Articles and News

ISA announced today that its Executive Board has approved the establishment of The Automation Federation as an umbrella organization under which associations and societies engaged in manufacturing and process automation activities can work more effectively to fulfill their missions. It will coordinate the work of member organizations engaged in advancement of the science and engineering of automation technologies and applications.

The unique GE Fanuc and Symbion solution allows for unprecedented production connectivity, data collection and analysis and provides a solid foundation for companies seeking to better understand and improve their processes. Symbion Systems brings a wealth of knowledge of the process and Life Sciences industries and a deep understanding of analytical instrumentation and process analysis software.

The Fieldbus Foundation today announced that Shuzo Kaihori, vice president of Industrial Automation Business Headquarters for Yokogawa Electric Corporation, has been named to its board of directors. Mr. Kaihori replaces board member Teruyoshi Minaki, who has served on the Foundation¹s board for the past two years.

Request the free, full color, 100 page, 2006 B&B Electronics catalog of Interface Converters and Data Acquisition and Control Products. Your catalog will be on its way to you via First Class mail within 24 hours.

ProSoft Technology’s inRAx product line provides in-chassis protocol interface modules, flow computers, open solution modules, FLEX adapters and Drive adapters for Allen-Bradley® platforms.

The test kit has been updated from previous versions with additional functionality enabling the testing of FOUNDATION field bus devices employing current Device Description (DD) 5.0 files. The Fieldbus Foundation's ITK 5.0 test kit verifies the functionality of an H1 (31.25 kbit/s) device and its conformity with the FOUNDATION fieldbus Function Block and Transducer Block specifications.

The Working Group is the next step in the previous announcement by the Open Applications Group and ISA-SP95 to converge their standards for manufacturing interoperability by working to support the OpenO&MTM Initiative. This group will develop an industry guideline that defines generic business process models between the operations management and business layers of the manufacturing support system.

The EPA program facilitates the deployment of innovative environmental technologies in the industry through evaluation and verification of product performance and effectiveness. The Rosemount Analytical Model WQS multiparameter water quality monitoring system was evaluated along with four other water monitors. Not only was the performance of the model WQS verified by the evaluation, but the system required no scheduled operator maintenance during the testing.

The 6-axis KUKA robot is fitted with an end of arm tool to create a 7 axis ladling robot to be used for pouring molten metal. The robot’s 7th axis gives it an additional 360 degrees of rotation allowing it to pour the molten metal consistently and then clean the ladle of leftover oxide waste by inverting the ladle to remove the waste.

Morley's address is titled "The Future of Automation: Where Does the Road Lead?" and will offer insights based on three decades in the industry. He will provide insight on the future of automation and control, and how professionals can take advantage of evolving technology. "My mission has always been to think in terms of the future," said Morley. "By anticipating the next big waves of technology, we can not only survive, we can shape the future of the industry."

Effective April 1, 2006, Ellison Technologies will be solely responsible for the sale and distribution of Mori Seiki equipment in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Nebraska, relinquishing the sales of all other competitive equipment. Effective April 21, 2006, Ellison will assume the same responsibilities for Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

Approximately 1,000 automation and information projects at more than 700 locations have been successfully delivered by the extensive network of Wonderware-certified system integrators. These solutions use the latest ArchestrA technology and extend across supervisory control, distributed SCADA, production management and performance management.

Intergraph Corporation today announced that Bateman Engineering N.V. (Bateman) has chosen to standardize on Intergraph’s SmartPlant® Enterprise to replace its existing AVEVA PDMS design tool. The agreement, made through Intergraph distributor Intergraph Systems Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd., will form the foundation for a more data-centric and integrated plant design modeling environment.

Dr. Kletz is a chemist turned chemical engineer who spent 38 years working for the successful British company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). He started at ICI in the research department, and went on to production management and later became the safety adviser to the petrochemicals division. He is currently a Visiting Fellow and a Visiting Professor at Loughborough University in England and at Texas A&M University.

