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Industrial PCs, HMIs & Enclosures

TABLE OF CONTENTSGet physical with buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Hardwired, physical push buttons are here to stay and for good reasons

Manage alarms without being overwhelmed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Operators need different information than maintenance personnel

3 alarm types to manage with HMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Talk with the operator to understand what functions will be used

Accurate fishing begins with lights-out manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Okuma machinery helps aerospace company to evolve into the reel deal

Innovation drives medical production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

FP Developments uses simple, affordable and flexible innovation in its

production machines for small-scale pharmaceutical and medical device production

AD INDEXAdvantech Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Allied Moulded Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Beckhoff Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

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Siemens Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Unitronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

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eHANDBOOK: Industrial PCs, HMIs & Enclosures 2

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Human-machine interface (HMI) displays can convey all types of information and al-

low operators to select recipes and control machine production . But some functions

need more than a digital touchscreen display . That’s where physical buttons might

be a better choice . Our panel of experts advises which functions are better-suited for buttons .

A digital human-machine interface (HMI) display can provide lots of information, as well as

touchscreen interaction . However, some functions need physical buttons instead of digi-

tal screens . Which ones, and what types of physical buttons and switches should machine

builders use as part of the operator interface?

Eric Reiner, industrial PC product specialist, Beckhoff Automation (www .beck-

hoff .com), While most of the recent action in HMI technology has been centered

on HTML5 and JavaScript-enabled software for IIoT and multi-touchscreens,

physical push-button technology is by no means standing still . PC-based control vendors in

particular have been offering a wide range of high-end panels that offer a nearly endless array

of electromechanical push buttons and switches . These are offered in standard and custom

configurations to handle certain tasks that screens still do not . The need to adhere to a stan-

dardized button layout for a particular industry is a main reason why some panel displays still

make heavy use of physical buttons . Safety, security and authorized user control are other

key reasons that explain why physical push buttons are still in use . Whether the panel specifi-

Get physical with buttonsHardwired, physical push buttons are here to stay and for good reasons

By Mike Bacidore, editor in chief





cations are for user-specific or industry-spe-

cific requirements, the selected options can

include combinations of illuminated buttons

with and without membranes, the iconic

emergency-stop buttons, selector switches,

keylock switches, joysticks, RFID readers,

potentiometers and much more . These

buttons and switches can also be networked

via USB or EtherCAT for standard connectiv-

ity to all required devices . The EtherCAT-

networked buttons in particular are well-

suited to accommodate retrofits in the field .

While the available number of standard but-

ton configurations and options can address

almost any potential user need, volume

buyers of control panels and panel PCs can

completely customize the panel design to

the point where it doesn’t look anything like

a standard offering . Totally unique buttons

and switches can be sourced for custom

panel design and the overall design . These

can be delivered in the form of passive

panels that connect to a separate hardware

controller or as a panel PC that serves as

the all-in-one HMI hardware and machine

controller through automation software

that runs on the panel’s integrated CPU . So,

whether the device is selected off the shelf

or developed for a proprietary machine

design, there are panel displays with the

exact button configurations available today

for any corporate, industry and application

need (Figure 1) .

Robb Weidemann, senior

business development manag-

er, Banner Engineering (www .

bannerengineering .com), Even as HMI

technology evolves, physical buttons

absolutely have a place as part of opera-

tor interface . To increase productivity,

physical buttons can be placed directly in

the operator workstation for functions like

cycle start on a machine or two-hand

control on a press .

Select buttons are rugged enough to

survive impact and grime, and they can be

A PANEL FOR EVERY NEEDFigure 1: Whether the device is selected off the shelf or developed for a proprietary machine design, there are panel displays with the exact button configurations available today for any corporate, industry and application need .



mounted directly to stan-

dard brackets without any

box or panel . Reset and

emergency-stop buttons

for safety functions must

be located strategically,

and often the best place

is not where the HMI is

located .

HMIs do provide informa-

tion to the operator, but

this can also be accom-

plished by illuminated

physical buttons with

configurable color outputs .

A growing application for

illuminated touch buttons

is in collaborative robotics;

the robot communicates to

the operator via colors on

the button, and the op-

erator responds via touch .

Small, lightweight buttons

go where HMIs can’t .

Sopan Khurana,

applications

engineer, Patlite

(www .patlite .com), One of

the most important physi-

cal buttons on any machine

is an emergency stop .

When a critical error oc-

curs, oftentimes the ma-

chine needs to be stopped

immediately to minimize

the impact of the error . As

multi-functional as HMI

displays are, it takes time

to navigate through the

menus to address different

alarms . Push buttons can

be hit at a moment’s notice

and the wide availability of

push buttons now in the

market makes it easy to fit

one into nearly any design .

For an emergency stop, the

push button should be

large enough and/or illumi-

nated distinctly, strong

enough to be struck hard

and located in an easily

reachable position on the

machine .

John Kowal,

director, busi-

ness develop-

ment, B&R Industrial Auto-

mation (www .

br-automation .com), The

push button is no longer so

humble (Figure 2) . Today’s

push button, even the

e-stop button, is not neces-

sarily a hardwired device,

but a networked intelligent

device that complements

full graphical HMI displays,

either built into the HMI

panel’s bezel, connected to

the HMI panel as an add-on

module or mounted as

remote push-button sta-

tions to allow quick re-

A PANEL FOR EVERY NEEDFigure 2: Whether the device is selected off the shelf or devel-oped for a proprietary machine design, there are panel displays with the exact button configurations available today for any cor-porate, industry and application need .



sponse to commonly performed tasks such

as stop, start, forward, reverse, jog .

The new push buttons have the appearance

of a keypad, are plugged into the same

network cabling as the machine I/O and are

treated as I/O modules in the automation

software development environment . They

may be standard catalog products or highly

customized . They may incorporate e-stop

switches and other devices, such as RFID

access control and USB ports .

