Articles and News

The pressure drop refers to the change or drop in pressure from the upstream side of the valve to the downstream side.

Schütte supplies a range of multi-spindle machine tools and grinders for production work in various sectors of the metalworking market, including medical, orthopedic, tooling, contract machining and more.

Endress+Hauser and Vector Controls have teams ready in LaPorte, TX and around the country to provide the support needed locally – from phone support to onsite visits to product repair and replacements.

The Yokogawa ProSafe-RS Safety Control System is Yokogawa’s second product to be certified to the ISASecure Conformance Scheme. Yokogawa also has a DCS Controller product certified to ISASecure EDSA.

Kuwait Paraxylene Production Co. (KPPC) will use two Honeywell Connected Plant services to improve the performance of its CCR Platforming and aromatics complex, which produces paraxylene for plastic fibers and films, at its Shuaiba petrochemical facility in Safat, Kuwait.

OSI’s solution will replace MSS’s legacy QEI system. This system will provide MSS with improved distribution operations.

By Anthony Coggine, Freelance Technology Writer Marketing automation uses tools like predictive analysis, artificial intelligence, and good old-fashioned algorithms and “if/then” programming to streamline marketing efforts. As marketing automation continues to grow, these are the trends to keep an eye on

The R&D building will allow Banner Engineering to create more than 225 new high-tech jobs locally, as well as accelerate product development

A number of trends and reliability concerns affect the controller choices engineers make in regards to PC-based motion control systems and machine control systems. To get an ideal PC-based solution that fulfills functional requirements, engineers must consider the following requirements - openness, economics, ease of use, safety considerations.

By Matthew Wells, GE Digital In today’s economy, data is a valuable commodity; companies rely on it to run their businesses, be more competitive in the market, and enable increases in productivity. In order to take advantage of data, however, a business needs to connect and automate its back-end systems and processes in order to make sense of the data, identify patterns and formulate solutions.

The event is the first of its kind from the CTAQ and is an opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large companies to learn about the government’s plans for ensuring sustainability of the Canadian food industry.

ProGHG has been developed by Wood Group’s specialist technical solutions business in Houston, and provides an enterprise-level application that automates data collection, integration and validation, and emission calculations up to automated reporting.

The Bedrock system will coordinate flow of product from partners, through the Pinnacle processing facilities and onto refiners and shippers. Pinnacle chose Bedrock system for its scalability, ease of engineering, ruggedness, cost efficiencies and intrinsic cyber security.

ISA student sections are located worldwide. They offer learning opportunities, professional networking, and employment connections.

By Lucie Villéger, PcVue Inc. Historical approaches to monitor, diagnose, maintain and control industrial and building assets must be reconsidered. A new architecture optimized for the mobile SCADA and BMS user is needed.

Sierra Nevada Brewery, located in Chico, Calif., retrofitted their keg line 16 months ago and has already saved approximately 1 million gallons of water through the use of the System Plast NG Evo dry-running technology, which runs without lubrication or water.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Proper pressure instrument calibration requires the coordination of a number of factors to ensure precise accuracy. Improving this pressure calibration process can really boost an instrumentation team’s productivity and overall production.

Data from automation and monitoring systems, leveraged with analytics, monitoring, and reporting, creates the basis for a real-time maintenance program.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) chose Elmo's Gold Eagle servo drives for use in the Israeli Merkava tanks after a demanding set of testing both in the lab and in the field.

Since its founding 50 years ago, the family-owned company Vester Elektronik GmbH has specialised in optoelectronic sensors for controls and process monitoring in the field of punching and forming technology.

Many of us know well many Texans who are dealing with ravaging flood waters and displacement from their homes. We all want to aid our friends in the Houston area, so if you’re looking for ways to help, anywhere in the world, here are just a few of the charities that are currently focused on helping Houston heal from Harvey.

The multivariate statistical-process control excels at modeling unknown linear relationships for a large number of inputs that could be correlated.

Industrial Robotics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2014 - 2020

Zabel has directed content development and delivery on Automation.com since the website was launched in 2000. Automation.com is a leading online publisher of automation-related content, featuring 45 topic-specific portals that post timely articles, news, products, white papers and other resources. More than 100,000 users visit the website per month.

The purchase of HighJump will be from its parent company, Accellos Holdings and its primary investor, Accel-KKR, a technology focused investment firm. Both parties agreed not to disclose details of the purchase price.

