Articles and News

By Greg Hale, Chief Safety Officer and Vice President, Worldwide Standards and Auditing, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Hear Greg's unique viewpoint on how technologies cross industrial boundaries and his perspective on automation technology as it relates to his industry, and the application of these technologies in the process and discrete industries.

By Connie Harryman Track: Human Performance Virtual Creative Problem Solving is a process, and you can use it in your daily work to gain an understanding of your team's strengths and of an individual’s roles and responsibilities. By Mastering Creative Problem Solving, you reap the benefits of Virtual High Performance Teams.

By Nevena Iordanova Track: Safety/Environmental The Energy Optimization/Management session describes Armstrong’s resource/tool called the Steam System Dashboard that easily allows engineers to analyze and monitor data already collected by the plant.

By Jon DiPietro Track: Human Performance Nearly nine out of every 10 employers are looking to social media to find employees, and almost three-quarters of them will search for your online profile before you come in for an interview. What will they find?

By Steve Huffman Track: Human Performance As competitive pressures increase, automation professionals will need expanded skill sets in an ever increasing system integrated world. This session deals with Automation Federation’s strategies and efforts to meet the workforce challenge.

By Danaca Jordan Track: Control Performance During Wednesday’s Control Performance Track session on "Efficient Operations Starts with Control Performance," we will use an ongoing case study to demonstrate how process control improvements can still be accomplished around a hectic schedule.

By Flávio P. Briguente (Monsanto) and Greg McMillan (CDI Process & Industrial) Track: Control Performance In batch processes, control becomes more complicated because of the variability of level, pressure, and concentrations. For this particular case, the process consists of a batch reactor, an external shell-and-tube heat exchanger with cooling tower water flow on the shell side.

At ISA Automation Week, Perpetuum will show how their Vibration Energy Harvesters can eliminate the need for battery replacement even at data collection update rates faster than 5 seconds.

By Marion Skerrette Track: Asset Performance This presentation seeks to examine areas of the business such as loop tuning, plant monitoring, facility management, planning, HSE, and alternate routes.

Two product suppliers joined the Rockwell Automation Encompass third-party product referencing program, while four partners joined the Rockwell Automation OEM Partner program.

ABB will supply an HPGR drive system comprising two squirrel cage induction motors, two ACS1000 frequency converters and two converter transformers.

ABB will supply three 7.4MW induction motors, ACS6000 frequency converters, transformers, medium voltage cubicles, chiller units and system engineering for semiautogenous (SAG) mills.

Automation Week: Partners Technical Content Line Up

By James Christensen Track: Asset Performance Development of the Second Edition of the IEC 61499 Standard for the use of Function Blocks in distributed, intelligent automation, and control has been completed. Managers and engineers attending this session will learn key aspects of the stnadard.

3eTI has two senior executives presenting three informative sessions based on its military-grade, ISA100 wireless mesh solutions. Each of the case studies will discuss the challenges faced by the various government or military agencies and how each of these solutions can be adapted for industrial use.

By Mike Fahrion Track: Wireless Devices are making strides in power efficiency, with remarkable gains in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, in particular. Combined with ongoing improvements in power sourcing and storage for low-power applications, it means devices will become increasingly independent.

By Dave Adler Track: Human Performance Automation projects can be a challenging activity. I have found there are many ways to do automation that causes the automation team to fail to meet all of these objectives. Using project management tools and processes can improve the chances of success.

By David Strohbar Track: Human Performance This session highlights the scientific approach to human performance improvement through work done by Center for Operator Performance members and researchers.

By Graham Nasby Track: Asset Performance In this session, attendees will learn about how to use automation master planning to develop facility automation standards to guide the effective long-term use of automation technology in a cost-effective manner.

By Sarah Prinster Track: Wireless Frequently, the cost benefits of using wireless are clearly understood, however, there is no one type of wireless technology that solves all problems. In order to maximize the value of industrial wireless networking investment, companies must be able to select the best technology for a given application.

