SURREY, UK, May 3, 2021 – Forming Technologies (FTI), part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, announced the worldwide release of the FormingSuite 2021. Designed for sheet metal cost estimators, design engineers, tooling designers, and advanced planning engineers in the automotive, aerospace, consumer product and electronics industries, this release introduces numerous enhancements that ensure the best quality results and performance for all users.

Demand for utilizing FTI expertise in quoting and estimating tooling for sheet metal components has resulted in powerful enhancements and functionalities to the FormingSuite line of products.  FormingSuite 2021 will introduce 3D addendum creation and the detailed feature length method for cost estimation of Line Dies (Transfer and Tandem dies).  These features will help improve cost estimation accuracy for deep drawn components by accurately representing the drawn shell coming from the draw die.  This gives cost engineers confidence in their estimates for blank size and weight in the early planning stage as well as giving more details needed for precise process planning.

Trim line development tools have been implemented to accurately unfold flanges, hems, and extrusions onto the 3D Addendum geometry.  This allows design, process, and manufacturing engineers to evaluate trim conditions and determine for each point on the trim curve if it’s possible to trim in the given die tip direction.

Fast and accurate speed-of-use enhancements have been added to reduce effort and time when creating a process plan.  These enhancements include symmetry options for multiple functions. FormingSuite 2021 also improves stamping feature recognition, process generation, process validation, simplifies process editing and produces better-quality reports.

“FTI is the industry standard for automotive costing engineers and it’s our top priority to help our customers increase their efficiency, throughput, reduce material costs and assess design for manufacturability for stamped components,” says Jessica Zheng, VP, Global Business Development at Forming Technologies.  FormingSuite 2021 is now easier to use and richer in features than ever before and addresses critical challenges throughout the vehicle development process.  By using FormingSuite earlier in this process, OEMs and suppliers can discover quality, cost, or design for manufacturability issues when it’s less expensive for them to resolve.

Availability

FormingSuite 2021 is now available for customers from FTI’s website forming.com.

About Hexagon | FTI

Hexagon is a global leader in sensor, software and autonomous solutions. We are putting data to work to boost efficiency, productivity, and quality across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, safety, and mobility applications.

Our technologies are shaping urban and production ecosystems to become increasingly connected and autonomous – ensuring a scalable, sustainable future.

Forming Technologies (FTI), part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, provides computer-aided engineering software to optimise the design for manufacturing, material utilisation and cost of sheet metal components. Learn more at forming.com. Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division provides solutions that utilise data from design and engineering, production and metrology to make manufacturing smarter.

Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 21,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 3.8bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us @HexagonAB.

Invitation

In today’s ever changing technological world, it has been a norm that communications and network technologies keep evolving faster than ever before. Every new generation of smartphones and computers encourage innovations in this variable field. Like every other revolutionizing technology in the past 5G is also a game changer. Using 5G there will be endless opportunities for industries to grow, implementing many of the currently developing technologies nicely.

5G is the fifth generation of wireless communications and networking technologies supporting cellular data networks with superfast and high speed data transmission and communication between interconnected devices.

5G technology is in a developing state currently and cannot be implemented on a large scale, but it has been implemented in many places as an experiment to know its efficiency. In April 2018 South Korea was the first country to roll out 5G networking services to a wide customer range. The speed of 5G networks in South Korea peaks up to 902.7 Mbps depending upon carriers, network providers, and geographical locations.

5G will be important in creating new capabilities through data-driven processes.

5G will play an important role in the factories of the future, it will create effective communication systems and data transmission.

5G will create Industry 4.0 models possible, as suggested by experts and scientists.

The Smart Factory also is known as Industry 4.0 will shift from conventional technologies to a set of highly advanced and connected technologies.

Industry 4.0 will rely on communications and information technologies to create and manage cost-efficient large scale businesses. At the core of this revolution, will sit the smart factories concept. Industry 4.0 will be seen implementing various technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Automation systems and many more to create superior cost-efficient goods.

