesses, so too does the idea of moving computing responsibility away from central control rooms. According to one industry survey conducted in early 2019, 43 per cent of manufacturers have already deployed some edge systems to help with data analysis or equipment data processing in the field.

It’s clear to see why manufacturers, and indeed most industrial businesses, want to invest in edge computing systems. Decentralising the computing responsibility across a factory means systems can respond to performance data in near real-time, reduces the burden of data storage in centralised systems and helps make networks more robust.

Edge computing is also relatively straightforward to integrate into networks. It either requires investment in new systems with built-in computing capabilities, or retrofitting IPCs into existing machines to provide data processing, analysis and visualisation at the edge.

From Beckhoff’s experience, we’ve found that many industrial businesses opt for the latter option to reduce upfront costs. As such, we’ve developed a range of IPCs that are able to provide edge computing functionality and can be easily wired, mounted and fitted to existing systems.

The most recent addition to the range is the C7015, an ultra-compact IP65/67 rated edge computing IPC that can be directly integrated onto machines. The C7015 offers powerful multi-core processing, courtesy of its Intel Atom multi-core CPU, which allows it to handle demanding data pre-processing tasks even with large volumes of input data.

However, because the potential for edge computing means that it will likely become commonplace in the years ahead, Beckhoff has seized the opportunity to also address a longstanding industrial issue. Specifically, the issue of machine real estate.

The C7015 not only offers edge computing functionality, but it can also act as a TwinCAT 3 controller for sensors, actuators and field devices. This functionality is expanded by using EtherCAT P I/O modules, which brings the conventional control cabinet directly onto field-level machines. In effect, it can reduce the footprint of control cabinets, which means more square metres of real estate to provide productive output for manufacturers.

This all forms part of a new concept developed by Beckhoff, named automation without cabinets. As machine real estate continues to be a concern for manufacturers deploying more automation systems and edge devices, Beckhoff is actively developing ways to alleviate the need for unwieldy control cabinets where possible, while still offering effective automation systems.

With edge computing growing in popularity and increasingly in the mind of businesses, it’s important that manufacturers identify effective, scalable systems to support their ambitions. With flexible, effective IPCs, manufacturers can do precisely that.

A new range of pressure transmitters designed to meet key requirements in most manufacturing and production industries has been launched by ABB. The PxS100 range is suitable for use in the water, wastewater, metals, mining, pulp and paper, cement, and power ancillary sectors.

Rugged, resilient and easy to configure, the PxS100 range will fulfil all routine requirements for pressure measurement. Unique features include QR codes for easy access to online operational instructions and advice; abrasive resistant technology to protect the metallic diaphragm and extend working life; and ABB’s H-shield to protect against monatomic hydrogen and ensure measurement accuracy.

Eugenio Volonterio, Global Product Line Manager for Pressure Products at ABB, said: “The PxS100 range offers abundant features and functionality in a flexible and adaptable design that is easy to configure and quickly available. It sits alongside our more specialised 266 series which can be engineered for specific applications.”

Using ABB’s range of adaptable connectors and flanges, the PxS100 series can be rapidly configured to accommodate hundreds of mountings, spans, and certification-equivalent options. The simple HMI (Human Machine Interface), rotates for visibility from any angle, features ‘through the glass’ configuration capabilities and can be ordered with easily accessible backlight for low light environments.

In compact and robust stainless-steel housing, the PxS100 range offers IP66, IP67, IP68 and IP69K protection for operability in high humidity or where there are high levels of dust concentration. The ingress protection makes it suitable for clean-in-place applications in the food and beverage sector.

In alignment with specifications requested by its reference market, the PxS100 provides base accuracy of 0.25% of span, with the option of improvement to 0.1%. It is available in both Gauge and Absolute sensor variants and offers five different measurement ranges, covering applications from 40 mbar (16in H2O) up to 100 bar (1450 psi) thanks to its 10:1 turndown capability and full rangeability.

You can find out more about the new pressure transmitter range in a special Q&A in the next issue of Instrumentation Monthly.

When the coronavirus outbreak first started in China, Isotech was able to help with the demand for high accuracy temperature measuring equipment and were able to rapidly ship large quantities of bench thermometers including the milliK precision thermometer. The Chinese National Metrology Institute donated multiple sets to the Hubei Province for forehead thermometer calibration which are used for fighting against coronavirus.

Since then Isotech has supplied blackbody sources that are used to improve the accuracy of fever detections systems and higher accuracy blackbody sources to calibrate medical thermometers.

Whilst 2020 has brought events than none of were either expecting or planning for it does mark Isotech’s 40th year in business.

Isotech was founded by John Tavener in 1980 with the single aim of supplying thermocouple reference units to the power industry.

Quickly recognising a gap in the market for effective temperature calibration equipment, John set about to design and build his own solutions from his small, purpose-built laboratory.

With an excellent reputation for their products, performance and quality, they have successfully delivered and installed many complete laboratories across Europe, Asia and the Americas and boast an enviable client base including Panasonic and U.S. government agency NASA.