By Pierre Dufour, Honeywell For natural gas companies, there is growing pressure to deliver more energy, increase profitability and minimize financial losses. The following article describes recent developments in integrated gas metering, which are intended to meet smart metering requirements from the gas wellhead to burner tip applications.

The Namibia brewing company implemented a Schneider Electric Information Management solution to consolidate data collection and optimize operational visibility across brewing operations.

SoftDEL expands its BACnet stack portfolio by making a state-of-the-art BACnet stack with protocol revision 18 available to OEMs within building automation ecosystem.

Under the slogan "Creating the most from wind – discover the value of digitalization", digitalization and engineering efficiency are main themes of this year's Siemens presentation at Husum Wind.

The partnership, forged in response to the changing industrial security landscape and growing cyber-threats to automation networks and systems, specifically focuses on broadening understanding and adoption of industrial automation security standards.

Technical paper focuses on stabilization problem of a linear time invariant fractional order switched system.

Members of Partners in THINC provide superior technologies that are integrated with Okuma’s CNC machines and controls to deliver advanced manufacturing system solutions.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com Taking place on March 22-23, 2017 in Detroit, MI with over 2,500 manufacturing executives, engineers and enthusiasts, attendees learned about the newest technologies, while exchanging ideas with industry leaders, sharing best practices, and advancing the future of manufacturing in the United States and beyond.

Under the terms of the agreement, Schneider Electric will supply its EcoStruxure system architecture and platform, comprising its EcoStruxure Foxboro distributed control system, Triconex process safety solutions, PIONIR analytical fuels blending systems and a suite of SimSci and Wonderware software solutions at Dangote’s greenfield refinery in Lagos, Nigeria.

Visitors to the Beckhoff booth will again be able to “BYOD”, using their own smartphones and tablets to connect with PC-based control demos – including a wall of IoT-enabled devices, plus articulated robot arms from Stäubli – using any mobile device with a web browser.

By Chuck Rathmann, IFS According a new Enterprise Software Mobility and Digital Transformation study of 200 industrial executives, mobility represents just as large of an opportunity for industrial organizations as it does for the likes of Uber.

The North American robotics market had its best opening half ever to begin 2017, setting new records in all four statistical categories (order units, order revenue, shipment units, and shipment revenue).

This alliance will provide Deloitte with specific tools and platforms to support their Cyber Risk practice, and expand the breadth and depth of their services in the Caribbean and Bermuda region.

The work, being undertaken at Yeo Hiap Seng’s (Yeo’s) tea, soft drinks and sauces production plant in Singapore, sees the development of a system using Siemens PCS7 batch technology for S-88 Standard compliance.

The author argues the expansion of STEM programs in schools.

Groundbreaking on the facility expansion is slated to begin in August of 2017, and is viewed as the first step toward later plans for expanding NuTec’s adjoining production facility by an additional 4,000 square-feet at a future date.

This summer, teams of students from around the world harnessed their programming and hardware skills in a series of robotics competitions known as RoboNation, which Northrop Grumman sponsored.

By Brad (Biju) Oommen, Networking Solutions Consultant With rapid digitization, Power Over Ethernet (PoE) Ethernet extenders can greatly benefit PoE enabled network devices such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers, IP Paging systems, IP cameras, IP phones, IP Horn Speakers, Sensors and Wireless access points.

The "inherent flow characteristic" is the relationship between valve capacity and valve travel, and it is usually expressed graphically.

Siemens will supply the drive technology for cold rolling mills near Liaoyang in Liaoning Province in Northeastern China, and for a cold and hot rolling mill near the port of Yingkou, which also lies in Liaoning Province.

The ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Center opened in Westerville, Ohio. The center will function as the central focal point for resources and for systems that are equipped with ABB technology

Rockwell Automation received the Delphi Pinnacle Award in recognition of its services for the company in 2016. Delphi annually recognizes top-tier suppliers who help the company achieve quality, value and cost-performance improvements.

Prior to joining Indegy, Gaby was executive vice president at Panaya, an Infosys company, where she was responsible for sales and marketing in the Americas.

By Jonathan Wilkins, EU Automation In manufacturing, saving energy can be a whole lot simpler and making small but significant changes can drastically reduce energy consumption. This article discusses how three technologies can improve the energy efficiency of industrial robots.

Strategic collaboration between BitFlow and software developers, like National Instruments, has resulted in a library of third-party drivers. BitFlow plug-and-play drivers integrate its frame grabbers within virtually any application environment, eliminating the need for new coding, while helping to achieve more stable systems.

