Machine builders today have to meet the needs and demands of many diverse customers across the globe. And, since these customers usually prefer to use one specific industrial protocol, machine builders’ machines have to adapt accordingly. In order to make machine building easier, Belden’s Lumberg Automation brand developed the first multiprotocol I/O solution with M12 power (L-coded) connectors. In this blog post, I share my answers to a few questions about how Belden assisted one of its customers to easily meet global standards.

As you watch a Formula 1 car race around a track at speeds of more than 200 mph, have you ever considered who actually makes decisions about things like when to change a tire or pass another car?

Companies and countries around the world are competing to increase their market share in all manufacturing sectors. A key way to compete is to increase productivity, a measure of output compared to input, and it is improved through the use of digital technologies such as those of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

In Part 1 of this series I described how global competition and the IIoT are changing the industrial automation model. In the new model, the majority of the control function occurs at the field-level, a massive change that requires new kinds of field-level devices. The new devices will be “plug-and-produce,” that is, they are simply connected, turned on and presto! - they work. Many of them will also include programmable logic control features. These flexible, modular field-level devices will facilitate quick manufacturing changes, thereby getting products to market faster and cheaper. This is a key capability of the Smart Factory of the Future.