Doors open on 19th annual automation event #AutoFair

More than 11,000 manufacturing business leaders, industry analysts and technology and service providers from around the globe are gathering today in Orlando, Fla., at the Orange County Convention Center where Rockwell Automation is hosting its 19th annual Automation Fair event #AutoFair.

The Automation Fair event brings together Rockwell Automation and its global network of partners to help attendees learn about the newest automated manufacturing technologies and solutions. The two-day event, held annually in different cities throughout the country, features customer training sessions, seminars and an exhibit floor populated with the latest products and solutions from Rockwell Automation and its partners.

The event showcases solutions geared toward smart, safe and sustainable manufacturing, emphasizing plantwide optimization, sustainable production and machine builder performance,” said Keith Nosbusch, chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation. “During the next two days, experienced professionals will share their familiarity with optimizing operations, improving productivity, increasing throughput, and meeting quality and regulatory requirements.”

At the event, Rockwell Automation will announce several new offerings, including updates to its Integrated Architecture platform, FactoryTalk suite, PlantPAx Process Automation System and safety solutions, as well as dozens of other new products to help companies optimize their plants, improve performance of their

Updates to the Integrated Architecture platform – Rockwell Automation is focusing on the scale and modularization of its Integrated Architecture to help deliver multi-disciplined control and high performance for small to large systems. The new ControlLogix 5573 and 5575 programmable automation controllers simplify the synchronization of complex motion applications, with the ability to handle as many as 100 axes. For applications with less than 200 I/O points and a lower axes count, Rockwell Automation is introducing additional controllers in the Allen-Bradley CompactLogix form factor. The new additions leverage the EtherNet/IP network, helping manufacturers streamline control and information flow to achieve plantwide optimization.

Advancements to its visualization portfolio – The company is releasing new versions of its visualization and information software to speed users’ access to critical real-time and historical production data. The latest version of the Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus human-machine interface includes increased memory and the addition of several pre-installed software applications running on the Windows CE 6.0 operating system. The company also is releasing new versions of FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition and FactoryTalk View Supervisory Edition to help manufacturers turn real-time data into information that’s visible, useful and actionable across the organization.

Latest generation of the PlantPAx Process Automation System – The PlantPAx System Release 2.0 incorporates new features for high availability, device integration and asset management, design productivity, batch and sequencing control, and operations productivity. This includes an expanded high availability offering that helps manufacturers achieve end-to-end fault tolerance in critical control applications. Rockwell Automation also is announcing ten VMware-ready software products, which will help manufacturers leverage the benefits of virtualization. 

New family of safety relays – The new family of Allen-Bradley Guardmaster safety relays are available for machine builders and end users seeking to simplify safety-relay selection and reduce component inventory and lifecycle costs. Designed to meet new global functional safety standards, such as EN ISO 13849-1, the new line of safety relays includes seven basic units capable of supporting a broad range of safety devices in a variety of applications, including single and multi-zone configurations.

The Automation Fair event continues today and tomorrow with hands-on labs, workshops, technical sessions and more than 100 exhibitors, . Industry forums will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn from specialists and customers about energy and environment, global machine builders, life sciences, oil and gas, pulp and paper, and water wastewater.

The week’s events also included the company’s annual Manufacturing Perspectives global media forum. Industry experts and manufacturers spoke about current industry trends related to plantwide optimization, process automation, power and energy management, and original equipment manufacturer globalization and collaboration. The company also hosted its annual Safety Automation Forum and  Process Solutions User Group (PSUG), where the latest trends in safety and process automation were explored.