Data acquisition
CONNECTING LEGACY
EQUIPMENT
While manufacturers would love to have a 100 per cent modernised factory with all new bells and whistles, in reality, this is never going to be the case – it is still common to have decades- old equipment doing its part on the production line. Here Adnan Khan, business development manager at Beckhoff UK, explores how new and old equipment can work together seamlessly when industrial PCs (IPCs) come into the picture.
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n 2021, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) released its World Robot Report reporting the UK as the only G7 country to have a robot density below the world average. Whereas nearby countries, like Germany and Sweden, ranked in the top five automated countries. This difference in automation could be attributed to the UK's reliance on older systems, especially in manufacturing.
According to Intoware’s independent survey of 1,030
UK-based industrial firms, 74 per cent of manufacturing and engineering companies are still relying on legacy systems post-pandemic. This high percentile can be explained by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses, meaning they believe they cannot afford to invest in digitalising premises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
While this can make digitalising factories slightly more challenging, it is still easily achievable. Despite those who would say new and old technology cannot be blended, like day and night, these two opposites can work together harmoniously by retrofitting a few key components.
RIP AND REPLACE
New machines are equipped to communicate with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), so the quickest way of achieving a smart factory is to install an entirely new system, the rip-and-replace approach. This has obvious benefits, in terms of systems communications, high efficiency and synchronisation with emerging technologies. However, there are many disadvantages to this approach, such as initial cost, retraining and downtime required to replace the equipment. Manufacturers who do not have the
March 2023 Instrumentation Monthly
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