Nor are they conventional electromechani-

cal push buttons, but membrane switches

with a lifespan of 1 million cycles or more,

illuminated by multiple LED colors that can

correspond to HMI screen colors or stack

lights, flashing/solid light modes, are easily

reprogrammed and easily customized by

inserting legend strips . They may be built

to high IP ratings, hygienic design and even

Class I, Div . 2 .

Vaidhyanath “Doc” Nanjundaiah,

director—marketing & customer

success, EZAutomation (www .

avg .net), HMI touchscreens have a lifespan

of about 2-15 years, depending on the usage

and installed environment . In case of poten-

tial deterioration of touchscreens in harsh

and abusive environments, the operators

should have the ability to start or stop the

process or completely stop the machine in

case of emergencies with physical buttons .

The control panel on which the HMI is

installed should always have hardwired

start, stop and emergency-stop push but-

tons installed on it .

Jim McConahay, P .E ., senior field

applications engineer, Moore

Industries (www .miinet .com),

Digital HMIs can be very useful and efficient,

especially when several data points need to

be monitored . However, often only a couple

or few critical points need to be monitored

on a piece of machinery or equipment . In

those instances stand-alone alarm trips can

often provide far greater flexibility at a

much reduced cost .

An HMI typically requires a PLC or some re-

mote I/O product that interfaces to the ana-

log signals and provides a digital commu-

nication link to the HMI panel, another cost

and source of maintenance . A stand-alone

alarm trip on the other hand, provides the

built-in analog circuitry with onboard PV

display and LEDs for local alarm indication .

In addition, they have the added benefits

of universal input power (24 dc/115 ac/230

ac); two to four SPDT mechanical relays

that can directly control pumps, lights and

klaxon horn; faceplate programming so

alarm levels can be reconfigured without

custom or complex HMI software; analog

output retransmission of PV; local manual

reset capability for latching alarms; onboard

power for two-wire instruments; IEC 61508

SIL1/2/3-compliant versions available for

safety-instrumented-system (SIS) applica-



tions; and password protection for unau-

thorized access or programming .

Dr . Otto Fest, president, Otek

(www .otekcorp .com), Depend-

ing on the environment, the

button or switch type, style, size and loca-

tion will vary . If the operator is normally

using gloves, the button or switch would

need to be bigger and at a distance from

the other buttons to prevent another missile

alert like what happened in Hawaii .

Jeff Winter, CSP, FS Eng (TÜV

Rheinland), director, safety

practice, at Grantek Systems

Integration (www .grantek .com), Control

System Integrators Association (CSIA, www .

controlsys .org) member, There are several

opportunities where taking advantage of

HMIs can not only improve safety, but also

minimize downtime on equipment . One of

the simplest and most powerful production

enhancements is taking advantage of diag-

nostic information of your safety system .

Since safety functions, by their very defini-

tion, are designed to shut down a machine’s

operations if a problem is detected and keep

that machine shut down until that problem is

fixed, it becomes critical to understand what

your safety system is doing . Today’s inte-

grated safety systems have the ability to

identify and display a tremendous amount of

fault codes, leading to shorter troubleshoot-

ing time . The question is, are those fault

codes being taken advantage of?

The two biggest areas where physical

buttons/switches are still recommended

for safety-related interfacing with equip-

ment are emergency stops and bypassing

functions . Emergency stops, according to

NFPA 79, are still required to be indepen-

dent physical electromechanical devices,

such as push buttons, pull cords and push-

bars, so it wouldn’t make sense to include

them in an HMI . Bypassing functions, also

referred to as manual suspension, of safety

functions, are not required to be separate

devices, according to ANSI B11 .19; however,

it highly recommended . Separate physi-

cal electromechanical devices are typically

much easier to ensure proper circuit per-

formance and meet the monitoring require-

ments of safety systems . HMIs, however,

can still be very useful at managing au-

thorized access—passwords for specific

personnel—and for displaying useful infor-

mation for these functions, such as guard

status or control zone information .

Joshua Chenault, staff engineer,

MartinCSI (www .martincsi .com),

Control System Integrators

Association (CSIA, www .controlsys .org)

member, In the design of a control system

with an HMI, safety is the biggest consider-

ation in deciding where physical buttons

should be used . When appropriate security

is used, starting a process, changing set

points and acknowledging faults are com-

monly completed through a HMI applica-

tion . In determining which buttons to leave



out of a HMI, opting for a physical button

instead, the safety of personnel should be

your first thought . Emergency-stop but-

tons should be physical buttons, present

on a control panel or in the field, because

of the high reliability of the switching

mechanism used to interrupt the signal to

other devices . Similarly, some fault reset

buttons are isolated to the location of the

fault . When intervention to the system is

required, like resets to motor overloads,

broken parts and physical jams in convey-

ors, resetting these faults from a remote

location can exacerbate a situation and

cause injury to personnel . Imagine some-

one in an office environment repeatedly

presses an HMI reset button for a jam to an

overhead conveyor in an attempt to get a

line running . This could cause product to

spill over a guardrail and strike someone

below . Without a physical presence at the

location of the fault they are not capable of

safely resetting the system . Other consid-

erations for physical push buttons may be

control power on, key lock switches for

maintenance/auto mode, machine jog

buttons for maintenance and two-hand

controls for safety applications .

Ceren Bacinoglu, product

manager, pushbuttons, Eaton

(www .eaton .com), Emergency

stops (e-stops) would be the best example .

There are domestic and international codes

that define this button; however, simply

put an e-stop is a manually operated

device, activated by a single human action,

which is designed to open a circuit to one

or more pieces of equipment without

creating any additional hazards . This

device must remain in its actuated open

position until normal operation can be

restored . Only then can the circuit be reset

to resume normal operation .

An e-stop provides a safe and quick discon-

nection of power in emergency situations .

When an emergency occurs, an operator

will press the e-stop actuator to begin the

e-stop sequence . The actuator will mechani-

cally actuate a normally closed contact,

which will open the circuit . As a result,

power supplied to the equipment will be

disconnected, ensuring the equipment stays

off until intentionally reactivated .

