TECHNOLOGY n 19 www.drivesncontrols.com January 2026 SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC HAS ADOPTED Weidmüller’s Snap In connection technology for its TeSys motor management system, allowing stripped conductors to be inserted directly into terminals without any preparation. The preloaded terminals can be used immediately, simplifying and accelerating the wiring process. The tool-free connection technology also opens up the possibility of robotic wiring of motor controls – a capability which Schneider demonstrated at its recent Innovation Summit in Denmark. Since Weidmüller launched the Snap In technology in 2021, it has changed the way electrical components are wired. For installers and panel-builders, it avoids the need for ferrules, crimping, tools and time-consuming preparation. It also ensures safety – incorrect contacts as a result of inadequately inserted conductors are said to be “almost impossible”. The technology is re-usable, and is suitable for maintenance and retrofitting activities. A green “pusher”indicates the switching status of the terminal and provides visual, haptic and acoustic feedback. An audible "click" confirms the secure contact. The contact can be released using a screwdriver. The technology can be used in confined places, and by non-expert personnel. Weidmüller says that wiring times can be reduced by up to 75%. Weidmüller uses the technology in many of its own products, including its Klippon Connect terminal blocks, Omnimate PCB connectors, RockStar heavy-duty connectors, Push Pull Power connectors and Pro Eco II power supplies. Now, after less than 12 months of development, Schneider has developed sub-assemblies and set up an automated production line to use the technology in its TeSys motor controls. Jürgen Stawartz, vice-president of Schneider’s Power Products business, describes the development as “a real milestone”. In Denmark, Schneider demonstrated a collaborative robot picking up and inserting wires with conductors up to 6mm2 into TeSys Deca terminals. www.se.com/ww/en THE EDGE COMPUTING specialist IOTech Systems has announced an alarm service for industrial edge systems that, it predicts, will revolutionise how industrial organisations monitor, manage and respond to alarms across complex edge environments. As industrial edge systems grow in scale and diversity, alarm management has become a critical challenge and difficult to unify. IOTech’s new service addresses this with a standards-based, and technology-agnostic, approach to alarm normalisation, routing and control. “Our new alarm service empowers users with unmatched control over their edge alarms, delivering flexibility and interoperability across complex industrial systems,” says IOTech CEO, Keith Steele. “Built to scale, integrate, and adapt across any edge environment, it enables customers to respond to operational challenges with greater speed, clarity, and confidence.” The service is based on the OPC UA Alarms & Conditions standard, and is aligned with IEC 62682. This ensures broad compatibility across industrial systems, from PLCs and OT devices to other sources of alarm data, such as rules engines and analytics components. It can be deployed with IOTech’s Edge Central, integrated with the open-source EdgeX Foundry, or embedded in custom frameworks, enabling alarm unification in almost all industrial environments. Using an event-driven architecture, the service evaluates alarm data in real-time, generating standardised alarm events that can be viewed and managed via a dedicated UI or a Rest API, providing access to alarm data and operations, including: n monitoring and managing alarms throughout their lifecycle; n querying current and historical alarm states; n managing alarms with functions such as acknowledgment, confirmation, shelving and suppression; n subscribing to alarm events for efficient data-driven applications; and n secure authentication and access control. The service also enables intelligent alarm routing to multiple endpoints, including email, SMS, MQTT, Webhooks and Telegram, ensuring critical alerts reach the right systems or personnel at the right time. Alarms can be defined through simple configuration files or the Rest API, supporting everything from basic thresholds to advanced multi-level models, such as “high-high” critical events. With a scalable architecture, the service can process alarm data from many independent concurrent sources, and can grow with edge deployments. For end-users or operational teams who choose not to layer their own management tooling on top of the Rest API, IOTech can provide an intuitive, Web-based interface which offers clear visualisation, streamlined navigation, and real-time interaction, making alarm monitoring and management fast, efficient, and accessible to all levels of operator. www.iotechsys.com New service will ‘revolutionise’ monitoring alarms at the edge Collaborative robots can be used to wire motor control terminals, following Schneider’s adoption of Weidmüller’s Snap In connection technology Schneider uses Snap In connectors for motor controls, allowing robotic assembly
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