Let us have a look at some of the benefits 5G technology has to offer us :

High Speed Work Remotely:
Devices with 5G connectivity will have high-speed networks and data transmission rates, resulting in superfast work from remote locations. Using such networks employees can work efficiently and rapidly without any barriers.

Useful IoT Adoption :
Internet of Things(IoT) is a system consisting of software and mechanical hardware used to transfer data over a network without requiring human interference. Using IoT businesses can plan to create an entire business IoT ecosystem. IoT generates a lot of data and to transmit this data in real-time so that it can be used by the organization, there must be high-speed uninterrupted connections using 5G technology. We can create a solution for this and IoT can be used efficiently.

Lightning Fast Data Speeds :
The most anticipated benefit of 5G networks over the current technologies is the data speeds that they will offer. Most 5G service providers promise data speeds around 300-400 Mbps. At its maximum capacity, a 5G network is capable of delivering speeds up to 10 Gbps, which is around 100 times faster than a currently running widespread 4G network. Nowadays a huge amount of data is generated by companies in their operational activities and such data can be tackled for use by 5G networks easily.

Supply Chain Improvisations:
5G technology in manufacturing will improve the supply chain of industries greatly. As 5G enables to connect up to one million devices in one square Kilometer range it will be useful for coordinating all the automated processes in a supply chain. Processes such as order placement and delivery schedules can be programmed to be entirely automated, such processes to work efficiently need to gather real-time data and have to transmit data at extremely high speeds, so the 5G network can help this. Using 5G technology, manufacturing procedures are getting smarter day by day enabling advanced communication between interconnected devices resulting in the overall improvement of Supply chain and production processes.

Which Technologies  will be helpful
Having a look at the benefits of 5G technology in the manufacturing Sector, now its time to look at the technologies which will be helpful in creating the Industry 4.0 model.

1. Autonomous Robots
2. Simulation
3. Internet of Things
4. Cybersecurity
5. Cloud Computing
6. Augmented Reality
7. Big Data & Analytics

Let us start by understanding all these technologies :

Autonomous Robots: Using this, robots will be able to work beside each other in a cooperative manner. Robots used here can be equipped with greater performance abilities at a cost-effective price. These smart robots can also work alongside humans by adapting to the organization’s environment.

Simulation: Simulation technologies will be used to get an insight into the real-time data and modeling the product virtually. Simulation technologies will help organizations to test their products prior to launch in a real-time environment. This will benefit the organization to make changes prior to the implementation of the production of the product.

Internet of Things: Using IoT in the Industry 4.0 model will allow devices to communicate with each other over networks remotely using unified controllers as and when required. It will also support quick and efficient real-time decision making.

CyberSecurity: While the Industry 4.0 model relies mostly on information technology and communication networks, it is very important to create and deploy efficient cybersecurity measures to avoid any awful circumstances. Data generated through the IoT and other devices should be stored, managed and extracted in such a way that there are no loopholes for the data to be tweaked. Any fault or loose end in cybersecurity can create unfavorable circumstances for the company.

Cloud Computing: Industry 4.0 will be implemented mostly by large scale factories and manufacturing units, these will be the units that will be generating a large amount of data just from their operational activities. So to cater to these large and ever-increasing storage demands, it is important and necessary for companies to move towards cloud storage and computing services. Cloud Computing and storage services prove to be cost-effective in the long run.

Augmented Reality: Augmented-reality-based systems can help the workers to know where to find the products in the warehouse, mapping necessary product configuration becomes easier. They can be used for training new interns and employees regarding how a product can be manufactured in the correct steps.

Big Data  & Analytics: In the Industry 4.0 model, large amounts of data will be generated from operating activities using the technologies, collecting such data and doing a meaningful evaluation of the data generated is a must to streamline activities of an organization. Analysis of the data generated should be done to predict future changes and corrective measures which should be taken to increase the efficiency of the systems.

