Articles and News

Emerson’s WirelessHART network delivers real-time compressor data while saving $200,000 installed cost and overcoming difficult conditions for wired approach

exida certified the communication security and robustness of Experion Safety Manager to the Achilles Level I evaluation standard.

The capabilities of PLCs and weight controllers are maximized and costs reduced when a strong bidirectional interface is used. The PLC is capable of performing a variety of tasks, but a wiser (and now easier) solution is to offload some functions to a dedicated weight controller.

Manufacturers working to the new standard still need to exercise a high level of skill and caution in relation to the ratings they adopt for components used in their assemblies.

The LXI Consortium recently held its annual elections for the Board of Directors, officers and committee chairs.

Centro Energia Teverola optimized their maintenance strategy for inlet filters on gas turbines, contributing to an overall efficiency improvement of more than 1%.

Catalog is a collection of MMC-related product and solution literature, specifications and engineering software for mining.

Edwards was previously at Molex Incorporated (MOLX), Woodhead Industries and Rockwell Automation.

Klein is a graduate of Cornell University with a BS in Engineering and four years with Lenze-AC Tech, 16 years at Toshiba and four years with Reliance Electric.

TM Robotics formed a partnership with Italian vision specialist Tattile srl to provide a complete robot vision solution

AMT says U.S. manufacturing technology consumption was up in December but down 60% from 2008.

Web site covers maintenance and asset tracking software for all types of facilities.

Microsoft and MatrikonOPC will be demonstrating OPC UA connectivity for Microsoft StreamInsight at this year’s OPC Foundation training seminars.

Rockwell Software will help university staff determine optimal production levels for steam, chilled water and electricity generation to help reduce energy consumption, costs and environmental impact.

There is no doubt that the global competitive landscape has changed over the past few years. As emerging economies continue to grow and their demand for consumer products increases, new suppliers will sprout up within those economies to help local manufacturers meet those demands. Those suppliers and manufacturers could, and likely will, be your next competitors. Of course, there are challenges to being global, including geography, language and finances. Hannover Messe help you navigate the “unknown waters.”

ISA issued a Call for Papers inviting authors, experts, innovators, and automation professionals to submit abstracts for presentation consideration at the conference to be held in Houston, TX, 4-7 October 2010.

Local students from Cypress, Kennedy, El Toro, Tustin and Trabuco Hills high schools will be introduced to prototyping, tooling and additive manufacturing industries as prospective career choices.

Global Automation Partners has more than 130 employees in six offices who specialize in the definition, design, implementation and support of automation and manufacturing IT

Live chat service quickly answers questions Fluke customers may have about thermal imaging and Fluke thermography tools.

Fiberguide received ISO 9001:2008 certification for establishing and maintaining a quality management system for manufacture of fiber optic assemblies and optical fiber.

Saia Burgess, a manufacturer of motion control solutions, replaced stockroom shelving with four KardexRemstar horizontal carousels, pick-to-light technology and FastPic inventory management software.

The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) announced a list of companies that have been certified, recertified, or just joined.

Dust Networks' SmartMesh wireless sensor networking technology is being used by Federspiel Controls to monitor cooling systems in data centers and reduce energy costs by up to 25%.

The Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company replaced open ditch irrigation with a closed pipe system and Dynasonics wireless flow meters communicating to a SCADA system, and is saving 1,000 acre-feet of water per year.

The project will tap methane gas at the Baton Rouge landfill and deliver it to ExxonMobil and Novolyte Technologies, where it will be used to fire boilers.

Management uses Visual KPI to monitor and manage operations, predictive maintenance engineering, vibration analysis, emissions tracking and daily reports.

European research initiative EUREKA will be represented with its own stand at Research & Technology, which forms part of HANNOVER MESSE 2010 (19-23 April).

Evaluation Engineering, January 2010 By David Owen, Pickering Interfaces Article has case histories and gives selection advice on the two most common platforms for switching systems, PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) and LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI).

Mountz website provides a comprehensive overview of torque tools.

Net Safety Monitoring's UV/IR flame detection line has received qualification as SIL2 devices by exida.

Held from March 2 through May 18 in 11 cities, the seminar focuses on time-saving techniques for measurement and analysis using Tektronix oscilloscopes with NI LabVIEW software.

Roxar subsea wet gas meters are to be installed in the Greater Gorgon fields, one of the world’s largest untapped natural gas fields.

