Emerson switching things up for Hannover Messe 2024

Emerson is changing some things up for this year’s Hannover Messe trade fair, scheduled for April 22-26 in northern Germany. The engineering and automation company is moving to Hall 11, known as the Automation, Motion & Drives area, to better represent its vast product and solution range.

Last year, Emerson invited attendees to see how its discrete automation solutions worked from the factory floor to the cloud. And, according to Ronai Ayhan, Manager Global Public Relations, Discrete Automation, this year, the company is taking the next step and showing engineers how that process is working out, with customer stories exploring how their manufacturing processes have improved.

Additionally, there will be a focus on Emerson’s newest acquisitions from National Instruments to Afag Holding AG, known for its line of electric actuators. The company is known for acquiring many industry leaders, including ASVO, Aventics, Branson, CoreTigo, ovicon, PACEdge, and PACSystems. The company has been aggressive in expanding its reach, and when they don’t have expertise in an area, they aren’t afraid to acquire that expertise to round out product offerings.

The company also announced in a press release last week details on its new PACSystems IPC 2010 Compact Industrial PC (IPC), described as a rugged industrial computer for a range of machine and discrete part manufacturing automation applications. It is designed to serve manufacturing sites and OEM machine builders who need a ruggedized, compact, durable IPC to cost-effectively support the IIoT as well as digital transformation initiatives.

Emerson said the IPC 2010 addresses pre-loads the PACEdge industrial edge platform and elements of Movicon.NExT SCADA software, so users can run applications quickly using browser-based configurations. Provisions are included for keeping the software platform current and passively maintained — minimizing user effort, while maximizing reliability.

Running an industrial version of Linux and including serial and Ethernet connectivity, the IPC 2010 can be used as a communications gateway and simultaneously or separately as an edge computing device. Users can implement the IPC 2010 as a flexible protocol converter — and for many other computing functions — in IIoT, edge, OT/IT convergence, HMI visualization, SCADA connectivity, and digital transformation roles.

The hardware and software are designed to be adaptable, universal, and scalable, providing a standardized and unified user experience supported by the company’s lifecycle services. The IPC 2010 features tough packaging and a wide operating temperature range with a low power consumption of just 4 W.

“Many customers undergoing a digital transformation want to start small and earn trust as they seek out value from edge-enabled applications,” said William Paczkowski, product manager for the IPC 2010 for Emerson’s discrete automation business. “The IPC 2010 is specifically designed as a pre-packaged and economical solution so they can get running quickly and cost effectively.”

The company is already building the IPC 2010 into a range of larger offerings for leak detection, compressed air monitoring, batching systems, cloud enablement services, and other packaged solutions.