Articles and News

The InterTech Development Company web site has an online library of leak test and functional test applications. It explains how factors such as fixture design, systems integration, and customization of test instruments bear on Gauge R&R in real world applications.

The free handbook offers practical assistance in making precision low level DC and pulse measurements on nanomaterials and devices and provides an overview of the theoretical and practical considerations involved in measuring low currents, high resistances, low voltages, and low resistances.

It is anticipated that the Lumberg Automation Components acquisition will be completed in June or July of 2007.

Emerson products will be used at the Industrial Measurement and Control (IMC) training laboratory at New Zealand's Waikato Institute of Technology. The college is the only provider of IMC training at Level 4 and Level 5 of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority National Framework.

ICONICS received the Microsoft ISV Trailblazer Partner of the Year Award.

Experts from Invensys' pharmaceutical and biotechnology practices will help explore the relationship between enterprise integration and operational excellence in three separate workshops during the INTERPHEX 2007 conference at the Jacob K. Javits Center, New York, April 24 -26.

ISA will describe the ISA-SP18.02 standard addressing the development, installation, and management of alarm systems in the process industries at the Matrikon Summit, May 7-10, Chicago, IL.

Ethernet Direct's Industrial Ethernet Switches have been approved by the new Korean MIC certificate regulation. The new surge test has already been effective since January 1, 2007, concerning immunity, signal ports and telecommunication ports.

Mitsubishi will integrate Wonderware software into its e-F@ctory MES solutions and PLCs.

ISaGRAF is compatible with Beck's IPC@CHIPR SC123/SC143 series of embedded web controllers. By using ISaGRAF 5, IPC@CHIPR users have the option of using the IEC 61499 standard to easily create distributed control applications.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation announced the winners of its annual Directors and Family Student Scholarships. The top award is a full four-year scholarship.

Bosch Rexroth will supply hydraulic drives for the 678-foot high Great Beijing Wheel at the 2008 Olympic Games. Bosch will provide project engineering, shipment and installation of the complete hydraulic drive and control systems, as well as the automation for the passenger boarding stations.

Invensys is providing Foxboro I/A Series distributed control systems (DCS) for two new Husky Energy grassroots ethanol refineries in western Canada. Each of the two new plants will produce 130 million litres (34.3 million gallons) of ethanol annually, to be blended up to 10 percent into gasoline products.

SDI's A2LA accredited laboratory can calibrate force levels up to 300klbs/1334.4kNewtons and torque levels up to 360kin-lbs/40.6kNm. It uses a combination of NIST traceable force standards and NIST traceable dead weights to perform calibrations.

Omron merges safety equipment acquired from STI last year into a new category brand called 'STI' (Safety, Innovation & Technology). Its OS3101 Laser Safety Scanner would be the first product marketed under the new brand.

At a recent ISA-SP100.11a working group meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, 60 attendees unanimously approved the scope and systems architecture of Release 1 of the draft standard. Release 1 will assure multi-vendor device interoperability, and will include only 2.4 GHz 802.15.4-2006 radios.

The fully searchable site is broken down into various product groups: Sound Level Meters, Data Acquisition Systems, Human Vibration Meters, Spark Dosimeters, Acoustic Calibrators, Microphones & Accessories, and Software Products.

Annual sales of PROFIBUS nodes reached a new high of 3.4 million in 2006 according to figures just released by PI (PROFIBUS and PROFINET International). This brings the total number of PROFIBUS nodes installed worldwide to 18.8 million. PROFIBUS remains on track to surpass 20 million nodes by 2008.

Metso Automation will supply automated on-off ball valves to Chiyoda-Technip, a Joint Venture formed by Chiyoda Corporation, Japan and Technip, France. The value of the order is well over EUR 10 million.

Audco India Limited (AIL) won an R&D award from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) of India. AIL is a joint venture of Flowserve and Larsen & Toubro Limited.

Ethernet Direct now provides 4 support locations in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and soon in Delhi.

OMRON acquired the semiconductor business assets of Seiko Epson's consolidated subsidiary, Yasu Semiconductor Corp. The acquisition was completed on March 30, 2007.

Classes are free and train attendees on the use of AS-Interface technology for actuator and sensor networking. Classes are in Houston, TX in November.

Met-Mex Peñoles, SA de CV wili install Cyco Software’s AutoManager Meridian ECM solution with the Cyco AutoManager Maximo Module. Met-Mex is the largest non-ferrous metallurgical complex in Latin America, and the fourth largest in the world in terms of production value.

Enea acquired Swedish QiValue Technologies, a provider of Linux solutions. QiValue, with 13 employees, offers Linux services to equipment makers in the telecom and medical industry and specializes in development of Linux based embedded platforms and Linux training.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to Manufacturing Operations Management: ISA-95 Best Practices Book 1.0" shows the way to dramatically lower total cost of ownership for manufacturing IT architectures and manufacturing, as well as reducing supply chain operational costs.