Usage of 5G Networks in Manufacturing
Now let us have a look at some implementations which are possible through the usage 5G networks in manufacturing :

Smart Logistics: In the Industry 4.0 model, it is proposed that the internal transportation systems and logistics systems inside a workplace like a factory should be entirely automated. Robots should be used for transporting products from one part of the plant to another. Driverless Transportation vehicles can be used for the timely delivery of products. All the interconnected robots and DTV require high-speed data transmission for communicating with each other and 5G networks in manufacturing setups help to achieve this.

Smart Maintenance: Smart Maintenance refers to the planning of Maintenance and Repair Operations (MRO) in such ways that it rounds the downtime to the lowest possible. Data analysis plays an important role while planning out such MROs. While carrying out maintenance operations smart devices such as tablets and connected cameras can be used to instruct remotely or to supervise the work.

Smart Control For Plants: Smart control systems for plants can be created using sensors and IoT.  Every machinery in the plant should be connected to a central controller system in order to make smart control systems work efficiently. These central control systems can then be automated using different procedures to work without human intervention.

Virtual Manufacturing: Virtual manufacturing refers to the usage of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in production processes and research and development stages to know the real-time outcomes of the product the organization is working on. Using virtual reality technology can help industries to save so much money that might get wasted during the research and development stage.

Robots: Using robots is very beneficial because it will result in faster production, the organizations will require fewer spaces to operate, risks regarding workplace accidents can be reduced greatly as robots work as they are programmed. There will be lesser chances of stoppage in production due to no conflicts arising.

These are some of the implementations which are possible only with the foundation and rise of 5G networks. Using these and 5G technology together in industries and manufacturing will take us to a fully functioning Industry 4.0 model.

Evolving the network to address manufacturing use cases

In an ever evolving environment, telecom operators need the best technologies to assist their business requirement. The onset of 5G will improve many existing use cases and prepare new use cases that cannot be satisfied by existing technologies. This, in turn, needs evolving the network to convey high reliability and low latency that are key to addressing manufacturing use cases. The enhanced network evolution highlights the following developments:

• 5G NR – a new radio interface/access that extends far beyond those of past generations of mobile communication. Capabilities incorporates ultra-high reliability, very high data rates everywhere, very low latency, massive system capacity, and availability, very low energy consumption and device cost, and energy-efficient networks;
• Network slicing –this helps operators to give dedicated virtual networks with consumer-particular functionality
• Distributed Cloud – this helps setting up workloads closer to the edge for better QoS for example, latency;
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and Realtime machine learning – analytics will be significant in creating the networks self-optimizing to secure SLA fulfillment for services.

The time to act is at present. There’s no need to wait to begin testing new business models, catch emerging chances for example, IoT, and create extra revenue streams. LTE-based technologies for example, CAT-M1/NB-IoT help massive IoT use cases already in current networks. By rethinking and experimenting what role to take, operators will secure the benefits of 5G.

5G networking in manufacturing will make big changes and these are only some predictions.

Guest post by Truventor.ai https://www.truventor.ai/

MILWAUKEE, WI, USA and TURIN, Italy, Apr 30, 2021 – Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, and Comau, a global leader in industrial automation and robot manufacturer, announced today that they are joining forces to give businesses worldwide vital tools to maximize manufacturing efficiencies through unified robot control solutions.

Comau Rebel-S 

“Industrial companies are looking for efficient ways to integrate robotics into their operations for process optimization and agility,” said Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Blake Moret. “Rockwell Automation’s collaboration with Comau will simplify programming and lifecycle management, accelerating time to value for our customers.”

Moret said this expansion of robotic applications is rooted in Rockwell’s broader strategy to help industrial companies save time and improve performance with unified robot control, ultimately providing long-term value for their business. The partnership is a collaborative development and selling model that offers the unified robot control product to both companies’ customers.

“Comau’s robotics and industrial automation expertise, as well as its reputation for high performance, reliability, and quality, combined with Rockwell Automation’s global capabilities and experience in automated material handling, food and beverage, household and personal care, and life sciences, gives customers the incremental value of an integrated robot solution,” said Comau CEO Paolo Carmassi. “Comau is eager to work with such an important partner that has a market-leading global footprint in all industries.”

