Articles and News

A market study by Venture Development Corporation finds that the Asia-Pacific industrial electronic temperature controller market is not only the largest of the major regions, but is also the fastest growing.

As an Agilent Channel Partner, G Systems will provide value-added engineering systems integration services featuring Agilent’s electronic instrumentation. Key markets for both Agilent and G Systems include aerospace/defense, telecom, manufacturing, semiconductor, oil exploration, and medical.

ESA elettronica S.p.A., a leading European and international supplier of industrial computers and HMI devices, will now offer InduSoft's Windows-based HMI/SCADA software bundled with their Windows CE-based line of Operator Terminals. CEView enables users to create HMI and SCADA applications tailored to their specific industry and applications.

The program is aimed to rapidly grow our partners' business by offering NetBiter products and solutions. An NSP will be able to get discounted products, selling tools, technical and marketing support, special training and more.

The acquired business primarily serves automotive and industrial manufacturers of rubber molded and extruded components and includes the trade names Chemosil, Flocksil, Cuvertin and Sipiol.

In addition, the Square D We Care program is in effect in FEMA-declared disaster areas in New England, including the hard-hit areas of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, to address public safety issues and support electrical professionals as they repair damaged electrical structures and systems. The company will donate a percentage of revenues from related equipment sales to the American Red Cross to help bring relief and assistance to those in need.

The system will use the KUKA KR 180 PA 4-axis robot and a proprietary end-of-arm tool designed by Mecano that utilizes KUKA servo motors to depalletize layers of bottles reducing customer costs, increasing cycle times and improving overall quality.

Advanced Control Systems (ACS) recently completed successful factory acceptance tests of new SCADA systems for Rutherford Electric Membership Corporation of Forest City, North Carolina, and Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corp. of Lenoir, NC. These successful tests are significant milestones in a plan to have four NC co-op systems fully operational by mid-2006.

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announced today that Tec Industries, LLC, a contract manufacturer of advanced carbon fiber composite products, has signed a contract to implement IFS Applications™ business software. The company will deploy the IFS system at its headquarters and manufacturing and distribution facility in Orange City, Iowa, and Quatro engineering and development facility in Poway, California.

The German electric drives market is seeing growth in a variety of new, intelligent, multi-functional products, as end-users seem to be showing a preference for these units for space, cost saving and ease of installation reasons. Technology advancements reflect trends such as decentralisation of drives, higher safety and security and integration of Ethernet in the communication process.

Customers tell us that Product Quality Management software is available from a variety of vendors. The goal of this class is to show you how to implement such a system with the software you may already own.

A new release of GAGEpack EZ, with enhanced email capabilities and a visual catalogue system for gages, offers improved capabilities for meeting customers’ measurement systems requirements and conforming to standards. The program can be downloaded for a 30-day free trial from PQ Systems’ web site.

In addition to the higher output voltage, the IEEE802.3at committee agreed on a motion to increase the number of classification levels for the PD to up to 10 classes for 2-pair systems, including existing IEEE802.3af classes.

To qualify for critical nuclear valve applications, the Fisher FIELDVUE valve controllers achieved commercially-dedicated status through a testing and dedication process, conducted in accordance with the industry-sponsored Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) guidelines. This process validates the use of commercial grade digital equipment for safety-related applications. The EPRI digital component evaluation process is defined in the publication, "Guideline on Evaluation and Acceptance of Commercial Grade Digital Equipment for Nuclear Safety Applications, TR-106439."

The Foxboro unit of Invensys Process Systems has announced that a control center at the Potomac River Generating Station, in Alexandria, Virginia, won a control room “makeover,” valued up to $350,000, following a nationwide campaign. The 482-megawatt, five-unit facility is owned by Mirant and serves customers in Washington, D.C.

The development partnership will involve the integration of Pertinence's Rules Maker and Operations Advisor business intelligence products into Apriso's FlexNet® operations execution platform. The combined solution will provide customers with a new tool for capturing data and learning best practices from product and process history. Empowered with that on-line information, operators will be better able to reduce scrap and improve quality.