ISA's SP99 standards development committee is making substantial progress on several fronts in its work to develop standards and guidelines for the electronic security of industrial automation and control systems.

Both groups are working to develop processes that will facilitate easier packaging line integration and improve efficiencies by reducing developmental costs and project schedules.

The WBF 2007 North American Conference will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, April 30 - May 3 at the Tremont Grand Conference Center.

Perkins will be responsible for leading, directing and managing LV & MV Drives businesses. Perkins will be based in the ABB facility in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

Rockwell Automation has named John Genovesi vice president of its automotive, tire and rubber industry initiative. Genovesi will lead the company’s efforts helping automotive, tire and rubber machine builders, components suppliers and end manufacturers compete on a global basis.

Rockwell Automation held its 100th Complete Automation on the Move show (CAOTM) in Las Vegas.

FKI won a contract to deliver a fully automated item handling and sorting system to the Malmö City Library in Sweden.

Bopp & Reuther Messtechnik is a flow expert in Germany. The firm offers a proprietary line of oval wheel meters, turbine meters, density and concentration meters, vortex meters and compact orifices for flow and volume metering. It has 7 Offices Across Germany.

Invensys Process Systems and Apprion have successfully implemented wireless applications at the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Lost Pines Power Park. LCRA recently merged these two plants under one functional management system with a layered WiMax/WiFi wireless infrastructure to help link the two plants.

NEXIQ Technologies has integrated McObject's eXtremeDB in-memory embedded database system in fleet vehicles as part of its eTechnician Web-based remote monitoring and diagnostics application. eTechnician is a wireless Web-based system that enables remote monitoring and diagnosis of on-the-road trucks and fleet vehicles.

Coleman will be responsible for planning, directing and implementing activities in the Product Management, Application Engineering and Customer Service Groups for Bosch Rexroth-Linear Motion and Assembly Technologies Group.

During this virtual conference on The Future of Nanotechnology, leading researchers from academia and business leaders from industry will present Six live audio/visual seminars. Two seminars will be held each day of the three-day conference. Each seminar is approximately 45 minutes long and includes interactive question and answer during each seminar. No charge to attend.

PEC has been awarded a $163,000 contract by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) to provide Motor Efficiency Controllers for 122 transit escalators.

An injection molding cell using a KUKA KR3 robot won the Gold award in its division and was named the “2007 Robot of the Year” at the National Robotics Challenge held March 9-10, 2007. The cell was designed, built, programmed and entered into the competition by the robotics team at Ohio Northern University.

ARC Informatique has been appointed distributor of Network Vision's IntraVue. IntraVue is a tool developed for the support of network equipment and the IP addressable devices connected to it.

Moxa will exhibit at the 2007 Hannover Messe tradeshow in Hannover, Germany, from April 16 to 20, 2007 in Booth C60, Hall 9.

The 3D Model provides individual customers with a customized solution created through a detailed needs assessment that focuses on three dimensions: business goals and objectives, operating environment and the instrument/equipment mix across the enterprise.

Application note describes how MultiComponent 2750 EP-NIR analyzer achieves precise, simultaneous measurement of water, methanol and total glycerin in B100 biodiesel samples.

The OMAC HMI Working Group organized a joint project between Boeing, Okuma and NIST to evaluate the integration of CNC to ERP and determine if part accountability could be achieved with minimal integration efforts using OPC/OMAC technologies.

The contracts specified the replacement work on several boiler burners at GSA managed federal buildings in Minneapolis and Grand Portage, Minnesota. FlowSense will replace several existing burners with high efficiency models and scope of work include replacement of associated controls, steam valves, and repiping work.

This program allow data center managers to know that their building management system has been integrated and proven out with PDI's Branch Circuit Monitoring System (BCMS). BCMS can monitor and report current and voltage measurements on each individual circuit branch breaker which can prevent overloading any of these circuits.

Electronics distributor Mayflex recently installed an automated storage systems for its warehouse in Birmingham, UK. Mayflex is a distributor of networking solutions throughout the UK & Ireland

In this role, Boie will be responsible for providing a strategic vision to the sales and marketing leadership team and will lead the attainment of profitable new machinery revenue growth.

Connect One opened a new office in San Jose, CA, and hired Ehud (Udi) Yuhjtman as President. Connect One manufactures semiconductors and device servers for Internet connectivity for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.

60 years ago the first "Hannover Export Fair" was born. This event laid the foundation for today's HANNOVER MESSE, and consequently for the great success story that the Hannover Exhibition Centre has become.

