RS Components partners with HMS Networks to expand its industrial equipment networking solutions offering

RS Components, a trading brand of RS Group plc (LSE: RS1), a global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions, has partnered with HMS Networks, a leader in industrial information and communication technology, to significantly expand its industrial equipment networking solutions offering.

HMS’ products and solutions enable value creation from data, and support its customers in increasing productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. As a technology pioneer, HMS has already connected over seven million devices in factory automation and connected more than 400,000 machines to cloud systems worldwide. Well-known brands from the HMS portfolio are Anybus, Ewon and Ixxat, which are now available from RS, further expanding its range in the field of factory automation and digitisation/industrial internet of things (IIoT).

Following the concept “every device and every network”, gateways and solutions from the Anybus brand enable automation devices to communicate with each other, regardless of fieldbus or industrial Ethernet. There are more than 300 different versions of the Anybus Communicator™ and the X-gateway™ for connecting devices, machines, and networks, across a broad range of applications. Wireless data transmission can be implemented with Anybus Wireless™ solutions so that machines and devices can be networked with each other via Bluetooth, WLAN, or mobile communications.

With Ewon’s remote maintenance solutions, a secure connection to any PLC can be easily established. This enables both machine builders and machine users to access their machines and systems from anywhere in the world to configure and manage them, with access to status information. Thanks to remote access, operational efficiency can be significantly increased, since, for example, service technicians do not have to travel to remote locations. The Ewon solutions are also suitable for existing machines and systems (brownfield/retrofit), since communication can be made with any control, regardless of brand, without the need to change the programming of the PLC.

Under the brand name Ixxat, HMS offers a broad portfolio of CAN/CAN FD products such as PC interfaces, repeaters, bridges, gateways, and PLC extensions. There are various robust and reliable solutions available, especially for connecting a PC to CAN-based networks for control applications, diagnostics, or configuration.

“The partnership with RS gives us the opportunity to open up new customer relationships with our solutions in the field of industrial information and communication technology,” said Thilo Döring, Managing Director at HMS Industrial Networks. “In return, RS is able to offer its customers technical innovations that enable the data networking of devices and machines in order to increase productivity and sustainability in the long term.”

The entire HMS Industrial Networks range is shipping from RS now in the EMEA region.