Articles and News

The company makes Engineering Content Management (ECM) software.

"Alarm Management: Seven Effective Methods for Optimum Performance," by Bill R. Hollifield and Eddie Habibi, describes how properly designed and maintained alarm systems can drastically help to improve plant safety, reliability, and profitability.

ISA submitted three control valve standards to ANSI for approval as American National Standards. All three concern Face-to-Face Dimensions for Globe-Style Control Valves.

The ABB Automation World 2007 Users Conference and Exhibition, held in Orlando, Florida last month (March 20-22, 2007) exceeded event attendance expectations and attracted a record number of participants, totalling more than 2,500 attendees.

FKI Logistex Canada brings together three existing FKI Logistex Canadian divisions — Airport, Post & Parcel, Warehouse & Distribution, and Manufacturing Systems — to create a single entity in Canada.

Schneider Electric received the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation for North America in the field of power quality (PQ) and energy management solutions.

KUKA will provide robots for the master of science in Mechatronic Systems Engineering (MSMSE) degree program at Lawrence Technological University of Southfield, Michigan, the first program of its kind in the United States.

This grant will part fund a project which will be important in the field of low-cost organic electronic devices, and especially in the development of low-cost flexible displays. The total value of project is around $500k.

Australian cable manufacturer Tycab replaced three disparate, aging and paper-intensive systems with Infor ERP SyteLine. The centralized solution provided Tycab with single barcode scan functionality for picking and shipping and a paperless shop floor for manufacturing.

Second quarter revenue was $17.25 million compared to $17.89 million in the second quarter of 2006. Net income in the second quarter was $0.31 million, or $0.01 per share, compared to $1.23 million, or $0.04 per share in the comparable period of fiscal year 2006.

The study, "The World Market for Differential Pressure (DP) Flowmeters and Primary Elements," says the worldwide DP flowmeter market totaled $996 million in 2006, and will exceed one billion dollars in 2007.

Radley, a supplier of automated data collection and e-commerce solutions, has joined the global IFS Software Partner program. The two companies will cooperate on barcode/RFID data collection, warehouse automation, business activity monitoring, EDI, and supplier collaboration.

The goal is to define a test bed and a set of routines, implementing a set of software tools and scripts to perform these test, and making this available to the public in order to be able prove a level of networking security within a broad set of control systems.

Baumüller's servo axes are used in the EDM 200 developed by Sondermaschinen Oschersleben GmbH (SMO). With a straight width of just two meters, this machine can complete small and rapid print jobs with high cost-efficiency.

Ethernet Direct signed a distribution contract with Vixa as a new channel partner in Greater China covering Shanghai, Wuhan and Cheng Du regions.

Flowserve was honored as the recipient of the Indo-American Chamber-Sanmar Indo-U.S. Business Cooperation Award.

Intermec's Web site now has search capabilities, faster navigation and dynamic product information. Intermec makes RFID, mobile computing and data collection systems, bar code printers and label media.

Paul Schentag, formerly Engineering Manager at Hiram Walker and Sons, is joining JMP Engineering as Branch Manager for the Windsor area. At Hiram Walker he led numerous factory control, engineering, and instrumentation projects across three facilities.

At the Embedded Systems Conference, Lantronix announced the winners of its annual Wireless Design Contest. First Place for $6,000 was awarded to Damien Hubaux and his engineering team from CETIC in Belgium. Their SAND (Smart Adaptable Network Device) System acquires data about driver behavior to train workers and decrease fuel consumption.

Northwire has relationships with more than 250 assemblers to produce made-to-order assemblies of cord sets and power cords for volumes of one to 1,000 pieces or more.

Aspectrics will integrate Thermo Scientific GRAMS spectroscopy software into its Encoded Photometric Near Infrared (EP-NIR) process analyzers.

Green Hills will supply Saab Bofors Dynamics AB with INTEGRITY RTOS, networking middleware and AdaMULTI integrated development environment (IDE) for the next phase of its RBS15 project. The RBS15 is a next-generation fire-and-forget, multi-purpose surface-to-surface missile system.

Invensys will implement the Operator Training Simulation (OTS) system for Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG receiving terminal being built in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The OTS will train control room operators, operating supervisors and other plant equipment operators.

Korenix JetNet 5010G/3010G/4508 industrial Ethernet switches and JetCon 1301 industrial media converters passed IEC 61000-2-6 life vibration tests.

Intertek has selected SampleManager LIMS as its corporate standard to manage laboratory data in the laboratories of the Intertek Oil Chemical and Agri Division (Caleb Brett).

Mack Molding will use KUKA shelf-mount robots to handle machine tending requirements on injection molding machines ranging in size from 500 to 3350 tons. Mack Molding is a custom plastics molder and supplier of contract manufacturing services.