Engineers will now be able to program their entire machine in one environment, including Comau robot arms directly controlled through Rockwell Automation’s Logix-based controllers. Rockwell Automation’s Studio 5000^® automation system design software provides relief from the time-consuming and often difficult task of trying to coordinate traditionally separate machine control and robot systems to work together using two different software tools.

Machine builders, system integrators, and others will gain development and deployment efficiencies through the use of digital engineering tools like Rockwell’s Emulate3D digital twin software, which creates digital models of production lines, auto-generates machine control code, and has built-in capabilities for Comau robots.

The combined Rockwell and Comau solutions will also offer benefits beyond enhanced integration. For example, end users can use analytics and digital twin tools to gain deeper insights into machine performance and potential production optimization. They can also use safety and security solutions to reduce business risks.

Operators on the manufacturing floor who use Rockwell’s FactoryTalk software suite will benefit from being able to see both line and robot control systems on a single interface. In-plant and remote technicians will only need to learn and maintain one architecture to monitor both systems. They can also leverage Rockwell’s augmented reality (AR) tools to improve lifecycle and service cycle maintenance.

Automazioni Industriali Capitanio, a recognized system integrator, designs, manufactures, and commissions automation systems for the metals industry and is an early adopter of the joint solution. Marco Capitanio, managing director of AIC, said the Rockwell-Comau collaboration allows the company to offer a seamless robot solution for customers, which he sees as a key advantage for a machine builder.

“We value the simple and flexible programming environment, complete access to robot supervision and diagnostic parameters, and the ability to leverage existing automation panels and standard control devices,” Capitanio said.

Rockwell products and technology that will be key to robotics integration include the following:

1. Allen-Bradley ControlLogix control systems
2. Kinetix 5700 servo drive platform
3. Studio 5000 automation system design software
4. FactoryTalk View human machine interface (HMI) software
5. FactoryTalk InnovationSuite, powered by PTC digital transformation software suite
6. Emulate3D digital twin software
7. PTC Vuforia AR tools for remote collaboration and information capture

Comau’s comprehensive robot range meets the needs of a wide variety of industries, from automotive to logistics, food and beverage, and packaging, just to name a few. It includes more than 40 different industrial robotic arms, with load capacities from 3 to 650 KG.

About Comau

Comau, a member of Stellantis, is a worldwide leader in delivering advanced industrial automation products, and systems. With over 45 years of experience and a strong presence within every major industrial country, Comau is helping manufacturers of all sizes in almost any industry experience higher quality, increased productivity, faster time-to-market, and lower overall costs. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, Comau has an international network of 7 innovation centers, 5 digital hubs, 8 manufacturing plants that span 14 countries and employ more than 9,000 people. For more information, visit www.comau.com.

About Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), is a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs approximately 23,500 problem solvers dedicated to our customers in more than 100 countries. To learn more about how we are bringing the Connected Enterprise to life across industrial enterprises, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.

PLANO, TX, USA, Apr 30, 2021 – Siemens Digital Industries Software announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire TimeSeries, a leading Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and Mendix partner. TimeSeries has significant expertise in the development of vertical apps built on the Mendix low-code platform, which will help Siemens accelerate digital transformation by increasing adoption of low-code and offering new apps including smart warehousing, predictive maintenance, energy management, remote inspections and more. The industry-leading Mendix low-code platform is the cloud foundation for Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio of integrated software and services.

The apps from TimeSeries, combined with Siemens’ industrial expertise and go-to-market reach, can enable customers across the full spectrum of industries to utilize the power of low-code and the Mendix platform even faster.

“The addition of TimeSeries to Siemens will help our customers and partners get to value with low-code even faster,” said Derek Roos, CEO & co-founder, Mendix. “We’re equipping enterprises with cutting-edge digital capabilities to help them elevate how they conduct business and deliver rich, engaging experiences. The TimeSeries team brings deep expertise in developing SaaS solutions for a range of verticals, and I’m excited to welcome them to Siemens.”

