Articles and News

LaRue Coffee Roasterie of Omaha, Nebraska, has gone live with the Epicor Tropos enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

The valves will be used in an MDI integration project (diphenymethane disocyanate) and a new PO/AE integration project under construction in China (epoxy propane and acrylic ester).

The three-year Global Qualification Certificate is for the Rotork BGS1 subsea gearbox, a specialised product designed for torque inputs of up to 3500 Nm at operating depths of 3000 metres.

Lockheed Martin chose Perle Fiber Media Converters to provide copper to fiber conversion in a harsh Data Imagery application. It's all very hush-hush, though.

BgB Supply, an online distributor of electrical control panel components based out of Omaha, Neb., is launching its new website and branding.

Honeywell will supply an Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) to control plant processes and general refinery facilities as part of the third stage of construction of the Antipinsky Refinery in Tyumen, Russia.

Barrdega Sistemas is a full-service consulting and systems integration firm that designs, deploys and integrates end-to-end supply chain solutions in Panama.

Forsblad has been named the Project Director of Industrial Automation, one of the 11 trade fairs under the unifying umbrella of HANNOVER MESSE.

The role of technology in warehouses has shifted from purely reducing costs and has increasingly expanded into adjacent benefits that can drive differentiation and profitable growth for businesses.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Doug McCuistion described the challenge that the Mars Exploration Program presented and how they took a “project-by-project” approach to achieve one of the most monumental space exploration feats of the century. This article highlights some engineering lessons that I extracted from his discussion about overcoming their obstacles.

The £1 million pound competition for any start-up from around the world to come to London and set up its headquarters has attracted hundreds of companies, mostly mobile applications, computer networking and Internet software.

The two systems integrators divided the world: JR will service and support customers in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and AWL will support customers in Europe and China.

By Bill Lydon, Editor GE Intelligent Platforms recently announced their Proficy Monitoring & Analysis Software Suite and believes the Suite is the first to address industrial big data by combining industrial Historian technology with Hadoop (High-availability distributed object-oriented platform) technology for asset health with process optimization.

ABB’s integrated automation, fire and gas, and emergency shutdown system enables the station and the terminal to be monitored and controlled by remote from one control room.

ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) approved pressure instrumentation from American Sensor Technologies.

By Macro Sensors While DC-LVDTs eliminate the need for calibration and additional equipment, AC-LVDTs continue to possess their own set of benefits.

Getting real about pressure transmitter accuracy

The global market for pneumatic valves and actuators, estimated to be worth nearly $8 billion in 2012, is undergoing a competitive shakeup as low-cost Chinese suppliers continue to expand into the U.S. and Europe.

More than one hundred valves a day will be assembled directly on-site in Singapore in the future.

“Industry in Transition: The Information Driven Enterprise,” will feature 11 programs and 36 sessions focused on exploring the latest industry trends and hottest new technologies.

Certification program helps ensure customers’ industrial networks are reliable, adaptable and support growing control and information needs.

Oulu Vocational College is the first educational institution in Finland to provide a fully automated, mobile crushing plant for its students. Metso provided the automation.

If a person is extremely intelligent, it will be obvious to everyone after a casual conversation.

Morley will deliver a mid-day presentation on Friday, 13 September titled, “What Does Pack Size Have to Do with Marketing?”

Wynright is a U.S.-based provider of material handling systems, conveyor and sortation systems, order fulfillment technology, warehouse controls, robotics, mezzanines, and structures.

The largest pharmaceutical company in Southeast Asia--PT Kalbe Farma--successfully started up PAS-X at its headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia.

CityNext is an initiative designed to help governments, businesses and citizens reimagine what is next for their cities.

This simulation-based troubleshooting training system develops skills for troubleshooting all types of electrical circuits and equipment effectively and efficiently.

Held in Orlando, Florida, USA, on 6-8 August at the Crowne Plaza Orlando-Universal Hotel, the symposium attracted more than 250 attendees.

The game is available in the iTunes Store and shows in a playful manner how the common network infrastructure for sercos III and EtherNet/IP works.

Customizable pressure and thermal sensor solutions include modules with multiple sensors and technologies integrated inside.

By QA Graphics If you’re considering developing an app for your organization, be clear on the difference between native mobile apps and a mobile website, and then identify which will best suit your needs.

June U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $155 million, down 6.6 percent from May and down 12.8 percent from the June 2012 level of $195 million.