Push-pull, turn-to-release and key-release e-

stops are the most common types of e-stops .

Paul Bunnell, director—automa-

tion products, Red Lion Controls

(www .redlion .net), Emergency-

stop buttons hardwired to remove power to

the machine are probably the most impor-

tant, to ensure safety . Next might come

start and stop buttons to control the run-

ning of the machine . Others might be setup

switches such as run/jog . Lastly, there are

pilot lights for indication such as running,

machine stopped and alarms .

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usa.siemens.com/ipc377e-cd

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The most critical HMI notification, the alarm, has important information for both op-

erators and maintenance personnel . Our panel of experts advises how to manage

alarms to ensure high-severity alarms receive the attention they need .

Alarms are an important part of any machine interface . But how do you design for alarm

management to be certain operators receive only relevant alarms and aren’t overwhelmed

by multiple alarms or false trips?

Marcel Voigt, senior solutions engineer, B&R Industrial Automation (www .

br-automation .com), We can design the alarm system in such a way that, based

on the user logged in, only top-level alarms are being displayed .

For the most part this should be limited to a “one liner” in the alarm banner .

Details can be provided by request, as well as potential options as to how to fix the prob-

lem . This could be in the form of text, pictures or videos .

For more advanced users such as service technicians, the level and details of a given alarm

would include a back trace of the alarm .

Manage alarms without being overwhelmedOperators need different information than maintenance personnel

By Mike Bacidore, editor in chief





That would allow diagnosis of the alarm in

more detail, such as drive faults .

For example, in the case of an e-stop, there

would be several follow-up faults, like from

all the drive losing the Drive Enable .

The operator would simply see the e-stop

alarm with the advice to release the e-stop .

If the service technician logs in, he would

see all of the alarms and faults that led or

followed the e-stop being pressed .

Another example could be a temperature

alarm . The operator doesn’t really care at

what temperature the alarm triggered, but

the service tech might want to know .

In summary, show the operator only the es-

sentials that help him/her get the machine

running again, while showing the service

tech details that allow him/her to detect or

fix more substantial problems .

Vaidhyanath “Doc” Nanjundaiah,

director—marketing & customer

success, EZAutomation (www .

avg .net), If your PLC has the IIoT (MQTT)/

Industry 4 .0 feature, you can definitely

implement or design a good alarm-manage-

ment system . For instance, if the PLC is

IIoT-ready, you can program it to send

alarms or messages . You can optimize it by

authorizing certain people or groups such

as operators, supervisors and managers to

receive specific alarms . This way plant

personnel are not overwhelmed and the

relevant real-time data are only sent to the

appropriate personnel .

Dr . Otto Fest, president, Otek

(www .otekcorp .com), Color,

sound or both are the most and

the fastest recognizable anomaly for human

interface, followed by intelligent text .

Jeff Winter, CSP, FS Eng (TÜV

Rheinland), director, safety

practice, at Grantek Systems

Integration (www .grantek .com), Control

System Integrators Association (CSIA,

www .controlsys .org) member, Alarms can

absolutely be overwhelming and counter-

productive if overused . More successful

alarm-management programs include the

following two aspects:

1 . Standardization in visual/audible alarming

requirements . Ensure all alarm types (for ex-

ample, color of indicator light, sold vs . flash-

ing) and methods of alarming (for example,

stack lights, operator displays, buzzers) are

consistent across all pieces of equipment

and have the same look and feel . Without

this standardization, it can be very difficult

to develop operator training and associated

safety policies to ensure safe interaction

with equipment . The last thing you want is

for a flashing red light on one machine to be

critical and a flashing red light on another

machine to be noncritical .



2 . Standardization in alarm hierarchy and

employee training . This includes ensur-

ing that specific alarms are easily distin-

guishable as being higher priorities than

others . Typically safety-related alarms

are at the top of the alarm hierarchy

and should be uniformly conveyed to all

affected personnel . Along with having

an alarm hierarchy comes an effective

alarm training of employees . Similar to a

fire alarm system, every employee in the

company gets training on understand-

ing how the system functions and what

to do when it is activated . All employs,

not just those actively working on the

equipment, should be training on how to

identify a safety-specific alarm on a piece

of equipment, especially one that may be

in another part of the facility, and how to

react in the event of an emergency .

Todd Ebright, staff engineer,

MartinCSI (www .martincsi .com),

Control System Integrators

Association (CSIA, www .controlsys .org)

member, Following a standard practice that

includes alarm prioritization, color coding,

succinct descriptions and corrective action is

essential in the design of alarm management .

By prioritizing alarms, putting the most

severe at the top, operators will be able to

determine where to focus their attention in

troubleshooting issues . Color coding is also

very helpful in prioritizing alarms, and it is

best to limit color variations . For instance, a

dark red could represent a high-level alarm,

a lighter red could indicate a less-severe

alarm, and yellow could show a warning that

does not require immediate attention .

Restricting the color palette to only a few

variations will make it easy for operators to

determine severity with a quick glance . It is

also recommended to keep alarm descrip-

tors brief . Wordy alarm descriptions can

cause confusion and waste time . The use of

succinct descriptions can distinguish to an

operator what is alarmed and where to look .

Including a corrective action on the alarm

display will enable the operator to quickly

resolve any issues . Alarms can be filtered by

user role to show only the ones that are

applicable to them . Assigning alarm types to

different user roles will ensure users will see

alarms that are relevant to them when

logging into the machine interface . It can

also be helpful to programmatically look for

alarms that are recurring regularly by includ-

ing an occurrence count on the alarm dis-

play . A large count could indicate a potential

hardware issue that needs to be resolved—

for example, a faulty sensor that is tripping

more than usual and potentially needs

recalibrated .