Bosch Rexroth AG increased sales in 2006 by 7.1 percent to approximately $6.2 billion (4.9 billion Euros). Sales grew 16 percent in Middle and Eastern Europe and 14 percent in Asia, including 33 percent growth in China. Sales in North and South America declined slightly in a difficult economic environment.

Bernecker + Rainer Industrie-Elektronik GmbH (B&R) in Eggelsberg achieved total sales of € 235 million in 2006 compared to € 190 million reached in the previous year. This reflects an increase of over 23%.

SEM Products, Inc., located in Charlotte, NC, is implementing the DEACOM Integrated Accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software System to manage all facets of its auto body paint, adhesive, and aerosol manufacturing operations.

Green Hills will exhibit at the IPv6 Summit in Reston, Virginia, and participate in two of the conference sessions.

Ethernet Direct France serves countries in Southern Europe.

The machine-to-machine communications event takes place in Milan, Italy on May 22-23. Topics include Machine to machine technologies; Sensor applications; Embedded, HMI & displays; and Open source & real time OS.

SOMA Networks will incorporate McObject’s eXtremeDB High Availability (HA) in-memory embedded database in its FlexMAX Mobile WiMAX System.

Scholl Forest Industries selected DEACOM ERP software to completely integrate its manufacturing and distribution operations. Scholl, headquartered in Houston, TX, is a lumber and building material distributor and truss manufacturer with 15 facilities.

AC motors are detailed in this six page capabilities brochure. The brochure includes outline drawings for three versions each of the new 34 frame (3.39" dia.) and 49 frame (4.91" dia.) AC motors.

The Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium has adopted the Green Hills Software DoubleCheck static analysis tool. EEMBC is running DoubleCheck on its software benchmark suite, consisting of more than one million source lines of code, and to help ensure the quality of new benchmark software being developed.

"Introduction to Wireless for Industry" will be held at 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, 28 March. Presenters Hesh Kagen, Peter Fuhr (CTO, Apprion), and Rob Conant (VP, Business Development, Dust Networks) will cover the basics of wireless technology.

CM Series Coriolis Flow Meters have been certified by FM [and FMC (Canada)] as Class I, Div I, Groups A, B, C and D rated for service in hazardous locations where combustible gases may be present.

Livingston & Haven will host the annual Innovation Fair on April 24, 2007 at the Speedway Club at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. The show will take place from 8:30 am until 3:30 pm with a free lunch provided to all attendees at 11:30.

IBS has purchased sixteen Adept Cobra i600 SCARA robots which will be used to build an automation line for high speed assembly of a class II medical device for a major international customer.

Founded at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, The Infinity Project provides engineering curricula designed for today’s high school and university classrooms, including a complete package of curriculum, industry-standard technology and professional development in more than 230 classrooms in 34 states.

The new division combines Emerson's Bristol, Fisher, Daniel, and Mobrey remote technology products and services into one larger, dynamic business to serve the remote measurement and control needs of the oil, gas, water and wastewater treatment industries.

The code samples provided in this easy download will help developers who are interested in adding OPC client capabilities to their Visual Basic and Visual C++ applications. VB OPC client code follows the code structure found in the OPC Automation Interface 2.0 specification.

Ray Almgren spoke at the International Technology Education Association Conference in San Antonio. During his keynote address, Almgren recognized outstanding technology education programs and discussed the important role engineering education plays in the industry.

GE Supply Company is now a stocking distributor for SIXNET industrial connectivity products and Ethernet I/O products. Based in Shelton, CT, GE Supply is comprised of more than 150 locations across the U.S., Puerto Rico and internationally.

One-day Workshops will be held in 2007 on July 31 in Scottsdale, AZ and a date to be determined in October in Boston, MA. The Workshops will provide potential PROFINET device developers, development managers and product marketers with a wide range of technical information, including PROFINET vendor presentations.

AlarmInsight for System 800xA has been Industrial IT Enabled. AlarmInsight connects Matrikon's ProcessGuard and Alarm MOCCA to ABB's Extended Automation System 800xA, providing System 800xA users with information from Matrikon's alarm management products.

Temperature Solutions Line Card brochure describes the company’s full line of temperature sensors, transmitters, and complete assembles; precision monitoring solutions for hi-tech facility and process control; and assemblies for making reliable surface measurements.

Strong economic activity in Asia is spurring the growth of manufacturing, which in turn is propelling the growth of the automation market in the region. The Asian market for Distributed Control Systems (DCS) is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.0% over the next five years, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

A committee of industry leaders and academia met at ISA headquarters to begin work on the learning objectives for an automation engineering curriculum for universities. "Our goal is to develop curriculum content for a 4-year automation engineering degree program," said committee chair Randy Buchanan of the University of Southern Mississippi.

Symbion and Labtronics offer integrated solutions combining the capabilities of Labtronics’ LimsLink with those of Symbion’s DX, RX, and LX product lines. The will provide customers with the advantages of LIMS integration and access to a spectroscopic data system.

