Maintenance

Thomas & Betts: SWA/SWB Cable Glands Reduce Explosion Risk

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 15:45:04 +0000

Designed to meet European ATEX directives for protecting employees, the public and the environment from accidents due to explosions, they are applicable in oil and gas processing and marine environ

The Kopex-Ex SWA/SWB Cable Glands are designed to terminate steel wire armored (SWA) and steel wire braid (SWB) cable for control, instrumentation, power and telecommunications.

Product

Got Valve Alignment Issues? Now You Can Automate Manual Valves Easily

George Shurtleff — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Most process plants have thousands of discrete valves that are manually operated.

The 4320, a WirelessHART valve automation solution, changes the economics of automating discrete valves and is an alternative to solenoids and limit switches.

News

Fluid Components International: Mass Air/Gas Flow Meter

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:15:48 +0000

The ST100 series thermal mass air/gas flow meter is now available in a remote mountable configuration suitable for applications in hazardous areas or hard-to-reach locations.

The ST100 is now remote mountable for hazardous locations.

Product

Invensys Operations Management: Industrial Mobile Workforce Software Development Kit Enhanced

Jenn Brink — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:00:00 +0000

IntelaTrac provides configurable software and ruggedized mobile hardware that enable workflow, data collection and general t

Invensys Operations Management has released the latest version of its Wonderware IntelaTrac mobility solution, including an Extensibility Software Development Kit (SDK).

Product

Omega Engineering: Low Flow Air/Gas/Liquid Heaters

George Shurtleff — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:08:48 +0000

This 316 stainless steel constructed heater can handle pressures up to 100 PSI an

AHPF series heaters are used to heat low flows of air, gas, water or aqueous solutions with air/gas flow up to 15 CFM and air/gas out temperature up to 430 degrees C (800 degrees F).

Product

GE Software Powers IIT Wind Energy Research

Renee Robbins Bassett — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:28:11 +0000

Goal of project is to illustrate how advanced and automated predictive diagnostics can improve the availability, reliability and cost performance of wind power generation.

News

Phoenix Contact Joins ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute

Renee Robbins Bassett — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:57:24 +0000

The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (ISA100 WCI) announced that Phoenix Cont

The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute announced that Phoenix Contact has joined the group as a supplier member, supporting development of products compatible with the ISA100.11a standard.

News

Reliability Pays Big Dividends

admin8675309 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Greater amounts of auto

The global process industries lose $20 billion, or five percent of annual production, due to unscheduled downtime and poor quality. ARC Advisory Group estimates that almost 80 percent of these losses are preventable. In fact, 40 percent of these losses are largely attributable to human error.

Column

ABB Opens New Solar Inverter Production Center

admin8675309 — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:54:31 +0000

Center will feature a 400 megawatt per year capacity as well as an engineering center to support inverter production and nearby motors and drives factories.

News

Security: Belden Acquires Canadian-Based Byres Security

admin8675309 — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 05:00:00 +0000

According to Joann and Eric Byres, the company will continue to operate
independently as a business unit under Belden. The Tofino Security brand

Belden Inc. has acquired Byres Security Inc. today. Belden is one of several companies that has been filling out its portfolio by making smaller, strategic acquisitions.

News

Indian oil firms take up automation of petrol stations

admin8675309 — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:11:54 +0000

Indian Oil Corp.

Coming soon. Automated fuel dispensers in India. Indian oil companies are in process of automating retail automobile fueling stations, popularly known as "petrol pumps."

News

Boeing, Siemens Form Strategic Energy Alliance

admin8675309 — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:34:12 +0000

Just when you thought you were up to speed on the latest energy advances by getting a good grasp on the idea of the

The partnership is centered around development of secure microgrid energy management applications for the Department of Defense.

News

The State of Manufacturing in the Current Economy

admin8675309 — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:47:18 +0000

Gravitt is responsible for developing a consistent and aligned strategy for Schneider Electric'

At the beginning of 2011, manufacturing numbers were positive. But then the economy started showing signs of uncertainty. Andy Gravitt, senior vice president, Industry Business at Schneider Electric, talked with Automation World Editor in Chief Gary Mintchell about what has been happening to the economy and Schneider Electric in particular.

News

eBay Uses GE Solution for Data Center Critical Uptime

admin8675309 — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:33:42 +0000

When one of the largest companies in the e-commerce industry, looks to increase the stability of its data center, a critical component to its business strategy, a central "must-have" is continuous

eBay's Topaz data center uses GE Quad PAC Redundancy Control Solution for mission critical uptime requirement, reduced power consumption. Infrastructure investment to avoid $2,000 per second impact for downtime.

News

iPads and Automation

admin8675309 — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:58:35 +0000

If you do any traveling at all, the sight of iPads and other tablet PCs in airports and at conferences is fast becoming commonplace.

Apps are springing up for all kinds of automation uses, ranging from remote monitoring to test and measurement. Are iPads and other tablet PCs destined to become part of the automation engineer’s toolbox?

News

Succeeding Through Indirect Procurement Outsourcing

admin8675309 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:45:18 +0000

Outsourcing of indirect procurement may also help them in their pursuit of optimal results.

In tough economic times, industrial manufacturers often reduce costs in areas such as indirect procurement to quickly gain major, sustainable savings.

Column

IT View

National Instruments Touts Innovation at NI Week

admin8675309 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:12:06 +0000

The annual National Instruments Corp.

Among the latest examples are the most recent version of the company’s flagship LabView product line, as well as a foray into wireless sensor networking

News

Automation Team: Becoming A Must-Have Application

admin8675309 — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:00:00 +0000

No one discipline dominates the automation landscape any longer.

The core concept of Automation World is the “automation team.”

Primer

Financial Help for Automation Professionals

admin8675309 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:44:36 +0000

It’s a sign of the times. In today’s recessionary environment, more organizations are reaching out to provide help to unemployed or financially stressed automation professionals.

As the recession takes its toll on the manufacturing industries, various organizations are stepping up to provide aid or services to unemployed or financially strapped engineers.

News

Argonne, Kentucky Partner to Help Build Domestic Battery Industry

admin8675309 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:51:23 +0000

The U.S.

A national Battery Manufacturing R&D Center will be established to help develop advanced battery technologies for vehicle applications and to ramp up domestic production capabilities.

News

Emerson Acquisition Broadens Machinery Monitoring Expertise

admin8675309 — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:20:55 +0000

Executives at Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com), Austin, Texas, told

The deal to acquire Germany-based epro expands Emerson’s portfolio in online machinery prediction and protection.

News

Safety Specialist exida Bulks Up on Cyber Security Services

admin8675309 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:42:34 +0000

Industrial safety and cyber security are increasingly being considered together these days.

Industrial safety and cyber security are moving closer together, as evidenced by two recent deals announced by exida, a safety certification and services firm.

News

Caution, Optimism Combine at ABB Event

admin8675309 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:03:39 +0000

ABB Ltd.

Global stimulus packages aimed at infrastructure improvement augur well for ABB, executives say, despite current slowdown in orders.

News

GSM Modem Connects to Machines

admin8675309 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

An integrated TCP/IP stack allows the implementation of simple control systems into the GPRS network.

The GSM/GPRS serial modem provides global access to machines and systems via GSM cellular network connections.

Product

What is EDDL?

admin8675309 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The DD tells the system what function blocks are present in a device type, what parameters are available, the data types of those parameters and the default values and permitted ranges of these par

EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language) was created as DD (device description) in the early 1990s at the dawn of fieldbus technology as a way to describe devices.

Feature Article