September 2018

NEWS 3 need parts quickly or on the go. Digi-Key serves the world from the small town of Thief River Falls, Minnesota, close to the Canadian border. It offers more than 8.1 million products from more than 750 manufacturers, with more than 1.4 million in stock and available for immediate shipment. It claims that the average order is picked, packed and shipped within 20 minutes, and that 99% of orders are shipped on the same day that they are placed. The company, which employs more than 3,500 people, serves countries around the world via more than 80 local Web sites, supporting 24 currencies and ten languages. But every item is shipped directly to customers from the US. Last year, Digi-Key reported a worldwide growth of 26%, with sales topping $2.3bn – the first time that it had exceeded $2bn – and it processed more than 1.6m international orders. The company’s sales to UK customers rose by 36% in 2017, to exceed £45m – mainly for products in its traditional electronics market. To cope with its rapid growth, the company has recently started work on a three-year project to build a new distribution centre, at a cost of more than $300m. The four-storey building will provide an extra 2.2 million square feet (2,000 m 2 ) of space, quadrupling Digi- Key’s floorspace and doubling its order- handling capacity. It will incorporate 40km of conveyors and will occupy a footprint of 1 million ft 2 (930m 2 ). www.digikey.com Electronics giant aims for global automation top spot Digi-Key Electronics, the US-based global distributor of electronic components, has set its sights on becoming the world’s leading supplier of industrial automation (IA) components as well. The company has added more than 14,000 automation parts to its portfolio, including products from Sick, Idec, Carlo Gavazzi and Belden. “Digi-Key aims to be the industry leader and single source for IA products and solutions for customers all over the world,” says Eric Wendt, its strategic program development director for industrial automation. “Industrial automation is a vast industry that complements our current offering and plays a critical part in building automation, factories, Industry 4.0, and more. “We want to partner with designers and purchasers in these application areas to help enable the innovation and functionality of their systems, processes, and machinery,” he adds. Digi-Key’s IA portfolio includes items such as PLCs, HMIs, servodrives, sensors, safety devices, cables, relays, timers and switches, from manufacturers including Phoenix Contact, Omron, Panduit, Red Lion, TE, Molex, Crouzet, Weidmuller, Harting and B&B SmartWorx. It has updated the IA landing page on its Web site, offering more graphical links and adding the ability to find related parts. The page has also been made more mobile-friendly, catering for users who “Industrial automation is a vast industry that complements our current offering and plays a critical part in building automation, factories, Industry 4.0, and more” www.drivesncontrols.com September 2018 Digi-Key's new $300m distribution centre will double its order-handling capacity and quadruple its floorspace ABB UK HAS LAUNCHED a dedicated team to tackle the growing cyber-security demands of sites that rely on industrial automation. The company is expanding its existing industrial cyber-security activities and adding multi-sector expertise to support operators both onsite and remotely. The expanded cyber-security task force comprises more than 20 specialists including digital security engineers, cyber-system design specialists and analysts. They will help companies, particularly in the oil, gas and petrochemical sector, to protect their control systems. The teamwill also include ABB experts frommultiple industry sectors working with colleagues in other countries. Together they will offer a one-stop-shop for cyber-security assessment, detection and protection. Industrial plants are vulnerable to attacks which can not only halt production but also have a devastating impact on health and safety, threatening lives in the event of catastrophic incidents. “The task of securing industrial control systems from cyber- attacks brings its own challenges,” says Ben Dickinson, who has been appointed to lead ABB’s UK cyber-security team. “Malicious cyber-attacks are not just about stopping something from working, they’re also about causing the maximum disruption possible. In many sectors there are known criminal factions keen to cause problems that could result in serious consequences. “We know approximately 70% of global companies, across every sector, have been the target of a cyber-security attack in the past year and fewer than half of them have any sort of intrusion detection system employed to look out for these attacks,” he adds. ABB recommends that all organisations establish a cyber-security management system to understand and mitigate cyber-risks. ABB launches UK cyber-security task force for automation