OSPMA FieldComms 2000 Review This years OSPMA FieldCOMMS was held in a completely new venue. The newly opened EXCEL centre in dewveloping East London. This venue is incredibly convenient being on the Dockland's Light Rail system and in sight of the London City Airport. The show was not that big this year but the conferences which ran concurrently were important. Indeed the ProfiBus organisation held its 2-day UK Conference during the show. A number of important players missed this opportunity to show their techniques and platforms but it was their loss! Discussions in the aisles were as usual very important and mentioned this lack of support for British Industry by some potential participants, whether the name should revert back to FieldComms in recognition of what the show is called anyway! OSPMA 2001 already in the pipe line! - OSPMA will move from the Conference Suite, where it was held this year into the Exhibition Halls and is timed to take place at the same time as the Processing & Packaging Machinery Association's PPMA SHOW 25th and 26th September 2001. With an ever increasing number of PPMA visitors interested in and responsible for adopting the range of OSPMA products and technologies for their own companies, exhibitors should benefit from the extra cross-over of attendees from this show to OSPMA-2001 according to a spokesperson from the Organisers. Contact Diana Shepstone on +44 (0)1953 850 257 for all the details.

ABB AUTOMATION ALLIED TELESYN DEARBORN ELECTRONICS UK LTD. DEXDYNE ENTRIX COMPUTING FESTO/BECK HAWKE FIELOBUS HILSCHER GMBH HIMA-SELLA I.TD HIRSCHMANN ELECTRONICS HITEX UK LTD HORNER APG ROBERT BOSCH LTD. THE INDUSTRIAL ETHERNET BOOK JADE SOFTWARE LTD KENT MODULAR ELECTRONICS LTD (KME) LANTRONIX LUMBERG UK LTD. MILES INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS MMI SOLUTIONS LTD MOORE INDUSTRIES NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS NEMATRON EUROPE LTD NETDOT3 NOHAU UK LTD - IXXAT PILZ AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY PLANT& CONTROL ENGINEERING PROFIBUS RADIATRON SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC LTD SEW EURODRIVE SIEMENS MORE PROCESS AUTOMATION SOFTING R STAHL LTD STEINHOFF AUTOMATIONS & FELDBUS SYSTEME SYSTEM DEVICES LTD TELLIMA TECHNOLOGY LTD TYCO VALVES & CONTROLS WAGO LTD WESTERMO

Four-in-one automation debuts in Britain - Softing demonstrated its 4CONTROLs fully integrated automation system here in the UK for the first time. Also being shown are the brand new PanelPC (see picture) and various field connectivity options including PROFIBUS and Ethernet interfaces. Softing also delivered a paper on Ethernet in control at the OSPMA FieldComms Conference. Accompanying Softing was Automation Products (AP) of who are a distribution partner in the UK. AP demonstrated 4CONTROL working in conjunction with a Citect SCADA system in a whiskey application. New Modular Bus Station at FieldComms Lumberg exhibited the latest in its range of top quality electronic connectors at this year's FieldComms exhibition. A new central modular bus station, the 'e2c', will form an exciting focus of the exhibition. The e2c - 'easy to connect' offers a low cost solution for modular connections across a range of applications. The e2c works with any type of I/O modules and can be combined with any type of bus system. This is ideal for the electrical designer, who can select the best connectors for a particular application. An 1P67 rating with resistance to harsh oils and chemicals makes the e2c an ideal choice for use in many different working environments. The e2c can even be used in applications subjected to mechanical instability and vibration, as the e2c uses a backplane which protects the connections and helps ensure optimal contacting. Python Bindings for Tilcon Real Time Developer (TRTD) applications - PyDACHS, the Python QNX distribution of DACHS, supports now the rapid GUI development API of Tilcon TRTD. The combination of the object oriented interpreter language Python with the powerful TRTD API creates a very efficient development environment for GUI, visualizations and SCADA applications. This system, from Steinhoff, cuts the typical edit-compile-link-run cycles to fast edit-run cycles. So the development time is reduced to its minimum. The object oriented nature of Python allows the definition of application specific sets of classes of GUI objects. They are based on the high level API calls of TRTD, therefore it leads to very powerful and re-usable GUI objects. Compact LCD Monitor delivers over 1200 candelas light output - KME introduced their high brightness LCD monitor to its 10.4" VGA range of TFT Chassis for OEM applications. Designed for applications such as Air Traffic Control Towers, Cash Dispensers and External Retail/Advertising etc. where high visibility is required under direct sunlight conditions, the unit is specified to output 1200 candelas/sq. metre. This is four times the light output from a typical 10.4" TFT and ten times the output of a 10" colour CRT monitor. Factorycast delivers open internet technology through Premium or Quantum PLCs - On what appeared to be the biggest stand at the show Schneider Electric demonstrated its FactoryCast offer at Fieldcomms 2000. This is an embedded web server for its Premium and Quantum PLC platforms. FactoryCast embedded servers are preconfigured and, with their accompanying utilities, deploy open technology to aid quick and easy access to PLC real time data through a complete library of built-in online Data Editors and JAVA graphics. Web pages can also be customised to control and view your application, using a standard web browser.