Shishir Rege, marketing man-

ager, networks and safety,

Balluff (www .balluff .com), HMIs

are great with all the information they can

display and offer multiple levels of interac-

tions, and depending on the person inter-

acting with the HMI it can offer a great deal

of information to diagnose a problem or



initiate a troubleshooting process . With

industry kicking into a high productivity era,

it is equally important that the right person

or the group is alerted depending on the

problem at hand, may it be troubleshooting

false triggers by sensors or material outage .

As the condition stands today, most ma-

chines come with standard three- or five-

segment stack lights and buzzers, and the

most information they can provide is that

the machine is down and bring someone to

troubleshoot . Naturally, the closest person

would be the operator of that machine, and,

beyond material replenishment and basic

troubleshooting, there is not much to gain

by having an operator to respond to that

alarm . In short, if the machine is demanding

attention more than the operator can

handle, then the plant is looking at some

downtime and waste of operator’s time

attending to that alarm .

If manufacturers are really serious about

shortening that downtime, there are mul-

tiple ways to do that . The most involved way

would be sending texts and alerts about each

problem to the maintenance teams or opera-

tors, depending on the situation . That could

quickly become expensive and overwhelming

to your maintenance teams and operators .

The other alternative could be to use visual-

indication tower lights that could change

instantaneously from stack-light mode to

a run-light mode (Figure 1) . There is a wide

variety of information the light can commu-

nicate by selecting combinations of back-

ground and foreground (running segment)

colors, and the speed and intensity of the

running segment . They can tremendously

help to visualize the entire state of the plant

in just a glance . For example, under the nor-

mal operator interaction conditions, such as

material replenishment, one can choose the

background color as green indicating there

are no machine troubles, but running seg-

ment would show orange color, indicating

that the machine will soon need replenish-

ment . When the machine is out of materials

for processing, the running segment color

could change to red to indicate that the ma-

RUNTIMEFigure 1: Use visual-indication tower lights that could change instantaneously from stack-light mode to a run-light mode .



chine is stopped due to material outage—

something that the operator can handle .

In another scenario if machine stops in the

middle of operation unexpectedly due to

some sensor tripping inadvertently, it’s

time to call electrical maintenance and the

light could change the background color

to blue or something similar with running

segment red, indicating that the machine

is stopped . So, the maintenance supervisor

can see that light from far to ensure send-

ing the right person .

If that sensor tripping is a common ail-

ment of the system and may someday need

replacement, in that situation, the run-light

can continue with blue background color

but green running segment .

The point is, with various color combina-

tions to choose from, the entire plant can

create its own alarm manual that would

offer a consistent approach to handling all

different alarms for maintenance teams or

operators without overwhelming them .

Lee Cheung, product marketing

engineer, Mitsubishi Electric

Automation (www .meau .com),

Alarms are intended for two different audi-

ences: operators and maintenance engineers .

While maintenance should have access to all

current and past alarms, machine operators

are only interested in knowing whether the

machine is operational and if any action is

required . You should serve operators simple

alarms that are easy to understand . To avoid

overwhelming them with multiple alarms, it

is best practice to only display the current

alarms and clear them from the operator

view when the issue is resolved . HMIs with

sound output also make it easy to provide

audio instructions to the operator . For the

maintenance team, you should display full

records complete with details and time-

stamps that will help to diagnose and trou-

bleshoot the machine . Coupling data logging

and trend graphs with alarms also makes

troubleshooting easier when you can jump

directly to the relevant data . When a smart

Web server is enabled, these records and

even troubleshooting videos and documents

can be viewed remotely on a tablet without

interfering with the operation of the ma-

chine . With some HMIs, you can also issue

push e-mail notifications of high-severity

alarms to promptly notify management of

bigger concerns .

Paul Bunnell, director—automa-

tion products, Red Lion Controls

(www .redlion .net), Operators

can be simply alerted by alarm pilot devices

on the machine, and operations can use the

alarms from the HMI to get more detailed

information . This is a simple solution . Also,

HMI alarms typically have many different

levels of severity that can be programmed

to dictate how each one gets reported .

Different alarms can notify different users,

depending on job level .



Travis Cox, co-director of sales

engineering, Inductive Automa-

tion (www .inductiveautomation .

com), With more devices than ever being

connected to monitoring systems, there’s a

greater chance that a critical alarm could be

lost in a sea of ordinary ones . You need a

system that keeps alarm notifications

organized, so you can quickly sift through

the clutter and hone in on those alarms that

should be addressed immediately .

Four key processes are especially impor-

tant—prioritization of alarms, removing

chattering alarms, consolidation and escala-

tion . When you prioritize alarms correctly,

you make sure all alarms are not treated

equally . According to The Alarm Manage-

ment Handbook, an excellent reference on

SCADA alarming, only 20% of your alarms

should be categorized as “high” or “emer-

gency .” Most of your alarms should be set

at lower priorities . The lowest level, requir-

ing no action, should be designated as “di-

agnostic .” Prioritization helps you to focus

on critical alarms first .

Chattering alarms are alarms that repeat

excessively in a short period of time . For

example, temperature readings can chat-

ter because temperature sensors are very

sensitive, and small fluctuations can oc-

cur often as the temperature goes over a

threshold briefly and then goes back to

normal . If you don’t adjust your system, this

would cause several unnecessary alarms in

a short period of time . You can remove the

chattering by telling your system to send an

alarm only if the temperature stays beyond

the threshold for a defined period of time .

Consolidation involves telling your sys-

tem to hold onto alarms for a while before

notifying you . That gives the system time

to take in more alarms, so it can collect a

batch and send them all at once . That way,

you get one message with a list of alarms,

rather than each alarm notification com-

ing at you individually . Setting a delay of a

few seconds can bring the alarms to you in

groups . This helps operators to process the

information more quickly .

Escalation involves telling your system to

notify others if the primary operator isn’t

responding within a defined timeframe . And

the type of notification can be escalated,

as well . For example, instead of an email,

an escalated alarm notification could be a

voice message or text message . An esca-

lated message can be sent to an individual

or to groups . You should set up your escala-

tion so repeated messages are sent to the

right people until the issue is resolved .

