Wireless connection: Siemens and Apprion partner on industrial wireless networking solutions

-- Manufacturing Business Technology, 11/28/2007 10:22:00 AM

Siemens is offering customers more options for deploying wireless technology in process-oriented production environments through a partnership with Apprion.

The alliance, announced in mid-November, calls for Siemens to integrate its Scalance industrial 802.11 access points with Apprion’s Intelligent Operations Network (ION) System.

Apprion describes the ION system as a comprehensive wireless application network specifically for use in industrial environments. It offers capabilities for monitoring, managing, and ensuring the security of wireless devices and applications within a manufacturing environment.

Ian McPherson, VP of network architecture with Apprion, says a major advantage of the ION System is its ability to manage wireless devices and applications from multiple vendors. That allows for blending disparate applications and devices into a single, cohesive wireless network, a capability Siemens says many of its customers desire.

 “Wireless has long been a part of our customers’ strategies, but in the past there was not a durable and cost-effective networking solution available to meet their needs for widespread integrated wireless,” says Raj Batra, a VP with Siemens Energy & Automation. “The Apprion ION System integrates fully with Scalance access points and other wireless systems to create a single, secure, scalable wireless network.”

McPherson says Apprion sees major opportunities as process manufacturers aggressively move toward wireless environments to monitor and evaluate each machine or operation, inside or outside the plant—especially for remote asset management and conditioned-based monitoring.

A wireless approach should offer significant opportunities to reduce the maintenance and labor costs commonly associated with managing a distributed industrial footprint.  

McPherson says the collaboration between Apprion and Siemens provides manufacturers with a unified platform of hardware, software, and services for the coexistence and security management of multiple industrial wireless networks.

Apprion President and CEO Stephen Lambright says, “The integration of [Apprion and Siemens]  technologies has produced a range of possible productivity applications for workforce mobility, voice-over Wi-Fi, asset tracking, and personnel safety systems through a common wireless, industrial-grade infrastructure. Delivering management and security across a wireless network allows manufacturers to achieve demonstrable, rapid ROI based on each wireless device they add to their network.”

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