TimeSeries will expand capabilities that can help enterprises and ISVs everywhere accelerate their digitalization efforts using the Mendix platform. Through bespoke industry apps and best practices, templates and re-useable components that leverage advanced technologies — including AI, intelligent process automation, multiexperience, state-of-the-art UI design, multi-cloud, and more — Siemens will be able to deliver better experiences to customers, employees, and suppliers.

“Since our acquisition of Mendix in 2018, we have continued to see how this powerful low-code platform is a game changer for companies across every industry,” said Tony Hemmelgarn, President and CEO, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “The addition of TimeSeries to Siemens will enable us to significantly expand the development of new apps, increase adoption of our low code platform and grow the Xcelerator ecosystem.”

Since 2012, TimeSeries has been developing industry-specific applications for industries including manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, energy and banking and financial services. Their configurable app templates capture industry best practices and solve repeatable problems, and can be quickly and easily customized to the needs of individual enterprises. These apps, combined with Siemens’ industrial expertise and go-to-market reach, can enable customers across the full spectrum of industries to utilize the power of low-code and the Mendix platform even faster.

“From the start, TimeSeries has been focused on solving our customers’ challenges by bringing together the best people and latest technologies and pushing that to the limit. Now, as part of Siemens, we’re excited to bring the power of pre-built and customizable low-code solutions to more industries,” said Erik Gouka, CEO, TimeSeries. “Joining Siemens Digital Industries Software will unlock huge new opportunities for us, and we’re looking forward to help even more companies digitally transform.”

TimeSeries has offices in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, and Canada.

About Siemens Digital Industries Software

Siemens Digital Industries Software is driving transformation to enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing and electronics design meet tomorrow. The Xcelerator portfolio helps companies of all sizes create and leverage digital twins that provide organizations with new insights, opportunities and levels of automation to drive innovation. For more information on Siemens Digital Industries Software products and services, visit www.sw.siemens.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Where today meets tomorrow.

About Siemens Digital Industries 

Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 76,000 employees internationally.

About Siemens AG

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. Active around the world, the company focuses on intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems and on automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Siemens brings together the digital and physical worlds to benefit customers and society. Through Mobility, a leading supplier of intelligent mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is helping to shape the world market for passenger and freight services. Via its majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital health services. In addition, Siemens holds a minority stake in Siemens Energy, a global leader in the transmission and generation of electrical power that has been listed on the stock exchange since September 28, 2020. In fiscal 2020, which ended on September 30, 2020, the Siemens Group generated revenue of €57.1 billion and net income of €4.2 billion. As of September 30, 2020, the company had around 293,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.

PLANO, TX, USA, Apr 30, 2021 – Siemens Digital Industries Software announces a partnership with Tangent Works to deliver simple-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to get more value from IoT data. The new AI for Everybody solution integrates the power of Tangent Works InstantML technology into MindSphere, the industrial IoT as a service solution from Siemens, to enable users to instantly leverage IoT data collected by MindSphere to generate new insights without the need for complex model training and management.

Using Tangent Works’ InstantML as an embedded component in MindSphere gives industrial users the ability to very quickly add AI capabilities to their MindSphere applications and solutions.

Many organizations still struggle to scale their digital transformation projects and leverage IoT data using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. Machine learning offers tremendous opportunities for industrial applications. However, it often requires deep knowledge about advanced statistics and how it’s applied in industrial use cases, as well as the scarce and expensive resource of data science experts.

“We are witnessing massive investments into digital and AI as companies get ready for post Covid-19 operations. Already before the pandemic, our research showed that a shortage of digital talent, especially in IT and data science, was the biggest challenge for companies looking to realize IoT, Industry 4.0 and AI initiatives,” said Knud Lasse Lueth, CEO at IoT Analytics. “This challenge will only get worse in the coming years and most firms will simply not find the experts that can build the machine learning models and integrate them into everyday operations. Companies that cannot find or afford these highly specialized digital employees will turn to low-code software tools to empower non-technical employees, or ‘citizen developers’.”