With the new coupler, users can effectively achieve communication between differing parts of a line on separate networks, increasing transparency and integration.

The number of cybersecurity incidents and cyberattacks against industrial networks is growing, and they often go unreported.

The aim of the project is to increase the field's oil production capacity to 65,000 barrels per day (BPD) from the existing capacity of 22,000 BPD.

ControlEdge PLC is the first PLC to be awarded the ISASecure Level 2 certification, which builds on the Level 1 capabilities by providing additional security features such as the confidentiality and integrity of data at rest and in motion, detection of unauthorized changes and additional protection against Denial of Service attacks.

By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com EdgeX Foundry is an open source project to build a common open framework for Internet of Things (IoT) edge computing and an ecosystem of interoperable components that unifies the marketplace and accelerates enterprise and Industrial IoT.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced that Executive Director and CEO, Patrick Gouhin, will be stepping down. Peggie W. Koon will serve as Interim Executive Director, while a Search Committee will be formed in the immediate future to identify Mr. Gouhin’s successor.

This program is designed to address a specific need as Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), or Industry 4.0 applications and projects proliferate.

Siemens PLM Software is a provider of software solutions to drive the digital transformation of industry, creating new opportunities for manufacturers to realize innovation.

Data collected in this survey shows median annual base salary information across multiple industries and disciplines in the field of metrology, and how those incomes differ between educational backgrounds, gender, years of service, job titles, and more.

By John Hayes, Vecna Robotics All those sensors on AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) which prevent collisions (with people, equipment, or building structures) are collecting data. Few AGV manufacturers have found a way to concretize these data and make them actionable, predictive, and fundamentally useful.

The combination of Comark and DLI brings the consolidated customer base an choice of industrial computing solutions. DLI’s mobile computing technology is a complement to Comark’s industrial computing solutions.

Yvonne Schneider and David Desharnais were appointed to qBotica's Advisory Board, which is comprised of Fortune 500 business executives, bringing a mixture of business, technology, and operations expertise to the company.

MCE will oversee operations for Ritter Technology, LLC, now renamed RitterTech, and its recently acquired divisions: Primet Fluid Power, acquired in February of 2017; Tri-State Hose & Fitting, acquired in April of 2017; and Fluid Systems Engineering, acquired in May of 2017.

Initially developed to train Bedrock end users and partners in programming applications to the IEC 61131-3 standard, the software and the IDE can be used to build PLC, DCS, and SCADA RTU applications that are cryptographically authenticated to the Bedrock platform.

In plant installations, a key requirement is the ability to smoothly integrate actuators used for opening or closing valves with the automation system.

Bosch Rexroth has made the Sercos SoftMaster available as free open source software on SourceForge.net. They also offer a free Sercos-on-a-Stick livesystem--a complete stand-alone demo Sercos driver package on a USB thumb drive. This includes the SoftMaster based on Intime Distributed RTOS from TenAsys Corporation, and a test application.

By Erik Davidson, Cortet by CEL This article will focus on the IoT-enabled Smart Lighting Control opportunity, which CEL research shows is one of largest opportunities in the rapidly growing commercial-grade IoT control space.

The construction of a new plant to enlarge production capacities was necessitated by a growing demand for high-quality products from FSG. FSG produces sensors for various industrial sectors, among them the rail, ship and crane industries.

Astro Tecnologia is one of Brazil’s manufacturers of cargo securement systems, webbing, lifting slings and supplemental decking equipment.

A distillation tower has feed upsets that are measured and used to create a feed forward signal.

In his new role, Villa oversees the continued development of Schneider Electric’s digitally-enabled solutions and network of distribution partners nationwide to support U.S. industrial customers.

Microscan releases the LVS-9585 Handheld Portable Barcode Verifier, providing verification of both printed labels and direct part marks (DPM). The new LVS-9585 verifies the readability, quality, and data integrity of 1D and 2D printed labels and direct part marks to internationally accepted standards including GS1, ISO 15415/15416, ISO/IEC 29158 TR, and MIL-STD-130N.

As an existing SimSci user, JFE Engineering chose to upgrade to SimCentral to take advantage of its unified platform-based solution, which is expected to result in greater opportunities for efficiency, collaboration and the re-use of simulation assets.

The $8,000 scholarships are payable in $2,000 annual installments over four years. The two will also have paid summer internships with Northrop Grumman during their scholarship years.

Protoduction’s proprietary process, “Concept 2 Reality”, is designed to bridge the gap between design engineering and manufacturing, providing customers with a consultative approach to product development.