Industrial Automation, Monitoring and Control: Power and Timing Solutions in Action

Learn the Role of Frequency and Power Management for Essential Industrial Applications

We are all witnesses to monumental changes in the global economy. These changes are the result of one primary cause: technological advancement. The birth of new inventions that allow for smarter, more efficient production and distribution of goods and services across the world have only created an even greater appetite for progress.

Now in a fifth wave of industrial revolution, we watch as new technologies stretch far beyond the imaginations of Ford and Rockefeller. However, these exponential increases pose challenges for today’s engineers. They require immediate access to high-performing electronic solutions when designing for contemporary industrial applications in these major markets:

• Manufacturing
• Utilities and energy
• Renewable energy
• Transportation and logistics
• Agriculture

In each of these market segments, industrial use cases require effective solutions to keep processes running accurately, efficiently and on-budget. Three key functionalities characterize these solutions:

• Automation
• Monitoring
• Control

Industrial applications depend on these three functionalities, and each demands sophisticated electronic engineering to succeed.

The High-Tech Demands of Core Industrial Applications

Industrial applications’ core market segments all require advanced automation, monitoring and control functionality to play their part in the processes that help meet an industrial business’s goals at scale.

These processes include:

• Performance monitoring.
• Robotics.
• Communication.
• Security.
• Safety.
• Remote sensing.
• Utilities and meter reading.
• Facility infrastructure controls.
• Energy storage.
• And more.

The following examples from two major industrial segments illustrate the importance of automation, monitoring and control to ensure the aforementioned processes succeed.

1. Factory manufacturing:
   • Automation is required for assembly line machines, fabrication robotics, packaging and other processes to provide seamless, consistent operations that are optimized for maximum efficiency.
   • Factories use Internet of Things (IoT) devices and machine learning (ML) sensors to monitor products for quality control, product integrity, safety, mean time to failure (MTTF) algorithmic predictions and more.
   • Factory processes rely on programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems (DCS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) for the operation of factory processes, real-time performance and safety monitoring.
2. Agriculture:
   • Automated planting and harvest processes create efficiencies that lead to larger yields, lower costs and faster rates of production.
   • Today’s farming requires environmental and crop monitoring through IoT applications and analytics software to make decisions that optimize yields and effectively utilize resources.
   • Control functionality is also a requirement for modern agricultural equipment, including irrigation, planting and harvesting machinery, drones and more.

In these and all industrial market segments, specific electronic components stand out for their significant role in ensuring automation, monitoring and control applications deliver desirable results: power inductors, real time clocks (RTCs), crystal tuning forks and quartz crystal oscillators.

Timing Solutions and Power Inductors Are Central to Industrial Applications

The essential nature of electronic frequency and power management for today’s advanced technologies cannot be overstated. In the industrial market, they are vital to the functionality of advanced automation, monitoring and control applications.

Crystal oscillators play several roles, including:

• Coordinating and synchronizing automated tasks.
• Capturing measurements and data points.
• Executing programs with precision.
• Transmitting real-time monitoring data.

Power inductors are also highly versatile components, offering:

• Power conversion.
• Voltage regulation.
• Unwanted signal filtering.
• Noise suppression.

Real time clocks provide:

• Background time-keeping.
• Time stamping.
• Command delivery.

How to Find High-Quality Power and Timing Solutions for Industrial Application Designs

Although the use of power inductors, RTCs, quartz crystals (including quartz tuning forks) and other quartz oscillators is widespread throughout the industrial market’s many segments, not all electronic component manufacturers are of equal quality.

The power to find a leading component manufacturer and select the best-performing product for industrial applications is in your hands. Ask these questions when selecting a manufacturer of real time clocks, crystal tuning forks and other products for your circuit board designs:

1. Does this electronics manufacturer build specifically for industrial applications, including manufacturing, transportation, construction, energy, agriculture and more?
2. Do they build a variety of components, including crystal oscillators and RTCs?
3. Do they offer a line of products that meets the performance requirements for advanced automation, monitoring and control technology, including ML and IoT?
4. Will they offer comprehensive engineering support throughout the design process, including prototyping, testing, board placement recommendations and other engineering needs as necessary?

Not all timing and power management manufacturers can answer these questions affirmatively, but your applications depend on them. Discover a signature line of power and frequency solutions from ECS Inc., designed for today’s and tomorrow’s industrial products.