Articles and News

Beckhoff can market and sell the XTS System worldwide with the exception of the United States. However, Beckhoff customers outside the U.S. who purchase and integrate an XTS into their machines can sell those systems into the U.S.

Written by Dr Steven Fawkes, ‘Energy Efficiency: The Definitive Guide to the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Source of Energy’ provides managers, policy makers and governments with answers to the burning questions about energy efficiency and the world’s response to it.

Turkey’s machinery exports, which were USD 3.0 billion in 2003, reached USD 14 billion in 2013. Turkey is now poised to enter the US market and is looking for partners.

With governments still being undecided on whether hydraulic fracturing can be conducted, the sensors and instrumentation market in the shale gas industry has remained small.

Customers will now have the option of using Binder connectors with custom cable designed and manufactured by Northwire.

Revenues for IE3 Premium Efficiency (and the equivalent NEMA Premium) are on course to almost double by 2018 to over $8,000 million globally.

By T. Lee Wylie The recent news regarding a lawsuit filed by Kentwool against NetSuite demonstrates that all ERP solutions are not manufacturing ERP solutions. It also cautions ERP vendors that knowing what you don’t know is a very valuable asset.

Balluff says that by 2016, production hours for building linear transducers and encoders in the Kentucky facility will increase 140%.

The FDT Group will exhibit a technology demonstration that focuses on smart device integration solutions that are both protocol and supplier independent.

The ABB Full Service business provides fully outsourced industrial maintenance services. ABB is divesting this business because of limited synergies with ABB’s core portfolio.

Management has to be part of the asset management team in order for the operation to get the real value from their installed assets.

Worldwide robotics markets are increasingly diversified, poised to achieve significant growth as every industry segment adopts mobile automated processes. Robots are taking over.

Geissler wanted to accelerate cycle times for a test bench that performed the final inspection of precision turned parts. They replaced a pneumatic rotary indexing table with a directly driven TO series rotary indexing table from Weiss.

The company, previously known as Motoman Inc., was formally incorporated on July 18, 1989 as a 50/50 joint venture between Hobart Brothers Company and Yaskawa Electric America.

K3 Syspro provides solutions in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Warehouse Management, Human Resources (HR) and e-business.

In 2014, machinery production in China is forecast to expand 7.4 percent, a slowdown from 7.9 percent growth in 2013.

DFI will be assisting customers in migrating to other XP-based operating systems without changing applications, and help those who would like to adopt the latest OS and technologies to stay secure.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Iron Bridge plant was originally built in the 1980s to treat about 5 million gallons of wastewater per day. After several modifications and upgrades, it can now treat and reclaim up to 40 million gallons in that same 24-hour period. The facilities standardized on Siemens controls, drives, power distribution, and Profibus and PROFINET communications network.

In pH control systems reagent piping and injection must minimize transportation delays, volumes must have proper geometry and agitation to maximize the process time constant that filters pH oscillatio

Servi produces custom hydraulic systems, cylinders and valves for the offshore oil & gas industry.

BsAutomatisierung in Rosenfeld,Germany, uses Ensenso 3D vision cameras in its robotic bin-picking cells to pick individual, randomly aligned parts out of a container and pass them on to downstream production processes.

For the first time in the history of space travel, a lander will touch down on the surface of a comet. DC motors manufactured by maxon are part of this pioneering feat.

Siemens Ruggedcom RS950G achieved a transmission rate of 1 Gbps during an interoperability demonstration by the UCA International Users Group (UCAlug).

For observed sensor events, selection of larger time feature values of sensor events will generate relatively better results on the activity sequences recognition performances.

June U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $181 million, up 7.3 percent from May’s total and up 9.9 percent from June 2013.

Braskem, a petrochemical company in Brazil, will install AVEVA PDMS software to convert the engineering and design data of 12 of its plants.

PAS-X was delivered with the entire user interface in Japanese. Werum carried out this project in cooperation with their Japanese integration partner CST Chiyoda System Technologies.

The awards are open to manufacturers, machine builders (OEMs) or system integrators, as long as they demonstrate a true commitment to safety. Nominations are due Sept. 15, 2014,

What is Automation?

Congatec signed Eltech as a distributor of electronic components and modules in Russia and neighboring C.I.S. countries.

micro ScoutCam 1.2 is being used as the borescope camera on VIPIR, a robotic, maneuverable, borescope inspection tool that is being tested as part of the Robotic Refueling Mission.

Tebis America develops CAD/CAM systems for tool, die and mold manufacturing.

3D Systems acquired American Precision Prototyping (APP) and sister company American Precision Machining (APM) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

RIA now has 334 company members, AIA is also at 334 members and MCA consists of 111 members.

