Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, today announced that its presence at this year’s Hannover Messe will include a demonstration of a new separator technology from GEA on the Rittal and Eplan stand – E06 in Hall 11.
Designed for craft breweries and cider producers, the new skid uses GEA X Control, a standardized next-generation control system for centrifuges developed by GEA with help from Rockwell Automation specialists from Germany, India, and the USA. The solution includes Rockwell’s FactoryTalk® Optix™ software, a new cloud-based design suite that not only enhances HMI and data visualization but also creates and strengthens capabilities in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), edge computing, and data management.
Eplan’s software solutions were used to create the separator’s control system as a digital twin, which is connected to the controller and Rockwell Automation’s Studio 5000® design software. Using Eplan’s augmented reality-based eViewAR, the project can be viewed in operation directly at the control cabinet, even with the door closed, for engineering and service visibility and interactions. Rittal also supplied enclosure system solutions to the project, all of which are seamlessly integrated into the digital twin.
“We are delighted to have GEA at our side as a strong and practical OEM partner, with outstanding application expertise,” says Vincenzo Monaco, director of sales, Germany, Rockwell Automation. “Our shared goal is to elevate automation, regardless of the plant size, and to provide competitive advantages for our customers.”
“This project showcases how a digital transformation gives you so many additional benefits,” explains Sean Mulherrin, product manager at Eplan. “Not only can you access digitalized data more quickly, but this data can be fed to and leveraged by downstream applications, such as wiring and building the control cabinet, visualizing the processes, or programing your machine.”
“Plug and play interconnectivity and the module type packaging approach offered by the Rockwell solutions makes our lives as engineers so much easier and faster,” adds Patrick Eickhoff, head of software development at GEA. “Not only can we get to market faster, but our plug-and-produce technologies mean our customers can get to value faster, too. The smart technology also allows us to leverage AI, to get our engineers and customers up to speed much quicker on the latest technology.”
Visitors interested in seeing the process demonstration and exploring the wide-ranging benefits of Rockwell Automation’s technologies and those of its extensive PartnerNetwork™ ecosystem can get a free ticket to the Hannover Messe, here.
GEA, Eplan and Rittal are members of Rockwell Automation’s PartnerNetwork™ ecosystem. GEA as a gold-level OEM and Eplan and Rittal as technology partners. Rittal has recently expanded its partnership with Rockwell into North and Latin America, through the Global Premium element of the Technology Partner Program.