In a statement released today, Bob Rouleau said “The close of this acquisition combines CalAmp’s long, successful history of delivering cost-effective high quality solutions with Dataradio’s unparalleled portfolio of high performance wireless RF products. This combination is expected to energize future growth across both businesses. In addition to giving us the purchasing power to reduce our manufacturing costs, CalAmp brings some great technology to the combined company. There is a lot of synergy and I’m very excited about what we can do together.”

A new Indian electricity policy has set ambitious goals to bring access to the electricity to all Indian households. The emphasis is in rural electrification; 125,000 villages translating into over 25 million households. This demand is to be fully met by 2012. Viola's Arctic IEC-104 Gateway, a product specified together with ABB, helps power utilities save costs and improve distribution management.

Wavetrend, the world-leading manufacturer of active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, is pleased to announce two new board positions with the appointment of Ken Moss as Executive Chairman and Charles Cameron as a Non-Executive Director. In addition, Adrian Segens has been appointed as Head of Sales and Marketing for Europe. By strengthening the management team, Wavetrend plans to capitalize on the significant opportunities for growth in the active RFID market.

The Engelberger Robotics Award is the robotic industry’s ultimate honor. Four leaders were presented awards at the 37th International Symposium on Robotics, May 16, during AUTOMATICA in Munich, Germany. The awards—named for Joseph F. Engelberger, considered the “father of robotics”—recognize significant achievements in the areas of leadership, application, education and technology development.

ABB announced today that Robert N. (Bob) Hausler has been appointed Vice-President Marketing and Strategic Planning for Instrumentation in its Automation Products Division. He will be based at ABB's US headquarters for Instrumentation in Warminster, PA. In his new role, Hausler will immediately focus on top line growth, portfolio management, and strategic planning.

BETA, located in The Netherlands, serves virtually all industry sectors with a broad range of pressure and temperature switch products. BETA currently operates throughout Europe, Asia, and portions of the Middle East. Through this acquisition, K-TEK is planning to offer all BETA products through K-TEK's distribution network in the Americas and in selected countries within Asia and the Middle East.

The program now includes 90% of pressure measurement products, 80% of DolpHin pH sensors, plus many popular magnetic flowmeters, strip chart recorders, and electronic indicating recorders. Rocket Shipment is an industry-first order processing and production system that facilitates a 24-hour turn around of custom orders for a broad range of Foxboro instrumentation products at no extra charge.

Flowserve Corp., a global provider of fluid motion and control products and services, announces the launch of new Learning Resource Center (LRC) instructional labs, which offer hands-on technical facilities for pump, valve and seal system optimization and maintenance training. The LRC is an innovation in the industry, offering hands-on training in a simulated plant environment that features complete pumping systems and equipment from both Flowserve and other manufacturers.

As a Gold Certified Partner, Intermec has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and a proven ability to meet customers' requirements. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive advantage in the channel.

Scheduled for November 29-December 1, 2006, at the Hilton Americas Hotel in Houston, Texas, the event will feature Yokogawa Electric Corporation President and CEO, Isao Uchida, as a keynote speaker and offer attendees a glimpse into the heart of Yokogawa R&D developments.

Les Machineries AutomaTech plans on using KUKA Robots in wood product manufacturing application cells designed to increase small and medium sized manufacturers' efficiency. Les Machineries AutomaTech Inc. is a leading engineering consulting firm specializing in industrial automation.

The system allows Atlas to offer value-added RFID services to clients that are progressively being required to meet RFID mandates of mass-merchandiser behemoths like Wal-Mart. "This project allowed us to extrapolate many of the best practices we discovered through our initial deployment at Sikeston [Missouri], and build yet another solid RFID infrastructure for Atlas [Cold Storage] here in Appleton, Wisconsin." says Arsalan Ahmed, Director of RFID Development at Ship2Save.