If you use these four techniques, you’ll go a

long way toward helping your operators re-

spond quickly and efficiently to the alarms

that need to be addressed .

Sopan Khurana, applications

engineer, Patlite (www .patlite .

com), Many operators develop

alarm fatigue, tuning out repeating alarms

that occur in excess . To combat this issue,



we suggest designing alarm management

to minimize the number of different alarm

tones and integrate a mixture of visual and

voice alerts to engage more senses . MP3

voice alert devices are typically field-pro-

grammable and can be customized to

annunciate precise alarm conditions com-

pared to identifying a multitude of differ-

ent tones and sounds . Including a visual-

indication component such as an LED

signal tower adds another alert layer even

if operators decide to deactivate the

audible alarm component . Implementing

triggers for sending custom-worded text

messages and emails to managers for

certain alarm conditions is a great option

to consider, as well .

False alarms are usually triggered in short

intervals as the alarm is turned off . Wire-

less data-acquisition systems attached

to the alarms can map the history of all

alarms on the factory floor . This overview

of all the machines on the floor can show

the exact alarms that are the most prob-

lematic due to false trips .

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The prices of alphanumeric and graphic human-machine interface (HMIs) have fallen

dramatically in the past few years . Programming these HMIs has also gotten consid-

erably easier, thanks to drag-and-drop integrated development environment (IDEs)

that often automatically import PLC and PAC tags . These developments have led to HMI

installations on even the simplest of machines .

At its simplest, an HMI offers a simulation of buttons and indicators, maybe error and status

messages . At its most complex, an HMI provides a graphical view into a process or machine .

The more sophisticated HMIs are beginning to offer two-or-more-finger control . This allows

the user to zoom into a graphical image to produce more detail, like zooming in on a Web

page or photograph on your smart phone . If a process of a machine is showing a fault or

alarm, using the zoom function allows the user to identify the exact part creating the alarm .

If a motor is overheating, zooming into the motor from a larger overview graphic can give

the operator or maintenance person real-time information about the cause of the trouble .

Taping the motor may provide present temperature, current draw, histograms of operating

conditions, the part number of the motor or even a link to a video for replacement instruc-

tions . The limits are the imagination of the design engineer and the development budget .

HMIs were once typically connected to some control device in a one-to-one configuration .

Modern HMIs can connect to multiple devices and systems, such as multiple PLCs, the plant’s

3 alarm types to manage with HMITalk with the operator to understand what functions will be used

By Tom Stevic, contributing editor





manufacturing execution system (MES), field

service management (FSM) system and Web

pages generated by data from Industrial

Internet of Things (IIoT) smart devices . All of

this information can be leveraged to create

powerful diagnostic aids .

IIoT devices often have many built-in di-

agnostic functions . Most offer a Web-page

interface to view these features . If the

desire is to display the information within

the context of existing HMI pages, some

programming may be required to cull the

specific items of interest and place them

on the HMI where desired . Examples of the

code required may be included in the de-

vice’s instruction manual or in white papers

available for download .

Even on less powerful HMIs, the controller’s

digital and analog inputs and outputs, with

detailed comments, can have their states

reflected on screen . Some HMI and control-

ler combinations can display the controller

logic on screen . This allows a maintenance

person to quickly troubleshoot logic and

I/O issues without having to log into the

controller with a computer . Displaying the

actual logic within the controller is usu-

ally limited to having the controller and the

HMI built by the same manufacturer . If the

machine or process operations can be bro-

ken into distinct steps or states, a process-

flowchart HMI screen can be developed that

indicates the current status and can aid in

diagnosing problems .

A great deal of information and many theo-

ries are available on alarm management .

Generally, alarms are broken into at least

three categories .

1 . Immediate-stop alarms are conditions that

indicate an unsafe condition or a condi-

tion that requires the machine or process

to be immediately stopped—emergency

stops (e-stops), open gates, loss of power

to some sections, circuit breaker trips or

any condition that puts the machine into

a state that is unsafe or cannot allow the

machine to complete its current cycle or

process .

2 . A cycle-stop alarm will allow the machine

to complete the current cycle but not al-

low another one to begin until the cause

of the alarm is addressed—low raw mate-

rial, some conveyor jambs, motors start-

ing to overheat or specific operations,

such as a pneumatic cylinder extending,

taking slightly longer than expected .

3 . Warnings occur when a condition that

should be addressed exists, but the op-

erations can proceed without damage—

hoppers getting full, excessive blocked or

starved times or low oil pressures caused

by a plugged filter .

Often, one alarm condition can generate

several individual alarm conditions . It is

important to capture the initial condition

and indicate that it is the cause of the sec-

ondary conditions . Alarm management can



be a tricky balancing act . It is important to

detect and act upon critical alarms while at

the same time not creating nuisance alarms .

Just because you can doesn’t mean you

should . I have personally been involved with

projects that cost hundreds of thousands

of dollars and hundreds of person-hours

creating very detailed alarming and trouble-

shooting tools, only to have the project

implemented and the maintenance people

not ever use the tools created for them . The

customer always gets what the customer

asks for, correct? An engineer designing a

project that includes HMI-based trouble-

shooting aids would do well to talk with the

people who will be maintaining the equip-

ment to find out what they will use . Training

the customer and the maintenance people

after the project is implemented is crucial .

Tools serve no purpose if they are unknown

or unused .

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Accurate Fishing Products (www .accuratefishing .com), in Corona, California, start-

ed as a summer work project during my college days in the early 1990s . Design

and development of fishing reels in those early years led to the purchase of sev-

eral Okuma (www .okuma .com) CNC machines and related P-Series Okuma Sampling Path

(OSP-P) intelligent numerical control . This provided a solid, robust path to automation,

innovation and lights-out manufacturing that continues to expand and improve every year .

With the right product designs, machines, control and innovation, we have figured out how

to reel in successful lights-out manufacturing .

(EMBED VIDEO)

LET’S GO FISHINGAccurate Fishing Products is a family-owned company started in 1950 by my grandfather .

