Articles and News

Emerson won a $1.7M contract from Atlantic LNG to analyze the performance of process and mechanical equipment at the company’s Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Point Fortin, Trinidad and Tobago. The award is an extension to the existing contract. 340 items of equipment on Trains 1 to 4 will now be monitored by using AMS Performance Monitor.

Advanced Technology Services, Inc. (ATS) has opened its first international office in Monterrey, Mexico. The Monterrey facility currently employs 80 personnel, and ATS expects to double that number in 2007. The company will continue its international growth in 2007 by expanding its operations in Mexico even further and establishing offices in the UK.

The Executive Board is composed of the President, President-elect Secretary, Past President, Treasurer, six members from the Board of District Vice Presidents and the Board of Department Vice Presidents, the Parliamentarian (non-voting), and the Executive Director (non-voting).

Six FKI Logistex Condor very-narrow-aisle (VNA) automated storage-and-retrieval crane systems will be installed in Preferred Freezer's new public refrigerated warehouses. Preferred Freezer Services has 75 million cu ft of freezer storage in 14 facilities across the United States. Delivery of the new Condor crane systems for six additional facilities is scheduled to begin in June 2007.

Decoma International has deployed Infor ERP TRANS4M in a just-in-time environment at its new Toledo, Ohio facility. Decoma, which manufactures exterior vehicle appearance systems, selected the solution for its integrated electronic data interchange (EDI), financials and general ledger, and custom programming support capabilities.

Greg Chandler has been appointed President and CEO, and Ralph Damato was appointed Vice President, Product Management. Chandler was a founding member of Nematron in the early 1980s. Previously, Damato developed and marketed industrial computers and flat panel monitors for Xycom Automation.

Matrikon is one of “the top fifty automation companies in the industry,” says Control magazine. This marks the fifth time the Alberta-based industrial intelligence solutions provider has been so recognized since 2001.

Norfield has more than 30 years experience in vibration analysis and balancing, working with the UK division of Reutlinger GmBH and with American Hofmann, before starting an independent vibration, balancing and training company. He is the author of the book, Practical Balancing of Rotating Machinery, published by Elsevier Technical Press.

FANUC won the award for the development of a truck bedliner spray system. The bedliner spray system uses robots to spray special buffer material onto truck beds, which helps prevent cargo from slipping or damaging the beds.

Had trouble contacting your favorite automation vendor this week? That’s because Austin, Texas, otherwise known as the Silicon Hills and home to Indusoft and several major automation vendors, was hit by a winter storm on Monday, January 15, which essentially shut down the entire city and its automation industry for three days.

As chairman of the board of directors, Bauer will work with MESA to promote the exchange of best practices, strategies and innovation for managing manufacturing operations, as well as achieving plant-floor execution excellence. Bauer also has key involvement in the planning direction for the MESA conference.

Motion control systems are capable of extremely precise speed, position, and torque control. This article compares the three main motion control choices: standalone controllers, PC-based controllers, and PLCs. It describes how indexing, direction and electronic gearing are accomplished, examines future trends in motion control, and describes products available today for motion control.

AutomationDirect’s technical support team compiled a list of frequently asked questions from customers on variable frequency drives (VFDs), on topics such as sensorless vector control, grounding, dynamic braking, ringing, standards, power cables, drives vs softstarts, low speed operation, line reactors, slow pump problems, and more.

The need for manufacturers to comply with supply chain and retailer mandates for tagged finished goods has led to rising interest in RFID for internal applications that promise greater ROI. The number of pilots that actually result in full-blown implementations will be a key determinant of the rate and timing of overall market growth.

The seminar, priced at $500, will take place on February 1, 2, and 3, 2007 at the Datastick Systems headquarters in Campbell, California. The seminar is designed for those interested in using vibration analysis for predictive maintenance and for customers using Datastick VSA series Vibration Spectrum Analyzers. It covers the basics of machine vibration and vibration analysis, operation of VSA-series analyzers, best practices in collecting and reporting vibration data.

HANNOVER MESSE 2007 (the Hannover Fair), which will run 16-20 April 2007 in Hannover, Germany, combines three international trade fairs -- INTERKAMA, Factory Automation and Industrial Building Automation.

Seminars are being held at WAGO's North American headquarters in Germantown, WI on the following dates: May 14-16, September 24-26, and November 5-7. Seminars include an introduction to the WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM hardware, an overview of industrial Ethernet components and protocols, and hands-on IEC 61131-3 programming with live demo hardware.

Ford Motor Company has awarded two grants, totaling $150,000, to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation. Since 1981, Ford has donated $1,608,000 to the SME Education Foundation for scholarships and other engineering education programs.

During the quarter just ended, Adept delivered $300,000 in vision-guided robotics to the Solar industry, bringing the installed base, in this sector, to over 75 systems.

New National Sales and Product Managers for North America are Kevin Kaufenberg, Electronics, Semiconductor & Metrology Div; Chris Weber, Machine Tool Div; and Tom Wyatt, Automation Div.

Schneider Electric’s annual sales amounted to €13,730 million in 2006, up 17.6% on a current structure and exchange rate basis. After sharp increases in the two previous years, growth reached a record 10.7% in 2006, reflecting the success of the initiatives launched under the new company program.

"Design Patterns for Flexible Manufacturing," by Dennis Brandl, documents effective rules that should be used when applying the ISA-88 standard to both batch manufacturing (called the S88 design pattern) and continuous and discrete manufacturing problems (called the NS88 design pattern for non-stop production).

The Regional Action Center (RAC) in Singapore will provide technical and training support for automation customers, plus regional sales support, marketing and business development functions. The opening ceremony for the RAC took place on January 16, 2007.

Emerson has received a $5.3 million contract from the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) to install PlantWeb digital automation architecture at the Seymour-Capilano Water Filtration Plant, which is under construction. When completed in 2008, it will be Canada’s largest drinking water filtration plant combined with the world’s largest ultraviolet (UV) disinfection facility.

The SSA deployed Intermec RFID hardware in its Supply Chain Management program to fulfill more than 42,000 orders for forms, publications and other documents each year and ship 240,000 line items to SSA office locations worldwide.

Organon, one of the largest manufacturers of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) worldwide, has installed PAS-X MES software in their new API-powder processing production facility in Oss, The Netherlands. Organon uses PAS-X for recipe management, weighing and dispensing, shop floor management, electronic batch recording, and warehouse management.

GE Fanuc will provide Kettering University with a set of manufacturing control components, consisting of Assembly Application Suite (AAS) hardware and software products to simulate manufacturing environments. Kettering will install the components in the University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) labs.

Paulett Eberhart has been appointed CEO and President of Invensys' Process Systems division headquartered in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Ms. Eberhart was previously with EDS, the global technology services company, which she joined in 1978. Ken Brown, who has served as Acting President of Invensys Process Systems since June 28, 2006, will re-assume his former position as General Manager of the division's Measurements & Instruments business unit.

The expanded facility, located at MGE's North American headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif., encompasses over 25,000 sq ft including 28 test bays with a total electrical capacity of 12 MW. The expanded test site gives customers the ability to witness critical testing of their enterprise and data center power systems to assure operational functionality and interoperability of their entire power infrastructure.

American Power Conversion shareholders approved the merger of APC with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Schneider Electric. As previously announced on October 30, 2006, APC and Schneider Electric entered into an agreement and plan of merger which provides, among other things, for each share of APC common stock to be converted to the right to receive $31.00 in cash.