Using Tangent Works’ InstantML as an embedded component in MindSphere gives industrial users the ability to very quickly add AI capabilities to their MindSphere applications and solutions. With this approach, the IoT data stored in MindSphere can be instantly leveraged to generate actionable insights and prescriptive tools, enabling important industry use cases such as predictive maintenance, performance optimization, quality management and energy management.

“We always believed in the potential of our InstantML technology for industrial data,” said Henk De Metsenaere, co-founder of Tangent Works. “Now that Siemens, the true market leader in this space, has teamed up with Tangent Works this potential can be unlocked. The combination of Siemens’ MindSphere with Tangent Works’ InstantML technology will change the way industrial data will be used to the benefit of many of Siemens’ clients.”

“With the AI for Everybody solution, and with the integration of Tangent Works’ InstantML technology, customers and partners can now more quickly and easily extend the capabilities of MindSphere to better turn data into real and actionable insights and value,” said Raymond Kok, Senior Vice President of Cloud Application Solutions at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “With the ability to use AI/ML to generate hyper-automated predictive analytics, even citizen data scientists can leverage data and achieve immediate insights, at scale. This ultimately reduces complexity and puts the power of IoT data in the hands of the user.”

For further information on MindSphere, please see here.

About Tangent Works

Tangent Works was founded in 2014 by a team of data scientists and mathematicians who believe in the power of predictive modeling for optimizing operations and reducing costs, but found that the existing methods were far too complex and slow for broad adoption. Our mission is to democratize and de-mystify predictive modeling for forecasting and anomaly detection using our revolutionary, hyper-automated InstantML technology and make them accessible and productive for a broad range of business users and use cases. For more information go to www.tangent.works.

About Siemens Digital Industries Software 

Siemens Digital Industries Software is driving transformation to enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing and electronics design meet tomorrow. The Xcelerator portfolio helps companies of all sizes create and leverage digital twins that provide organizations with new insights, opportunities and levels of automation to drive innovation. For more information on Siemens Digital Industries Software products and services, visit www.sw.siemens.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Where today meets tomorrow.

EXTON, PA, USA, Apr 30, 2021 – Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company, announced its acquisitions of sensemetrics (agreement executed) and Vista Data Vision (closed), leading providers of software for Internet of Things (IoT) applications used extensively in infrastructure. sensemetrics and Vista Data Vision will expand the scope of the Bentley iTwin platform to add intrinsic IoT capabilities for infrastructure digital twins to incorporate real-time sensor data. By virtue of the resulting “infrastructure IoT” standardization, the full IoT ecosystem will finally be seamlessly accessible for IT/OT/ET integration, through infrastructure digital twins, to advance asset performance and to mitigate environmental risks.

Geotechnical engineering firms, land surveyors, and civil and structural engineering firms, and asset owner-operators in mining, transportation, and utilities apply sensemetrics and Vista Data Vision offerings for geological, geotechnical, structural, and environmental monitoring including in heavy civil construction, mines, tunnels, dams, and for water resources. sensemetrics and Vista Data Vision support interfaces to hundreds of different sensor devices and related data types, including robotic total stations, inclinometers, piezometers, strain gauges, crack meters, tilt meters, extensometers, anemometers, and for vibration data, pressure cells, temperature, solar insolation, precipitation, water quality, and air quality.

sensemetrics and Vista Data Vision are particularly complementary to Seequent, a global leader in 3D modeling software for geosciences, which Bentley recently announced its agreement to acquire, subject to regulatory approvals in New Zealand and the United States. Augmenting Seequent’s Leapfrog models with continuous monitoring of real-time sensor data, instead of waiting for updates from intermittent borehole or drillhole investigations, can advance 3D subsurface digital twins to function as 4D “living” digital twins—enabling unprecedented improvements in environmental safety and resilience.