The D10 Series consists of three high-performance models that service a range of application demands. Models include the D10 Expert™ with Numeric Display, D10 Expert with Bargraph Display and D10 Discrete Output. The D10 Expert models also feature intuitive push-button TEACH that allows static, dynamic or single-point programming.

AlarmAnalyst presents graphical on-line representations of the state of a process plant using alarms, events and operator actions. Time stamps on all values are obtained from the control systems, as part of the acquired data, for a true root cause analysis. Plant stability can be assessed using real-time displays of trends in alarm behavior.

Clark, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of material handling experience, was previously director, international and newspaper operations. Clark joined FKI Logistex in 1999, and was instrumental in developing the company's manufacturing-based business in the United Kingdom. He has played a major role in building the customer base in Mexico and Canada for FKI Logistex Manufacturing Systems North America.

This white paper prepared by MasterControl discusses why SOPs are more than just a tool of operation. SOPs directly affect product quality, and therefore, compliance. Once established, an efficient and effective SOP management system will serve as a foundation for an organization's sustainable compliance and long-term success in the market.

The Nanotest Weblog keeps visitors abreast of the latest news in the nanotechnology and MEMS industry through frequent posts of technical and business developments. Linda Bell, Publisher of Nanotech Briefs, said she expects the new blog to be an important contribution to the emerging field of nanotechnology.

This acquisition follows the acquisition of Invensys Advanced Building Systems (ABS EMEA) completed in July 2005 and will be very complementary with Schneider Electric’s building automation platform. IBS generated revenues of $142 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, with operating profit of $20 million. The company is a leading provider of building automation products and services in North America with interesting positions in Asia.

Emerson will supply 220 Fisher control valves with Fisher DVC6000 digital valve controllers. The $1.4 million order includes the Fisher high-pressure globe valves and Vee-Ball® rotary valves as well as Baumann general service control valve products. Of these, 30 Fisher control valves on critical applications will be supplied with advanced diagnostics.

As of the first of April, METRO suppliers have been able to ship tagged pallets with Gen 2 RFID technology. Metro Cash & Carry, the market leader in self-service wholesale, is using a new Gen 2 RFID infrastructure that includes Intermec's Gen 2 IF5 UHF RFID reader coupled with IBM middleware. The Intermec RFID Gen 2 technology deployed in METRO Group's Cash & Carry stores creates a platform on which to build interoperable RFID products and systems that will effectively track and trace pallets to ultimately improve inventory management.

The Innovation Award, created to recognize excellence in the Asian electronics industry, was presented at the magazine's awards ceremony on April 5, 2006. The Model 2910 features an unrivaled combination of high-performance, speed, flexibility, ease of use, and compact size. Its design includes a patent-pending synthesizer, Software-Defined Radio (SDR) architecture, unique power leveling techniques, and a touch-screen user interface.

This is the second consecutive year Intermec has been named a Cisco U.S. STI Partner of the Year. The Cisco Partner Summit Theater Awards are conferred to partners who meet and score the highest on a specific set of requirements that are designed to identify the best channel partners by theater. These include customer satisfaction, year-over-year growth of Cisco sales and complying with the Cisco Channel Partner Program.

Honeywell announced the agenda for its 2006 Users’ Group Americas Symposium, which will be held June 11-16 in Phoenix with the theme, “Adapting to Change.” Honeywell customers from around the world will meet to exchange ideas, share their experiences and create strategies for meeting their toughest business challenges, including those related to security, energy efficiency and the integration and management of new technologies. Honeywell’s Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS) R300, wireless technology and life cycle management will be the focus of this year’s event.

AssistWare's LDW system uses a small video camera and machine vision technology to watch the road ahead and alert drivers if they unintentionally leave their lane, or if their driving pattern becomes erratic. In a recent U.S. Department of Transportation study, AssistWare's LDW technology was shown to significantly reduce unintended lane departures, which are known to be a major cause of truck accidents.

The report provides the reader with an instantaneous snapshot of the basic performance parameters of all available finished inventory, including DC Motors, Servo Motors, DC Gear motors, Linear Actuators, Motor Speed Controls, Servo Amplifiers and DC Power Supplies.

