Cimtec Automation Blog
Showing posts with label Software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Software. Show all posts

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Cimtec 3D Surface Inspection



For the full-length version of the video, click here.

Cimtec Engineered Products is pleased to announce the release of 'Cimtec3D' software paired with 3D laser line profile sensors and cameras.  This capability allows us and our customers to move beyond the traditional 2D image inspection to the realm of true 3 dimensional surface inspection.

The 3D laser line profile sensors and cameras provide a scan of the part or surface outputting the full x, y, and z data to Cimtec3D.  They are precalibrated sensors that house the camera imager and laser line generator together for very precise real-world readings.  Cimtec3D has the ability to view and analyze a surface profile-by-profile, or stitch them altogether to view as a 'whole part' scan in a 16-bit grayscale image.  Statistical analysis and other image preprocessing is also applied to the image for nominal surface detection.

The 3D inspection finds surface flaws and reports their location in x, y, and z along with size characteristics such as:  area, length, elongation, spread, and volume.  After inspection, you have the ability to save the 16-bit images with or without the graphical results, and the ability to save the data to csv file.

Lastly, the GUI can be customized for your application and need, including a run-time display with operator interface.

Please contact your Cimtec representative today for more information or click here.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Cimtec to Host GE-IP Innovation Showcase

Cimtec will host the Innovation Showcase stop at GE-IP Headquarters in Charlottesville, VA. on July 10th.

This will be a great chance to see  the GE-IP factory and meet the design team there.   Also be the first to demo GE-IP's new family of products including the RXi



Bernie Anger,  GM of GE-IP Controls and Communications Systems will give his vision for the future of the automation industry.



Sign up below.   http://www.ge-ip.com/showcase or call us

GE Intelligent Platforms is changing what is possible in the world of industrial automation. Our innovative new PROFINET-enabled PACSystems controller and I/O solutions, industrial PCs, HMI solutions and cloud-based collaborative automation platforms are re-defining application development, deployment and management, and eliminating the traditional confines of manufacturing and process automation to deliver:

• Improved plant performance

Increase uptime

Lower total cost of ownership

Whether you are developing or deploying new equipment, expanding an existing process, or modernizing your facility, these emerging technologies will transform your approach to automation and dramatically improve productivity.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Cimtec is pleased to announce integration of CDI team

Press Release below...



CIMTEC ACQUIRES INDUSTRIAL FLAT PANEL COMPUTER FIRM, COMPUTER DYNAMICS, INC (CDI),  FROM GE INTELLIGENT PLATFORMS.

CIMTEC Automation (Charlotte, NC) today announced that it has acquired Computer Dynamics, Inc. (CDI), formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Intelligent Platforms(GE IP). The acquisition will combine CIMTEC's established distribution base, in-house repair capabilities, and on-line presence with the wide variety of Industrial Computer Platforms and Flat Panel Display systems from CDI

“This acquisition will give our existing customers the ability to continue to purchase most of the products in the CDI product line, will enable us to continue to support our customers through improved customer service, and will allow us to bring products to market more quickly than before,” states CDI Product Manager, Tom Behnke. “The overwhelming feedback from our existing customers has been extremely positive regarding the continuance of the product line.”

For CDI products other than the Wolverine, CIMTEC Automation will provide:
  • Presales support for new product purchases
  • Warranty support for the CDI installed base, excluding the Wolverine product line
  • Out of warranty repair support for the installed base of CDI products
  • Technical support for the CDI installed base
For the past 25 years, CIMTEC Automation has been a leading provider of factory automation products, services and engineered solutions, incorporating PLC products from GE IP, motion control products, vision products and software technology into unique solutions to meet diverse automation challenges. Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, CIMTEC also provides technical and field support services plus complete automation engineering. The company’s Qualitrol (http://www.qualitrol.com) division has provided repair services for most major PLC lines and offered remanufactured PLC parts for obsolete and discontinued products lines for the past 18 years. Combined with the expertise of our customer service and support staff, CIMTEC Automation offers today’s manufacturers a unique, one-stop automation solution.

