Industrial Automation News

This is a major milestone in the history of wireless networking for industrial plants, marking the first time multiple vendors such as Honeywell and Yokogawa have brought their ISA100.11a technology instruments together to work in the same manufacturing environment. The interoperability project was coordinated by the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) at an Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, TX. The applications include temperature, pressure, contact closure, valve positioning, gas detection, corrosion detection, and others. Download a white paper detailing the user deployment and early results from the WCI Web site, or view an eight minute video demonstration.

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To empower customers' competitiveness for a faster time-to-market, Moxa offers application developers Rcore®, an invaluable computing software platform. All of Moxa's industrial embedded computers come with embedded OS, middleware, sample code, and tools. Visit Moxa's Application Partner Community to download embedded software information and documents without cost!

The ARCA series offer a new era in enclosure technology. Manufactured in polycarbonate, these rugged enclosures are easily customized to your needs while offering superior resistance to harsh environments.

Available NEMA 4X rated, in industry standard sizes with wall mounting feet or optional mounting flanges for both portrait and landscape orientation.

Rockwell Automation programmable controllers (PLCs) such as ControlLogix can now communicate directly with Siemens S7 and Schneider Electric Modicon Quantum PLCs. This capability is provided by cATM "appliance transaction modules." They exchange data faster than object linking and embedding for process control (OPC)-based systems and are easily set up with a Web browser.

Conventional wisdom holds that most industrial errors are from human operators — not because of ignorance but because the interface panels are too difficult to follow. A new "recorder" software enables automatic documentation of human-machine interface and supervisory control and data acquisition operator consoles. Reviewing archived data can be valuable for troubleshooting purposes.

Many manufacturers don't use remote diagnostic services for fear of control system breaches by unwanted intruders. However, new communications and networking technology make it possible to do this securely. The many economic and operational benefits of having remote engineers keep an eye on plant machinery are cited in AutomationWorld.

This RFID application at a copper blast furnace in Bulgaria shows how the passive communications technology adapts to heavy industrial environments. The use of a moulded interconnect device supports installation of 3D directional antenna structures. As passive transponders, the latter attain a 'read' range of over 5 meters and can be mounted to metal surfaces.

Dataforth Corporation's SCM5B isoLynx® SLX200 is fast, intelligent, modular, and fully isolated. It implements industry standard Modbus RTU and TCP protocols, enabling communication with third-party software drivers and HMI/SCADA packages. Certified by Modbus-IDA and OPC-compatible, the SLX200 provides superior reliability, accuracy, and flexibility for factory automation, process control, test/measurement, machine control, and data acquisition applications.

Dunn Engineering Inc. offers a full range of services to provide clients with solutions for process control or machine automation. Services are typically provided for plc and hmi based designs in the manufacturing, pulp and paper, transportation, nuclear irradiation, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, agriculture, hvac, alarm, defense, space, and government industries.

Infrared (IR) thermography allows maintenance personnel to "see" IR radiation and locate thermal anomalies indicative of machinery faults. Mechanical equipment inspections are essential in preventing motor, bearing, or boiler failure. This Reliable Plant article provides an introduction to IR technology, its proper application, and important limitations.

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Unpredictable power failures are a nightmare for any machine operator. If a PLC is abnormally shut down, the loss of production data can bring chaos to operations. This new uninterruptible power supply fits on a DIN rail and has a capacitive buffer for short outages, and a battery pack for longer ones.

Not all of the so-called wireless instruments have completely shed their wires, and some never will. Perhaps the best solution for Coriolis and magnetic flowmeters may be simply to use a wireless remote I/O device that gathers data from instruments and sends information back to the control room over wireless Ethernet.

Three sensors in one instrument — pressure, differential pressure (DP), and temperature — allow this transmitter with an embedded computer to perform flow measurement 22x per second. Flow performance gains result from simultaneous compensation of 25 different parameters. The number of devices traditionally required to make DP flow measurement falls from 10 to one.

PDU's, Control Panels, and Rack Mount Power Supplies. PDU's; Single phase (120 V~ and 230 V~) and three phase (120/208 V~ and 230/400 V~) power units are available. Other COTS PDU's are available which can operate at different voltages to adequately support the critical electronic computer and communications equipment in most applications.

Unicorn Computer Corp. is proudly presents the latest smallest 3.5 in. disk size SBC ENDAT-7301M which features the VIA V4/EDEN and C7 series that equipped VIA CX700M Chipset with high speed DDR-II SO-DIMM up to 1 GB memory, offering supreme computing performance at remarkably low power consumption for small compact and mobile computing platforms!

New in-slot winding technology opens up new possibilities when high slot fills and a small stator i.d. are necessary. This movable needle device allows for movable winding needle(s), even when the i.d. of the stator is below 1 in. (25 mm). Contact us at (260) 637-3622 ext 314. www.windamatic.com See our ad on GlobalSpec.

Macron specializes in the manufacture of complete mechanical motion systems from basic assemblies for horizontal or vertical motion to complex robotic automation systems. When you come to us with an application or design challenge our engineers have the experience to find the right solution.

There are plenty of self-help books for salesmen and managers, but finding advice specifically for control engineers is rather uncommon. With 20 years of practical experience in improving process performance in a wide variety of industries, George Buckbee is ready to share his wisdom in "seven habits of highly successful control engineers."

From Italy comes the world's fastest production car, and its top speed of 253 mph (408 km/hour) makes it faster than a Formula 1 machine. Watch this entertaining BBC "Top Gear" video clip as James May takes this 16-cylinder, 1,000 hp super sports car to its top speed on a highly secure VW test track.

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