Frost & Sullivan presented the Award in recognition of Siemens' consistent focus in providing innovative solutions that add value to its automotive customers. Additionally, Frost & Sullivan commended Siemens for addressing the challenge of developing worldwide industry standards for the automotive industry by providing customers with a single hardware platform for diverse manufacturing applications.

The SP100.14 working group will define wireless connectivity standards optimized for the unique performance and cost needs of a wide range of industrial monitoring, logging and alerting applications. The SP100.11 work group will define wireless connectivity standards addressing a wide range of applications optimized but not restricted to the unique performance needs of control applications ranging from closed loop regulatory control through open loop manual control.

The LXI Consortium’s fifth PlugFest event was the first to be held outside of North America. The event, which took place April 25-27 in Munich, Germany, had 69 registered attendees representing more than 25 different organizations -- manufacturers, system integrators, customers, universities and the press. LXI member Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) hosted the event at its local training center.

The eAutomation eXpress is an informational and educational vehicle that will travel across North America to provide hands-on interaction with Advantech’s Industrial Automation products. The vehicle is a 24’ van with active production demonstrations.

The ISA-95 standards help to reduce the costs, risks, and errors associated with implementing enterprise systems and manufacturing operations systems so that they interoperate and easily integrate. The standards may also be used to reduce the effort associated with implementing new product offerings.

With increasing globalization, large End Users require coordinated service for subsidiaries all over the world. B&R is creating new positions in order to keep up with this trend. Uwe Keiter (42) will be taking over the position as Global Account Manager, making him responsible for international End User service in the Food & Beverage segment.

Invensys Process Systems has recently completed a fast-track implementation of SimSci-Esscor operator training simulators (OTS) being used at a new EO/EG (ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol) plant for TOC Glycol Company (TOCGC), a subsidiary of PTT Chemical Ltd. The new plant, located at the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Rayong province, will supply feedstock products to various processing customers in and around Map Ta Phut, Thailand’s key petrochemical industrial cluster.

Manufactured by OTC DAIHEN Corporation, an internationally recognized supplier of arc welding power supplies and industrial robots, the Almega robot is known for its high speeds and smooth movements which shorten production time. The robot incorporates version 4.20 of the powerful and easy-to-use ISaGRAF software and can be used in processes ranging from arc welding to plasma arc cutting.

The ABB Automation World 2006 Users Conference and Exhibition, held in Houston, Texas last week (May 9-11, 2006) exceeded prior event attendance by more than 45%, totalling more than 2,500 attendees. The three-day event (May 9-11) was substantially bigger than ABB Automation World 2005 and featured 400 workshops and a 40,000 square foot exhibition hall with hands-on demonstrations and displays of ABB automation products and systems.

The three-phase project restructures the system architecture to a high speed, fiber-based system, upgrades existing PROVUE consoles to the latest DeltaV consoles and integrates the three existing control rooms into one centralized location. Since 1982, the Emerson PROVOX distributed control system at the Solutia plant has provided flexible and reliable control. It has been well maintained and regularly upgraded with Emerson keeping Solutia fully advised about the continued availability of spares and support.

Larson will assume the leadership role for nuclear quality assurance processes involving groups that serve the nuclear industry. Within Invensys Process Systems, these include Triconex safety instrumented systems, Foxboro process automation, Foxboro Measurements and Instruments, project operations, customer satisfaction, and Invensys Process Systems China. Larson will report to David Golden, Global Director of Quality for Invensys Process Systems.

ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. today announced that it has entered into a strategic relationship with GD Technologies, a private Chinese-based precision machining company, and is expanding two automation systems facilities in China to further its growth strategy in Asia.

The Global Outsourcing 100 list sets a precedent by providing the first industry-wide benchmark for overall outsourcing excellence. It includes companies in such areas as information technology and business process outsourcing, facility services, real estate and capital asset management, manufacturing, and logistics. ATS was ranked 30th out of the 100 companies listed.