Two former CDI employees who have joined CIMTEC will be the points of contact for product and repair inquiries. For Repair and RMA support, contact Tom Behnke (tbehnke@cimtec.com), and for Product inquiries, contact Ryan Nelson (rnelson@cimtec.com). Tom and Ryan can be reached toll-free (US and Canada) at 1-866-599-6512, or at 704-227-4600.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

New GP4000 Pro-face HMI


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Pro-Face America has launched the New GP-4000 series - an innovative new Operator Interface HMI offering extensive connectivity, energy efficient LCD with LED display, and comprehensive features with GP-Pro EX 3.01 HMI Development software.

Pro-Face GP-4000 Series uses the NEW GP-Pro EX v3 with extensive features, expanding functionality and connectivity for every HMI unit.

GP-4000 Series Operator Interface has Best in Class Connectivity, Powerful HMI Functionality and Full Compatibility with Pro-face GP-Pro EX 3.0 and GP-4000 products and projects.

Pro-face Operator Interface Series Overview:
     
  • Easy to Use: Operators can easily monitor conditions and the operating environment in real time using 3D real parts.

  • Saves Energy: Reduces on-site power consumption in a variety of ways including an on-board LED backlight in all models, and a dimmer setting used to decrease and eventually stand-by the display after being idle for a set period of time.

  • Quick On-site Recovery: Simply touch the alarm message to check the relevant data in chronological sequence.

  • Remote Monitoring: GP-Viewer EX software provides various remote monitoring functions, such as checking the screen of the GP located on a production site from a remote office.

  • Additional information on the GP-4000 series can be found on the Pro-face America website at www.profaceamerica.com/gp4000



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

GE-IP Releases Proficy Historian 4.5

The latest 4.5 release of Proficy Historian expands on the unparalleled power of our 4.x series Enterprise Historian platform with significant scalability, performance, and functionality improvements.  This release allows our customers to fundamentally change the way they use Historian to aggregate and accelerate information across their enterprises.

For customers new to the product, this is an ideal opportunity to take advantage of Proficy Historian as a foundation for operational excellence, and for our existing customers, a chance to upgrade their Historian implementations and take advantage of the powerful new features.  Start thinking about the expanded role Proficy Historian can play in improving your competitive advantage!

The following outlines the high level benefits of the latest version 4.0 release:

Major Scalability & Performance Enhancements

Proficy Historian scales to significant new levels, allowing customers to leverage data across their operations, both in plants or across global enterprises.  Across-board gains have been made in volume of information that can be collected per server, data throughput, and connectivity.

Expanded Functionality

New functionality required to deliver next-generation solutions in a wide range of operating environments, including condition-based collection, unsolicited tag compression timeout, and a new hybrid retrieval mode for enhanced data analysis.

Improved Compatibility & Integration

Proficy Historian empowers administrators to reduce operating costs, with flexibility & agility to support dynamically changing business conditions.  Key enhancements include a powerful new client access API, enhanced application examples,embedded applications support via Windows XPe, continued support for the latest Microsoft technologies, and full backward compatibility with 32-bit operating systems.

Ease of Use and Reduced Overall Cost of Ownership

Proficy Historian empowers administrators to reduce operating costs, with flexibility & agility to support dynamically changing business conditions.  Features such as enhanced archive management, improvements in system monitoring and management, and enhanced support for intermittent/low-bandwidth networks help our customers rapidly realize business benefit and sustain their advantage in a cost-efficient manner.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Migrating from older GE PLC’s

CIMTEC Automation  has been selling GE PLC’s since the mid-eighties introduction of the Series Six. Many of the PLC’s are still running factories today but there is an ever present fear that should they fail a replacement would not be easy to find. Many controls engineers also recognize that a proactive migration while the system is functioning would be less costly, less risky, and less stressful to all those involved.

While it can be easy to push the latest and greatest technology there can be roadblocks on the path to a newer control system. CIMTEC has developed and executed many migration projects using these steps to ensure a migration can be done with no surprises and for as low a cost as possible.
  1. Customer provides current program running in old system
  2. GE product specialist will review program to develop comprehensive proposal
  3. Upon acceptance of proposal migration begins and involves many steps:
    1. Hardware evaluation:
      1. What modules can stay as is?
      2. What modules require new firmware or chips?
      3. What modules need to be replaced?
    2. Program evaluation:
      1. How many rungs of logic are we dealing with?
      2. How many instructions won’t convert well?
      3. Are the rung comments in the right place?
      4. Do tag names follow current software rules/conventions or will they need to be manually changed?
      5. How complex will the I/O map change be?
      6. Should functions that are available now but were not historically be used to simplify logic?
      7. Are there portions of the program that should be removed entirely as they won’t be necessary?
      8. How much manual intervention will be required?
    3. Program conversion
    4. Proof read of converted program (3 hours to 3 weeks depending on length)
    5. Manual intervention of converted program
    6. Acquisition of proposed hardware
    7. Testing of program in proposed hardware

Delivery and installation of new hardware and converted program.

