Articles and News

Emerson will engineer, project manage, install, commission, and provide long term support on automation solutions for the company's oil, gas and petrochemical facilities in Qatar.

Honeywell recently conducted a series of roadshows in six cities across Saudi Arabia to showcase process and control technology. The roadshows took place in Dhahran, Ras Tanura, Tanajib, Khafji, Jubail and Yanbu.

The new subsidiary will be headed by Ramon Diaz. Diaz has gained extensive experience in automation and drive technology in Germany and Spain.

Includes products and half-day 'hands-on' training tutorials on plug & play servo and stepper motion control, robotics and software programming.

Electromate Industrial Sales will be hosting a Toronto & Montreal Automation Fair & Expo on Tuesday April 17th at the Holiday Inn Select Toronto Airport and on April 19th at the Dorval Airport Hilton. The Automation Fair/Technology Expo is a tabletop Automation/Motion show format complete with concurrently running free Classroom Technical Seminars.

Ethernet Direct added sales and service locations in Kowloon (Hong Kong), Shenzhen (China), Shanghai (China), Wuhan (China), Xi’an (China) and Cheng Du (China).

The Division will work closely with both existing and potential customers in order to create turnkey custom solutions to address their specific spectroscopy application requirements. John Beauchaine, former VP of Sales, will head up the new Professional Services Division.

Telvent is participating in a collaborative exercise with the U.S. Department of Energy's National SCADA Test Bed (NSTB) on a joint security assessment project. NSTB researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) assess and mitigate the threats posed by cyber attacks on critical infrastructure control systems.

Aleier and MACTEC Engineering will offer integrated enterprise asset management (EAM) and engineered management systems (EMS) solutions to the facilities management market.

Invensys will supply Foxboro distributed control systems (DCS), Triconex safety systems and fire & gas systems, and Foxboro instrumentation to Aker Kvaerner, Inc. for a new LNG receipt terminal being built near the Gulf Coast of Louisiana.

Ian will lead a team dedicated to exploring how specific client’s manufacturing needs can be achieved. He moves from a project management role at Invetech’s Australian office to take up the new position.

Nick will work with all vice presidents, corporate officers, directors and department heads to ensure that operations are in line with Moore Industries’ corporate goals and initiatives. Moore Industries is a leader in the design and manufacture of interface instruments and fieldbus equipment.

HANNOVER MESSE (Hannover Fair), scheduled for 16-20 April 2007 at the Hannover Fairgrounds, will host 12 leading international trade fairs on various industrial automation areas, including Interkama for process control, the digital factory, building automation, and motion control. 200,000 attendees are expected.

For students interested in working in the automation field,.ISA will offer a CAP Associate exam. Students who pass the exam will receive one year of "work experience" credit toward ISA's Certified Automation Professional (CAP) certification program requirements.

"Programmable Controllers, 4th Edition" by Thomas A. Hughes discusses all phases of programmable controller applications from systems design and programming to installation, maintenance, and startup.

The service offers customers mechanical design, simulation, robot programming and vision guidance for racking and unracking applications.

FANUC received SsangYong Motor Company’s Supplier Appreciation Award for the development of an automated paint system installed in 2006.

MULTI integrated development environment (IDE) for DaVinci technology from Texas Instruments is shipping with each Digital Video Evaluation Module (DVEVM). The development tools support debugging for TI’s TMS320DM644x systems-on-chip (SoC) processors.

Invensys Process Systems becomes a global reseller and certified implementer for Transpara's Visual KPI operations intelligence software. Visual KPI technology helps customer plant personnel remotely monitor process variables and KPIs from their existing mobile communications devices.

MTS adapted its mobile hydraulic (Model MS) Temposonics magnetostrictive sensor for use in the Bugatti Veyron high-end passenger car, the world's fastest street-legal motor vehicle.

Stuart C. Irby Co. has become the authorized Allen-Bradley distributor for the Columbus and Meridian, Mississippi, markets. Irby will establish two new locations as full-line commercial and industrial branches to complement and expand their existing Mississippi footprint.

Jim Pauley has assumed the role of vice-chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He will also continue serving as vice-president, industry and government relations for Schneider Electric North America.

CeBIT will be held March 15-21 in Hannover, Germany. It is the worlds leading trade fair for development and trends in the information and communications technology market.

Verano named Todd A. Nicholson as chief marketing officer and hired a new Senior Director, Chris Martin, to market its Industrial Defender product. Both Nicholson and Martin work from Verano's Mansfield, Mass. Headquarters.

Cyco is exhibiting at the MAXIMO Utility Working Group (MUWG) Workshop on March 6-7 at the Hilton Phoenix East Hotel in Mesa, AZ.

"Automation and Control Systems Economics, 2nd Edition" covers the economic aspects of automation and process control like its predecessor, but expands on how the tools of economic and financial analysis can be applied to automation projects, especially those concerned with continuous processes.

ISA's 7th Annual Fugitive Emissions - LDAR Symposium will be held 5-7 June 2007 at the Doubletree Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas. The event will focus on compliance with today's complex leak detection and repair (LDAR) requirements, methods, and management.