Matrikon Inc. announced that it intends to make a normal course issuer bid to purchase its common shares. Under the bid, Matrikon intends to acquire up to 1,559,248 common shares, representing not more than 5% of the 31,184,959 common shares issued and outstanding as of May 1, 2006. The bid will commence May 17, 2006 and end May 17, 2007.

Emerson, the project's Main Instrumentation and Controls Contractor (MICC), also has begun integration and testing of the digital automation system. Upon completion of integration and testing, the company will install its PlantWeb digital architecture, assist with the expansion project's commissioning and startup, and provide operator training.

The control system is designed to produce consistency in production variability and a single electronic record of operations. The system will be used at Genentech’s Vacaville, Calif. plant, which is currently undergoing a major expansion.

Represented this year at ABB's Automation World were (18) internal business units, (4) communications partners, (10) media partners and (9) technology partners. The 40,000 sq ft of exhibits that housed this was indeed impressive. In the center of the hall was a café area where you could go and talk business with some of the over 2500 registrants from 36 countries.

The sensors replace outdated manual gauge- and fuel flow-reading processes that cost railroads time, money and personnel. The new automated fuel management systems provide railroads the ability to better manage fuel inventories and reduce labor demands.

The Emerson solution was chosen by Drax Power and Capula, the contractor undertaking the refurbishment, following presentations and demonstrations of interfacing the Rosemount 3420 fieldbus interface module to their Schneider PLC host system. Drax Power Station uses six steam boilers to generate up to 4000MW. At curre

This agreement allows Power/mation to sell and support Precise Automation’s products in the northern United States. These products include PrecisePlace robots, Guidance motion controllers and PreciseVision software.

The Microsoft Mobile & Embedded Developers' Conference is one powerful gathering of brainpower. Thousands of members of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded development communities get together for in-depth technical training, hands-on technology sessions, presentations from leading experts and networking opportunities with industry peers. That's why Intermec is particularly honored that this year's conference features Intermec RFID and mobile computing gear.

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive and its companion Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive were drafted to prevent the massive increase of electronic waste entering Europe's landfills.

MICE, PowerMICE and MACH 4000 product families have special software packages, called Industrial Profiles. These network components can then be totally integrated in the three standard protocols PROFINET, EtherNet/IP or Modbus TCP. This integration enables both the configuration and monitoring of the network components according to the plug & play principle.

Industrial HiVision network management software (Operator Edition 2.0) has automatic discovery of the network topology via LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol). With this protocol, network components and end devices such as PLCFs or I/O components can be discovered exactly and monitored reliably. This software is particularly suitable for use in complex, redundant Ethernet networks and is available for Windows 2000/XP and Linux operating systems.

The starting point for the alliance will be a joint trade fair stand at the Interkama+ “Secure Automation” (hall 7, stand A43), the international lead fair for process automation within the Hannover Messe. Both companies will present innovative solutions covering the fields of industrial security and Industrial Ethernet.

The capital raised will be used to support the commercialization of existing products as well as accelerate key product developments. Additionally, it will enable Aspectrics to expand its support infrastructure to its major customers in the food, water and hydrocarbon processing industries.

In a continuance of the OAGIS and ISA-95 standards convergence effort announced in December of 2005, a key working meeting took place recently at ISA offices in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The meeting, which was held April 26 through 28, was attended by many end user and solution providers in addition to representatives from the standards organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to delve into the important detailed technical work necessary to achieve the convergence goals for the OAGIS(r) and ISA-95 standards.

Under the terms of the agreement, Honeywell will provide LCM technology support and migrate Lyondell’s existing process automation system to the Honeywell Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS). Experion PKS will help Lyondell optimize operational efficiency, improve production output and reduce the risk of errors for operators. Honeywell will also provide support services to help Lyondell improve maintenance efficiency and reduce costs.

