Articles and News

The Fort Worth-based catalog distributor began construction on a new 365,000-square-foot facility that will replace the company’s existing rented space. The new facility will help accommodate the company’s growth, as it expects to create an additional 300 jobs over the next several years.

PLCopen is a non-profit industry organization dedicated to improving the programming efficiency control and automation engineers by providing information, training, and fostering communications between users, vendors, educators and others.

Vanderlande Industries has recently signed a contract with Datalogic for the supply of a large number of fixed position laser scanners. Vanderlande Industries is one of the largest worldwide suppliers of automated material handling systems for the handling of baggage at airports and goods in distribution centres, express parcel sorting facilities and the manufacturing industry.

Second quarter revenue grew by 7% to $17.89 million from $16.72 million in the comparable period of fiscal 2005. Income from operations was $2.64 million in the second quarter of 2006, compared to $2.42 million in the second quarter of 2005. Net income in the second quarter was $1.23 million, or $0.04 per share, compared to $2.35 million, or $0.08 per share, in the second quarter of 2005.

Selected as the most innovative embedded system in 2005, XPort AR is an embedded processor module that goes beyond simple network connectivity and provides manufacturers an unprecedented level of device intelligence to the network. This exclusive award specifically honors outstanding engineering innovation and invention in electronic products and technologies.

Moteiv’s products include the recently introduced Tmote Sky™, its next-generation wireless sensor module and the first wireless sensor device to use the IEEE 802.15.4 personal-area-network wireless radio, and Tmote Invent™, its newest low-cost wireless sensor system. Powered by Boomerang™, Moteiv’s robust distribution of the open-source TinyOS operating system, Moteiv systems achieve long-lived reliable operation. The company’s unique enhancements to TinyOS integrate cutting-edge open-source technology with robust, manageable wireless solutions.

The company announced that RFID inlay manufacturing capacity will be increased to support production of more than 250 million inlays per year at its Minakuchi factory in Shiga, Japan. This factory location was chosen to take advantage of its more than 30 years of experience with semiconductors and class 10000 clean room standards. The inlays produced at Minakuchi are marketed and distributed globally by Omron's RFID division.

This honor acknowledges the considerable engineering effort behind LabVIEW 8 and recognizes the development environment’s significant role as a design tool. To address the growing need for design, control and test systems based on industry trends, LabVIEW 8 introduces distributed intelligence – a powerful suite of capabilities empowering engineers and scientists to easily design, distribute and synchronize intelligent devices and systems through graphical development.

National Instruments recently named one of its long-time R&D contributors, Keith Odom, as an NI R&D fellow. Odom has spent his entire 18-year career in R&D at National Instruments. As director of architecture and technology, he leads a team of highly respected digital engineers that develop important new architectures and key application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and who serve as technical leads on a wide range of projects.

Siemens is a global leader in process instrumentation and factory automation. Controlotron is a leader in non-intrusive ultrasonic flow measurement and is expected to enhance Siemens' position in this key market segment. Siemens intends to operate the company from its Hauppauge location, which it plans to make a center of competence for ultrasonic flow measurement. Controlotron employs approximately 120 people, to whom Siemens will extend formal offers of employment one week prior to the closing.

By joining the ZigBee Alliance, NI will have early access to specifications and input into requirements documents to keep pace with technology and integrate new versions of the standard into NI products to quickly bring them to market. As a ZigBee Alliance member, NI makes it easier for customers to design and test ZigBee products using NI products.

Progress Paint needed Material Requirements Planning (MRP), flexible order entry, integrated inventory control, and efficient environmental reporting to help maximize its productivity and profitability. DEACOM ERP software was selected based on its ability to manage all of these functions with a single, integrated system.

The product management group now includes Robert Hotard, Product Manager for Magnetostrictive and Guided Wave Radar Products; Winston Landymore, Product Manager for Capacitance and Vibrating Fork Products; and Ivo Radanov, Product Manager for Laser and Ultrasonic Products. Each product manager is responsible for managing the entire life cycle of the product line, including strategic planning, specifying market requirements based on industry experience and contact with customers, and tactical product launch activities.

The system, which included the power distribution, transformers, SINAMICS drives, electrical housing, motors and control automation, was installed under a turnkey contract during a short plant shutdown with overall Siemens management and responsibility.

General technical questions about PLCs, operating systems, databases, networking, and other supporting industrial technologies are also welcome. The FactorySQL OPC to SQL data-bridge features point and click configurability to achieve bidirectional data flow with virtually any SQL database.

The new book is written for those who want to design test measurement systems; select appropriate equipment; understand system component characteristics, system and component calibration, and operating principles of transducers; determine overall system accuracy; and formulate basic test procedure design.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sony will make a one-time, up-front royalty payment of $15 million. Intergraph expects to record after-tax intellectual property income from this agreement of approximately $8.6 million, net of all fees, expenses and estimated taxes, in the first quarter of 2006. As a result of the patent license agreement, Sony will obtain a fully paid-up worldwide license to Intergraph’s patent portfolio, and Intergraph will obtain an option to license certain Sony patents on royalty-bearing terms.

The new "Automation IT" special event at HANNOVER MESSE 2006 (the Hannover Fair) from 24 to 28 April offers an insight into the future. Along with Cisco Systems GmbH and HARTING KGaA, Deutsche Messe AG will be presenting integrated Ethernet connectivity.

The Promi-SD is a Bluetooth serial adapter product line designed to replace RS-232 serial cables with wireless connectivity when interconnecting peripheral devices. It enables a serial device to communicate with another serial port adapter or other Bluetooth enabled devices such as mobile phones, handheld computers and laptops.

OMRON Corporation today announced the appointment of Mr. Roberto Maietti as President & CEO of OMRON Europe B.V. Reporting to Mr. Fumio Tateisi, the Japanese-based president of OMRON's Industrial Automation Business, Mr. Maietti will also take over the role of President of the OMRON Management Center Europe. Mr. Maietti will be confirmed as Executive Officer of OMRON Corporation at the shareholder's meeting on June 22nd, 2006.