By Rajeev Limaye Track: Safety/Environmental This presentation focuses on the design considerations when alarm is used as an Independent Protection Layer—whether or not the instruments and sensors can be shared between different protection layers and how they could be arranged in fault-tolerant configurations to achieve safety, reliability, and independence.

By George Buckbee The line-up includes papers on topics ranging from control hardware to performance improvement and advanced control techniques. Presenters from around the world will give you insight into new and different ways to address control problems.

By Maurice Wilkins Over a three-day period, the Human Performance Track explores all aspects of the process industries from a human perspective from how things are done today to how they may be done tomorrow and also some ideas about how to get in on the act.

By John S. Mitchell Inclusion of condition assessment information into process control and SCADA systems has extended the knowledge base and made operators more aware of production limiting mechanical condition.

The last two days have been filled with fun — MAVERICK Technologies CEO and Founder, Paul Galeski, was honored with the Excellence in Leadership Award and also announced a multi-year partnership with ISA.

The new guidelines and monitoring methods, Part of the IEC/IEEE 62582 Series, will help ensure the safety of electrical equipment used at nuclear power plant sites.

By Graham Speake The threat to all companies is real whether it is from virus, worms, and other malware or from a determined hacker inside or outside your company. Large companies who take security seriously and have the luxury of budgetary and manpower availability are not immune from attack and compromise.

By Brad Carlberg This overview includes highlights of three sessions titled, "Plant-wide Wireless," "Energy Harvesting: Powering your Wireless Devices," and "Improving Plant Operations with Wireless."

Earlier today, Progea gained the interest of their audience at the Technology Solutions Theater 2 with their presentation titled, "NeXt Generation SCADA Software: Framework for a Future of Success."

The partnership expands TiPS' capabilities to provide customers with services such as human factors engineering, control room design and advanced user interface development.

Forbes will address the impact of the President and his administration on the future of the U.S. economy and business growth during a keynote presentation at Automation 2013 in Chicago on January 22.

The FLOWCAL Enterprise Liquids system has redefined ExxonMobil's organizational processes, automating all measurement data collection and product ticket validation throughout North America.

Key highlights for the pressure transmitter market in 2011 included growth in both established and emerging economies, especially for energy and infrastructure related applications.

Mr. Matsukuma san is succeeding Mr. Matsumoto san of Fuji Electric who held this position for the last 3 years.

The global intelligent HVAC control systems market has been resilient in a weak economy and the market is shifting from analog to digital architecture.

Boris Waldeck, the Sales Director of KW-Software, become Secretary and Kevin Hull, Application and Deployment Supervisor Motion Control of Yaskawa America, joined the board.

The warehouse is fully automated, managing a busy operation involving several loading bays on many levels and requiring a seamless process of part selection, collection and delivery.

The new division will be known as Yaskawa Wermac and will be located at the former Wermac Electric facility in Calgary, AB.

On September 15th, the members of ISA Toronto and their families had the opportunity to gobehind the scenes at Canada’s Wonderland and see how their favourite attractions worked

Cemtrex is now marketing NIR and NMR Analyzer systems with a unique value proposition to monitor and control oil refinery process to maximize profits for the facility owners.

Results for the 29th edition of IMTS 2012 prove the continuing leadership of manufacturing in the overall economy as Show Management reports the strongest results in more than a decade.

With a focus on advanced flow measurement and testing, the service improves the accuracy and accountability of determining compositional values and custody transfer quantities.

For the fifth consecutive year, middle school and high school students can vie for a trip to Germany by creating a working control system using Phoenix Contact's Nanoline controller.

Automation.com, September 2012 By Marlee Rosen Implementing secure remote maintenance monitoring and real-time diagnostics reporting can contribute to improved device performance and the reduction of maintenance cost.

System integrator Technovator International of Singapore chose Distech Controls as the primary supplier of building management systems (BMS) for Junction Square shopping center in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).

