Automation congress in Europe

ISA European office and her Technology Partners recently organised a two-day congress on the exhibition floor of the fair Industry and Automation. This ISA Congress was held on the 20th and 21th of October in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and headquarters of the European Commision of the European Union. The seminar program focused on the international automation standards such as ISA-88, ISA-95 and ISA-100 and was subtitled, "My name is ISA!"

It was directed at automation professionals who would like to get in touch with their colleagues to exchange experiences and information; who like to stay up-to-date about their field by books, standards or other interesting information. "Then," said the pre event publicity, "we are destined for each other!"

Pieter van der Klooster, Director, of the recently configured ISA European Office was the host at this event. The programme comprised a number of presentations some of which are outlined below.

Process Control Security & Infrastructure
Ard Roelvink of Magion addressed this topic. Strict separation of systems and networks between Process and Office environment have disappeared. In today's world of control & automation connectivity and Integration are at the centre. This has an impact on the infrastructure of your process control. Security goes beyond technical solutions alone. Authorities, suppliers and end users regularly come together nowadays to talk about how to deal with security within industrial environments.


Standard doesn't fit?
"Why standards?", "Why doesn't it fit?", "Why so much trouble?", "What is the result?", "Technology versus standards?", "What does work?". These are the questions addressed by Peter Roeterdink of Arges in this stimulating presentation.

Is your process protected against cybercrime?
Computer systems attract hacking and viruses. This is been widely known by now. But process control systems are also targets has only recently become generally known. What about your process control? Are you sufficiently protected against external influences or even from the inside? These were questions posed by ISA trainer Arjan Meijer.

Banish the wires with ISA-100
Another ISA trainer Bas van de Kerkhof spoke about wireless. The brand new ISA-100 standard is all about wireless communications in the industrial automation. He talked about the opportunities and risks of this standard.

Manufacturing Operations Platform - Easy95
Manufacturing companies are struggling for more than 20-years to align their manufacturing processes with their business needs. according to Marc Blekkink, Managing Director of Ninety-Five. A lot of optimisation has been accomplished in process control and this is also the case in ERP deployment, but they are disconnected. In today's economy manufacturing companies are under a lot of pressure to respond quickly and efficiently within their supply chains. At the same time we see important developments in the IT-landscape that are not deployed by manufacturing. Learn in this reading how Easy95 (ISA95) can solve this problem.
Then Bas Van de Kerkhof then went through the implementation of the ISA95 standard, in a bicycle factory. It could hardly get more practical then this in Bennelux, the home of the bicycle!
(Note for monoglot English speakers ISA is generally pronounced EEZAH in continental Europe, hence Easy95!)

Vincent Waganaar of Raster Products gave a presentation on Profibus diagnostics: New generation diagnostic tools.