The basic concept is to help Advantech expand their “service oriented” business approach. Recognizing that on-line services are becoming a greater player in the businesses of today, Advantech has added this new feature and made it available to registered customers of their eAutomationPro website.

Dick Morley is best known as the father of the programmable controller. He is a leading visionary in the field of advanced technological development. He is an internationally recognized pioneer in the fields of computer design, artificial intelligence, automation, and technology trend forecasting.

The sessions will continue ISA's industry-leading standards development work. The meeting will build on several recent achievements by ISA-SP84 that have provided significant advances in safety across the process industries. Most notable was the publication in late 2004 of ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 (IEC 61511 Modified), "Functional Safety: Safety Instrumented Systems for the Process Industry Sector."

The LXI Consortium today announced that Geotest-Marvin Test Systems Inc. has joined the standards organization as an advisory member. LXI (LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation) is a next-generation, LAN-based modular platform for automated test systems. As a leading global supplier of PXI- and PC-based test products, systems and solutions, Geotest expands the growing number of test and measurement companies supporting and promoting the LXI standard.

Cognex Corporation announced that it has served a complaint against Acacia Research Corporation and Veritec, Inc. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court in Minnesota. Cognex is seeking a declaration that U.S. Patent 5,612,524, which claims to cover a system for reading 2D symbology, is invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed by either Cognex or by any users of Cognex products.

The module, available free to educators, provides more than two dozen application notes, case studies and training articles, a PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes, and a poster illustrating common thermography measurements. The Fluke Education Partnership Program combines a wealth of educational materials and application information with product discounts.

This allows Fluke to conduct comprehensive testing for compliance to EN61010-1 (the IEC standard for safety compliance for Test and Measurement Equipment), EN61010-031 (the IEC standard for handheld probes assemblies) and EN61001-2-032 (the IEC standard for current clamps). VDE (The Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies), headquartered in Germany, was founded in 1893 and has evolved into one of the largest technical and scientific associations and well-regarded regulatory agencies in Europe.

Intelligent Instrumentation was established in 1984 as an independent subsidiary of the former Burr-Brown Corporation in Tucson. When Texas Instruments purchased Burr-Brown in 2000, III (or I-Cubed) became a subsidiary of Texas Instruments.

InduSoft has certified more than 20 hardware platforms since last year. Lab certification tests prove that InduSoft Web Studio HMI/SCADA software runs on a wide variety of Windows CE-based hardware platforms from ABB, Arista, Advantech, Beijer, Bosch-Rexroth, ESA, Pilz and Maple Systems, and ARM, MIPS, Power PC, SH and S86 processors.

Listening to the needs of Internet users, Parker Electromechanical Automation has devoted considerable energy to make using its Internet site as easy, efficient and productive as possible for OEMs, machine builders, distributors and end-users. For example, the division recently implemented the Google search engine on parkermotion.com, and Google is powering the site's frequently asked questions and part-number databases. This gives users of the Web site a dramatically enhanced search capability and makes finding product information, documents, tools and other information faster and easier.

Jonathan Knowles will share how Autodesk customers are standardizing on DWF technology and benefiting today. For example, Siemens L&A, the world’s leading supplier of logistics and factory automation solutions, switched from distributing paper-based drawings to Autodesk digital design collaboration processes. Doing so, Siemens L&A had streamlined access to design information to more than 1,700 employees including shop floor personnel, upper management, and external suppliers; drastically reduced the design approval cycles to less than an hour, rather than three days; and decreased manufacturing errors, such as parts being built to the wrong spec level.

Emerson announced it has acquired Bristol Babcock from FKI plc of Loughborough, England, for $121 million.

The 3rd Annual Gadget Freak Workshop Competition, hosted by Design News and sponsored by Allied Electronics, challenges engineers to assemble simple – and not so simple – electronic circuits. The Gadget Freak Workshop Competition runs daily during the show. The National Design Engineering Show and Conference, which will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, is the only national event for OEM design engineers.