Resources
Browse our ever-expanding library of useful articles, case studies, videos, webinars, and more.
Featured
Enhancing the Student Learning Experience Via Ignition Software
Dr. Saeed Farahani, an Assistant Professor of Smart and Hybrid Manufacturing Systems at Clemson University, provided a dynamic real-world learning experience that reinforces engineering theory for automotive and mechanical engineering students with a semester-long class project utilizing Inductive Automation’s Ignition software platform.
8 min read
See the New Ignition Data Center Demo App
Made specifically for the Data Center industry, the new demo app is a highly realistic, detailed view of what a real Ignition project for data centers looks like.
1 min read
Hosted/Multi-tenant Ignition Cloud Edition Guidance
Inductive Automation is proud to permit the licensing use of hosted and multi-tenant applications at no additional cost to the licensee when using Ignition Cloud Edition. Hosting enables flexible resource sharing and “pay as you go” service models. Multi-tenancy can enable the broad delivery of custom Ignition applications as a service. This change enables new service provider roles with the potential to benefit the greater Ignition community. However, these models inherently introduce risk to stakeholders.
13 min read
New Possibilities at the Edge
As industrial organizations do more at the edge of the network, important new questions are arising. What is the relationship between edge systems and centralized systems? What can you do at the edge that you couldn’t do before? How can you use the edge with the cloud effectively?
47 min video
What Is The Ignition Effect?
"The Ignition Effect” is not just about technology, but how Ignition creates a ripple effect that reshapes systems and sparks solutions. This series offers a panoramic view of the transformative power of Ignition told by the people who use it every day. Watch these videos to witness the impact Ignition has on its community and explore what it can do for you!
7 min video
Data Centers: How DCIM Improves Your Daily Operations
In this webinar, experts from Inductive Automation and ATS Global will look at those common requirements and present how an open data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solution based on Ignition can help you to comply, and maybe even change the public opinion about Data Centers in the long term. We’ll also present helpful new Ignition resources for data centers.
Hosted/Multi-tenant Ignition Cloud Edition Guidance
Inductive Automation is proud to permit the licensing use of hosted and multi-tenant applications at no additional cost to the licensee when using Ignition Cloud Edition. Hosting enables flexible resource sharing and “pay as you go” service models. Multi-tenancy can enable the broad delivery of custom Ignition applications as a service. This change enables new service provider roles with the potential to benefit the greater Ignition community. However, these models inherently introduce risk to stakeholders.
13 min read
Main Keynote: Elevating Automation
Let's kick off the 2023 Ignition Community Conference on a high note. Join Inductive Automation's leadership team as they reflect on the past year, look toward the future, and give you a bird's-eye view of our growing company, ever-evolving industry, and thriving Ignition community. This is ICC, elevated!
98 min video
New Possibilities at the Edge
As industrial organizations do more at the edge of the network, important new questions are arising. What is the relationship between edge systems and centralized systems? What can you do at the edge that you couldn’t do before? How can you use the edge with the cloud effectively?
47 min video
Global Collaboration Helps Steel Manufacturer Implement Centralized Control Room
The main purpose of Uddeholm, a Voestalpine company, is to manufacture high-quality industrial steel tools, applying best practices for an efficient use of resources and a sustainable development. This strategy has led Uddeholm to become the world’s leading steel tool manufacturer with more than 350 years of innovation and presence in more than 90 countries.
5 min video
All Equipment And Recipes Across 10 Lines Monitored With Single Project
This Ignition project came as a result of a controls-focused project on increasing OEE across 10 packaging lines, specifically monitoring two aspects of production. The first was trending the speeds of each piece of equipment on the line to allow users to monitor the V-Curve over time. The second was maintaining equipment recipe data and tracking when changes were made.
6 min video
Glass Company Increases Profitability With True-North Metrics
HMI Glass was facing numerous challenges impacting profitability, leading to reduced earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) since 2018. The scope of the project was to utilize intelligent manufacturing data to implement a lean management model and drive cultural transformation. The success of the project was tied to fees based on performance and utilized a gainshare model based on a cost of poor-quality improvement.
