Articles and News

Emerson recently completed the installation of automation and controls for a gantry type loading facility at the Shell Pernis refinery and chemical complex in the Netherlands. The total care maintenance contract with Vopak, the gantry owner and operator, carries penalties if availability falls below 99.7 percent. This means no more than three four-hour downtime events per year.

PowerCAD CE for Pocket PC has been selected as a finalist in the "Best Industry Application" category in the 2006 Handango Champion Awards. The Handango Champion Awards highlight exceptional mobile applications created by the industry’s best software developers.

RuggedCom's increase in revenue of 20,545% from 2001 to 2005 resulted in a fourth ranking overall in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50, the annual program which recognizes excellence, innovation and the fastest growing tech companies in Canada.

Schneider Electric North America and its companies are bringing together local and international experts to present a series of diverse seminars on topics to help attendees with their daily business. In addition, there will be 70,000 square feet of trade exhibits and product demostrations, as well as Schneider Electric's expert staff on hand to discuss application problems and solutions.

This position paper explains appropriate applications for ABB's single and multiple drives. In general terms, the ABB multidrives can be used whenever several drives/motors form part of a single or integrated mechanical process. The common supply of the multidrive enables the implementation of overall safety and control functions, and permits the close coordination of individual drive motors.

Agilent's MXA Signal Analyzer and the MXG Signal Generator will have options available for LXI Class B compliance by fall 2007. LXI Class B provides synchronization and IEEE 1588 precision time capabilities.

SK Corporation recently implemented PAS’ Configuration Management Software solution at its Ulsan, South Korea complex, the largest integrated refining and petrochemical complex in the world with a capacity of 850,000 barrel/day crude distillation. SK chose Integrity to manage and optimize the entire range of 120 automation assets.

One of the world's largest chipset producing companies based in the USA has selected Control-See's U.C.ME-OPC alarm notification solution for one of its plants in the middle east.

Yokogawa Electric has been selected by Air Liquide Engineering (Champigny, France) as a strategic preferred system supplier of Process Control Systems for air separation units and syngas (HYCO) systems. Yokogawa products and services covered by this new agreement include the CENTUM CS3000 integrated production control system, the ProSafe-RS safety system, software solutions, and system integration engineering and maintenance services.

Rapid growth has prompted the need for the company to move to a larger facility. The new building is approximately 15,000 square feet. The company purchased the building in August 2006, and will have fully transferred operations to the new location by the middle of October.

The SP100.11 and SP100.14 Working Groups of ISA's SP100 Committee for wireless industrial standards held a meeting this week at ISA headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC. Participants reviewed a wide range of technology approaches that could help solve real world wireless issues. The issues that the committee will focus on have been identified by user input and through use cases collected by ISA.

Keynote speakers for the 2006 European conference at the Elewijt Center in Mechelen, Belgium on 13-15 November include Martin Zeller, who will deliver a detailed evaluation of batch data analysis on Tuesday, 14 November; and Lou Pillai and Dennis Brandl, who will address information model framework for manufacturing science on Wednesday, 15 November.

S&S Power, a world-leading manufacturer of amusement-park rides, uses igus products in its quest to provide thrill seekers with the ultimate adrenaline rush. To ensure that all its amusement rides are dependable and require minimal maintenance, S&S uses Energy Chain Systems on the company's rollercoasters and iglide bearings almost anywhere pivoting, rotating or oscillating motion is needed such as lap bars and swing restraints.

Barco's PLANTMASTER system will provide Dairymaster with real-time visibility of machine performance and quality reporting for their dairy farm equipment manufacturing. Operating from their head office in Causeway (Co Kerry, Ireland), Dairymaster has been at the forefront of innovative milk parlour systems for over 40 years.

Colloid Mills can be tailored to match specific customer processing requirements ranging from low- to high-viscosity to abrasive slurries. The Colloid Mills have a milling head which features a standard rotor and stator with working surfaces that can be tailored by the manufacturer to meet specific customer requirements for emulsifying, dispersion, and particle size reduction.