12Mbit/s Profibus Optical Transmission - Hirschmann Electronics has developed a new Profibus fibre optic interface, the OZD Profi 12M. It has a data transmission rate of up to 12 Mbit/s, making it one of the fastest Profibus units available. It is very adaptable, suitable for short-distance automation applications using plastic fibre, through to 15km network segments using single-mode glass fibre. Multi-mode glass fibre can also be used over distances up to 3km. Using a cascadable design, networks of up to several hundred kilometres long can be built up, suitable for applications such as pipelines and highways. Standardised IEC 61131-3 Communication Function Blocks now available for ProfiBus DP - ProfiBus had a very strong showing at this years show. After many months of effort, they have defined the application interface to the standardised communication services of PROFIBUS DP. This will make Profibus DP communications between different PLCs and slave devices much easier. The new specification, "PROFIBUS Communication and Proxy Function Blocks according to IEC 61131-3" defines function blocks (FBs) that are based on the open standard programming language IEC 61131-3. This will enable manufacturers of PLCs and field devices to create IEC-compliant communication FBs and deliver them within a library, to offer Application Programmers a comfortable and standardised language interface for DPVI communications. This will not only enable the homogeneous use of PROFIBUS communication between DP master and slave according to the IEC-standard, but will also provide portability of the application programs as well. Michael Bryant, Executive Directopr of Profibus Trade Organisation was in attendance from the US. Tellima opens the Modbus gateway to Industrial Ethernet - Tellima Technology Ltd claimed that since the introduction of it's Field Marshal fieldbus interfacing technologies almost two years ago they have been inundated with enquires from field device, sensor and controller manufacturers wanting to link between their existing Modbus interface and the market-leading fieldbus protocols such as Profibus and DeviceNet. 'The number of enquiries from OEMs with Modbus took us by surprise', said Paul Wilson, Sales Director of Tellima, 'We've now identified hundreds of existing field device manufacturers who implement Modbus as their main communications interface' Compact PLC features integrated wireless comms - Design engineers now have access to a mini programmable logic controller (PLC) with two-way wireless communkations capabilities, thanks to the integration of a GSM modem into latest compact front end controller (FEC) from Beck, a division of Festo. The new unit, called the FC38, uses a script programming language that allows both sending and receiving of SMS messages. For example, an engineer can send a machine an SMS message to ask for a status output, or a machine can generate and send an SMS message to a GSM handset if an unexpected event triggers an alarm. New line sensor - The new line sensor by Baumer electric, called PosCon, can capture positions, edges and widths of objects with no problems, in spite of its extremely small construction. The integrated lighting with high lifetime also provides reliable function at low cost for mounting and maintenance. Until now, it has only been possible to carry out applications such as measurement of fabric breadths, monitoring the position of threads or wires or positioning fabric edges for instance, using technically demanding and cost-intensive line or matrix vision systems.