For more information please contact us

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Software Services - SCADA and HMI Systems, Cimplicity, iFix Configuration

We specialize in identifying customers' core business issues and designing data collection systems that allow them to create visibility into their processes so as to best manage and control their operations.

Information Systems Survey

An initial audit of all existing automation and information assets provides the starting point for any successful Software implementation. Coupled with interviews with key staff to assess business requirements, we deliver a report outlining current strengths in your data systems and identifying possible risks or areas for improvement, with a suggested path forward to optimize information effectiveness.
Data Integration

Accurate and timely information is key for making major decisions in a manufacturing environment. Data collected from plant floor controllers and processes are invaluable to the operation of any manufacturing facility. Our engineers are experts at:

  • Making disparate SCADA and data collection systems communicate.

  • Eliminating the 'pen and paper' logging of data from the plant floor.

  • Integrating plant systems to ERP and business systems.

  • Applying tools to analyze plant-floor data.


Our team of engineers is versed in applying many of the leading software tools in the industrial market, including:

  • GE Intelligent Platforms's Proficy Suite

    • Statisical Process Control (SPC)

    • Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

    • Plant Historian

    • Web Portal

    • Plant Apps and MES



  • Intellution iFix


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Proficy Cimplicity and Windows 7

Many of our customers have a corporate IT initiative to move to Windows 7.   In other cases they purchase new hardware and notice that Windows 7 is the only OS available.   Cimplicity version 8.1 provides full support for Windows 7.    Automatic configuration upgrades with Cimplicity are the best around.  We've converted version 3 to version 8.1 with no manual touch ups.

Don't get caught with an old system that is not easily replaceable due to hardware availability.  Older Cimplicity versions (4,5) typically run on Windows NT machines and versions 6 and 7 run on XP.   Both these platforms are hard to find these days, so in the case of a hardware failure, buying a new PC and simply re-installing existing software may not be an option.  The best option is to upgrade proactively now while the older system is still functioning and you can do a side by side migration.

Calculate Return on OEE Improvement

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)


Improving Production Performance

Manufacturing facility managers are always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their production lines and identify bottlenecks in their operations. One of the metrics that managers can use to characterize the performance of their organization is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Managers that examine data on their production performance in an efficient manner and can correlate events with causes in real time can gain more control over their operational procedures and ultimately increase the quality and performance of their facility.
What is Overall Equipment Effectiveness?

OEE is a factor that is used by production managers to evaluate performance and effectiveness of a process, whether that process takes place at a single workstation or across a complete factory. OEE takes in several individual measurable metrics and normalizes them in such a way that OEE can be compared to other production lines or even other industries. OEE is often used as a key performance indicator (KPI) for manufacturing operations, particularly those focused on lean manufacturing. OEE also allows companies to benchmark their individual manufacturing lines against other plants within their organization and across their industry.
How to Measure OEE

There are three basic metrics that are used to calculate OEE:

  • Availability - Availability is the percentage of time that a machine is available for operation. Availability is the same as “uptime”, and is calculated as a ratio of available time divided by schedule time.

  • Performance - Performance compares the operational speed of a machine to its designed speed. Performance is calculated by multiplying the number of parts produced by the ideal cycle time, then dividing by the available time.

  • Quality - Quality measures the percentage of quality or “good” parts out of the total part run. Quality is calculated by dividing the number of good parts created by the total number of parts created.


OEE is therefore Availability X Performance X Quality. So, if a machine has 95% Availability, 85% Performance, and 93% Quality, then OEE = 0.95 X 0.85 X 0.93 = 0.75, or 75%. Because it is nearly impossible to achieve a perfect OEE, as even small reductions are multiplied through the equation, a target OEE of 85% is a common goal for many manufacturing operations. However, many manufacturing operations are thought to have actual OEE levels of 40-50%.
Tools for Tracking OEE

While it is possible to track OEE through manual data recording and collection, it is far more efficient to automate this data collection. Manual data collection is more prone to operator error, so, OEE values calculated with manually collected data is less accurate than if it is calculated using data collected automatically. Manual data collection is also slow, and it takes time to gather and analyze hand-written or hand-entered data.