Coupled with component MES, enterprise batch records provide manufacturers with a cost efficient, non-disruptive (to their existing installed base of technology) manufacturing IT solution that is scal

Three-quarters of revenue in the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region from sales of products suitable for use in hazardous areas were from the oil and gas industry in 2012.

Sensor sales in the food and beverage industry were $2,891.5 million in 2012 and Frost & Sullivan estimates this to reach $4,157.8 million in 2018.

Based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, BBP Sales will cover Louisiana and areas of southern Arkansas and southern Mississippi.

Rotork Australia supplied Fairchild Model 10 pressure regulators for research applications demanding highly accurate pressure control at the TRI Australasia facility near to Queensland’s Gold Coast.

With this service, ABB experts can monitor and analyze a mine hoist system remotely.

As part of a project to supply Neutral Earthing Resistors (NER) to be used by the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), Cressall has successfully conducted pre-qualification testing at an accredited laboratory CESI in Milan.

By John Browett, CC-Link Just as Asian vehicle manufacturers, such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda, build cars in Europe for the local market, European manufacturers should consider doing the same in Asia. Industry 4.0 can help do this.

Global shipments for motion control products fell by 6.8% in the first half of 2013, according to the Motion Control Association (MCA), the industry’s trade group.

Anchor Information Technology, Hentor and Hyrus will rep HighJump's Supply Chain Advantage suite .

June U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $426.83 million, down 5.8% from May. With a year-to-date total of $2,538.55 million, 2013 is down 5.7% compared with 2012.

The 2.1 million square-foot building is the second-largest structure in Wisconsin to receive this certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Proper alarm methods improve safety, the environment and plant profitability.

Investments in infrastructure in many part of the world caused continued demand for high power AC drives.

By Chris Hansford, Hansford Sensors A range of vibration sensors and monitoring techniques are now available that can help engineers detect and manage vibration, and thus extend the operating life of automated machinery beyond recommended maintenance intervals.

SeaTec Repair Services will install Micro Motion fuel measurement solutions for marine customers.

By Renishaw Amicra Microtechnologies manufactures precision assembly systems. They replaced incremental measuring systems with absolute optical encoders and achieved ±0.5µm accuracy and 1.66 Cpk process capability.

As an engineer, your publications are as important for recognition of your expertise as publications of a supplier for recognition of a product’s capability.

Compliance with increasingly tough safety regulations will remain a major factor driving investment in safety systems and toxic gas detectors among oil & gas, refining, petrochemical and mining customers.

More than half of all wireless-enabled industrial automation equipment shipped in 2012 used Bluetooth or 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LAN (WLAN) technology.

ABB will provide a new substation and upgrade an existing one at Africa’s biggest copper mine, being built in the northwestern province of the country.

Endress+Hauser is expanding its flowmeter manufacturing factory in Suzhou, China.

B&R's environmental testing laboratory in Eggelsberg, Austria, was given accreditation in accordance with EN ISO/IEC 17025:2007.

TI Code Composer Studio 5.2.1 can now be used to develop low-level DSP applications that can run stand-alone or communicate with a Windows application.

Taking the lead on the development of the cybersecurity framework

ISA will conduct six of its most in-depth technical training courses over five consecutive weeks beginning Monday, 30 September 2013.

ARC says Asia will become the largest PLC market from 2016 onwards. But what about Industry 4.0 and reshoring? Just wishful thinking?

Konecranes provides various retrofit options including software design, integration and installation of new control packages to replace existing aged control systems.

D’Amico continues to serve as President of MIRTEC’s North American Sales and Service Division, MIRTEC Corp., and ISVI.

CeMAT Russia Is the leading intralogistics trade fair for the whole of Russia and the neighboring former states of the Soviet Union.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for more capital expenditures on industrial automation products than anywhere else in the world, with 46 percent of global investments in 2012.

Controls Southeast provides proprietary heating systems for industrial piping, valves and instruments as well as jacketed piping and specialty fabrication products.

exida certified SSX and SST Safety Series isolator and splitter for functional safety, ensuring that they meet the functional safety requirements for Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2 capability per IEC 61508:2010.

Important factors and specific trim controller configurations for gaining control of effluent residual in wastewater facilities.

India is on the way to becoming a manufacturing location of global status, and meanwhile ranks 6th among the world’s biggest markets for machine tools. EMO Hannover is taking this trend responsively with “EMO Focus on India.”

The site has been configured to allow users to quickly access and share product data at the part detail level.