Much of its early business was centered around the aerospace industry and the early days

of turbine engine development . At that time it was mainly a grind shop with the ability to

hold tight tolerances on turbine shafts and turbine parts . In the 1970s my dad got involved

and moved Accurate Fishing Products into the CNC era . The company got involved with all

of the processes needed to machine complete turbine products, such as shafts using CNC

lathes .

Accurate fishing begins with lights-out manufacturingOkuma machinery helps aerospace company to evolve into the reel deal

By David Nilsen, Accurate Fishing Products





My brother Douglas and I got involved in

the early ’90s during our college years at

Northern Arizona University . Over the sum-

mers, we started manufacturing a variety of

things, such as products for mountain bikes,

jet skis and golf landscape equipment, and

we began selling them on our own . We

started dabbling in the fishing industry and

that took hold . People were buying our new

products . We became a two-part company,

working in aerospace and fishing, which

was small but developing a following .

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A NEEDIn the mid-1990s, my brother and I started

making conversion kits for Penn reels . With

our kit, you could take your plastic reel and

put precise aluminum parts in it and then

you’d have a pretty good reel . However, we

kept fighting all the tolerances and related

issues with someone else’s product, so we

thought we could make a whole reel . We per-

formed significant design, development and

testing to figure out a better way to do it .

We started by taking reels apart and figur-

ing out how they worked and realized the

reel designs had some serious flaws . We

understood effects of forces and loads

on shafts and related tooling, so we could

never understand how the manufacturers

developed drag pressure with just one pres-

sure plate on the side of a reel . That’s like

putting the brakes on only one side of a car .

Evening out the drag by applying it on both

sides of the reel is a much more mechani-

cally efficient and balanced system . This

simple idea ending up being pretty revolu-

tionary .

It took several years to develop our first

fishing-reel product, and it required a lot of

trial and error to get it to work . There was

much more to it than we thought to transfer

the force from one side of the reel to the

other through a shaft . We figured out how

to do it and brought it to market in 1998

and called it the TwinDrag . It was a $1,000

reel that no one thought we could sell, but

we couldn’t keep them in stock .

We started out making them one at a time

and ended up manufacturing hundreds and

hundreds, selling everything we could make .

It revolutionized how people thought about

taking a small reel and catching big fish on

it . This little reel could apply so much drag

pressure, it allowed people to do that . If you

look now, guys are catching 200 lb fish on

reels a third of the size of what was needed

in the 1990s and before . And the reels don’t

break under the force . They can handle it

easily, lasting for years .

The TwinDrag reel was a big thing, and we

patented it in 1998 . Along with the idea of

the TwinDrag and related caliper, you must

have strong supporting hardware, such

as stainless steel shafts along with strong

gears and solid billet frame, side plate and

spool . All of that had to come together in



the TwinDrag system, since, if you didn’t

have a strong, robust inner working in the

reel, it wouldn’t work well . Strong parts

made a sweet design, and it’s made in

America by American workers .

HOOKED ON AN OPEN PLATFORM CNC CONTROLAs the fishing-reel business developed, we

started buying Okuma CNC lathes, moving

away from other manufacturers because

we liked the fact that Okuma made the

whole machine, including control hardware,

drives, axis motors and software . We had

dealt with so many problems in the early

days when we were calling several different

manufacturers to support a single machine .

We felt Okuma could be a one-stop shop

for machine and support and bought many

over the years (Figure 1) .

We started falling in love with the Okuma

OSP control . The OSP-P series has devel-

oped even more over the years and has

gotten better with its open platform con-

cept . It has been easy to use and highly

reliable . The OSP-P runs on a Microsoft

Windows operating system and an Intel-

based hardware platform, making it simple

OPEN PLATFORMFigure 1: The OSP-P series has developed over the years

and has gotten better with its open platform concept .



to connect just like most computers . We

especially like doing background editing of

the CNC program using a PC . We can take

the program from the OSP-P control side

and edit on the PC side, basically just edit-

ing text (Figure 2) .

The ability to connect the controllers to our

factory Ethernet and download the program

from a networked PC is appreciated, as

well . We use a ReadyNAS dedicated server

on our network to store, protect and back

up our data . All the programs are stored on

that server, and we pull them off and load

them to the CNC machines as needed . On a

weekly basis, all programs on the CNCs are

backed up to this server .

When we build programs on Mastercam,

creating new G code, we can access these

programs that are on the server from any

machine on the factory floor . In the past

we had problems with storing programs

on a machine because sometimes, when

you load one, it would say you are out of

memory, forcing us to keep only the run-

ning program on the machine . Now with the

new OSP-P control and ReadyNAS server, it

doesn’t matter; we can store all we want in

the CNC controller (Figure 3) .

DOWNLOAD CONNECTIONFigure 2: The controllers can be connected to the factory Ethernet, and programs can be downloaded from a networked PC .



Since we have more than a thousand CNC

programs on the server, we built our own

file-management system using FileMaker

Pro, an open-source database . All of the

programs are stored there under a pro-

gram name, part number and record num-

ber . We use the record number to create

program numbers, which works well for

revision control, storage and reuse of CNC

code, as well as keeping track of the re-

lated cutting tools needed .

The control on the Okuma allows the CNC

interface to be minimized, opening a Win-

dows PC interface and making it easy to

access the network and any files stored

on the server . It is even possible to access

the Internet or email, but we don’t use this

functionality . We do access program files

and edit them as needed, using notepad

or Microsoft Word, and other functions to

compare programs, copy and paste .

FISHING LIGHTS OUTDuring the initial development of the reel,

Accurate Fishing Products was mostly a

CNC lathe shop . In the late 1990s, as our

fishing product line grew, we added CNC

milling products, such as the Okuma Ca-

det Mate 4020 CNC vertical mill machin-

STORE AND RUNFigure 3: With the OSP-P control and ReadyNAS server, the CNC

controller can store more programs than just the running program .



ing center . These machines worked out

well and helped to continue the growth

of the fishing products through the early

2000s . In 2007, we started adding Okuma

horizontal machining centers, as well, and

we currently have more than 20 CNC ma-

chines of various types . Most are Okuma

(Figure 4) .

