Articles and News

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.

The single site, single channel system utilizes 43.2 kbps GeminiPD+ mobiles and the ParagonPD+ Base Station. Padcom’s TotalRoam® Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) software provides seamless network roaming in the coverage area. Dataradio selected smartBridges for the Access Point hardware.

Acquisitions (primarily ABS EMEA, Juno Lighting and BEI Technologies) contributed a significant Euros 200 million, or 7.6% of growth for the period. The favorable currency effect added Euros 103 million (+5%), reflecting the euro’s still-high rate in first-quarter 2005.

Through this alliance, customers will now have access to Junot Systems’ SAP certified NLINK® integration solution combined with EnteGreat’s industry and business process expertise to provide the very best way to integrate their plant floor systems to SAP.

The Alarm Management Handbook is the first and only complete publication on alarm management in the process industries. The Alarm Management Handbook fills a void in an important technology area within the process industries that has been kept under wraps until now, with the specific aim of improving safety and reliability at the world’s process plants.

The alliance brings together the process management knowledge and digital automation architecture of Emerson with the power and vessel automation systems expertise and products of Wärtsilä, enabling delivery of integrated systems with leading technologies from both companies.

Honeywell, Adaptive Instruments, Endress+ Hauser, Flowserve, OMNEX Control Systems, 3e Technologies International (3eTI) and Yokogawa announced they have joined the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA) SP100 working group to support the committee’s efforts to create an open industrial and multi-functional wireless standard. This industry group will work towards a joint solution that will enable industrial plants to use a single wireless network architecture to support a wide range of applications from low-rate monitoring to process control to wireless worker functions.

The digital automation solution provided by Emerson also includes deployment of Foundation™ fieldbus and Profibus technologies, as well as the company’s intelligent field devices. Use of these technologies is expected to reduce installation and startup costs at the 400-MW Port Westward plant, as well as translate into ongoing operational and maintenance savings.

Mustang Automation and Control is providing the Front End Engineering and Design, detailed engineering, procurement, programming and integration and testing for the facility’s monitoring, process control, safety and management systems. Mustang is also performing engineering, procurement and project management support services for the Tahiti topsides oil and gas facilities.

Banner’s Machine Safety Products catalog includes thousands of products for machine safety applications in its more than 300 full-color pages. High-quality images, detailed selection charts, dimension drawings and specifications are just a few of its features; other highlights include a What’s New section as well as an intuitive iKnow® Machine Safety learning tutorial.

INTEGRITY-178B safety critical real-time partitioned operating system is in the process of being fully tested with the TechS.A.T. NetLoader™ data loading utility.

The project is part of Bergesen Worldwide Offshore’s effort to convert the tanker BW Enterprise, which measures 340 meters long by 65 meters wide, to a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The FPSO will process oil from satellite fields in addition to importing oil from other platforms, then mix and store it for delivery to tankers or via pipelines to refineries. There are currently 61 FPSOs operating worldwide, and the BW Enterprise is one of 11 being added.

Web store carries IP Access Control solutions, incluidng ClearNet IP and Wireless IP Reader-Controllers, RCI electronic locks, and PowerDSine Power over Ethernet supplies.

The flash demo “Going Panel-Free with ISONAS IP” illustrates how ISONAS IP Reader-Controllers function as network devices, providing direct connection to the company data network and real-time control of facility access. The second demo, “Going PoE with ISONAS IP”, shows how using Power over Ethernet in conjunction with ISONAS IP Readers can streamline and reduce the costs of installing access control. The demos are available now

ISONAS Security Systems has named Dick Burkley President. Burkley, a key partner in the private investment group that launched ISONAS in 1999, has been serving the company as Vice President of Engineering and Technology Development.

ISONAS Security Systems, the leading manufacturer of IP and Wireless IP Reader-Controllers for access control, has moved into new Corporate Offices in Boulder, Colorado. The 13,000+ square foot facility at 6325 Gunpark Drive now houses the Management Team and the Sales, Product Development and Shipping Departments under one roof.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) for Q1 2006 was 15 cents with GAAP net income of $12.6 million, up 13 percent from Q1 2005. Non-GAAP net income for Q1 2006 was $16.2 million, up 44 percent from Q1 2005. Included in both GAAP and non-GAAP net income is an impairment charge for $900,000 related to converting part of the NI manufacturing facility in Austin to office space.