Articles and News

Enhancements to DIAdem 10.1 interactive software for inspecting, analyzing and reporting test data, extend the platform’s data mining and data management functionality so engineers can share data among groups with DIAdem 10.1 and DataFinder Server Edition.

The Fieldbus Foundation held its inaugural EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) conference in Mannheim, Germany during the last week in September. The meeting was hosted by Pepperl+Fuchs at the company's headquarters.

Patrick Gouhin, Executive Director and CEO of ISA, joined 169 US business leaders in the banking, insurance, energy, aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical information technology and service sectors who attended a two-day summit in Mumbai.

Academia RFID offers courses in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, Saint-John, Halifax and at their head-office, which includes a classroom and state-of-the-art RFID lab, in Montreal.

Carlo Gavazzi is using RTP's PermaStat PLUS compounds to meet ATEX requirements in its Tripleshield Capacitive Sensors. This compound is permanently static dissipative and provides the necessary surface resistance to meet the ATEX requirement of less than 1 Gohm.

The University of Kansas will be presenting "Intelligent Asset Management using RFID: Real ROI in Asset Management and Closed Loop Systems" on Wednesday-Friday, February 28 to March 2, 2007, at the Hampton Inn and Suites, Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri.

Enhancements include Startup Sequencing, Mechanical Trip Protection Replacement, GE Trip Protection Upgrade, and Westinghouse Trip Protection Upgrade functions.

Honeywell will install an Experion R300 PKS and other equipment valued at $3.7 million at Huntsman’s new polyethylene plant in Wilton, UK, due to open in 2007. The single plant-wide automation system will be provided through engineering contractor Simon Carves Limited and will include Honeywell C300 controllers, integrated safety systems and process field device integration.

Festo now offers individual services to customers wishing to achieve more efficient use of compressed air. The Energy Saving Service covers everything from consumption and leakage measurements to machine inspection and final analysis.

Rexroth catalog SC-400.10 features 128 pages of technical and ordering information and an overview section on Series QR1 pneumatic push-in fittings.

This announcement endorses the longstanding alliance relationship that DuPont and Rockwell Automation have shared over the last 15 years for PLC-based control systems. It now expands the relationship to leverage Rockwell Automation’s process system capability.

Barry-Wehmiller will purchase the assets of Sandiacre Rose Forgrove, a division of Molins PLC. Sandiacre will be integrated with Hayssen Packaging Technologies to form one of the largest flexible packaging equipment providers, with more than $80 million in revenues. Hayssen is a division of Barry-Wehmiller.

These new editions are the second publication of updates in 2006. More than 20 Specification Enhancements were integrated into these editions, allowing more comprehensive and useful information to be contained within EDS files, adding DTM configuration options, and facilitating the deployment of these networks with increased flexibility.

The "Field Device Tool for CIP Networks: Annex to FDT Specification" provides the schemas required to implement the Device Type Manager (DTM) configuration option for the currently available adaptations of networks built on the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP), which include DeviceNet, EtherNet/IP and ControlNet.

SERCOS International and ODVA announced that SI will adopt CIP Safety as its functional safety protocol for SERCOS. ODVA will extend The CIP Safety Specification to include safety profiles for SERCOS devices. SI will develop the SERCOS III network adaptation to utilize CIP Safety. SI and ODVA, jointly, will develop and establish conformance testing for devices implementing CIP Safety on SERCOS.

To date, the company has been selected to install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation expert control system at seven new coal-fired power plants, all slated to go into commercial operation within the next five years. These new plants represent an additional 5,505 MW of new generating capacity.

Gordon McFarland, senior power plant performance analyst with Emerson's North American Power & Water solutions division, has received the ISA's Standards & Practices Award. The award recognizes McFarland for his leadership in the initial development of fossil power plant standards, and for 25 years of continuous support and direction of those standards.

Emerson will install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture and an Ovation expert control system at Xcel Energy's new Comanche Power Station Unit 3, located near Pueblo, Colo. The 750-MW, supercritical plant is Xcel Energy's first new coal-fired electric generation unit in nearly 30 years.

The Ovation system has a bus platform that supports Foundation fieldbus, DeviceNet and PROFIBUS DP industry standard communications protocols. The bus platform also has the capability to incorporate emerging protocols, such as PROFINET and EtherNet/IP.

This achievement in the Kingdom is being celebrated with a gala dinner for customers and partners at the Sunset Beach Resort, Al Khobar.