We ended up purchasing an Okuma MA-

400HB 10-pallet system—a pallet pool—

which enabled automated manufacturing .

It reduced setup and programming times

and made machine loading and part flow

more efficient, which really helped us to

increase production . Once set up for au-

tomatic operation, the pallet pool enabled

unmanned operation of the CNC and the

beginning of lights-out manufacturing at

Accurate Fishing Products .

The Okuma OSP-P control worked great

and provided easy integration to the ma-

chine, loading device, programs and tomb-

stones—removable tool holding grid plates .

Okuma provided all the hardware and

software making the pallet pool a quick suc-

cess . We could load up to 10 pallets and go

home at 6:00 pm, and the machine would

run all night long . When we returned in the

morning, we’d have 10 completed pallets . It

was a great labor saver .

MORE MILLINGFigure 4: In the late 1990s, Accurate Fishing Products added CNC milling products .



INNOVATION IN MACHINING AND CONTROLDue to the lights-out success of the Okuma

pallet pools, we also moved to install a solu-

tion from Gosiger, a machine-tool distribu-

tor and manufacturing-solutions provider

headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, where it

integrated a Fanuc robot and palletizing

system to one of our lathes that was mak-

ing reels (Figure 5) . This added more lights-

out manufacturing . We were able to make

spools all day and night with the robot load-

ing and unloading the lathe .

We added live tools on the lathe turret,

which enabled milling, drilling, tapping and

reaming on the machine, and it has a sub-

spindle, so we can machine 100% of the

fishing spool on one machine . In the past,

this took three machines and four different

setups . This provides huge time and cost

savings in manufacturing .

Accurate Fishing Products now has six

machines that run lights out, but it needs

to know what’s happening on the manufac-

turing floor when no one is there . Okuma

LIGHTS OUTFigure 5: Lights-out manufacturing allows Accurate to make spools all day and night .



uses what it calls The Intelligent Numerical

Control (THINC) CNC Apps technology,

where it collaborates with users and pro-

grammers . Okuma has many programs that

can be downloaded to the Okuma OSP-P

control providing efficiency-enhancing

tools and advanced functions, similar to

apps on a smartphone .

CNC APPS AND PROGRAMMINGOne THINC CNC App I really like is the

alarm app because it’s a great help with our

lights-out manufacturing . When a CNC ma-

chine has an alarm, it sends a text or email

to the technician, detailing the problem . It

can also send a snapshot of the CNC con-

troller graphical screen . The personnel on

call to support lights-out issues benefit from

this app because, depending on the alarm, it

can be reset remotely, without a trip to the

facility in the middle of the night . Hundreds

of apps and functions are available for

download . Okuma has had apps available

for the last four or five years, but, in the

past year, the number of apps available has

grown significantly . It is very easy to use

these apps in the OSP-P300 control .

The Okuma OSP-P300 just came out and it

has a lot of useful features and much more

usable information, and it easily connects

to automation such as pallet systems and

robots . M-codes and discrete I/O provide

handshaking signals to quickly interface the

automation together .

One of the features of the OSP-P control I

like is to create reusable subroutines in G-

codes and M-codes for repetitive routines

or tasks . An example is a routine to per-

form a tool touch-off to check if a tool is

broken . I also use these routines to move

to certain positions in the machine . Once

the code is created, it can be called from

a CNC program whenever needed . Anoth-

er example of reusable code is the wash-

down of the tombs, similar to a four-sided

vice, typically needed at the completion

of each part . There is no need to write

the code on every machine to turn on the

wash spray and move the pallet around; I

just call the wash program that is native

in the control .

We are moving into high-tech manufac-

turing to enable more lights-out manufac-

turing by adding more robots, automated

equipment and apps using the same

workforce . The Okuma OSP-P control was

a big enabler . The number of employees

is growing more slowly, but we have more

highly qualified people running these ma-

chines . The robots are doing the repeti-

tive functions while the employees are

doing the high precision work . That leaves

more time to do other important things .

Let’s go fishing .

David Nilsen is owner at Accurate Fishing

Products in Corona, California . Contact him

at david@accuratefishing .com .

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In pharmaceutical and medical applications, there are many cases where a syringe needs

to be filled, to have its contents inspected and its label printed and validated . In these

types of applications, it’s common for pharmacists or pharmacy technicians to perform

these operations at a cost of approximately $65 or more per hour . These operators have

lots of education, but handling syringes, inspecting vials and applying labels is not the best

use of their time .

To be more cost effective in the competitive pharmaceutical market, machine automation

with programmable logic controllers, collaborative robots, cameras, laser markers and label

printers must be used to do the work, but all of these smart devices must be tied together .

To do that, a modern HMI/SCADA system can be used as a gateway to connect all the

devices via Ethernet, in addition to providing a graphical operator interface, database func-

tions and Internet-of-Things (IoT) access .

FP Developments (www .fpdevelopments .com) in Williamstown New Jersey, makes a variety

of machines for the pharmaceutical and medical industries that bring these smart devices

together . Its machines also work with a variety of consumables, such as bulk bags of medi-

cine, syringes and product labels .

Innovation drives medical productionFP Developments uses simple, affordable and flexible innovation in its production machines for small-scale pharmaceutical and medical device production

By David Pfleger, FP Developments





FP Developments created

its first automated filler

machine several decades

ago . It replaced high-priced

operators with a highly ac-

curate and efficient ma-

chine . Over the years its

solid-modeling CAD/CAM

systems and design capabil-

ities moved it into turnkey

system development and

integration with other OEM

equipment .

There has been high cus-

tomer interest in robotic fill-

ing, assembly, labeling and

inspection . Many of our new

designs and manufacturing

capabilities center around

fully integrated collabora-

tive robotic work cells for

small-scale pharmaceutical

and medical device produc-

tion . FP’s new labeling sys-

tem is a new entry to this

price-sensitive market . It’s

smart devices and collabor-

ative robots connected via

Ethernet through an HMI .

