Adopting flexible production capabilities for manufacturing

By OEM Update Editorial November 19, 2019 3:16 pm IST

Our Pro2 series power supplies, a very unique product, exhibits the industry’s highest efficiency of 96 per cent with it.

Alok Kishore, CEO, WAGO Pvt Ltd in conversation with Liesha Tripathi, discusses about WAGO’s participation in Automation Expo 2019 and their various product profiles.

Please walk us through your participation at the Automation Expo 2019.
We are regular participants at the Automation Expo. One of the products that we launched globally has now been launched in India, our Pro2 series power supplies. It’s a very unique product for WAGO as we have the industry’s highest efficiency of 96 per cent with it. The new power supply is designed to let you get important operating status directly on site or view additional data with the help of configurable communication module making it IoT ready.

The manufacturing industry is confronted with new demands and challenges like simultaneous cost reduction and performance improvement. What kinds of solutions are being provided by WAGO for the same?
The challenges of manufacturing industry can be addressed with adopting flexible production capabilities. It is imperative for businesses to constantly collect, analyse and visualise plant and business data through connected systems. WAGO enables networked and intelligent production processes through its flexible and durable automation solutions reliably transferring machine data from the field level for use by the cloud or an MES without errors. Basis this real-time data, decisions regarding energy management and other performance improvement can be evaluated and subsequently implemented. Existing systems can also be retrofitted conveniently as well with WAGO systems. Furthermore, WAGO systems are compatible with various interfaces and fieldbuses, such as CANopen, PROFIBUS, DeviceNet and MODBUS, EtherNet and ProfiNet among others, making WAGO systems open and flexible.

Hackers are constantly challenging the security aspects of manufacturing industry, especially the top-notch global ones. Is it possible to protect themselves 100 per cent from cyber attacks?
For many years, machine data was only evaluated and used in the manufacturing facility in which it was generated. Thus, the risk of unauthorized data access was relatively low. Whereas now Industry 4.0 demands a design that encompasses the entire corporation.The high degree of data networking in all sectors of production – from design and engineering, to production, up to life cycle maintenance that too travelling on third party cloud is vulnerable to gaps allowing cyber hacks.

I don’t think it will be logical to say that it can be 100 per cent protected from cyber attacks because the hackers too are innovative and they keep on finding new ways to do what they are doing. So, since they come up with new ways very now and then, it becomes difficult for manufactures to understand a pattern or be able to break that pattern. But we do take enough care for our products. We also displayed our cyber security product at the Automation Expo.WAGO’s PFC100 and PFC200 Controllers encrypt information directly in the controller using SSL/TLS 1.2 and subsequently transmit the data to the cloud via IPsec or OpenVPN. This ensures that machine data is optimally protected against unauthorised access.

What is WAGO’s contribution towards India’s railway infrastructure?
Railways is the most important industry for WAGO. Our first products that were sold in India were mostly for the railway industry. Our interconnection range of products which is wiring termination is focused majorly towards the railway industry. We also have spring connection technology which is very different from screws which available in India with most of manufacturers. The inherent advantage of spring is that it is vibration proofand gas tight that makes it a good product for any industry which has got vibration like the railway industry.

On automation side, WAGO has bouquet of solutions including point operating systems, signaling, control panels, space-limited applications in cabs and doors, as well as installs for lighting and air-conditioning technology to drives and converters, switch and fuse panels, battery chargers, toilets and junction boxes that require durability.