Registration is open for the 2006 NI Technical Symposium Professional Development Series for Engineers, the company's annual series of virtual instrumentation conferences that reaches 26 U.S. cities. From October through December 2006, engineers and scientists from across the country will attend the conferences for new product presentations; hands-on, technology-focused sessions; and exhibits on the latest solutions in design, control and test.

BusinessWeek magazine has ranked Austin-based National Instruments No. 14 among its top 50 employers for new college graduates. The inaugural “Best Places to Launch a Career” ranking incorporates input from leading university career services directors and more than 37,000 undergraduate students, with information on companies’ pay and benefits, corporate culture and training opportunities.

The 328-page Essentials catalog of Telemecanique automation and control products is available to view online. Online visitors have a choice to download all or a portion of the catalog. Visitors also can register on the Web site and order a printed copy of the catalog or the CD-ROM version.

Innovation Alley at ISA Expo 2006 (17-19 October at the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas) will provide an opportunity for attendees to see the future, along with the commercial innovations of today's automation hardware, software, and service suppliers that are presented in the traditional exhibits.

The exhibit, demonstrating interoperability of SERCOS II and SERCOS III motion controllers and servodrive products from multiple vendors, will be in the OMAC Packaging Workgroup booth, number C-64, located in the concourse entrance to upper level McCormick Place North.

News sales offices include Ulrich Lüer of UL.Consult GmbH in Germany and Alexander Hermes in Austria.

New tools in the FactoryTalk integrated production and performance software suite include FactoryTalk Integrator, which allows manufacturers to more easily connect their plant-floor applications with higher-level business systems; and FactoryTalk Portal, which allows manufacturers to consolidate Web-based interfaces into one manageable and configurable launch point.

The Customer Training Course Catalog contains a comprehensive view of current courses in the areas of Power Distribution, Automation and Control, and Power Management. The new catalog contains curriculum maps and matrices that make it easier for customers to determine the course selection best suited to their particular job, position and skill set.

Avalon Vision Solutions is a leading supplier of machine vision systems designed to protect plastic injection molds. Avalon uses Advantech's computers with their camera and camera software. Customers will be able to order equipment from either Advantech or Avalon.

Emerson Process Management has completed a project to upgrade and unify combustion, turbine control and burner management systems at Pagbilao power station Units 1 and 2 with its Ovation expert control system. The 750-MW plant, operated by Mirant Pagbilao Corp., is located in Quezon, Philippines.

B&B Electronics acquired Phoenix, Arizona-based, Advanced Embedded Systems (AES), a designer and developer of wireless solutions for the industrial market. AES will become part of B&B Electronics' engineering and technical group in Ottawa, Illinois.

Twenty-one leading Intermec Inc. partners today announced support and applications for the new Intermec CN3 and CV30 rugged mobile and flexible fixed-mount computers introduced this week in Toronto at i-comm, Intermec's annual customer conference. These CN3/CV30 Ready companies, members of Intermec's Honours Partner program, have worked closely with Intermec to create applications that make the most of the CN3 and CV30's extensive capabilities.

Honeywell and NASA will launch the 2006 fall tour of their award-winning FMA Live! science education program on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The traveling hip hop science concert will reach its 100,000th student while at Howard University before continuing on to perform for nearly 14,000 students in 30 schools during its 9-week, 21-city tour across the United States and Canada.

Intermec RFID Gen 2 equipment has been certified as interoperable with other devices certified by EPCglobal Inc, a not-for-profit standards organization driving global adoption of the Electronic Product Code (EPC). The Intermec RFID Large Rigid Tag and the IM5 RFID radio module have earned Gen 2 hardware interoperability marks in independent testing by MET Laboratories in Baltimore, Maryland.

Husky Series Industrial Ethernet Switch is now compatible with Auto-IP management software. Auto-IP automatically assigns fixed IP addresses to replacement equipment, avoiding the complexities and hardware specific requirements of DHCP Option 82. Auto-IP works in cooperation with managed switches from any supplier, thus providing a truly open solution.

New customers to the NetBiter webSCADA Starter-Kit get a MP3 player for free. It is a Thomson player with 512 MB (value: 80 EUR). There are only 25 MP3 players available. The NetBiter webSCADA web Gateway is an industrial serial to Ethernet gateway.