The aim of the contest is to encourage researchers and development engineers to share nanotech electrical measurement techniques that will help the industry at large. The editors of R&D Magazine will judge the contest entries. Three prizes will be awarded: 1st Place - $2,500; 2nd Place - $1,500; and 3rd Place - $1,000.

Honeywell announced that global consulting firm Frost and Sullivan has honored the company with its 2006 Product Innovation Leadership of the Year Award in the industrial automation and process control space. The award is presented each year to the company that has best demonstrated the ability to develop and/or advance products with more innovative capabilities than competing vendors.

Beginning with this release, GE Fanuc will turn out a regular pulse of new tools, utilities and add-ins for its HMI/SCADA products in the form of Productivity Packs available to its Proficy GlobalCare customers.

Mike Fahrion was recently promoted to Director of Engineering. Joining B&B Electronics as an electrical engineer, Fahrion subsequently served as Director of Engineering and most recently as the company's Director of Marketing. "Having directed both of these major departments at B&B Electronics, Mike Fahrion is poised to move the company forward, applying a major focus on innovative new product development," says Wiencek.

Within the framework of the agreement, B&R is to supply innovative panel PCs from the Power Panel series to BMW's international production sites and system partners until at least 2013.

PlantWeb uses a FOUNDATION Fieldbus network of intelligent devices and Emerson's DeltaV digital system to provide an operational overview of the Phase III platform, which is monitored by engineers and operators at the main manned complex 10 km away, on the Champion West Drilling Platform - 1 (CWDP-1). The Phase III platform installation also features remote control and monitoring from Onshore Control Centre, in Brunei.

Competitive Advantages for Early Adopters.” The white paper explains how intelligent safety systems can increase machine uptime and limit liability as today’s manufacturing engineering organizations become more aware of the strategic value of safety.

A longtime leader in end-user vision systems, NI now adds support for GigE Vision cameras to its existing image acquisition software. With NI Vision Acquisition software, engineers can acquire images from thousands of different cameras and seamlessly move between standard vision buses including IEEE 1394a, IEEE 1394b, Camera Link and analog.

The permanent mold casting cells will utilize a KUKA robot and are designed to complete multiple casting tasks such as furnace and casting tending, sawing, sanding, milling/drilling, inspection and machining.

Matrix Electronica will distribute Imsys’ line of Java-enabled microcontrollers, prototyping kits, modules and development tools throughout their channels in Europe. Matrix has offices in Spain, Portugal and France.

The solution includes process data acquisition, control system performance analysis, process monitoring and advanced control technology components. The original contract to implement the solution at 50 plants has been completed.

The CIP Motion Drive Profile establishes the technical foundation for the implementation of multi-axis, synchronized motion control on EtherNet/IP™, the world's most developed, proven and complete industrial Ethernet protocol. The CIP Motion Drive Profile supports a range of drive types from variable frequency drives to high performance servo drives.

The charter stakeholders of The Automation Federation began the formal organizational process with meetings at the ISA President’s Spring Meeting last week in Orlando. Representatives of OMAC, WBF, and ISA met to sign incorporation documents, discuss initial strategic initiatives, and outline next steps.

To further this agreement, USCAR is proceeding with specific initiatives to accelerate its adoption in the U.S. vehicle assembly operations of its three member companies – DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation.

AECI is owned by and provides wholesale power to six regional and 51 local electric cooperative systems in Missouri, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Iowa that serve more than 800,000 customers. The New Madrid plant is comprised of two 600-MW coal-based electric generating units. As a baseload plant, it is critical to AECI's mission of providing an economical and reliable power supply to member systems.

By creating new jobs and promoting the training of technical specialists and managers worldwide, the drive and control specialist has increased sales growth for the third straight period.

Opto 22, a developer and manufacturer of hardware and software for industrial automation, remote monitoring, data acquisition, and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, has announced the release of the SNAP PAC Learning Center, an integrated set of Opto 22 hardware and software that provides all the tools needed to learn and train with Opto 22 SNAP Ethernet systems.