Tyco Fire and Integrated Solutions UK will become the exclusive Oil & Gas / Petrochemical representative for RTP 2500 SIS in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, India and Kazakhstan.

According to the study, 83% of respondents had outsourced some or all of NPD activity, confirming that outsourcing of core product development is extremely important in today’s market.

RA Controls is a division of INTROL Group, and is able to offer design, supply, installation and activation of automatic and electrical appliances.

FKI Logistex will supply Chronopost International with a complete tilt-tray sortation system for the company's new 11,000 square-meter (118,000 square-foot) parcel hub in Chilly-Mazarin, near Paris, France. Chronopost, is building the new hub to support an ambitious three-year plan to redesign its entire transportation network.

Services available include engaging and deploying skilled technicians and engineers to consult on enterprise, government and other client projects, providing expert training and consulting on the effective use and deployment of PowerCAD technologies, and performing onsite project mentoring and building surveying.

Honeywell has been awarded a $7 million contract to implement an Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) and FOUNDATION Fieldbus solution at a new chemical plant operated by Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company (KPPC). The plant will produce aromatics materials, mainly paraxylene for exportation and benzene that will be used in other regional projects.

The Department of Sanitation of New York is incurring significant labor and costs savings with a new system of Intermec handheld computers and printers that helps agents issue tickets for recycling, health and administrative code violations.

The free 220+-page "Understanding New Developments in Data Acquisition, Measurement, and Control" handbook is a practical guide to high performance test and measurement. The handbook is divided into nine sections that discuss issues influencing the selection of data acquisition and control equipment.

Extio remote graphics units (RGUs) have been selected by ABB Automation Technologies for integration in the new ABB System 800xA Extended Operator Workplace, which provides a broad view of production processes to control room operators.

The 2007 ZigBee Alliance Developers Conference is being held at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose on April 3 to 5. Daintree training, "Designing, Commissioning and Managing Reliable ZigBee Systems," is being presented on Thursday April 5.

The Total Processing & Packaging show will be held in Birmingham, UK, May 15-18, 2007

The real automation highlight this year is the new Application Park, a project run jointly by the VDMA (German Engineering Federation) and Deutsche Messe. At this show within a show, mechanical engineers, robot manufacturers and automation service providers will be showcasing complete production solutions.

The resulting company, known as OA International bv, is a 200+ employee global automation solutions provider. Martin F. Wieffering, former CEO of KSE Protech is now OA International's Chief Executive Officer & Chairman.

"New Directions in Bioprocess Modeling and Control" focuses on the benefits that models offer before they are put online. Based on years of experience, the authors reveal that significant improvements can result from the process knowledge and insight that are gained when building experimental and first-principle models for process monitoring and control.

TenAsys Corporation and Intel present system architects and design engineers with new solutions. Listen to real-world examples that include a factory automation application with an HMI and real-time data acquisition and an application involving DSP replacement.

S2 Technologies appointed MDS Technology as its distributor in Korea. MDS has been focusing on the embedded industry for more than 13 years, serving about 750 customers such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai and others.

TI Will Integrate Tendril Network Operating Solution in the TI ZigBee Development Kit

Dataforth has increased production capacity by 50 percent through significant additions to production machinery, product inventory, square footage, and staff.

Monarch Cement chose Pavilion's Pyroprocessing Control Solution to optimize two kiln lines at its Humboldt, Kansas plant. Monarch will deploy the Model-Predictive Control (MPC)-based application to improve operating stability, enhance product quality, reduce specific energy costs and minimize NOx emissions.

Featuring a full day of education, information and technical updates on AS-Interface, ASi-tech 2007 will be held at the Old Trafford Football Club Stadium, Manchester, UK.

Halliburton Company will open its corporate headquarters office in the United Arab Emirates. Chairman, President and CEO Dave Lesar will move to Dubai. The headquarters in Dubai is the next step in a strategic plan announced in 2006 to focus on expanding its customer relations with national oil companies while concentrating more of the company’s investments and resources in growing its business in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Matrox will demonstrate the Extio1400 multi-display remote graphics unit (RGU) and PPX board-level display wall controller product.

Independent tests prove that the TRUNKGUARD device coupler works seamlessly with a DeltaV control system during repeated short-circuit testing and extreme temperatures. According to Evaluation International, TRUNKGUARD continued to operate and maintain communications with DeltaV after multiple short circuits on spurs, temperatures from -40 to 70°C, and operation at upper and lower voltage limits.

Bennet Levine, R&D Manager, will present a talk on how Managed Ethernet switches add up to big benefits in building automation systems (BAS) at the Building Automation Conference 2007 in Baltimore, MD, March 21st & 22nd.