Recent Factory Automation News for July 21, 2023
, by Jim Ryan, 2 min reading time
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Eclypsium has reported more vulnerabilities in American Megatrends (AMI) MegaRAC Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) firmware," a critical supply chain component found in millions of devices worldwide and used by multiple top-tier manufacturers to deliver 'lights-out' management for servers." The vulnerabilities give the attacker the potential to gain superuser control of the machine. (Eclypsium darkly entitled the report "Lights Out Forever".) Anna Ribeiro has more.
Rockwell has announced a new product, a line of graphics terminals that machine builders can use to visualize their plant floors and the machines they are building.
Farnell will be distributing more of Eaton's industrial automation components.
A July 18th explosion at a munitions factory in Turkey is being blamed on the lack of automation in the plant, but investigators have not determined the cause yet. More, including photo, here. (This is not the June 10th rocket factory explosion in Turkey.)
Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure Automation Expert is receiving applause. The product "decouples the automation software from the hardware and can seamlessly integrate offers from different vendors, providing advanced agility and simplicity for system integrators and OEMs, and unprecedented freedom for industrial enterprises."
Siemens, Microsoft, and OpenAI have announced their collaboration on a product that will use Chat GPT for industrial purposes, such as detecting quality issues that would otherwise go unnoticed. The product should be out at the end of this year.
Methods Machine Tools announces an open house party at its shop in October: Machine Fest.
Don't forget that OSHA is taking steps to establish workplace heat standards and soliciting input on the matter. I noticed yesterday that a steel fabricator near me here in Central Virginia has announced that it got air conditioning in its shops in May. In welding shops, heat is an issue. Here is a Reddit thread in which a new welder was seeking advice. It seems that, due to the heat in the shop, the poor fellow expired at noon on his first day on the job as a welder. The boss sent him home. So, the issue is no joke. The welders in the thread advise him to drink much more water, and possibly pickle juice, than he had been. (Some recommended plenty of vodka in the evenings, or lots of cigarettes and energy drinks on the way to work with whiskey afterwards. A little levity.)
Tom Green has some general robotics news at Robotiq's blog.