EtherNet/IP stands apart from other industrial Ethernet options as it uses the same standard TCP/IP protocol chips and wiring that are used for the Internet and in company business networks worldwide. This approach offers a myriad of benefits to automation users and vendors alike: low product development costs, ease of use, simple product and network integration and multi-vendor interoperability, delivering far more than a fieldbus ever could.

The CIP Safety protocol for EtherNet/IP meets the requirements of IEC 61508 up to Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL 3/Cat.4) and establishes the technical foundation for the implementation of CIP Safety on EtherNet/IP, the world's most developed, proven and complete industrial Ethernet protocol.

A live demonstration with the first device implementations of this C2C profile was presented at the joint booth of the Interests Group SERCOS interface. The product spectrum for SERCOS III continues to increase and currently includes over 20 innovative products. Additional companies have announced they will support and implement SERCOS III as a universal real-time interface. The first users, e.g., Schuler – one of the technological and global market leaders in the metalforming field, are already successfully applying SERCOS III solutions.

The profile defines mechanisms to interconnect distributed control functions and to synchronize distributed motion controls in modular machines and systems via the SERCOS III interface. The specification takes into consideration innovative SERCOS III features, such as hardware redundancy, hot-plugging and cross communication.

The free, one-day seminars for potential users and vendors of EtherNet/IP products and networks will be held at various locations around the world. The seminar titled “EtherNet/IP: The Proven and Complete Solution for Manufacturing Automation” will present the value proposition of implementing EtherNet/IP industrial networks. The first seminar in this series was given during ODVA’s 2006 CIP Networks Conference & 11th Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

During 2005, worldwide turnover amounted to 151 million euros. This continued success is due in large part to constant product development, introduction of several new products and aggressive expansion of the Beckhoff international sales and distribution network.

Adept Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADEP) today announced the results of operations for its third quarter of fiscal 2006 which ended April 1, 2006. Revenues were $15.1 million and GAAP earnings were $1.3 million or $0.20 per basic share outstanding, as compared with revenues of $13.0 million and earnings of $292,000 or $0.05 per basic share for the third quarter of 2005. Revenues for the nine months ended April 1, 2006 were $42.7 million and GAAP earnings were $1.4 million, or $0.23 per basic share, as compared with revenues of $36.1 million and earnings of $392,000 or $0.06 per basic share for the same period of the prior year.

The four power plants are: Ping Wei Plant #2 at Huai Nan city in An Hui province; Huang Gang Da Bie Shan plant at Ma Cheng city in Hu Bei province; Yao Meng Plant #2 at Ping Dingshan city in He Nan province, and Qing He plant at Tie Ling city, Liao Ning province.

Intermec received special recognition for development of its Intellibeam EL10 barcode scan engine, the only ADC scan engine to use MEMS-based technology. MEMS, or micro-electromechanical systems, technology is used in mission-critical applications such as vehicle airbag and braking systems.

Schneider Electric shareholders met in Annual and Extraordinary Meeting yesterday, primarily to hear the report of the Board of Directors, approve the financial statements for 2005 and modify the governance mode of the company in order to set up a Management Board and a Supervisory Board. The Meeting was chaired by Henri Lachmann, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

This cooperation will focus on two key issues: ³grounding and shielding² and ³device diagnostics profiles.² These topics have been identified by both parties as areas that require further clarification and guidance particularly benefiting end users within the process industries across the EMEA region.

The ISA-99 Part 1 standard, "Security for Industrial Automation and Control Systems: Concepts, Terminology and Models," will define the concepts, terminology, and models of industrial automation and control systems security, establishing the basis for the remaining standards in the ISA-99 series.

Adept Technology, Inc., announced the election of Herb Martin as a member of the Adept Board of Directors. Mr. Martin has twenty years experience as a chief executive of high technology companies. Currently he is Chief Executive Officer of D-Wave Systems, Inc., a privately held company based in Vancouver, BC, and a leader in the development of quantum computing systems. Prior to D-Wave, Mr. Martin has been CEO and handled marketing roles in a public semiconductor company and various software companies with geographic expertise in Asia.