sensemetrics

Founded in 2014 in San Diego, California, sensemetrics has continually advanced its vision to democratize IoT, and to extend its benefits across infrastructure assets, through its native cloud connectivity and edge controls platform – and its successful propagation, across device vendors, of farsighted sensor-agnostic standards. The sensemetrics platform is used extensively for real-time safety and risk monitoring in infrastructure, mining, and construction activities including to measure and visualize civil structural movement, for condition assessment, and to help detect and prevent damage.

sensemetrics’ modular design provides a flexible platform for developers to build their own applications to meet specific infrastructure IoT needs. In particular, sensemetrics’ Sensor Integration Builder uniquely enables asset owners, engineers, and risk managers to choose their own sensors – with assurance that they can be seamlessly integrated into digital twin solutions within a matter of minutes. Finally, sensemetrics’ Thread and Strand connectivity devices can optionally accelerate “plug and play” deployments for wireless sensor devices, even for “off-grid” infrastructure locations.

Vista Data Vision

Based in Reykjavik, Iceland, Vista Data Vision is a second-generation family business spun out of Vista Engineering, which pioneered remote, real-time monitoring of power, traffic, and sanitation systems. In 1991, Vista Data Vision started developing software for analyzing and managing project data, to be used in solving real-world engineering problems that required real-time or near real-time observations, and that could be configured by nontechnical users, with no software engineering required and no vendor lock-in.

Vista Data Vision is a stalwart of instrumentation projects, with unmatched experience gained over the last 30 years in bespoke applications for some of the most critical engineering use cases. Its solutions have been used in more than 2,000 projects in more than 70 countries, collecting millions of data points daily from hundreds of thousands of sensors.

Infrastructure IoT

By scalably and securely incorporating real-time sensor data, Vista Data Vision and sensemetrics increase the value of infrastructure engineering and geotechnical data to empower proactive risk management, safety, and predictive maintenance applications. Previously, traditional sensor data capture systems required specialists to implement and maintain, and were typically complex, rigid, and costly. Vista Data Vision and sensemetrics have made widespread infrastructure IoT deployments feasible by providing simple and reliable means to connect, store, and stream sensor data from a wide range of sensor devices for continuous and automated condition monitoring. The maturity and experience of Vista Data Vision in established engineering use cases to improve asset and environmental outcomes, along with their software’s configurability and ease of use, will now be complemented by the cloud-native device connectivity standardization, and platform scalability, of sensemetrics.

These capabilities will be closely integrated with the Bentley iTwin platform to enable iTwin partners and users to easily develop and deploy their own applications for seamless incorporation of data streams from hundreds of sensor types. Through the iTwin platform’s intrinsic span of technical integration, infrastructure IoT applications can now gain the benefits of the broader IoT ecosystem including data analytics and visualization through Microsoft’s Azure IoT, Siemens’ MindSphere, and/or NVIDIA’s Omniverse. The extension of the iTwin platform for infrastructure IoT substantially increases the lifecycle ROI, and the contribution to environmental resilience “handprints,” for 4D infrastructure digital twins.

The combination presents engineering firms with new “evergreen” opportunities to extend their value through continuous monitoring services and to curate, during the operations and maintenance lifecycle, the infrastructure asset digital twins which they create for capital project delivery. Examples of infrastructure IoT digital twin use cases include:

1. environmental groundwater monitoring to improve the water quality of catchment areas, rivers, wetlands, and groundwater systems to assure a safe level of flood protection;
2. dam condition monitoring for groundwater and slope stability during and after construction;

near real-time rainfall and weather monitoring to minimize adverse environmental impacts during construction;

1. air quality and meteorological monitoring;
2. instrumentation and monitoring services during the repair of the truss chord on a bridge; and
3. monitoring cracks in a cliff to assure safety for ongoing work at the site.