Prior to joining BlueCielo ECM Solutions, van der Scheer served as CEO of HITT NV, a company focusing on traffic management and navigation systems in the marine and aviation industries.

ABB Robotics will provide 15 robotic automation systems for the assembly and manufacturing of lithium-ion battery modules and packs.

Emerson's wireless pressure sensors were installed by Nynas AB to upgrade an underground storage tank monitoring system, reducing installation costs by €10,000 compared to a wired alternative.

Savings Predictor software is now available on Apple iTunes for iPhone (OS 3.1.2 or later) and iPod touch. It estimates energy savings when using a Variable Frequency Drive.

By RNA Toy manufacturer Tampoprint is using RNA robots and a vision system to feed 15 types of small plastic vests in 10 different colours to dress firemen, pirates or school teacher toys.

Yaskawa Elétrico do Brasil received ISO 9001, ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18001 certifications from Bureau Veritas

Eight-page color brochure covers OriMaster, a complete one-piece, orifice-plate DP flowmeter.

The 140-page issue covers serial conversion products, Ethernet serial servers, switches and gateways, wireless products, USB and remote I/O devices, enclosures, terminal blocks, power supplies, cabling, and surge protectors.

Unilever uses Astech automated testing systems to ensure that hair care products are developed to the highest possible performance

By Jako Winter, Metacom An automated electrical distribution automation network in Rawsonville, South Africa, proved its worth when a line fault briefly affected power supply to farms and packing houses in the area. Power was restored to 75% of these customers in 90 seconds.

Megah Suria will sell CoroWare's CoroBot and Explorer robots in the Asia-Pacific region.

The nine flagship shows that make up HANNOVER MESSE 2010 will bring together all the key industrial sectors at a single venue and cover a unique thematic spectrum.

The official information event kicking off Italy's participation as the Partner Country at HANNOVER MESSE 2010 (19 to 23 April) took place at the Italian Embassy in Berlin.

Courses help SCADA engineers and other utility personnel evaluate, test, implement and troubleshoot multi-vendor substation communication devices.

All 168 turbines at two wind parks will be equipped with an ABB integrated ring main unit (RMU) and switchgear solution.

Silver Spring Foods will use the ERP system to manage its recipe management, quality control/quality assurance, accounting, lot tracking/inventory control, purchasing, sales order entry, and production processes.

Specializing in the electrical, instrumentation, and control integration fields, Supra Controls uses MatrikonOPC products for its OPC data connectivity solutions.

By Rockwell Automation Paper summarizes key features and capabilities of an effective arc-resistant MCC design and explains how this technology can help reduce arc-flash hazards and minimize risks.

Rockwell Automation and Rockwell Collins will present a FIRST interactive station where Scouts will have the opportunity to take part in hands-on robotics demonstrations.

A pilot ethanol processing plant built by Chematur Engineering uses Emerson's DeltaV control system with WirelessHART, Wi-Fi, FOUNDATION fieldbus, AMS, and Rosemount wireless pressure and temperature transmitters.

More than one-third of North American manufacturers say they’ve experienced a significant supply chain disruption in the past three months.

ABB will supply a complete distributed control system (DCS) solution for a new 427-megawatt, gas-fired thermal power plant.

Scandisign, a supplier of LED-based traffic signs, used an Anybus-IC from HMS to connect to Profibus and then Ethernet/Modbus.

Walsall specializes in the development and manufacture of enclosures and electromechanical equipment for use in hazardous areas.

Bison was established in 1960 by three Chicago area entrepreneurs who derived the company's name from their last initials of B-S-N.

BACnet International and the EnOcean Alliance will develop a vendor independent gateway specification for integrating wireless energy-harvesting nodes into BACnet for building automation and control.

March 9, 2010 Long Beach, CA Free seminar covers how to access diagnostics and device parameters without installing and maintaining multiple, proprietary software applications on a maintenance station or laptop.

The symposium, 28-29 April 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana, will focus on threats—including cyber security threats—to industrial environments and the steps engineers must consider when designing and optimizing industrial processes and Safety Instrumented Systems.

For the next two years, machine builders, users and integrators can use either EN 954-1:1996, EN ISO 13849-1:2006, or EN ISO 13849-1:2008 to prove presumption of conformity with the Machinery Directive.

CoDeSys Users’ Conference will also come to Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Sweden and, for the first time, also tour through China.

