Articles and News

Featuring more than 1,300 items, the 292-page, full-color glossy catalog covers existing and new products in categories such as Specialty Tools, Video Inspection, Electrical and many more.

The companies are officially "joining" through a "strategic alliance" agreement to provide turnkey manufacturing solutions.

The new plant will build compact power substations, motors, generators, drive systems, measurement equipment and low-voltage products.

By Okuma White paper describes Okuma's Super-NURBS programming functionality that meets high-accuracy finish requirements while speeding up cycle times.

Getting Your MES Project Right the First Time

Crestwood will use Flow-Cal’s software as their corporate measurement solution to manage their natural gas and petroleum products.

NGLTech develops solutions for the improvement and enhancement of processes in upstream oil & gas.

20 students were provided scholarships covering tuition and stationary expenses for the first year of their graduation courses in engineering, R&D or manufacturing.

The mSC free web-based service gives OEMs, machine builders and system integrators a secure, easy and cost-effective way to access machines and systems anywhere in the world over the Internet.

This article focuses on the moving magnet voice coil style of actuators and compares it with other short stroke linear motion technologies, in order to choose the best component for the specific application. The discussion includes moving coil voice coil actuators, moving magnet voice coil actuators, solenoids and piezo actuators.

The world market for miniature circuit breakers and residual current devices (MCBs and RCDs) is projected to go up, to nearly $10 billion in 2018.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The term reshoring is being used to describe the act of companies bringing back desirable jobs to the United States – those jobs that have been lost to decades of offshoring. This is all well and good, but U.S. companies should not lose sight of the fact that automation is the key to increased productivity and quality.

A comprehensive asset management system enables operations and maintenance personnel to quickly access and analyze information in response to alarms and incidents.

The calculator, based on Microsoft Excel, allows users to quickly and simply generate an estimate of potential savings on a production line as a result of OEE improvements.

The free workshop teaches the essential elements of Safety Instrumented Systems including how to comply with myriad safety requirements. The workshop is available in a two-day classroom in Calgary, or as a three-day webinar.

Use tieback models, modeling objects and online adaptation of dynamics and parameters to achieve the fidelity needed for simulation applications.

Each of the 120 Intertec cabinets on Shell’s ‘Prelude’ floating liquefied natural gas project incorporates a unique form of semi-passive cooling technology.

Scott Trumbull will retire as Chief Executive Officer effective May 2, 2014 and Gregg C. Sengstack will succeed him in that role.

IFR estimates that in 2013 about 168,000 industrial robots were sold, 5% more than in 2012. Asia and U.S. were up, Europe was down.

Overall, things are looking up for the manufacturing industry in the coming year with an anticipated increase in orders, production and exports.

At Embedded World 2014 in Nuremberg (hall 2, booth 110), Fujitsu will present the whole family.

Ningbo Fortune Petrochemical, a Chinese petrochemical producer, selected UOP's C3 Oleflex process technology to convert propane to propylene.

Prior to selecting Epicor ERP, Taco used a legacy system for the last 17 years that could no longer support increased operations due to a combination of in-house applications and multiple code modifications.

Emerson will provide a DeltaV Operator Training Solution (OTS) for BP’s Quad 204 North Sea FPSO replacement project.

By Bill Lydon, Editor On February 11, 2014, along with dozens of other journalists from all over the world, I attended the 2014 Hannover Fair Preview Event in Berlin, Germany. The primary focus of the preview event, as well as the upcoming Hannover Messe, is the next steps for achieving the vision of integrated industry, also known as Industry 4.0 or the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Armstrong International is a manufacturer of steam, gas, and hot water systems.

Valeo will use LED-based detection technology to develop a new infrared sensor for vehicle road obstacle detection and tracking functions.

Harting's manufacturing plant in Elgin, IL, has been AS9100C accredited by UL/DQS for the manufacture of both backplanes and cable assemblies.

How Can Advanced Calibration Strategies Improve Control Performance?

Simatic S7-1518F has a 10 MB user memory and four communication interfaces: Profinet interface with a 2-port switch for communication with the field level, two Profinet interfaces, and one Profibus interface.

Logo! 8 replaces current series 6 and 7 and is characterized by simplified handling, reduced space requirements with more digital and analog outputs, as well as an improved price-performance ratio.

The Simatic IPC347D industrial PCs are particularly suitable for the production environment where greater robustness is required compared to office PCs.

ET200AL distributed I/Ohas a high IP67 degree of protection, a particularly compact design, a small space requirement and low weight.

Services range from mobile inspection of individual components, such as motors and gearboxes, to continuous online monitoring of the entire drive train.

At Hannover, Siemens presents a drive system in a single product consisting of a Flender standard industry planetary gear unit (SIP), a Simogear geared motor and a Sinamics G110M inverter.

Simotics VSD10 motors are optimized for operation with Sinamics G120 frequency converters.

The liquid-cooled solution transfers its heat almost completely to the cooling liquid instead of dissipating it into the surroundings.

