Inductive Automation announces 2021 Ignition Firebrand Awards

Inductive Automation has selected the recipients of its Ignition Firebrand Awards for 2021. The announcements were made at the virtual Ignition Community Conference (ICC), which took place online in late September.

The Ignition Firebrand Awards recognize system integrators and industrial organizations that use the Ignition software platform to create innovative projects. Ignition by Inductive Automation is an industrial application platform with tools for the rapid development of solutions in human-machine interface (HMI), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

The Ignition Firebrand Awards are presented every September at ICC. The award-winning projects are selected from the ICC Discover Gallery, which features the best 15 Ignition projects submitted by integrators and industrial organizations.

“We had some unique projects that earned Firebrand Awards this year,” said Don Pearson, chief strategy officer for Inductive Automation. “Whether it was for a well-known organization like Smithfield, or an Australian company making high-speed catamarans, or a team building a large COVID-testing lab in record time, the companies that created these Ignition projects achieved outstanding results. It’s really inspiring for us to see all the innovation from people who are part of the Ignition community.”

The 2021 Ignition Firebrand Award winners are:

BHP, a global resources leader, created a high-performance HMI to help technicians monitor data at a large operations center in BHP’s minerals division. Data is collected from more than 30 sites across Australia, thousands of devices, and 1.1 million tags. The single user interface has brought numerous benefits, including having all data displayed in one place, less downtime in operations, and cost savings. See the video.
CPM Beta Raven improved feed-mill operations for Smithfield Hog Production by deploying a modern SCADA platform at the mill in Milford, Utah. The mill produces 12,000 tons of animal feed per week, which feeds 1.7 million pigs per year. With the new solution, Smithfield has greater access to data, and is more able to produce huge batches with strict tolerances. See the video.
Cromarty provided a new Ship Integrated Management System to Incat, a leading maker of high-speed catamarans used for ferrying passengers, vehicles and more. The new system manages data from various inputs and displays it in a consistent manner on operator workstations throughout a vessel. Incat has made 100 vessels thus far, with the new system being used on several of its most recent ships. See the video.
DMC helped Ginkgo Bioworks create a large, high-capacity lab for COVID testing in just nine months. With more than 40 automated work cells, robots, PLCs, lab equipment, and vision inspection systems, the highly automated lab had the capacity to process 100,000 samples per day. The project was developed amid constantly changing requirements, yet seamlessly combined both industrial and biological automation. See the video.