LABELING SYSTEMFP Developments created

an automated, hands-free

label-applicator system to

reduce manufacturing costs

and eliminate the waste,

errors and repetitive motion

related to manual labeling

methods . The system uses

a Cognex In-Sight VC200

multi smart camera vision

system connected to a Cog-

nex In-Sight 8402 vision

system/camera and Cog-

nex DataMan 8600 barcode

reader, a Universal Robots

UR3 robot and a Herma

400 label applicator; all are

talking over Ethernet . There

are no discrete signals used;

all smart-device handshak-

ing is done through the

Ethernet connection .

The UR3 robot picks up

a vial from an infeed nest

and inspects fill level and

presence of the stopper .

It then moves the vial to a

Videojet printer and applies

the label . The label is then

scanned and verified by the

In-Sight camera . Labels that

failed verification are placed

in a reject bin . The robot

places good parts with la-

bels attached in a bag, or in

a bag of 25, depending on

configuration .

To operate the collabora-

tive robotic labeling sys-

COST SAVING LABELERFigure 1: The automated filler machine replaces high-priced opera-tors with a highly accurate and efficient machine .

(So

urce

: FP

Dev

elo

pm

ents

)



tem, the operator uses the HMI to log in

and then enters the work order . All of the

printed work order data can be entered

manually, scanned in using a Cognex

DataMan 8600 Series barcode reader, or,

with the additional of a Pro-face HMI, data

can be pulled from an SQL database with

a single scan of a 2D ID .

HMI ADDS CAPABILITIESThe In-Sight VC200 vision controller is

a smart device . It’s network-ready and

connects directly to up to four Cognex

cameras . In the label-apply machine it is

used to inspect the stopper and verify the

printed label .

The VC200 includes a graphical HMI that

provides remote access via a Web browser

on a local Ethernet network . It also provides

the programming platform to configure the

smart cameras, acquire and inspect camera

images and communicate the results to the

printer and UR3 robot to synchronously

trigger their cycles, as well to automate the

label-apply machine sequence .

The capabilities of the Pro-face HMI and

its data entry fields, on-screen keyboard

and database access features enable a

variety setup options beyond what is pos-

sible with a VC200 vision system alone .

With a simple scan of a work ticket, the

machine can control the location of the

barcode label print, populate the print

data, define the need for a tip cap and ex-

ecute a variety of other requirements that

can be pulled from a database .

This labeling machine can operate stand-

alone or integrate with adjacent devices .

The Pro-face HMI makes the integration to

the upstream filler and downstream inspec-

tion equipment easy . It also adds significant

data collection capability . We know every

alarm, every point of data, all collected

through the Pro-face HMI using Ethernet .

THE HMI IS THE BOSTo integrate a production line, we use

Schneider Electric’s Pro-face Blue Open

Studio (BOS) development and runtime

software as an HMI/SCADA on our machines .

It provides animation, trend analysis, graph-

ical drawing, recipes, reports, OEE dash-

boards, library of symbols and VB script; it’s

also easy to use . It has built-in tag integra-

tion with Schneider PLCs, where used, and

provides more than 240 drivers to quickly

connect with other smart devices such as

cameras, robots and printers . It also enables

remote access, data logging and retrieval,

OPC connectivity and automatic email de-

livery on our machines .

The Pro-face BOS basically acts as a

gateway . It can accept data from outside

sources and provides a two-way connec-

tion to other sources . For example, there

is a script program for the data that needs

to be sent to a Videojet 3020 10-Watt CO2



laser marking system on one of our inspec-

tion machines . When a laser print is needed,

it transmits the data and print command to

the laser . The vision system is controlled in

a similar fashion . It also tells the robot which

program to run and how, such as, “Pick a

syringe, and place in Tray Position 3 .”

A big part of the Pro-face BOS system is

its ability to take advantage of intranet and

Internet connectivity . It can connect to any

database, and, in our case, we use SQL . It’s

an easy way to create an SQL bridge with

a graphical user interface . It also allows

remote viewing of the data using a smart-

phone, tablet or PC .

On a production line, all of the scanned

data, all of the alarms, all of the failures, all

of the logins are handled by the BOS . We

pull the data from the PLC, camera, robot,

RFID unit and other sources .

The Pro-face BOS HMI also controls user

access through user name and password .

Where needed for tighter security, it can

include two-factor authentication that reads

an RFID tag or barcode added to a user ID .

DATA AND SUPPORT NEEDSFP Developments’ previous version of the

filler machine’s control hardware needed

improvements and would have been too

expensive to upgrade to provide access

to the data . Because of this, we started

from the ground up and designed a new

control system . This system is the real-

ization of Ethernet communication in the

industrial world .

We use a Schneider Electric PLC, HMI and

hardware to control and collect all of the

data . The machine includes Schneider Elec-

tric motors, with Ethernet communication,

for control and status . Any data point we

have can and is being collected .

Adding a Universal Robot and its collabora-

tive capabilities to a filler machine allows us

to design a system without guarding, which

makes the system much less expensive . FP

Developments and our customers find the

robot easy to use . Generally, onboarding a

customer’s on-site maintenance staff takes

less than a day . They can keep the robot

running, and, if they can’t, it’s all done over

Ethernet, so we can remotely connect and

correct most problems .

The customer simply needs to plug in the

Ethernet cable to the programming port

for us to support it remotely . We strongly

recommend that the programming port is

disconnected when not in use, and we do

keep the data communication and control

network physically separate from the pro-

gramming network .

David Pfleger is COO at FP Developments, a provider of

packaging and processing equipment for pharmaceuti-

cal and healthcare machinery systems . Contact him at

dpfleger@fpdevelopments .com

222 North Union Street • Bryan, Ohio 43506Ph: 800-722-2679 • Fx: 800-237-7269

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