10 min video
Real-Time Data & Custom Drivers Allow Power Supplier to Anticipate Demand
First Gen is one of the oldest and largest conglomerates in the Philippines that has an interest in power generation and power distribution. While Energy Development Corporation is a diversified renewable energy company, both are under the First Philippine Holdings Corporation – A Lopez Group of Companies, who constantly strive to meet the needs of its customers. In June 2021, the Enhanced Wholesale Electricity Spot Market Design Operations (EWDO) was launched. This officially started the new regulations for shortening of the dispatch interval: instead of a per-hour basis, it was transitioned to a five-minute interval. First Gen and Energy Development Corporation (EDC) have adapted the five-minute interval in their Central Dispatch Operations (CDO). This new regulation was addressed by installing multiple Ignition gateways for faster data monitoring, collection, and secured control of power generation across more than 30+ power plants (and counting). Controtek developed customized drivers to get the real-time dispatch setpoints from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) to meet the demands of the operations and compliance with the new regulation of the EWDO.
12 min video
Digital Troubleshooting Guide Boosts Chemical Company's Efficiency
Cooley Group has a corporate Manufacturing 4.0/Digital Transformation initiative that it is implementing using the Ignition platform. RoviSys was brought on to help guide Cooley Group on this journey and develop the functionalities it needed in a templatized way that promotes scalability and supportability. Cooley Group requested the use of Ignition to develop a Digital Troubleshooting Guide that operators could use to help resolve downtime events impacting their OEE. For this project, RoviSys implemented a creative solution that gave Cooley Group exactly what it asked for, yet made it easy for it to build and configure on its own within the Ignition designer.
3 min video
Water Utility Seamlessly Transitions Operating Systems And Speed Development
Design and develop a new treatment plant HMI to replace WinCC and condense third-party applications into one platform.
9 min video
SCADA Screens Enable Unified Operations For Leading Energy Provider
PureWest Energy, the largest producer of natural gas in Wyoming, engaged a leading system integrator to develop SCADA screens for both the desktop and mobile platforms. The integrator created has created a development plan to build a customized, scalable SCADA system.
10 min video
Reliable Data Supports Cleaner Energy Initiative For 50 States
One of South Jersey Industries’ (SJI) key initiatives is to deliver on its commitment to provide cleaner energy. The generation of renewable natural gas facilities at dairy farms is a key production commitment for SJI. A modular production facility is required at each farm site, near the raw materials. The speed of deployment and number of sites involved demands the establishment of a universal architecture and platform for the integration of control and enterprise systems at the company. In addition, the distributed nature of the system and criticality to the energy infrastructure demand the highest level of security and reliability. Finally, SJI requires that all these sites be centrally monitored from an enterprise SCADA system that will also historize data for financial and regulatory reporting. The central importance of reliable data for continual operational financial justification proves the common Digital Transformation adage that “data is the new gas.” SJI Industries tasked Automated Control Concepts (ACC) to build a foundation for the application of key control and information technologies and systems that will allow the organization to realize world-class Digital Transformation and create a secure data pipeline. In doing so, SJI would be able to provide users at all levels of the organization with access to control system information. Through the strategic application of industrial information technologies, significant benefits are realized in the following areas: reliability, availability, visibility, and security. ACC successfully built and deployed this operational technology stack on Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform, which let ACC establish a scalable architecture to support plants/sites of varying sizes and complexity. The integration of data from the site’s control level, through various secure (DMZ) network layers to the corporate core network and cloud providers, has been addressed.
10 min video
Enterprise SCADA Gives New Zealand Meat Producer Standardized Control
Tamaki Control implemented a new Ignition Perspective standards framework for ANZCO Foods. This framework replaced unsupported SCADA systems and enabled new automation projects and ERP API integration solutions across its 10 manufacturing and processing sites in New Zealand. The project involved upgrading or installing Ignition 8.1 at each site and connecting them on the Gateway Network through an enterprise architecture with the Enterprise Administration Module. The result is a cohesive and efficient system that has positioned ANZCO Foods for continued success.
10 min video
New Control System Improves Safety And Compliance For Pharmaceutical Company
Initially, Zendal approached Optomation Systems to tackle their needs for monitoring unmanned storage units holding pharmaceutical final products for their customers. When Optomation introduced Ignition, it rapidly evolved into a larger project with a broader scope to encompass the data acquisition of varied equipment, process control and supervision, alarm notification, data historization, and automatic report generation. The main objective of the project was to implement a system that acts as a data repository for the information collected from the dedicated equipment in the different production areas and auxiliary services, both to satisfy regulatory requirements and prove compliance with CDMO obligations to customers. In addition, the system integrated new production areas into the system and expanded functionality to include control and supervision of several processes. Field devices and sensors are connected to controllers that execute automated sequences, and from Ignition, operators have full access to the operation, just like a traditional SCADA system.