Driven to produce high quality, evolving products to meet the needs of today’s customers, Isotech has developed a number of award winning and innovative products including: the ISOTower ITS-90 Fixed Points, microK Thermometry Bridges, the milliK Precision Thermometer and ISOCAL-6, a multi function calibrator providing Dry Block, Liquid Bath, Surface Sensors, Blackbody and Fixed Point calibration.

A proud moment came in when the microK Thermometry Bridge (jointly engineered with Paul Bramley (Metrosol Ltd) went on to win the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2017. In 2019 they were awarded Export Champion for the third year running (Department for International Trade).

Some of Isotech’s innovative Water Triple Point Cell original designs date back to the 1940’s when they were developed by Jim Cross of the Jarrett Instrument Company.

Isotech’s success and longevity can be attributed to a number of factors – John’s entrepreneurial mindset, a team of experts, ever-evolving products and the strong partnerships that have been forged over the years.

John Tavener (President) says “We are very proud of the contribution we have made to temperature metrology over the last 40 years and we are looking forward to what the 2020s will bring.”

As preparations for their celebrations are underway, don’t expect the pace to slow down anytime soon.

With an unsurpassed drive to continue to bring new innovations to market, Isotech will continue to invest in new product development and plans are well underway to extend into new factory space to support further growth.

Isotech provides solutions for all calibration needs, from primary laboratories wishing to maintain national standards, to field engineers calibrating industrial sensors on site.

Isothermal Technology Limited info@isotech.co.uk |  https://www.isotech.co.uk/

An international collaboration takes Vaisala and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) to Mars onboard NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The rover is scheduled for launch on July 30, 2020. Vaisala’s sensor technology combined with FMI’s measurement instrumentation will be used to obtain accurate and reliable pressure and humidity data from the surface of the red planet.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is among the scientific partners providing measurement equipment for the new Perseverance rover, expected to launch in July and land on Mars in February 2021. The pressure and humidity measurement devices developed by the FMI are based on Vaisala’s world known sensor technology and are similar but more advanced to the ones sent to Mars on the first Curiosity rover in 2012.

The new mission equipment complements the Curiosity rover. While working on Mars, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers will form a small-scale observation network. The network is only the first step, anticipating the extensive observation network planned on Mars in the future.

International and scientific collaboration aims to gather knowledge of the Martian atmosphere and other environmental conditions

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. In order to obtain data from the surface from the Red Planet, NASA selected trusted partners to provide measurement instruments for installation on the Mars rover. A Spanish-led European consortium provides the rover with Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA); a set of sensors that provides measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, and the amount and size of dust particles.

As part of the consortium, FMI delivers instrumentation to MEDA for humidity and pressure measurements based on Vaisala’s top quality sensors.

“Mars, as well as Venus, the other sister planet of Earth, is a particularly important area of atmospheric investigations due to its similarities to Earth. Studying Mars helps us also better understand the behavior of Earth’s atmosphere”, comments Maria Genzer, Head of Planetary Research and Space Technology group at FMI.

The harsh and demanding conditions of Mars require the most reliable sensor technology that provides accurate and reliable data without maintenance or repair.

“We are honoured that Vaisala’s core sensor technologies have been selected to provide accurate and reliable measurement data on Mars. In line with our mission to enable observations for a better world, we are excited to be part of this collaboration. Hopefully the measurement technology will provide tools for finding answers to the most pressing challenges of our time, such as climate change,” says Liisa Åström, Vice President, Products and Systems of Vaisala.

Same technology, different planet – utilising Vaisala core technologies for accuracy and long-term stability

In the extreme conditions of the Martian atmosphere, NASA will be able to obtain accurate readings of pressure and humidity levels with Vaisala’s  HUMICAP and BAROCAP sensors.  The sensors’ long-term stability and accuracy, as well as their ability to tolerate dust, chemicals, and harsh environmental conditions, make them suitable for very demanding measurement needs, also in space. The same technology is used in numerous industrial and environmental applications such as weather stations, radiosondes, greenhouses and datacentres.

The humidity measurement device MEDA HS, developed by FMI for Perseverance, utilises standard Vaisala HUMICAP humidity sensors. HUMICAP is a capacitive thin-film polymer sensor consisting of a substrate on which a thin film of polymer is deposited between two conductive electrodes. The humidity sensor onboard is a new generation sensor, with superior performance also in the low pressure conditions expected on the red planet.

In addition to humidity measurements, FMI has developed a device for pressure measurement, MEDA PS, which uses customised Vaisala BAROCAP pressure sensors, optimised to operate in the Martian climate. BAROCAP is a silicon-based micromechanical pressure sensor that offers reliable performance in a wide variety of applications, from meteorology to pressure sensitive industrial equipment in semiconductor industry and laboratory pressure standard measurements. Combining two powerful technologies – single-crystal silicon material and capacitive measurement – BAROCAP sensors feature low hysteresis combined with excellent accuracy and long-term stability, both essential for measurements in space.