Siemens presents Simogear geared motors with integrated Sinamics G110M frequency inverter at Hannover Messe.

Under the banner “Making things right,” the 3,500 square meter Siemens booth in Hall 9 will be providing an overview of its portfolio catering to customers from all walks of industry.

A team from Walker Career Center in Indianapolis has won a trip to Hanover, Germany, in Phoenix Contact’s Nanoline Contest.

The system will enable Statoil personnel onshore to continuously monitor the new fixed platform’s critical and essential pumps, compressors and other mechanical equipment to maximize efficiency and identify any potential problems before they affect production.

The Absolut Vodka distillation process is now under control of ABB’s System 800xA. It provides trend data, asset monitoring and Smart Client information management.

Statoil will use Proficy SmartSignal predictive-diagnostic software and services to improve the uptime and increase the reliability of heavy rotating equipment such as gas turbines, generators and compressors.

CeMAT will be held from 19 to 23 May 2014 in Hannover, Germany.

A government grant and PMMI’s Mechatronics Certificate program will support training for more than 300 individuals as mechatronics technicians and industrial machinery mechanics at Purdue University Calumet.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Ted Krevis of Sherwin Williams gave an enthusiastic presentation about their HMI software implementation at Inductive Automation’s Ignition User Conference last fall. I had the opportunity to talk personally with Krevis and the Lead Software Developer about their experiences using Ignition software. Below is a synopsis of my interview.

ERD electric cylinders are IP69K rated with an USDA Accepted Equipment Certification for meat (livestock), poultry, and dairy food processing applications.

igus retrofit a car with 56 iglide bearings, and now igus is putting them to the test on a 20 country, 9 month world tour.

Yokogawa wil supply a CENTUM VP integrated production control system for the monitoring and control of all plant facilities at a combined cycle power plant being built for UTE in Punta del Tigre.

The ship will be the world’s largest Moss-type LNG carrier and will be used for transporting LNG from an onshore LNG processing plant that is being constructed as part of the Ichthys LNG project.

What's the Best Way to Integrate Packaged Equipment into Plant SCADA Systems?

By Bill Lydon, Editor Cyber-attacks of automation systems are increasing while the industry is broadening the attack surface with more IP-based Ethernet networks. The need to integrate information from controllers with business systems and the implementation of cyber security defenses are working against each other.

In the automated parking system by serva, a robotic system takes over the transportation and parking of cars, making it fast, easy and safe.

The official rollout of the US Cybersecurity Framework represents the completion of a successful partnership effort among The White House, the Automation Federation and ISA.

Roslan joined ProSoft Technology in 2008 as a Product Marketing Manager and has had increasing responsibilities since then.

An engineer is as dependent on the vendors as they are dependent upon the engineer.

Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU will exhibit a model factory and present research on "E3-Research Factory Resource-efficient Production” at Hannover.

The site provides tools, white papers, and energy reduction solutions to address the energy challenges faced by the manufacturing sector.

Easily installed using a single cable network, CC-Link IE Energy can control entire production systems and feed real-time production information to enterprise management IT systems.

HART, FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute, OPC Foundation and PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) will be at Hannover Messe.

Global shipments for motion control products fell by 5% in 2013, according to statistics released by the Motion Control Association (MCA), the industry’s trade group.

To develop specific approaches to the implementation of Industry 4.0, Festo is involved in a number of collaborative research projects that deal with various aspects of future production.

Festo is demonstrating three unique application concepts at the 2014 Hanover Fair.

Beckhoff will show its complete range of solutions and latest innovations in the areas of IPCs, I/O, Motion and automation in 10,800 square feet at Hannover Messe.

Harting Technology Group is a member of "Smart FactoryKL," a consortium of technology leaders and research institutions that has set itself the goal of making the benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies a reality for users.

Harting Technology Group will exhibit three modules from the FlexiMon Flexible Assembly Concept which handle the processes of screwing, stamping and inspecting at Hannover Messe.

Visitors to the two companies' trade fair stands at Hannover will be shown the identical exhibit in the field of SMART SERVICES. Both exhibits will be connected to each other via sensors and the Cloud.

ABB reported record full-year revenues and higher operational EBITDA, net income and free cash flow despite a challenging market environment.

Harting will exhibit an updated Smart Factory at this year's Hannover Messe trade fair.

Enhancements in Version 2.1 include faster tag handling with OPC-UA servers, and improved data exchange with mobile devices for faster response times and lower mobile network costs. Price: $2895.

Setting the Future Direction for ISA at Executive Summit 2014

Hannover Messe will maintain its focus on integration as a challenge of pivotal importance for the future of industry and will map out the next steps along the road to tomorrow’s intelligent, self-organizing factories.

The ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI) announced a system-level cybersecurity certification for industrial automation and control systems (IACS) products.

Year-to-date shipments are $2.03 billion, which is down 3.9 percent from 2012.

Prior to his promotion, Banda was a Central Region Manager for Beckhoff in the U.S. Banda will work at the Beckhoff North American headquarters in Savage, Minn.