10 min video
Custom Visual Tools Help Bring Animatronic Creatures To Life
Creature Technology Company developed and implemented the C-Tech 2 system with support from ESM Automation Systems (AKA ESM Australia) and Inductive Automation. The system provides theatrical technicians and operators with simple visual tools to modify or create interaction and motion of complex animatronics figures without needing to access or be experts in PLC, motion, or SCADA programming. The drag-and-drop interface offers a friendly and familiar way to pull dynamic functions from a palette to a workspace and draw links between them to create complex relationships. For this project, the data structures, functions, variables, relationships, and even screen layouts and tabbed views are linked to a PostgreSQL database. Beckhoff industrial controllers, connected to the same database, interpret configurations in the database into logic and motion control settings. The logic and motion control settings are used in conjunction with motion profiles generated by studio animation tools to create fluid, lifelike movements, and interaction of animatronic creatures.
4 min video
Defying Ordinary: A Deep Dive Into Unique Automation Projects
Every year, Inductive Automation shines a spotlight on modern marvels in industrial automation at the Discover Gallery, but there’s a whole lot more to these projects than we could ever capture in the showcase. In light of that, we’re diving deeper into some of this year’s most novel Ignition projects.
48 min video
Expanding Connectivity with Ignition’s Mitsubishi Driver
We are continually expanding Ignition’s capabilities, adding new features, updates, and drivers. With the release of Ignition 8.1.31 this month, Ignition’s new Mitsubishi Driver now adds the MELSEC-F devices to its growing list of compatible MELSEC series, including the iQ-R, iQ-F (FX5U), Q, and L series. This latest addition is more than just an increase in compatibility, it’s a step toward making the Ignition platform more effective globally.
46 min video
Ignition Community Live: Elevate Your Experience at ICC 2023
The Ignition Community Conference (ICC) is coming up and it has plenty of new additions for future attendees to catch up on. At this special ICC preview, learn about the expanded options for viewing and participating including the ICC Livestream, the all-new Table Talks, and much more. Plus, get a sneak peak at perennial ICC favorites like the Keynotes, the Build-a-Thon, Exchange Challenge, the Discover Gallery, Workshops, and more.
44 min video
What Is a Panel PC?
Most people are familiar with PCs (Personal Computers), but far fewer understand the difference between a retail PC and a panel PC. Whereas PCs are typically found in offices, panel PCs are specialized units designed to be used on or near machines in industrial environments like plant floors or remote sites. Panel PCs are built specifically to run HMI/SCADA software that allows operators to monitor and control processes in virtually every industry, including food & beverage, oil & gas, automotive, water & wastewater, and many more.
4 min read
Design Like a Pro: Exceptional Industry-Specific HMIs
When it comes to designing an HMI, there are a few basic concepts to keep in mind, but no one-size-fits-all solution. Every screen will be unique, with functionality and requirements particular to the needs of its operators, and the more specialized the use, the more critical those differences are. So what makes an HMI excel in an industry setting?
58 min video
How’d You Get Here with Kevin McClusky: A Professional Journey
In this new segment of How’d You Get Here, Kevin McClusky chats with Arnell J. Ignacio to discuss Kevin’s professional journey. They talk about Kevin’s early experiences at Inductive Automation to where he currently is now. Kevin also shares insight of the early days at Inductive Automation, what makes IA such a unique place, his journey at Inductive Automation, and much more. We also get a peek into Kevin’s interests and what he is excited about.
50 min video
How’d You Get Here with Kevin McClusky: A Professional Journey
In this new segment of How’d You Get Here, Kevin McClusky chats with Arnell J. Ignacio to discuss Kevin’s professional journey. They talk about Kevin’s early experiences at Inductive Automation to where he currently is now. Kevin also shares insight of the early days at Inductive Automation, what makes IA such a unique place, his journey at Inductive Automation, and much more. We also get a peek into Kevin’s interests and what he is excited about.
50 min episode
Ditch Data Silos: Create a Unified Namespace with Ignition UDTs & MQTT
Data management can sometimes seem like the Wild West, with the chaos caused by inconsistent conventions for naming and organizing data. The current manual and point-to-point data entry methods used in the manufacturing industry result in inefficient operations, difficulty scaling, and dreaded data silos that make it hard for people to share information.
56 min video