“Our sensor technologies are used widely in demanding everyday measurement environments here on Earth. And why not – if they work on Mars, they will work anywhere,” Åström concludes.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, test and measurement company Tektronix has partnered with accreditation body American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) to rapidly convert and accredit Tektronix for the calibration of tools to be utilised in the ventilator production setup of a plant in Kokomo, Ind. Traditionally an electronic components manufacturing plant, the Kokomo plant has shifted work to instead produce ventilators for Ventec Life Systems. Tektronix is managing the torque screwdriver tools involved in ventilator production.

Ventec Life Systems created the first and only multi-function ventilator, VOCSN, which provides five therapies in one device: ventilation, oxygen, cough, suction and nebulizer. Working in Kokomo with one of the world’s top vehicle manufacturers, Ventec has created VOCSN V+Pro Emergency which will be delivered as part of an order of 30,000 critical care ventilators for the Federal Government. On April 17, 2020, the first VOCSN critical care ventilators produced in Kokomo, Ind. were delivered to hospitals in Olympia Fields and Chicago, Ill. at the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Tektronix is committed to the rapid production of these critical machines,” says Ken Coughran, vice president of Sales, US Multi Vendor Service at Tektronix. “The work of test and measurement must be accurate and precise to ensure the components of these machines are faultless in order to rely on these life-saving instruments.”

Assisting the ventilator production through tool documentation, inventory management, and torque tool check and maintenance, Tektronix has expanded the number of calibration events each month by over three times the traditional amount to meet the manufacturing needs of these critical machines.

To expand the lab’s current accreditation with the addition of torque screwdriver capabilities to the plant’s required activities, Tektronix completed a remote technical assessment by A2LA. A2LA reviewed the quality records, procedures, training records and metrology practices, while Tektronix successfully demonstrated the calibration of a torque screwdriver virtually. “The process of calibration and accreditation has also seen extensive shifts to protocol and procedure due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Trace McInturff, VP Accreditation Services at A2LA. “Time is of the essence for these crucial ventilators, and we are proud that even among the potential constraints of virtual assessment, we completed this accreditation with confidence and ahead of schedule, and with the same level of quality that A2LA has maintained throughout our history.”

“There has been a tremendous amount of partnership surrounding this initiative,” adds Coughran. “We are proud to, in some small way, be contributing to the provisioning of these frontline medical professionals with the machines required to save lives.”

Molex has announced that TTI is the recipient of the 2019 Americas Distributor Award. This award recognises one outstanding regional channel partner each year for advancing Molex technology solutions through demonstrated growth in worldwide sales coupled with global financial, operational and executive management excellence.

TTI receives this award as a leading channel partner on both global and regional excellence. TTI and Molex have strategic initiatives in place to drive sales activity in the Americas. Their commitment to growing sales in tandem with Molex’s focus markets is demonstrated through their increased volume of industrial inventory. In order to support these goals, TTI has dedicated business development managers throughout the Americas region.

TTI continues to serve a fundamental role in continuing the growth of Molex innovative solutions into the global market. “Over the years, TTI has demonstrated an exceptional commitment towards mutual success of both companies,” said Fred Bell, vice president global distribution, Molex. “We are honored to recognise their relentless contributions to our distribution channel. Congratulations to TTI for not only being recognized as the Americas Distribution Award recipient, but also the Global Distribution Award recipient.”

“TTI is proud to be recognised for this award,” said Mike Morton, chief operating officer, TTI, Inc., “We are honored to be esteemed for bringing innovative Molex solutions to customers worldwide.”

AMETEK Land has launched a new human body temperature screening system to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.

Developed over 10 years by AMETEK Land experts, the VIRALERT 3 provides real-time infrared thermal imaging from a safe social distance, scanning for elevated temperatures that could indicate infection.

The VIRALERT 3 is the first of its kind, providing a camera and a temperature-controlled reference source on a single mounting. Using automatic face detection, it locates the best areas for temperature detection, taking a reading that’s accurate to within 0.5oC, then calculating core body temperature through a rapid test procedure of approximately two seconds.

Designed to screen visitors at an entry point without slowing the flow of people, the VIRALERT 3 scans temperatures without any person-to-person contact, keeping both parties safe from disease transmission.

The VIRALERT 3 is easy to use, and can be left to operate automatically, with audible and visual alarms alerting when high temperatures are discovered.

To ensure the highest levels of accuracy and reliability, it has a blackbody calibration source fitted on the same platform as the integrated thermal imager/visual camera.

This makes for a compact system that won’t get in the way of queueing people and can be easily wall-mounted.

The VIRALERT 3 builds on AMETEK Land’s proven expertise in temperature technology. The company has been developing high-accuracy infrared measurement instruments since 1947, and has been creating human body temperature screening systems since responding to the SARS outbreak of 2003.

With no complex software configuration required, the system can be up and running within 30 minutes of delivery.  Find out more at www.landviralert.com