Historical information is used by the Automation Industry to improve process throughput, manage assets, and report to regulatory authorities. Therefore, access to this information is critical. Both Operations and Engineering teams require solutions that can be located close to the data source, are capable of storing data at high speeds, and have the flexibility that teams need to efficiently respond to the requirements of the manufacturing line, drilling rig, test laboratory, pump station, or other industrial environment. Kepware Technologies' Local Historian Plug-In for KEPServerEX is a flexible, easy to use, and cost-effective solution that provides industry-leading trending, reporting, and analytics tools with access to historical data using OPC Historical Data Access (HDA).

A Local Historian can supplement the existing Enterprise Historian model used in most large-scale industrial environments like Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, and Utilities. Although the Enterprise Historian will continue to have a place in large companies as the final perpetual archive of critical information, many organizations also have a need for a smaller, more flexible historian application that is easy to configure and provides open access to third-party analysis and reporting tools at the point of collection.

Kepware's Local Historian Plug-In leverages the KEPServerEX communications platform to transport information to its high-speed datastore. The Local Historian provides historical information to custom or off-the-shelf OPC HDA-compliant client applications for data visualization, reporting, and analytics. Because the Local Historian's design decouples data storage and visualization, users can choose the visualization or reporting solution that best meets their unique needs.

Kepware has tested the plug-in with multiple third-party trending and reporting products to validate its OPC HDA implementation and ensure a seamless user experience. One of the reporting products with which Kepware has completed testing includes XLReporter from SyTech.

"Kepware's Local Historian is a robust historian backed by Kepware's long experience in the automation field," said Peter Kaprielian, CTO, SyTech. "It has been fully tested with XLReporter and both products work seamlessly together. We, along with Kepware, are committed to providing high-quality support for our products."

The Local Historian Plug-In supports high-speed logging to 10 milliseconds and tiered licensing for up to ten thousand tags. Open standards allow locally-stored data to be accessed from multiple clients with no additional cost per client connection.

Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, today announced the release of KEPServerEX version 5.16. The release features the new Industrial Data Forwarder (IDF) for Splunk Plug-In, Local Historian Plug-In, and IEC 60870-5 Suite that expand Kepware’s offerings for the Power, Manufacturing, and Oil & Gas industries.

KEPServerEX V5.16 advances Big Data analytics and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with the new IDF for Splunk Plug-In. Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK) software and cloud services allow organizations to search, monitor, analyze, and visualize machine-generated big data from websites, applications, servers, networks, sensors, and mobile devices. Kepware’s plug-in leverages the 150+ communication drivers available with KEPServerEX to seamlessly stream real-time industrial sensor and machine data directly into the Splunk software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence. Splunk users can now easily mine industrial data to improve operations, accelerate troubleshooting, perform preventative maintenance, and improve productivity.

Storing industrial automation data for on-site and future analysis is critical, but can be a challenge for many organizations. Available now with KEPServerEX V5.16, the Local Historian Plug-In captures historical information at the point of collection in an easy to configure, flexible, open, and cost-effective solution. It enables data collection, storage, and access at the data source to prevent data loss and improve operational efficiency.

Furthermore, KEPServerEX V5.16 introduces significant advancements to the Power Suite. The new IEC 60870-5-101 and IEC 60870-5-104 drivers bring increased speed and connectivity to IEC 60870-5 devices in electrical substations that include RTUs, IEDs, controllers, and gateways. The IEC 60870-5 drivers work in conjunction with KEPServerEX to provide connectivity and communications with HMI, SCADA, and Historian client applications. The new drivers are expected to have the greatest impact in Europe and Asia where IEC 60870-5-101 and EIC60870-5-104 are the primary substation automation protocols.

"KEPServerEX V5.16 is one of our most significant releases," said Tony Paine, CEO, Kepware. "Our new products enable existing customers to meet the need for greater operational efficiency—and they also open doors to new industries that are ready to leverage industrial data. Operations Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) are merging together to enable wider accessibility and greater integration of information. We believe it's a trend that will continue."

Kepware also recently released enhancements to LinkMaster and RedundancyMaster, allowing users to easily exchange data between OPC DA servers and configure multiple OPC servers into redundant pairs, respectively.

Advantech’s new 12.1” and 15” TPC-1251T/1551T touch panel computers are the latest of their type to use the Intel® Atom™ E3827 1.75 GHz Processor, and to feature the much heralded iDoor Technology, a truly flat screen and a multitude of I/O ports whilst being able to operate in a wide range of temperatures..

The Intel® Atom™ E3827 1.75 GHz Processor is the latest CPU from internationally renowned processor manufacturer and features an enhanced performance and provides a smooth operating experience in a wide array of industries.

The truly flat and seamless design of the TPC-1251T/1551T provides easier maintenance and avoids mis-touches by providing IP66 protection against dust and water which can affect the use of the touch panel. This feature expands the environments which the TPC-51T series can now work in.

Advantech’s iDoor technology is a new modular way of adding versatile functionality to give system integrators the flexibility to choose the functions that they need without purchasing devices that have excess costs and functions that they’ll never use. With Isolated DI/O ports, Power over Ethernet, Profibus and CANOpen modules iDoor Technology gives a cost efficient solution to increase the functionality of the TPC-51T series.

Advantech’s TPC range is renowned for its multitudeof I/O ports and expandability and the TPC-51T series is no exception since it has: two USB 3.0 ports for Power over Ethernet and other high speed devices; a PCI slot for adding functions; a HDMI port for an additional display; the iDoor Technology slot uses a mini PCIe connector and if not being used for iDoor modules it can be used for adding additional cards such as Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS. If further I/O ports and storage are required the TPC-1251T-EHKE expansion kit provides additional storage for hard disks/solid state disk and iDoor modules.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it has greatly enhanced the FieldMate™ Versatile Device Management Wizard and will release R3.01 on October 17. FieldMate is a versatile software program for configuring, adjusting, and managing a wide variety of field devices used in factories and other production sites. Starting today, a trial version of R3.01 will be available on Yokogawa's website.

In addition to the device configuration, adjustment, and management functionality provided in earlier FieldMate releases, FieldMate R3.01 comes with new functions that facilitate the management of memos, photos, and videos as well as the automatic generation of reports, making it ideal for routine maintenance tasks.

Digital communications standards are playing an increasingly important role in communications between central control systems and field devices such as transmitters and analyzers. However, as the devices provided by different vendors rely on a variety of digital communications standards, there is a need for a versatile configuration, adjustment, and management tool that can support all the major industry-standard communications protocols. The FieldMate PC software has been developed to meet this very need.

Highly portable devices such as tablets and notebook PCs are now available that facilitate maintenance work in the field. To facilitate such routine tasks as device patrol and maintenance, this new release of the FieldMate PC-based software comes with a variety of new functions.