Do You Care? I Do...

IMS Research expects the market for electrically actuated control valves to double in size, exceeding $630 million by 2017.

The site offers easy-to-access information about automation solutions for applications including aerospace, automotive, medical, off-highway equipment and general manufacturing.

With this acquisition, Bentley extends its AssetWise asset lifecycle information management software and services to comprehensively improve asset performance, providing new value-adding opportunities.

Devices from MTL and R. Stahl meet the FOUNDATION H1 (31.25 kbit/s) device coupler test specification and successfully completed the foundation's rigorous registration process.

Scanditron will provide sales and service in this region for Nordson ASYMTEK's conformal coating, jetting, and dispensing equipment and systems.

The combination of cloud-based PLM with a cloud-based enterprise application interface platform makes it easy for customers to map, build and manage an elegant integration solution.

The Consortium will collaborate with the University to further build knowledge through research related to reducing and mitigating abnormal situations in process industries, particularly in the area of alarm management.

The agreement covers scheduled maintenance services and remote diagnostic services including troubleshooting, ABB SupportLine, periodic maintenance report and condition monitoring.

The Micro Motion flowmeters provide Agrosy Technologies with accurate, real-time, in-line measurement data, and provide high measurement performance and maintenance free operation.

Automation.com, September 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Is it time for DCS suppliers to use open industrial Ethernet protocol standards for their backbone networks? I have asked major DCS suppliers this question and answers vary from supplier to supplier, but there are a few common issues.

IMS Research projects world sales revenue of operator terminals with embedded PLC hardware will rise from $99 million in 2011, to approximately $148million in 2016; a CAGR of about 9 percent.

The Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Consortium met in Hull, UK for a quarterly meeting to discuss their latest research and administrative business.

IMTS 2012 welcomed John Adamczyk, Global Manager of Engineering Services, at Chicago-based Littelfuse, as its 100,000th registrant on Saturday, September 15th.

System installation costs can be reduced up to 50% by wirelessly connecting the tank farm to the control room, with the added benefit of reducing implementation time as much as 60%.

The new facility doubles the previous capacity and marks the second expansion in the company's regional growth initiative, following the development in Coppell, Texas.

Loose and Tight Systems

Self-tuning adaptive control for an industrial weigh belt feeder

The purpose of the study is to improve the understanding of the market imperfections and the inconsistencies that exist in designing and implementing intelligent building projects.

Nager is Vice President and General Manager of Metz Connect's subsidiary located in Tinton Falls, NJ. Metz is the parent company of BTR Netcom and RIA Connect.

According to a report on The World Market for Low Voltage Generators from IMS Research, the Chinese market for low voltage generators is forecast to decline in 2012 and only grow at average annual rate of 3.8 percent through 2016.

Joint, turn-key services include a wide range of consulting, design, installation and engineering for fully integrated analyzer systems, process and equipment control systems, and industrial automation systems.

According to the leaflet, the new flowmeters provide unmatched measurement accuracies and easy installation and handling in a compact, space-saving design.

Any continuous waste stream is an excellent candidate for a money saving opportunity. Always keep an eye out for them.

Organika-Sarzyna, one of Poland’s largest chemical producers, will use AVEVA NET to provide a data integrity management program for a new MCPA (phenoxy herbicide) production plant installation.

The Consortium will focus on providing research on top PLM issues, and to define and set the direction for the PLM industry on topics that matter most to consortium members.

Catalogue covers linear and rotary ceramic motors with associated ASIC based drives and control electronics.

The company recently installed its 84,000th CNC, which translates to an average of six CNCs per day over 38 years.

Spectro will become the exclusive, world-wide supplier of Emerson's CSI 5200 Machinery Health Oil Analyzer product and services offering.

Solarsoft is a specialist in midmarket enterprise resource planning (ERP) and management systems for manufacturing and distribution.