Honeywell launches first industrial cybersecurity center of excellence in the Middle East
Honeywell launched its first industrial cybersecurity center of excellence (COE) at its Middle East headquarters in Dubai. The new COE is a pioneering technology center with a safe off-process environment to test and demonstrate process control network vulnerabilities and threats, train customers with real-time attack simulations and provide advanced customer consultations.
This investment comes in support of regional government initiatives such as the Dubai Cyber Security Strategy, aiming to strengthen cybersecurity defenses amidst growing digital transformation across industries. The new center will support a rapidly developing Middle East cybersecurity market.
"This COE is the first of its kind dedicated to developing world-class industrial cybersecurity expertise for our customers in the region," said Jeff Zindel, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security. "It provides a safe, real-world environment to learn in, allowing us to innovate and augment industrial cybersecurity skills. The center is also a critical part of Honeywell’s network of global Cyber Security COEs dedicated to improving industrial cyber security for critical infrastructure, information technology and operational technology (IT/OT) convergence and digital transformation."
The center contains distributed control systems, a physical plant process and the latest industrial cybersecurity software and solutions. It includes data analytics and networking equipment capable of supporting unique training sessions, demonstrations, workshops, and cyber-attack simulations. The facility is led by a full-time operations team with deep industrial cybersecurity expertise and operational technology knowledge fundamental to help customers stay ahead of cyber threats.
The COE provides a hub in the region to collect customer feedback and collaborate with global research and development teams to help develop solutions for the region and global markets.
Visit Honeywell’s industrial cybersecurity solutions for more information.
The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum launches first business guide
The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum has launched the Open Process Automation Business Guide – Value Proposition and Business Case for the Open Process Automation Standard.
The publication, coming after the Forum officially launched in January 2017, details the value and business case for the development of the Open Process Automation Standard, and was written by principal authors in the Forum from ExxonMobil, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Merck, and Schneider Electric. Additional contributors are from Accenture, AspenTech, BASF, CMC Associates, Curtiss-Wright, DuPont, Enterprise Transformation Partners, Georgia Pacific, Koch Industries, Royal Dutch Shell and Siemens.
Aimed at helping industrial manufacturers increase productivity and customer satisfaction, the Forum will define standards for an open, interoperable, secure process automation architecture. The Business Guide expresses the motivation and vision for this architecture as a business imperative for both users and suppliers of industrial control systems.
In addition, it outlines a spectrum of business scenarios for the current state of industrial control system use and the future state where Open Process Automation conformant systems will be used, including in continuous process industries such as oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, food and beverage, mining and minerals, chemicals, and technology.
"This publication is a fundamental next step for us in driving the development of a framework and a ‘standard of standards’ for how process automation is achieved," said Ed Harrington, Director of The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum. "This initiative aims to deliver real-world benefits to a range of different vertical industries in response to the demand for standards, and we are excited to have built the business framework for success of both buyers and sellers in this area."
The Business Guide can be downloaded here.
CPI’s National Formulation Centre set to open in March
The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), the United Kingdom’s technology innovation provider for process manufacturing, will open its National Formulation Centre March 15, 2018. The aim of the national facility is to enable subject matter experts and academic partners to engage easily with multinational businesses to develop, prove and commercialize innovative products and processes in formulation science.
Formulation underpins many chemistry-enabled markets ranging from healthcare and pharmaceuticals, to oil and gas, and paints and lubricants.
Examples of complex formulated products include many everyday products that are vital to ensuring quality of life, such as foods, detergents, perfumes, cosmetics, paints, adhesives and lubricants. However, the manufacture of such products is complex with many challenges. The centre and its dedicated team of more than 50 scientists and engineers aims to assist in overcoming these formulation and production challenges to help companies to develop, prove, prototype and scale-up the next generation of formulated products.
Having broken ground in November 2016, the project is funded by the North East LEP as part of the North East Growth Deal from the U.K. government. The Local Growth Fund is supporting major capital investments to promote innovation, economic and skills infrastructure and sustainable transport across the North East LEP area.
ASTM International pharmaceutical committee approves freeze drying subcommittee
A new ASTM International subcommittee will focus on the process of lyophilization, often referred to as freeze-drying, in the pharmaceutical industry. The group (E55.05) will be part of the committee on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products (E55).
The Advanced Lyophilization Technology Hub (LyoHub), a group of manufacturers, researchers and others in the pharmaceutical and food processing industry, proposed the formation of the new subcommittee. The group aims to build on best practices related to lyophilization process instrumentation, equipment qualification and scale-up.
The subcommittee will develop practices and guides relevant to lyophilization of parenterals and other pharmaceutical and biological products. Standards developed by the subcommittee could include aspects of process and equipment design, operation and qualification, quality assessment, process understanding and control.
ASTM International announces first additive manufacturing proficiency testing program
ASTM International announced its first proficiency testing program in additive manufacturing. Proficiency testing programs allow labs to compare their performance with others, ultimately helping all participants improve their performance.
The additive-manufacturing powder-metallurgy proficiency testing program (AMPM) will help labs measure physical properties of powders used in 3D printing. AMPM is built on the globally recognized standards and test methods developed in recent years by ASTM International and its committee on additive manufacturing technologies.
Testing laboratories and research and development facilities that participate will be given metal powders from manufacturers to measure and analyze density, flow rate, particle size and other properties.
The ultimate goal of this program is to support the growing use of powder metallurgy, additive manufacturing and related industries by improving measuring techniques. More test methods will be added to the program over the next year to help capture additional metal-powder properties.
China adopts leading global device integration technology as national standard
FDT Group announced that a cooperative initiative has resulted in a national standard for device integration based on industry-leading FDT 2.0 technology. The initiative is undertaken by China’s National TC124 On Industrial Process Measurement, Control and Automation of SAC (TC124/SAC); Instrumentation Technology and Economy Institute, P.R. China (ITEI); China Instrument Manufacturer Association (CIMA); Southwest University; and the FDT Professional Committee.
The Chinese GB/T 29618-2017 Field Device Tool (FDT) Interface Specification incorporates the latest technology enhancements by the FDT Group, an international non-profit corporation dedicated to providing an open standard for industrial enterprise-wide network and asset integration. The updated standard was announced at a joint organizational meeting in November 2017 in Beijing, China.
FDT is transforming the way industrial automation architectures connect and communicate sensor to cloud. Ongoing advancement of this technology is leveraging major developments like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 to enable end users to realize the true potential of decentralization, interoperability and integration, as well as a unified view of all data and functions across process, factory and hybrid control applications.
The FDT 2.0 specification, employing a future-proof architecture based on Microsoft .NET technology, offers all the properties needed by modern software right up to web- and client/server-based systems. Release of the GB/T 29618-2017 standard incorporating FDT 2.0 will better guide the integration and application of various field buses and devices, and help promote the widespread implementation of standards-based automation solutions.
