Retrospective Industrial Ethernet event 2023

The Industrial Ethernet event, this time held in the Basilica in Veenendaal, attracted 149 visitors. During the day, the latest network technologies that form the basis of Industry 4.0 were discussed. Specific use cases received extra attention.

Jacco Opmeer, working as Principal Automation Engineer at Shell Global Solutions, discussed the challenges the process industry faces on the road to the factory of the future. Which solutions do you choose? And where are the opportunities?

One of the main topics at the Industrial Ethernet event was Single Pair Ethernet. This new network technology offers major advantages for the industry. Ruud van den Brink (TE Connectivity), among others, discussed the current state of affairs surrounding SPE, with attention also paid to new SPE-compatible products that are coming onto the market.

Simon Seereiner (Weidmüller) in turn gave some practical examples of SPE and discussed a number of standards in this key technology for Industry 4.0. Marco Teunizen from JUMO demonstrated SPE technology that is used to visualize data from digital temperature, humidity and Co² sensor in the cloud via the MQTT protocol.

Edge computing

Attention was also paid to edge computing on Tuesday. Stephen Mooney from Advantech addressed this topic, where edge computing may be the missing piece of the puzzle. Bart Pape (Helmholz Benelux) discussed how an edge gateway can connect the OT environment with the IT side.

Clement Jense and Joost van der Nat (Procentec) discussed a practical example in which a malfunction at a car manufacturer served as a case. How can you resolve valuable downtime as quickly as possible for such a large customer? The two mainly pointed to the right tooling.

The closing lecture by Eildert van Dijken (Strict) dealt with 5G. In his view, this technology is more reliable than WiFi in industrial processes. He previously discussed with FHI about how the industry is adapting 5G at lightning speed, especially in Germany.

The event in Veenendaal ended with a traditional drink. With various technological advances in the field of industrially applied Ethernet, there will be plenty of discussion material for next year.