Alpha Packaging deployed InfinityQS ProFicient at its St. Louis and Bethlehem, Pa., plants with the remaining five plants scheduled for rollout during the 2013 calendar year.

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensing technology originally developed by NASA represents a 20-fold improvement over existing sensing solutions and could represent a quantum leap forward for industries as diverse as automotive, aerospace, oil & gas, nuclear energy, medical devices, and wind energy.

The new office is in west Houston.

The new technical specification defines a fieldbus transducer block used within FOUNDATION for ROM devices to communicate with ISA100.11a instruments.

The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) announces companies that have recently joined the association, become certified, or become recertified.

Altera’s solutions implement both the protocol IP and software stack into an FPGA using programmable logic and a soft embedded processor.

Control loop audits, advanced process control project management, and model predictive control project support have together helped MOL achieve savings of over $9 million since 2006.

The initiative will help automation and IT professionals secure their industrial processes with a combination of control system design and best practices, contemporary technologies and professional services.

The UV process gas analyzers will be used on Sulfur Recovery Units (SRU) and Tail Gas Treating Units (TGTU) at the Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company’s (Al Hosn Gas) Shah Gas Field project in the United Arab Emirates.

In wastewater effluent facilities not having good control of residual results in chemical waste. Gaining effluent residual control is more important than having an excellent process tuning.

The Det-Tronics FlexSonic Acoustic Gas Leak Detector meets functional safety requirements for Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2 capable per IEC 61508.

Lincoln Electric received Certified Robot Integrator designation from the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry’s trade group.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Schneider Electric is closing in on the purchase of Invensys. This is an unfolding story that looks to be on course to achieve the goals that Invensys and Schneider Electric management believe is good for their combined customer base.

Patti Hoff, former Vice President of Finance, has been promoted to President of Patti Engineering.

Catalog covers hydraulic tie rod cylinders, with data on selection criteria and features, product specifications, mounting options, spare parts, service and repair, ordering information, and more.

Emerson supplied a DeltaV automation system and SIS safety instrumented systems on a new hydro cracking/hydrodesulphurization unit, hydrogen generation unit, sulphur recovery unit in Croatia.

ABB provided three ACS800 wind converters and three matching Baldor induction generators.

By Bill Lydon, Editor At the recent Honeywell User Group (HUG) 2013 conference, Honeywell announced new services under the Assurance 360 program for owners of Honeywell systems. The overall goal of these programs is a reduction of unplanned events, faster problem resolution, and better plant performance.

You must earn respect, and show respect to others. An engineering degree (or lack thereof) is a poor indicator of an individual’s knowledge level.

By Dr. Guido Beckmann, EtherCAT Technology Group EtherCAT is an open, real-time capable communication system which is widely used in manufacturing automation and, due to its properties, is also ideal for mobile applications such as heavy vehicles.

The Butantan Institute is a Brazilian biomedical research center affiliated to the São Paulo State Secretary of Health.

Spuntech Industries’ North Carolina plant has a Profibus network that runs seven PLCs with approximately 350 nodes. To help diagnose problems, Spuntech installed Trebing + Himstedt’s TH LINK hardware and TH SCOPE diagnostic software.

The Littleton/Englewood Wastewater Treatment in Colorado had 35 gateway access points to monitor and troubleshoot all the instruments and processes within the Profibus network. They replaced the gateways with Trebing + Himstedt’s TH LINK devices.

Cybersecurity Tech Pack is an assembly of technical papers, PowerPoint presentations, technical books and InTech articles developed by experts in cybersecurity and industrial automation and control systems security.

The Boy Scout merit badge is designed to introduce youth to various kinds of software programming.

ISA Training and Education in August: Learn, Advance, Succeed

180 page catalog covers precision motorized positioning stages and motion control equipment for vacuum and UHV environments.

On-line store provides application modules and productivity tools, including device description files, utilities, tested application libraries, additional visualization elements and tool plug-ins for CODESYS users.

Research offers a new methodology for digitally redesigning an existing analog Smith predictor control system, such that the cascaded analog controller with input delay can be implemented with a digit

ControlMaestro has been recognized as BACnet Advanced operator WorkStation (B-AWS) according to the BACnet 09 version test procedure of the BTL/WSPCert accredited laboratory.

10,854 robots valued at $679.3 million were ordered from North American robotics companies in the first six months of 2013, an increase of 1.9% over the same period in 2012 and 1.3% above the previous first-half record set in 2005.