Articles and News

Rapid growth has prompted the need for the company to move to a larger facility. The new building is approximately 15,000 square feet. The company purchased the building in August 2006, and will have fully transferred operations to the new location by the middle of October.

The SP100.11 and SP100.14 Working Groups of ISA's SP100 Committee for wireless industrial standards held a meeting this week at ISA headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC. Participants reviewed a wide range of technology approaches that could help solve real world wireless issues. The issues that the committee will focus on have been identified by user input and through use cases collected by ISA.

Keynote speakers for the 2006 European conference at the Elewijt Center in Mechelen, Belgium on 13-15 November include Martin Zeller, who will deliver a detailed evaluation of batch data analysis on Tuesday, 14 November; and Lou Pillai and Dennis Brandl, who will address information model framework for manufacturing science on Wednesday, 15 November.

S&S Power, a world-leading manufacturer of amusement-park rides, uses igus products in its quest to provide thrill seekers with the ultimate adrenaline rush. To ensure that all its amusement rides are dependable and require minimal maintenance, S&S uses Energy Chain Systems on the company's rollercoasters and iglide bearings almost anywhere pivoting, rotating or oscillating motion is needed such as lap bars and swing restraints.

Barco's PLANTMASTER system will provide Dairymaster with real-time visibility of machine performance and quality reporting for their dairy farm equipment manufacturing. Operating from their head office in Causeway (Co Kerry, Ireland), Dairymaster has been at the forefront of innovative milk parlour systems for over 40 years.

Colloid Mills can be tailored to match specific customer processing requirements ranging from low- to high-viscosity to abrasive slurries. The Colloid Mills have a milling head which features a standard rotor and stator with working surfaces that can be tailored by the manufacturer to meet specific customer requirements for emulsifying, dispersion, and particle size reduction.

Registration is open for the 2006 NI Technical Symposium Professional Development Series for Engineers, the company's annual series of virtual instrumentation conferences that reaches 26 U.S. cities. From October through December 2006, engineers and scientists from across the country will attend the conferences for new product presentations; hands-on, technology-focused sessions; and exhibits on the latest solutions in design, control and test.

BusinessWeek magazine has ranked Austin-based National Instruments No. 14 among its top 50 employers for new college graduates. The inaugural “Best Places to Launch a Career” ranking incorporates input from leading university career services directors and more than 37,000 undergraduate students, with information on companies’ pay and benefits, corporate culture and training opportunities.

The 328-page Essentials catalog of Telemecanique automation and control products is available to view online. Online visitors have a choice to download all or a portion of the catalog. Visitors also can register on the Web site and order a printed copy of the catalog or the CD-ROM version.

Innovation Alley at ISA Expo 2006 (17-19 October at the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas) will provide an opportunity for attendees to see the future, along with the commercial innovations of today's automation hardware, software, and service suppliers that are presented in the traditional exhibits.

The exhibit, demonstrating interoperability of SERCOS II and SERCOS III motion controllers and servodrive products from multiple vendors, will be in the OMAC Packaging Workgroup booth, number C-64, located in the concourse entrance to upper level McCormick Place North.

News sales offices include Ulrich Lüer of UL.Consult GmbH in Germany and Alexander Hermes in Austria.

New tools in the FactoryTalk integrated production and performance software suite include FactoryTalk Integrator, which allows manufacturers to more easily connect their plant-floor applications with higher-level business systems; and FactoryTalk Portal, which allows manufacturers to consolidate Web-based interfaces into one manageable and configurable launch point.

The Customer Training Course Catalog contains a comprehensive view of current courses in the areas of Power Distribution, Automation and Control, and Power Management. The new catalog contains curriculum maps and matrices that make it easier for customers to determine the course selection best suited to their particular job, position and skill set.

Avalon Vision Solutions is a leading supplier of machine vision systems designed to protect plastic injection molds. Avalon uses Advantech's computers with their camera and camera software. Customers will be able to order equipment from either Advantech or Avalon.

Emerson Process Management has completed a project to upgrade and unify combustion, turbine control and burner management systems at Pagbilao power station Units 1 and 2 with its Ovation expert control system. The 750-MW plant, operated by Mirant Pagbilao Corp., is located in Quezon, Philippines.

B&B Electronics acquired Phoenix, Arizona-based, Advanced Embedded Systems (AES), a designer and developer of wireless solutions for the industrial market. AES will become part of B&B Electronics' engineering and technical group in Ottawa, Illinois.

Twenty-one leading Intermec Inc. partners today announced support and applications for the new Intermec CN3 and CV30 rugged mobile and flexible fixed-mount computers introduced this week in Toronto at i-comm, Intermec's annual customer conference. These CN3/CV30 Ready companies, members of Intermec's Honours Partner program, have worked closely with Intermec to create applications that make the most of the CN3 and CV30's extensive capabilities.

Honeywell and NASA will launch the 2006 fall tour of their award-winning FMA Live! science education program on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The traveling hip hop science concert will reach its 100,000th student while at Howard University before continuing on to perform for nearly 14,000 students in 30 schools during its 9-week, 21-city tour across the United States and Canada.

Intermec RFID Gen 2 equipment has been certified as interoperable with other devices certified by EPCglobal Inc, a not-for-profit standards organization driving global adoption of the Electronic Product Code (EPC). The Intermec RFID Large Rigid Tag and the IM5 RFID radio module have earned Gen 2 hardware interoperability marks in independent testing by MET Laboratories in Baltimore, Maryland.