GE Intelligent Platforms's Intelligent Platforms' Proficy Plant Applications Efficiency is a tool that can help facility managers get a handle on their current OEE, and plan methods to improve OEE. Proficy Plant Applications Efficiency can automatically collect the data from each manufacturing line needed to calculate OEE in real time, so managers can monitor line performance from shift to shift, looking for disparities in OEE and implementing effective solutions. Proficy Efficiency allows manufacturing facilities to leverage their existing manufacturing and automation systems by connecting with many different kinds of applications.
Benefits of Tracking OEE

When a manufacturing facility deploys an OEE tracking system effectively, the facility can get a better handle on production and performance metrics. These metrics can help managers make faster and more informed decisions about optimizing manufacturing processes. Managers can track downtime, production levels, and waste, and can determine causes or effects of system events in real time, allowing them to respond faster, and in turn improve OEE. Performance can be compared shift by shift and hour by hour, or product to product.

If OEE can be improved, facilities can increase their profit while maintaining operational costs:

Profit = Plant Sales x Plant Gross Margin x % Increase in OEE

For example, consider a plant producing $10M in product sales per year with a plant gross margin of 50% and a plant OEE of 60%. If the plant can realize a 10% increase in OEE from efficiency software & focused performance improvement efforts, this would result in an increase in profits of $300,000.

By implementing an automated method for measuring OEE, such as GE Intelligent Platforms's Intelligent Platforms' Proficy Plant Applications Efficiency software, companies can identify and take action on negative factors such as equipment bottlenecks, unexpected downtime, and production losses caused by shortages in materials or resources. Manufacturers that identify these negative conditions and take action can increase equipment utilization rates, providing them with a distinct and sustainable advantage over their competitors.

 

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Proficy Historian 4.0

FEATURES

Easy Configuration and Administration
  • Simple configuration
  • True thin-client administration
  • Support for virtualization

Unparalleled, Enterprise-wide Performance
  • Sub-second data collection
  • Ultra-efficient data compression
  • Collect up to 2 Million data points per server
  • Manage up to 1000 collectors per server
  • Precise time stamp resolution

Open and Layered Compatibility
  • Wide range of collectors including OPC Alarms and Events
  • Highly compatible with 3rd partysolutions
  • Leverages 64-bit architectures,with full 32-bitcompatibility
  • Embedded applications support via Windows XPe

Standard Interfaces for Data Access
  • Open access for ERP and MES applications
  • Full featured SDK
  • OLE DB
  • User API
  • OPC Historical Data Access (HDA)

Highly Reliable System Architecture
  • Fault tolerant architecture
  • Support for Microsoft Cluster Server
  • Redundant data collectors
  • Supports multiple time zones and Daylight Savings Time

Advanced Data Management
  • Designed to help customers comply with FDA’s 21 CFR Part 11
  • Calculation and Server-to-Server Collector
  • Powerful data management and system optimization tools for Enterprise level administration

Wide Range of Performance and Execution Applications
  • Access to advanced visualization and powerful analytical tools
  • Wide range of Industry- and Application- specific solutions
  • Empower the enterprise through seamless integration with the full Proficy platform

CIMTEC Machine Vision Metrics Software



 CIMTEC's Machine Vision Metrics Software communicates with your machine vision stations via existing plant Ethernet network. It stores all inspection results and images created by each camera and makes data available to users anywhere in the plant with an easy to use web browser interface.

Vision Metrics delivers instant information:
  • Flexible reports based on time and camera
  • Easy histogram and pareto statistical analysis
  • Long term availability of image files


With Vision Metrics we must no longer treat vision systems as a real time sensor used only to control product routing. The data collected can be used as valuable inputs to a host of intelligent applications:
  • Interfacing into other plant information systems such as MES and ERP
  • Instant statistical analysis of inspection data
  • Archived visual confirmation of data quality

So ask yourself, are you using machine vision data to its maximum potential?
  • What is the reject rate at each vision station over the last month?
  • How does an upstream failure compare visually to a downstream inspection?
  • Are operators typing in data that is also being captured by a camera?

If you can't answer all of these questions with your current system, you can increase your operation's efficiency by deploying Cimtec's Machine Vision Metrics.