Category Archives: Product Spotlight

The world of transportation infrastructure

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Written by Nigel Dawbarn, Market Segment Manager- Industry Management & Automation

Automation in transport Infrastructure can cover a wide range of applications and requirements. At Phoenix Contact, we have the experience and capability in these areas to help support projects within the following fields:

  • Tunnels
  • Street lighting
  • Moveable bridges

We have also developed some special products for the control of waterways including robust LED signal lights specially tailored for marine applications!

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Things do go wrong

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Written by Duncan Nicol, Market Segment Manager- Device Connections

SKEDDImagine a food processing production line where freshly prepared ingredients are rushing down the line being prepared for tomorrow’s ready meal. This is a time critical process where a line failure can result in the loss of valuable produce and a missed delivery deadline. A stopped production line costs money, simple as that, and so when designing the electronics used to run production lines, reliability is a key requirement.

Of course, these days with automated assembly and test, electronic devices are significantly more reliable than they were a few years ago but despite this, things occasionally do still go wrong.

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Do you have Interbus legacy and obsolescence concerns?

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Written by Tony Deane, CST Technical Manager

Since 1987, Interbus has been, and still is, a reliable and robust network that continues to provide solid fieldbus solutions throughout industry across the wide spectrum of the automation landscape from the food industry through to printing and automotive.

Proxy for PROFINET-RTMany companies still rely on this enduring backbone to run their automation processes and shop floor infrastructure. However, with the move towards Industry 4.0 and The Internet of Things, it is accepted that Ethernet based networks are now the only way forward.

But what about the perfectly sound Interbus infrastructure in place already?  Thousands of sites across the world cannot be expected to remove a perfectly functioning network just for the sake of it!

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Phoenix Contact and the world of water

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Written by Nigel Dawbarn, Market Segment Manager- Industry Management & Automation

Whether you are in need of Clean Water,  Wastewater solutions or products to help you complete your own system or solution, please take a couple of minutes to review the vast array of ideas from Phoenix Contact.

If you take a look at the clean water side, consider the following applications:

  • Biological Treatment
  • Flow Control
  • Mechanical preliminary treatment
  • Secondary treatment
  • Sludge treatment

Pumping stations

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Transform the look of your cabinet

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Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation

Happy New Year to you. I trust you all had a lovely mince pie, mulled wine, pigs-in-blanket and chocolate laden Christmas… I know I certainly did, well that’s what my bathroom scales tell me anyway.

Thermomark PrimeSo I find myself sitting here again with the task of keeping you enthralled with a blog about marking. The bad news for you is I have a habit of being quite boring, the good news is that these blogs are edited. With that said though I have a cracking bit of kit to tell you about.

For 4 years I’ve been Product Manager for marking systems and tools. Most of the time when requested to visit a customer who wants to look at a new marking system it’s because they either:

  • need to upgrade from the competitor printer they have been using.
  • they want a more cost effective package.
  • they’ve seen a working partner using one of our systems and liked it.

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Heavycon RJ45 module selection guide

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Written by Scott Mulholland, Product Manager- Industrial Components

Our new Heavycon Modular system gives you the option of selecting RJ45 modules to fit into the modular frames. This step by step guide seeks to ensure that you select and order the correct modules, adapters and patch cords for your modular connections solution.

RJ45 ‘Gender Changer’ module – for use with all our RJ45 modules, and for use with all Patch Cable brands.  Part number:  1419886  HC-M-RJ45-08-GC-F/F.

Gender changer module

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Merry Christmas! A look back at 2016…

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Written by Rachel Boyd, E-marketing Specialist

Wow, can it really be that we’ve almost reached the end of 2016 already? I hope that you have enjoyed the team’s blog posts this year, but if there are any that you have missed, I have put together a few highlights for you to look back on.  So grab a cup of tea and ease yourself into the festive season…

Beware of cyber attacks
Safe and Secure workshopsGareth is the newest member of our blogging team. He is our cyber security specialist, and blogs about the growing awareness of industrial network security. This blog from March really shows that industrial security should be at the top of your list.  If you want to know more, join us at one of our Safe & Secure workshops next year where Gareth demonstrates just how easy it can be for hackers to gain access to your networks.

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Configurable Safety

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Written by Andy Maskell, Product Manager- Safety, I/O & Networks

As machines become more complex, so does the safety required to protect personnel and keep machines running as they were intended.  The implementation of safety should not restrict the functionality of the machine, but should enhance it. Using fixed logic safety devices greatly reduces the opportunity to do just that.

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RPI- BC: What will you do with yours?

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Written by Duncan Nicol, Market Segment Manager- Device Connections

Raspberry Pi HousingThe other week I went to visit the Abraham Darby Academy Raspberry Pi Robot Club which is not far from our UK headquarters in Telford. The club has been set up by their ICT Fellow Kevin Brace to build projects using the Raspberry Pi single board computer, and Phoenix Contact is proud to sponsor the club by donating some RPI-BC enclosure kits and provide an insight into our world of engineering.

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When is a PLC not a PLC?…

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Written by Gareth Chamberlain, Network and Cyber Security Specialist

…when it’s a Phoenix Contact ILC.

ILC 100 classToday, the need for visibility into process data by senior management is not a desired feature, it is a requirement.

By having this functionality, any deviation from set objectives for business performance can be addressed in a timely manner. This way, performance can be kept at optimum levels at all times and continuous improvements can be made to the manufacturing process.

The key to becoming more efficient is to obtain real time data from the manufacturing process as it occurs and, as quickly as possible, enter this information into a relational database.

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