Dresser Masoneilan will provide steam pressure reducing valves, desuperheaters and associated equipment required for the project’s steam conditioning and turbine bypass systems.

By Jim McMahon, Dematic Capable of building mixed-case pallets from an inventory of over 10,000 SKUs, the latest evolution in Automated Mixed-Case Palletizing represents an advance in case palletizing.

Three catalogs include Industrial Ethernet, Industrial Communications and Industrial Automation.

Cimac implements automation, control and electrical distribution solutions, primarily for water-wastewater and oil & gas customers in the Middle East Gulf region.

The industrial PC market structure is fragmented, with no dominant player on a regional or global level.

The award is bestowed on exceptional innovations that are showcased for the first time at HANNOVER MESSE 2010. The award presentation takes place as part of the official opening ceremony for HANNOVER MESSE on 18 April 2010.

The event's presentations and panel discussions will examine the vital role of renewables and energy efficiency in the integrated, sustainable energy supply models of the future.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will open HANNOVER MESSE 2010, underscoring Italy's status as a key player at Germany's major industrial exhibitions.

The newly compliant products bring the total number of LXI-compliant instruments to 1288, which are available from 28 different LXI vendors.

Longwatch, a supplier of video monitoring hardware and software products, was named by Wonderware as a Certified Software Partner.

B&R Industrial Automation formed a team of packaging experts to work closely with the packaging industry community.

First introduced in 1994, the product and its digital communication and diagnostic capabilities changed the way process control manufacturers monitor control valves.

Robotic TurnKey Solutions, an integrator of robotics and atomation equipment is an ABB robotics authorized integration partner.

Siemens will supply electrification, Simatic PCS 7 process automation and instrument measurement technologies for three new biochemical production facilities.

Siemens will deliver to students and faculty a more comfortable interior environment with better management of heating, ventilation and air conditioning and lighting.

Atego offers design and development tools and services for modeling architectures, safety-critical systems and software.

Wind Turbines, by reason of their design, location of installation and operation, do not abide by any international standard for vibration.

Iram will succeed Daniel Steele who will remain as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

John F. Caskey, senior director of NEMA's Power Equipment Division, has been named vice chair of the Governing Board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel.

Test system ensures that SERCOS III slave implementations from different manufacturers are compatible and interoperable.

While they may sound like futuristic concepts, micromanufacturing and nanomanufacturing are becoming the biggest thing in our industry since the moving assembly line.

The company is now operating under the name System Logistics Corporation, a member of the Italian company, System Group S.p.A.The company.

Emerson will install PlantWeb, Ovation expert control system and AMS Suite at the six-unit (6 X 135-MW), coal-fired plant to be located in Angul, Orissa, in eastern India.

The 20,000 sq. ft. facility is currently dedicated to R&D for machine vision, machine vision lighting, direct part mark reading, and verification.

PlantState Suite alarm software and services will improve safety and operability at twelve sites comprising gas-fired, coal-fired, and hydro-electric power generation stations.

Landmark covers the growing Chinese marketplace with four offices: Beijing (North China), Wuhan (Middle China), Shanghai (East China), Chengdu (Southwest).

After a fire destroyed the manufacturing process, Research Products had two options: either rebuild using equipment comparable to what had previously been used, or investigate ways to automate the manufacturing process.

Lagoe will continue his role as managing director of the Nottingham, U.K., operation of HayssenSandiacre.

The beverage packaging industry is experiencing a period of increasing innovation in design, materials and efficiency intended to meet cost and environmental concerns.

For the first time in its 78-year history, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) has elected a woman to lead the organization.

Eight-page color brochure from ABB Instrumentation covers damper drive solutions for improved boiler control.

ABB's Safety Execution Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina has been certified by TÜV as having in place and applying a Functional Safety Management System (FSMS).

SHEC Energy entered into an agreement with Emerson Process Management to help bring online new solar thermal facilities for power generation.

OMNI Flow Computers is the newest member of the MatrikonOPC Vendor Partner Program.

Products to be supplied include power and distribution transformers, an 800xA power-plant control system, and a micro SCADA for real-time monitoring.

By Ed Romaine, KardexRemstar The movement and storage of tooling and dies can represent a significant portion of the cost of production. Here's how to select a vertical storage system.

Aster Capital fund will finance innovative start-ups based in Europe, North America and Asia in the fields of energy and the environment.

The ISA100 standards committee, Wireless Systems for Automation, will hold a series of meetings at the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Florida, 9-11 February.