Bentley Systems CTO Keith Bentley said, “It is exciting to now be able to close the adoption gap between critical infrastructure and IoT technologies by integrating these acquisitions through our iTwin platform to enable living digital twins. We are very pleased to welcome our new colleagues who (from Vista Data Vision) originated and have proven the potential of infrastructure IoT, and who (from sensemetrics) have propagated the standardized cloud platform to now institutionalize it. They have all led the way, and the learning curve, towards this ultimate convergence of ET, OT, and IT, advancing infrastructure engineering and the environment for everyone.”

“We are thrilled to join the Bentley family and look forward to expanding the scope and reach of infrastructure instrumentation projects throughout the world,” said Thorarinn Andresson, CEO of Vista Data Vision. “Combining the capabilities of Vista Data Vision with sensemetrics, through the Bentley iTwin platform, will greatly accelerate our collective users’ benefits from infrastructure digital twins.”

“Combining our technology strengths with Vista Data Vision, and within Bentley Systems as the infrastructure engineering software company, brings closer our goal to effortlessly connect decision makers with condition monitoring data and insights that are critical to the safe and efficient operation of their assets,” said Cory Baldwin, CEO of sensemetrics. “The synergies enabled by extending infrastructure digital twins through infrastructure IoT are compelling, and we are excited to play a pivotal role in this advancement.”

Together, sensemetrics and Vista Data Vision will add approximately 40 colleagues to Bentley Systems. Their combined annualized revenues and profitability are not material to, and are not expected to meaningfully impact, the BSY financial outlook for 2021.

About Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems (Nasdaq: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure – sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals, and organizations of every size, for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,000 colleagues and generates annual revenues of more than $800 million in 172 countries.
www.bentley.com 

BOSTON, MA, USA, Apr 30, 2021 – PTC (NASDAQ: PTC) has entered into a long-term strategic collaboration agreement with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology under which PTC will establish a Research & Development center and invest ₪15 million New Israeli Shekels ($5 million USD) into PTC’s Haifa campus. Under the terms of the agreement, PTC and Technion will jointly research and upgrade learning processes relating to advanced manufacturing technology. PTC’s Haifa development center will relocate to Technion under the leadership of Dr. Michael Reitman.

PTC has also allocated an annual budget for joint research in industrial IoT, augmented reality, simulation, and generative design. The allocation supports Technion faculty by providing software products; awarding scholarships and incentives to students and researchers; initiating hackathons and contests; and sponsoring educational programs.

“Today, scientific and technological breakthroughs need both multidisciplinary research and close collaboration between academia and industry. Industry is at the forefront of active implementation and is well-acquainted with market needs, whereas academia brings basic scientific knowledge and research depth,” said Professor Uri Sivan, President, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. “This is why, in the past few years, Technion has placed greater emphasis on working to tighten its connections with industry, and the present agreement is the culmination of a long-standing relationship between Technion and PTC. We believe the agreement enables both parties to gain ground, grow, and reap the benefits of each other’s strengths.”

Announced in 2014, the initial agreement between PTC and Technion jumpstarted a robotics and digital content program for the Science and Technology department, including a teaching laboratory for industrial IoT, computer-aided design, manufacturing, and augmented reality, among other STEM topics. As a result of the long-standing collaboration, Technion alumni have joined PTC to lead the Company’s Haifa development center, PTC’s second largest center outside the U.S.

“The importance of collaboration between academia and industry is recognized worldwide,” said Ziv Belfer, Divisional Vice President and General Manager, Research and Development, PTC. “PTC has enjoyed fifteen years of successful collaboration with Aachen University in Germany, including the construction of a separate campus that also houses R&D laboratories for companies that collaborate with academic staff. Several projects subsequently became success markers for commercial companies, and we look forward to replicating these efforts with Technion in Israel.”

About PTC (NASDAQ: PTC)

PTC enables global manufacturers to realize double-digit impact with software solutions that enable them to accelerate product and service innovation, improve operational efficiency, and increase workforce productivity. In combination with an extensive partner network, PTC provides customers flexibility in how its technology can be deployed to drive digital transformation – on premises, in the cloud, or via its pure SaaS platform. At PTC, we don’t just imagine a better world, we enable it. PTC.com, @PTC, Blogs.