OMRON has completed its previously announced acquisition of 100% of the shares of Scientific Technologies for a purchase price of US$94 million. STI's products include a wide range of components for safety light curtains, laser scanners, and other safety devices and services. Sales were US$52,141,000 (for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005).

Kiosk Panel computers include the PANEL1155-807 and PANEL5155-807, both equipped with high brightness 15-inch XGA TFT LCD displays. Both support SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) touch screens and high performance processors including Intel Pentium M and Intel Celeron M CPUs.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation announces the establishment of an endowed scholarship in memory of M. Eugene Merchant, ScD, past president of SME, who died on Aug. 19, 2006. The scholarship will provide funding for the education of future manufacturing engineers and will serve as a lasting tribute to Dr. Merchant's pioneering research and discovery.

The CN3 mobile computer has GPS and Bluetooth capabilities to enable onscreen and hands-free turn-by-turn voice navigation. Mobile workers can set aside the multiple devices they typically must carry and maintain - cell phone, GPS unit, pager, laptop, camera - for this single device. With 3G WAN and Cisco Compatible WiFi connectivity, users can be connected with voice and high-speed data anywhere, increasing their flexibility and productivity.

PCI Express electrical performance validation and compliance software runs on Agilent 54855A Infiniium oscilloscopes and 80000 Series oscilloscopes. It has been upgraded to PCI Express 1.1 and PCI Express 2.0 electrical specifications for add-in cards and motherboard systems. The software provides engineers with a fast and easy way to verify and debug PCI Express designs.

With more categories and larger cash prizes, this contest challenges engineers worldwide to use their imaginations to wirelessly network-enable a machine or device using Lantronix WiPort, an embedded 802.11 b/g wireless Device Server. To qualify for nearly $20,000 in prizes, contestants must register their product on the Lantronix Web site and submit a working prototype board design complete with a documented summary of the project and its operation.

e-DMZ Security Managed Services provides co-managed firewall and intrusion detection services for high-risk financial services, pharmaceutical and industrial networks. As a result of this acquisition, Verano is launching Industrial Defender Co-Managed Security, a co-managed security service for the real-time SCADA and control environment.

With annual revenue of about $30B and current market-cap of about $ 32B, Honeywell is arguably the largest US-based automation company. The company operates with four segments: Aerospace, Automation & Control Solutions, Specialty Materials, and Transportation Systems. Here’s an updated view of the corporate culture.

FlowSense has been awarded a contract from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the HVAC improvement project at the Agriculture Research Service facility in Morris, Minnesota. The contract includes general construction including all labor, supervision, materials, tools, equipment, transportation, and other work necessary for adding supplemental cooling by a computer room air conditioning unit for the soils lab.

Ishida's latest QX-1100 tray sealer employs servo motors throughout, controlled using Ethernet-compatible MicroFlex e100 drives from Baldor Electric Company (NYSE:BEZ). The speed and predictability of movement provided by the servos allows Ishida to dramatically accelerate the throughput for this form of food processing automation, allowing sealing speeds of up to 200 trays/minute - up to twice as fast as many existing solutions.

PMC-LX and PMC-SX modules support a variety of AXM plug-in I/O extension modules to interface different signal types to a user-configurable Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. The FPGA can process user-defined algorithms and custom logic routines on RS-485 differential, CMOS, or LVDS digital I/O signals depending on the AXM I/O module inserted. The PMC base card has 32 LVDS I/O channels available via P4 for rear connection I/O and conduction cooled applications.

The new line of temperature sensor converters and isolators accepts an input of PT100 RTD or type J or K thermocouple temperature sensors with an analog output range of 0-10V, 0-20mA or 4-20mA. These DIN-ail mounted modules are as narrow as 17.5mm thereby saving space in the cabinet. The customer can easily program the unit's temperature range and output signal via rotary or dip switches.

OPCcalc allows you to easily create process calculations that use OPC tags as inputs to equations and outputs of results. Based on Microsoft Visual Basic.Net, OPCcalc handles all of the "plumbing" for your equations, letting you concentrate on your calculation logic. New version has the ability to query HTML web page data; use abbreviations for long tag names; and determine equation logic errors.