Under the terms of the agreement, Kay-EE has the right to market and manufacture products using Duraswitch electronic switch technologies. Guangzhou Kay-EE Membrane Keyboard Switch Co. (Kay-EE) is one of the largest suppliers of membrane switch panels in mainland China.

An editorial panel will be held at the 2nd Annual Marketing & Sales Summit on 5-7 September 2007 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago, Illinois. Panelists include Walt Boyes, David Broussard, Greg Hale, Gary Mintchell and Renee Robbins.

"The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA-95 Standard in Manufacturing" by Bianca Scholten, explains how to apply ISA-95 in manufacturing enterprise systems (MES) and vertical integration projects, as well as reveals the most important ISA-95 models and terminology.

"Network Infrastructure for EtherNet/IP" provides an introduction to the network infrastructure and gives users a framework for identifying the considerations that are most critical to their specific applications. It references specific switch features that users of EtherNet/IP would require for proper communication.

Emerson changed the brand name of Solartron densitometers to Micro Motion. Emerson acquired the densitometers product line in 2005.

FANUC was presented the General Motors 2006 Supplier of the Year award for its overall business performance in providing GM with world-class parts and services.

Honeywell held its 2007 Middle East Users Group Symposium on April 9 -10 in Dubai. Topics for the symposium included industrial security, third party migration and alarm management.

Invensys broke ground for a brand new, 15,500 square foot regional headquarters facility in South East Calgary. It will be twice as large as the present Calgary facility and will have three times the staging area to accommodate staging, testing, and verification of customers' automation systems.

MAVERICK and Solving International will collaborate on business strategy, performance improvement and technology implementation with a focus on improving operations management, manufacturing, logistics and supply chain management.

Schneider Electric will significantly increase its level of support for ODVA by becoming one of its principal members. This coincides with ODVA's plans to extend the CIP Network specifications to provide compatibility with Modbus/TCP devices.

By Anto Budiardjo, President of Clasma Events Inc. Buildings 2.0 is a vision that intricately intertwines buildings with Internet technologies. It says the future of buildings is one which is controlled, managed and connected to the Internet in a way that goes far beyond simply placing a web server to the control system or in the use of IP. This article describes the concept of Buildings 2.0.

The conference series was co-sponsored by Microsoft and was conducted worldwide with 19 events throughout the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

"IEC 61499 Function Blocks for Embedded and Distributed Control Systems Design," by Valeriy Vyatkin, is a practical guide for component-based development of distributed embedded and control systems as proposed by the new international standard. Each chapter is designed as an independent study unit, making the book ideal for use in university courses, industrial training, or self-study.

Fieldbus Center at Lee College (Baytown, TX) and Tri-State University (Angola, Indiana), have signed a license agreement for sharing fieldbus training resources. The alliance will expand FOUNDATION technology instructional opportunities across the U.S.

Kratville will launch new, expanded service offerings in the areas of direct consulting, customer support and education services.

RFI will acquire the the Universal Vortex Flow Meter and FloSonex Ultrasonic Flow Meter product lines from Asahi/America. RFI will take full ownership of stock and warranty responsibility for both Vortex Flow Meter lines.

Emerson will provide a wide area data gathering system to connect 19 active wind farms to npower's corporate headquarters, operations center, and regional centers in various locations in the UK.

Part of the expansion features a new circuit design and simulation option, as well as a student install option that gives students the opportunity to use software included in the license on their personal computers. The Academic Site License covers NI software that fitsd the needs of academic institutions.

The topics that EWE will present (Hall 13, Booth C 30) are under the slogan of "Energy, Vision, Future." The focus will be on future energy production and energy efficiency, research and development, as well as IT solutions for the energy industry. Each day will be devoted to a particular focus.

G Systems delivered the second of two NLOS-LS Test Sets to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (LMMFC). NLOS LS consists of the Precision Attack Missile (PAM) and a highly deployable, platform-independent Container Launch Unit (C/LU) with self-contained tactical fire control electronics and software for remote and unmanned operations.

Robots, including dogs, two-legged humanoid robots, soccer robots, and service and rescue robots, will be competing in eight different leagues at the RoboCup German Open 2007.

The "Application Park" in Hall 17 will bring together around 50 high-tech German companies in a total display area of 3,000 square meters. This major new highlight has been organized jointly by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) and Deutsche Messe.

The contest is open to users of LXI instrumentation who have interesting or effective applications in test and measurement system design and operation that incorporate LXI products in the system. First prize is $2500.

The 200 MW (megawatt) LNG-fired gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) power generation system will be built at the existing Tamar Valley Power Station site in Tasmania. It consists of a M701DA gas turbine, steam turbine, generator, heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and other components.