Since the establishment of their Sales and Marketing headquarters in Brea, California, Moxa has become increasingly active in industry associations and standards organizations.

ABB will supply an 800xA control system for K+S Potash Canada’s greenfield potash mine in Saskatchewan.

Automation and Power World will be held in Mexico City on August 21 and 22.

September Educational Opportunities from ISA

By Luigi De Bernardini, Autoware It’s important to analyze production data to understand what factors caused loss of quality, production or efficiency. However, it is much more useful to be able to recognize in real time the onset of any problem and be able to intervene and reduce the possibility of compromising the production target.

By Kip Larson, Littelfuse This article discusses today’s motor protection relays and explain how they can be used not only to protect motors but also to simplify integration, diagnose problems, and provide control variables.

Europe is down again, the U.S. PLC market is growing strongly, but the overall world market is down.

ISA presented Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering the “ISA100 Wireless Excellence in Automation Award” for a recently completed research project.

The system is a replacement of the original ABB QCS that had been in place for the last 25 years. The new system was commissioned in April 2014.

By Stewart Thompson, CAS DataLoggers Power Factor (PF) is the ratio of real power to the apparent power flowing to the load from the source. From a business standpoint it’s important to understand how having a low Power Factor raises your plant or factory’s power bill.

The show will be held concurrently with PCIM Asia from 24 – 26 June 2015 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition Center.

By John Pritchard, MAC Solutions The most successful OEMs and machine builders are now generating between 20-40% of their revenues and profits from services rather than ‘pure’ manufacturing. Here’s how to use Internet 4.0 in a safe, secure network.

The kit has a PIC32 microcontroller (MCU), HCI-based Bluetooth radio, and everything that a designer needs for rapid prototype and development of Bluetooth SPP designs.

13 example projects cover Express Logic products and include multifunction examples that illustrate how to use several products together.

June U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $405.73 million, up 12.6% from May but down 2.1% when compared with the total of $414.26 million reported for June 2013.

Yogawa will supply a CENTUM VP integrated production control system, InsightSuite AE plant asset effectiveness optimization services, PRM plant resource manager, Exaquantum plant information management system, and a plant operation training simulator.

The centers provide ABB customers with in-country dedicated and competent functional safety resources for safety instrumented system (SIS) project execution, design, engineering, modification and maintenance.

The Road to High Performance Graphics

By Bill Lydon, Editor A few months ago, I gave a presentation to owners of small to midsize manufacturers about industrial automation technology and how it can improve operations and efficiency. One of the attendees asked why companies don’t apply more automation? The question triggered an interesting and instructive discussion. Here are some key takeaways from that discussion.

ISA Transactions has earned its highest rating ever in a prominent scientific ranking of journal quality and value.

For this growth to happen, new power solutions will be required: power solutions that are small, thin, self-recharging, and never need replacement.

By Roxtec Understanding the behavior of pests, including mosquitos, bees, snakes, rodents, ants, etc., is essential to assist electrical and mechanical designers in designing cable, pipe and conduit penetrations that are protected against infestation.

By Chuck Fuerst, HighJump Software Cloud-based supply chain management software is helpful to companies of all sizes, but not all technology is created equal. This article addresses both the technical and vendor capabilities that manufacturers should understand when considering supply chain software in the cloud.

Decathlon for Data Centers software enables data center staff to evaluate Decathlon’s capabilities for monitoring their critical power path at no cost.

The toolkit allows for easy integration and application development of 3DPIXA stereo camera within the National Instruments LabVIEW environment.

On/off solenoid valves with PWM control are widely used in all types of vehicle electro-hydraulic control systems.

Enerchem’s Slave Lake fractionation plant in Albert, Canada, replaced an outmoded HMI system with an Ignition HMI/SCADA system from Inductive Automation.

Overall, close to $78 trillion is expected to be spent globally between now and 2025 on five industry sectors - extraction, utilities, manufacturing, transport and social.

Four companies joined CSIA, another became certified, and two earned recertification.

Tuning of Industrial Control Systems simplifies modern control system tuning by eliminating mathematical complexity and addressing the real-world needs of control system technicians.

An HMI from InduSoft improves productivity through automated monitoring and tracking of operations at Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee in Fort Worth, Texas.

Metso will supply 140 actuated on-off and emergency shutdown (ESD) ball and butterfly valves to the PETRONAS Gas Berhad's gas processing plant modernization project in Kerteh, Terengganu, Malaysia.

Upgrades to Proficy Mobile allow managers to view and execute workflows, facilitates a tight integration with SCADA systems, and enables geo-intelligence capabilities which can be used with Google Maps.