Schneider Electric UK Ltd will acquire GET Group plc, a UK publicly quoted company that offers a broad range of wiring devices and other electrical products for the Residential and Buildings markets. In 2005 GET generated revenue of £81 million. With this acquisition, Schneider Electric will attain a strong position in the UK residential market and consolidate its No. 2 worldwide position in wiring devices.

Compax3 family of industrial servo drives now comes with a DeviceNet fieldbus option. DeviceNet allows the Compax3 to be integrated into an Allen-Bradley PLC control system very easily - or with any other DeviceNet master. The DeviceNet fieldbus interface will give Compax3 users improved system integration, reduced downtime and maintenance costs, enhanced peer-to-peer capabilities, and easy access to data.

Today’s Technologies and New England Mechatronics will serve as exclusive Manufacturers Representatives for Advanced Control Systems' Machine Controls product lines. Today’s Technologies has the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and the District of Columbia, while New England Mechatronics has Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

ELUTIONS has completed the acquisition of Supervisor Holdings Ltd, the parent company of Wizcon Systems, with offices in France, the Netherlands and the UK. ELUTIONS and Wizcon Systems have been working together since January 2006, helping companies optimize their asset management, reduce their energy costs, and improve their workforce productivity.

The blog keeps readers up to date on the LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI) standard. The site also provides a forum for visitors to ask questions or share their expertise in LXI instrumentation. Recent postings highlight several LXI-related resources, including a series of application notes and an online LXI tutorial created by UK-based www.radio-electronics.com.

Continuing ISA's relationships with third-party vendors, course offerings have now been expanded to over 300 courses online and on CD-ROM. ISA's distance education program, now termed ISA CyberU, features online courses, CD-ROM training, brand new DVD courses, video training and web seminar courses covering the world of automation.

"Tools and Downloads" website has downloadable CAD files, calculators, configurators, literature, software and more to help engineers save time in their design work. CAD files are available in categories including pneumatic cylinders, aluminum framing, conveyors, motors, drives and more.

Emerson will automate a 1.5 million tons per year hydrotreating unit in a refinery in Dalian, China. The refinery is owned by Dalian West Pacific Petrochemical Co. Ltd., better known as WEPEC, a joint venture between Sinochem, PetroChina and Total. PlantWeb digital automation technologies being used at the WEPEC refinery include the DeltaV system, AMST Suite: Intelligent Device Manager, Rosemount smart temperature and pressure transmitters, and DeltaV OTS operator training solution.

EZ Trax new software provides a tool to manage bar code images as they are captured. It has an intuitive user interface for user-defined settings such as file naming and output mode options, and memory allocation for storage of image captures. The software works with Microscan's Easy Setup Program (ESP) to support and provide additional functionality for imager products. A free demo version is available for download on the website.

ML4.2 Photoelectric Sensors provide optimal background suppression sensing capabilities in a compact 14mm x 18mm x 33mm housing. Targets are precisely detected at ranges up to 80mm, while background objects just millimeters away are ignored. Color insensitivity is less than 10%, so targets are reliably detected regardless of color.

GRAMS 8.0 is a comprehensive update of the company’s multi-vendor spectroscopy software solution. Version 8 enhances workgroup and enterprise connectivity via a full client/server update to Spectral DB, and features the all-new Web-enabled Envision viewing and reporting tool.

Aluminum-based inlay (V730S-D13-P01)(HF ISO15693) achieves comparable performance with copper inlays, making it suitable for security and asset tracking applications such as library and access control. The new inlay caters to the needs of customers who prefer aluminum instead of copper inlays due to environmental concerns about disposal of copper waste.

Some part numbers will be available in two to three weeks. This reduced lead time will provide extended service capability to meet the demanding requirements of customers. ITT's microminiature connector line consists of rectangular, circular, quick disconnect, high-speed signal, filter, hermetic, mixed signal packages and strip style interconnects.

Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. selected Invensys Process Systems to implement a new mesh network-based Foxboro I/A Series automation system for the electrolytic and melting plant processes at Teck Cominco's metallurgical operations at Trail, in southeast British Columbia, Canada.