The PTO (PROFIBUS and PROFINET North America) and the PIC (PROFI Interface Center) announce free webinars and one-day training classes held in various cities throughout North America.

The new hall, with an area of 850 sq. m, will house a dozen plastic injection presses. The La Ferté Bernard site has expanded from 50 persons in 2003 to more than 100 today.

At the ARC Forum, Rockwell Automation and Endress+Hauser demonstrated progress in their strategic alliance. The two companies provide comprehensive solutions for plant engineering, operations and management and support a range of standard bus technologies, including the HART Communication Foundation, Fieldbus Foundation, FDT Group and ODVA.

The papers are aimed at embedded software developers and provide advanced techniques for software development and debugging for the DSP and ARM processors found on both TI DaVinci technology and OMAP technology.

Shepherd's responsibilities will include the company's operations including engineering, sales, marketing, and customer service for the United States of America. Prior to joining KUKA Robotics, Mr. Shepherd was founder and president of Shepherd Solutions, a business development and management consulting firm.

According to a study prepared by the ARC Advisory Group, Foundation fielbus accounts for over two-thirds of process fieldbus revenues. ARC says the global market for fieldbus solutions in the process industries reached $831.7 million in 2006 and projects current growth trends will expand the fieldbus market to over $2.279 billion in 2011.

The 4th annual Safety Division Symposium will be held 22-23 May at the Wyndham Mount Laurel in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

The Web site, "Manufacturing is Cool," was created by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation with the goal of inspiring pre-teens and teens to pursue careers in engineering and manufacturing. It provides an inside look at how kid favorites - such as snacks, fashion, cars and cell phones - are designed and produced by engineers.

UK's Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) upgraded its facility for the storage of parts and tools involved in the servicing of RAF and naval aircraft with 11 Lean-Lift automated vertical lift storage systems.

The web site has a keyword search to help process, plant, municipal water and agricultural engineers find the most up-to-date flow meter information. Revamped top navigation and side toolbars make it easy to locate target information in one to two clicks.

Cyco's third Americas User & Reseller Conference will be held at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida, USA from June 3-5.

Ethernet Direct Latin America will serve the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions in Latin America.

Fully searchable CD-ROM provides complete product and design information contained in the company's print catalogs. More than 1,000 pages of technical specifications, product numbers, dimensions and application tips on 28,000 products are fully searchable by keyword or product number.

KD-Rig advanced diagnostic testing system provides NASCAR teams with detailed data about the chassis and suspension in a variety of simulation scenarios. It provides precise suspension motion while measuring bump steer, camber change and wheel loads. The KD-Rig also easily allows interference checking throughout the travel range.

The TiPS User Conference is scheduled for April 17-19, 2007 in Austin, TX. A highligh is an alarm management panel seated by founding members of the ASM Consortium; contributing authors of the EEMUAR 191 guideline; and people who have been involved with assessment and analysis of the world's most notorious incidents and who remain on the leading edge of alarm and upset management.

The European Collaborative Production Management (CPM) software market is in flux. Over the next five years, the market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7%. In 2006, the CPM software and service market was worth $889.6 million and is forecasted to exceed $1.6 billion by 2011 according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

The booth layout will feature purpose-built kiosks offering an extensive overview of key fieldbus applications and FOUNDATION technology solutions through displays and demonstrations of registered devices, host systems, tools and services available from more than 20 of the world's leading automation equipment suppliers. The Interkama 2007 International Trade Fair is held April 16-20 in Hannover, Germany.

ABB will supply burner management, boiler controls, and BOP controls for two 330 MW circulating fluidized bed boilers at Cleco Power's new $1 billion Rodemacher Power Station, a 660 MW generating unit near Boyce, LA. ABB will provide System 800xA with operator stations, Harmony Bridge controllers for monitoring and control, and PLC interfaces to the turbine controls via standard OPC technology.

Emerson won a $7 million contract to automate the four unit, 4,000-MW, coal-fired plant in April 2005. The plant, which is owned by Huaneng Power International, is the first 1,000-MW-per-unit power plant in China, as well as the country’s first to use ultra-supercritical technologies. Two of the four units recently went on line.

The online SIL Resource Center has examples of how to determine Safety Integrity Levels and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS), links to associated standards organizations, an extensive Questions and Answers section on the background and requirements of SIL and SIS process industry practices, along with a Common SIL Myths section.

Xycom Automation is adopting Pro-Face as its new corporate name. Xycom will remain a product brand name fully supported in the Pro-face family of Operator Interface and Industrial PC products.

Kuka Robotics has been selected by Transbotics Corporation to provide robotics to work with a new line of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV). The robots and AGVs streamline material handling processes for manufacturers by offering a complete solution for material handling from receiving to production to shipping.

The worldwide market for magnetic flowmeters is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.5% over the next five years. The market was $730.4 million in 2006 and is forecasted to be nearly $866 million in 2011, according to an ARC Advisory Group study.