Yokogawa Electric's confocal image single-cell drug discovery support system has been selected for the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s (JST) next-generation technology transfer program (NexTEP).

Wireless sensors powered by thermoelectric generators in environments where temperature differentials exist will help boost the market to nearly $1 billion by 2024.

Founded in 1989, Columbus now has over 900 employees worldwide, customers in 42 countries, and 6,000 successful ERP implementations worldwide.

More than 53.8 million electronic control relays were sold in 2013, with 13.1 million classified as measuring & monitoring relays. Most were for building automation applications.

Niagara Tools of St. Catharines, Ontario, is a specialty cutting tool manufacturer.

Hoffer will supply turbine flowmeters used for critical cooling flow measurement systems for the new lead ship of the DDG-1000 class, the USS Zumwalt.

In spite of cold as low as -70F, Honeywell will upgrade process control with an Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) and Foundation Fieldbus at the Molikpaq platform on the Sakhalin shelf, Russia.

Siemens Energy will perform service and maintenance for three Siemens (SGT6-5000F) gas turbines that will be installed at Shell Canada's Carmon Creek project.

By Marcus Koh Leong Hai, Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University is developing an intelligent eco-building management system at Clean Tech One at Clean Tech Park, Singapore’s first eco-business park. Paradox Engineering’s technology will be used to research energy efficiency verification and intelligent control for buildings

What are the Essentials of pH in Industrial Applications?

ProbMe configuration software for Econais Wi-Fi Modules, Development Kits and Reference Designs provides an easy, fast and secure way to add new devices to a network.

The PLM market grew 4.8% to $35 billion in 2013, slowing after several high growth years coming out of the global recession, says CIMdata.

PlantPAx process automation and Ethernet motor control systems will be installed at LSB’s new nitric acid and ammonia plants currently being constructed in El Dorado, Ark.

By Bob Frostholm, JVD Don't build a Frankenstein monster by using "cadaver" electronic parts. Regardless of where in the system analog ICs are found, integration into an ASIC almost always yields user benefits. Stop wasting money with off the shelf solutions.

The STS Developers Kit combines a STS spectrometer, a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, customizable software with Ethernet, and wireless capabilities in single package.

DMLogic is the preferred integration partner for Seegrid Supervisor network appliance installed on-site, which communicates with AGVs over WiFi.

The PLC supports temperature measurement in three, 800 gallon fermenters, records batch data, and automates the circulation pump, transfer pump and 300,000 btu Boiler.

By Ed Romaine, Integrated Systems Design Materials handling process improvement directed at eliminating areas of waste and inefficiency can go a long way in helping manufacturers, warehouse and distribution operations meet lean and green initiatives while improving quality, service--and the bottom line.

Sappi Austria Produktions in Gratkorn, Austria, will use Experion PMD, Safety Manager, Experion MX and the latest version of Process Historian Database (PHD) based on the Experion platform.

Engineering is a wonderful career if you have a technical mindset. Consider your engineering degree as a "hunting license." Much of your college coursework will not be relevant to the actual work you

John Serfilippi was appointed President and Interim Chief Executive Officer upon the retirement of Michael F. Quinn, effective August 1st, 2014.

Profichip´s EtherCAT Master and Slave ASICs can be used in all devices in the factory network.

Byworth Boilers in Keighley, UK, uses ABB’s Freelance DCS to control and monitor its boilers. The DCS replaces discrete stand-alone controllers for each loop, such as the maintenance of water level.

HIMA formed HIMA Segurança e Controle Crítico Ltda (HIMA Safety and Critical Control) and will open an office in Sao Paulo.

By Mark Ingham, Sensor Technology Measuring torque accurately, particularly in rotating shafts, can often be challenging, but new technology is providing a better solution.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet, Industrial Internet Protocol (IP) all relate to the modernization and improvement of industrial automation. Is industrial automation evolving to become an integral part of enterprise computing, also referred to as IT?

Real Time Simulation of Nonlinear Generalized Predictive Control for Wind Energy Conversion System

The power generation system will operate on the gas from a landfill in Jyvaskyla, Finland.

Kaakani will replace David Eisner, who resigned his seat upon retiring from Honeywell.

The market for sensors in test and measurement earned revenues of $1.10 billion in 2013 and is estimated to reach $1.53 billion in 2020.

Adcole designs and builds Cylindrical Coordinate Measuring Machines ("CCMM") used for the precision gauging of critical engine components such as camshafts, crankshafts, and pistons.

Durex Industries is a North American designer and manufacturer of heaters, temperature sensors, controls and process systems.

The Leddar sensor module has been named the gold winner for Best New Product of the Year — Enterprise category in Best in Biz Awards 2014 International,