FKI Logistex has been awarded a contract from Schenker AB, an international provider of air, sea freight, and logistics services, for a parcel sorting system at its distribution center in Stockholm, Sweden.

Keithley's Metrology Services Group is now accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005, the single most important metrology standard for test and measurement, by the A2LA (American Association for Laboratory Accreditation).

The Schneider Electric Motion Competency Center in Plymouth, Mich. brings together a team of motion control experts from multiple disciplines, including application engineers, quote and application specialists, design engineers and project managers to provide customers with complete motion solutions. The center will offer customers increased proficiency, superior product knowledge and custom solutions in one location.

Control Design magazine’s Reader’s Choice awards are the result of an unaided survey of subscribers who have authority to specify, recommend or purchase industrial automation and control products. Hardware and software categories are listed without any list of vendors, and participants are asked to indicate the single best vendor for the products he or she has experience with.

Napac designs, builds and markets a comprehensive portfolio of software and equipment to deliver end-to-end remote management solutions, comprising dedicated PLCs, SCADA software and web interfaces for a wide variety of customer applications, such as gas and fluids storage, water networks, refrigerated warehouses, control room management, power generation and HVAC engineering. It reported nearly €6 million in revenue in 2005.

To celebrate the introduction of its new low cost, high performance EPSON Micro PowerDrive controller, EPSON Robots will be giving away one (1) free Micro PowerDrive controller with one high performance E2 SCARA robots in the first ever North American Robot Giveaway.

The Moerdijk QRC is a fully equipped, regional sales and service center that provides complete sealing solutions and localized customer support. The new Moerdijk QRC offers mechanical seal manufacturing, repair, failure analysis, and inventory backup for quick response to Flowserve customers in the Netherlands and throughout northern Europe.

The 14th annual BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Competition kicks off this month at BEST hub locations nationwide. This year's competition marks the second year for igus as the sole nationwide product sponsor for the event. BEST, a non-profit, volunteer organization, aims to inspire middle and high school students to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology through participation in science- and engineering-based robotics competition

Invensys Process Systems' Foxboro, Massachusetts-based Global Product Support group has achieved certification under the Support Center Practices (SCP) certification program for the fourth consecutive year. SCP certification quantifies the effectiveness of customer support based upon a stringent set of performance standards representing best practices in the industry.

Powerpact R-frame UL 489 listed molded case circuit breakers can replace bulkier, more expensive, insulated case breakers. For panel builders and electrical distribution equipment manufacturers, the unit-mounted breakers can fit applications including main service, feeders and high-current branches. They are also ideal for panels and equipment requiring high currents, such as back-up power, generators and HVAC.

Junot Systems and Inexcon Technologies have signed a letter of intent to integrate ITI'S Ekho application with SAP R/3 and mySAP using Junot Systems' NLINK product suite and SAP-certified interfaces.

ArWest Communications is joining with International Business Machines (IBM) and Mu-Gahat Enterprises (MGE) to explore certain joint venture opportunities. MGE and ArWest have become strategic partners so that ArWest can capitalize on MGE’s electronics manufacturing expertise as well as the incentives, benefits and special considerations that arise from sourcing product from a Native American company.

ArWest Communications has been awarded a contract by Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC to provide VHF and UHF radios for an upgrade of the US Air Force Tactical Meteorological Equipment (TACMET). The award involves the delivery of 80 radios by October 2006.

FlowSense has been awarded a contract from the Fish and Wildlife Service for the retrofit of a cold storage and maintenance shop to a fire cache at the Wetland Management District in Morris, Minnesota.

The “Open Modular Architecture Controls” (OMAC) User Group will be presenting a multivendor system consisting of ETHERNET Powerlink devices at the upcoming PackExpo in Chicago, USA, from 29 October to 01 November, 2006. Here Powerlink will clearly demonstrate its performance and compatibility to the fullest.

A three-part certificate program in Process Instrumentation and Control (I&C) covers the different phases of I&C from a non-mathematical and practical point of view. The program includes the basic concepts, the engineering, and the installation of control equipment. The first class is scheduled for November 6-9, 2006; parts two and three will follow in March and May of 2007.