Research shows that half of the industry professionals are clearly positive about 5G in manufacturing and see it as a way to obtain universal connectivity.

More and more industrial equipment is being connected to industrial networks. In 2019, the number of new connected nodes is expected to grow by 10%. Industrial Ethernet and Wireless continue to grow fast, but 2019 also marks the first year of fieldbus decline. These are the main findings in the annual study of the industrial network market by HMS Networks. Industrial Ethernet now accounts for 59% of new installed nodes (52% last year), while fieldbuses are on 35% (42). EtherNet/IP is still the most widely installed network at 15%, but PROFINET is closing in at 14%. Wireless technologies continue to develop strongly and are steady at 6% of the market (6).

HMS Networks now announces a new version of the M2Web service which enables users of Ewon^® Flexy products to instantly monitor KPI’s, Key Performance Indicators, from remotely located machines. Using a standard PC, tablet or smartphone, Machine Builders and End Users get full insight into their installations thanks to a new intuitive graphical interface, a mobile-friendly responsive view, and a map view of all connected machines.

HMS Networks now announces Talk2M^® Easy Setup, a new configuration wizard within the free-of-charge VPN Client eCatcher. Talk2M Easy Setup only requires a USB drive or an SD card to get an Ewon^® Cosy online with the Talk2M secure remote access cloud.

Halmstad, March 13, 2019. HMS Industrial Networks AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of HMS Networks AB (publ), has acquired 74.9% of all shares in the German company WEBfactory GmbH located in Buchen, Germany, a leading provider of web-based software solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT.

Oxford school has online control of heating, ventilation, water, lighting etc. At the EF International Language Centre in Oxford, system integrator Global Electrical Solutions Ltd. has installed a building management system to keep track of heating, ventilation, water, lighting etc. By connecting Netbiter Remote Management gateways to Rockwell control panels in the building, users can see current temperatures, levels, and consumption online. They can even turn on lights or open windows remotely – truly realizing the Internet of Things.

Automation engineers frequently need to bridge the gap between different protocols and networks used in a plant, but they also need to enable communication between equipment within the same network family. For example, in the PROFINET and PROFIBUS-world, there are many devices and sub-systems that cannot necessarily communicate with each other. It may be necessary to connect different physical formats such as copper and fiber optics or couple/de-couple I/O data between two controlling networks. With their recently upgraded Anybus X-gateways, HMS Industrial Networks can offer ways to get heterogeneous PROFI-equipment connected.

HMS Industrial Networks now introduces a new family of Industrial IoT gateways for Smart Grid applications. The Anybus SG-gateways enable communication between industrial applications and energy protocols. This communication is the very basis for the so called “Smart Grid” where power plants and energy equipment are interacting with industrial applications. The SG-gateways are yet another example of how HMS realizes the Industrial Internet of Things.

HMS Industrial Networks now introduces yet another gateway family for the Industrial Internet of Things. The new Anybus .NET gateways enable real-time data from industrial machinery to be presented to .NET-based IT applications. This means that .NET programmers can get data directly from a PLC system on the other side of “the edge” to be used in applications for statistics, analysis or maintenance. The first .NET gateways are available for PROFIBUS and PROFINET.

Adding to the existing and proven IXXAT IEEE 1588 solutions, HMS now presents protocol software for IEEE 802.1AS – the first commercially available software package for highly accurate time synchronization of AVB and TSN networks.