31/3/00

• Software selected - Tuff Automation, has standardized on Steeplechase software for control of its High Speed Sortation systems. Steeplechas PC-based control was selected over more traditional Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) based on its faster design time, flexibility, power, and adaptability. They have also selected Phoenix Contact InterBus, which complements Steeplechase with its fast scan rate and one-day machine installation at the plant.
• Paten infringement alledged - Rosemount division of Emerson Electric has filed a suit against Ohmart/Vega for infringement of their US patent for a Two-wire-level Transmitter. This patent concerns a microwave-level transmitter that takes all of its power from the two-wire transmission loop wiring. The novel feature of this transmitter is the low-power microwave technology that allows power to be drawn from the instrumentation transmission loop, which is claimed by the patent.
  From ARC's news and analysis

• Substantial advances in on-line IR measurement technology - NDC Infrared Engineering, leader in on line NIR process measurement, announces a new generation of intelligent near infrared (NIR) gauges. MM71O breaks the traditional boundaries of on-line gauging with a range of technology innovations, to deliver 'fit-and-forget' high performance measurement. The new gauge is unparalleled in its simplicity of operation. It is supplied pre-calibrated and requires no routine maintenance. As a result, cost-of-ownership is significantly lower than competitive measurement systems.
• Paint-free washdown-duty motors extend flexibility for food processing and packaging - Baldor has extended its range of washdown-duty motion control equipment with new paint-free motors specifically designed for inverter drive applications. Available in ratings up to 7.5kW, the new motors may be exposed to high pressure washdown with caustic solutions, and are ideal for any automation requiring high initial torques such as mixing and pumping machinery.
• New range of extreme environment capacitive sensors - A new range of rugged non-contacting Capacitive displacement sensors for use in extreme environments, are now available from Ixthus Instrumentation Limited. Designed primarily to be used in the measurement of turbine blade tip clearance, to help to maintain optimum performance, they can withstand temperatures up to 1300deg C without a cooling system, and are vibration tested 3000g's at 10kHz. With capacitance of 200 to 4OOpf, the small size sensors ensure no disturbance to the casing temperature distribution or shape. Available in many standard configurations, they can be easily adapted to customer requirements.

• Free PC for employees - Intel employees are to receive top of the range PCs with Internet access and other services at no cost to themselves. Delivery of the PCs to employees' homes will start in July or August. The company has more than 4,000 employees in Ireland.
• New version of Fieldbus Management software package released - Proscess-Data has now launched VIGO version 4.3 - the latest version of the Fieldbus Management System for Windows 95/98/NT, which enables standard and specific Windows applications to be linked to fieldbus variables, using OLE technology. It is available for download from the >website.
• New version of award-winning Visual Logic Controller - "Version 5.0 is the first PC-based control with hard real-time that is compliant with Windows 2000, as well as backwards compatible with Windows NT 4.0," said Jeff Fisher, VP and General Manager of the Steeplechase Software Division. "Other Steeplechase firsts include first hard real-time PC-based control, first hard real-time on Windows NT, first integrated motion control, and first embedded NT product to integrate HRT control on a compact industrial PC." What more can we say!

• Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig dár gcuirteoirí - St Patrick's Day Greetings to our visitors!
  

• Magnetic Shielding - One of the main methods of protecting electrical components, devices and installations against electromagnetic interference fields is shielding. The aim is either to shield certain components or devices against interference fields from the environment or conversely to prevent components which produce electromagnetic interference fields from adversely affecting the environment. These tasks tall under the category of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). This publication "Magnetic Shielding" from Vacuumschmelze GmbH is a useful examination of the topic.
• New President appointed - Rymic Systems, Inc., a Huntsville, Alabama based engineering development products and services company, announced today that Stephen May has accepted the position of President. Jack Stilwell, Rymic Systems' founder and previous President, will remain as CEO and Chairman of the Board. Jack will also become President and Chairman of Sport-X, Inc., a newly formed joint venture with Huntsville based Photon-X, Inc.

• Learn Basic Trouble Shooting Skills - The latest addition to the LearnWARE range of courses from P&L Automatik ABis designed to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce downtime by increasing the knowledge of production and maintenance staff. This new course examines the various functions and processes within an automated production line, students are then tasked with identifying and recording a series of faults, which appear within the onscreen simulated equipment.
• Breakthrough in high performance multi-channel battery testing - Solartron has extended high-accuracy, single channel battery testing into the fullyintegrated multi-channel arena with the launch of the 1470. This compact bench-top unit - the world's first near-laboratory performance eight channel battery test system provides the high-speed data acquisition, processing and compression essential to developers of power sources for mobile terminals such as GSM, PCN and CDMA phones, laptops and palmtops.

• Intelligent name - Industrial Controls Intelligence & the PLC Insider's Newsletter will be known as the Controls Intelligence & PLANT SYSTEMS REPORT. The new name better reflects the way this source of news has evolved in recent years. James Heaton of publishers Controls Intelligence Inc says: "The name change isn't intended to confuse our readers or change the direction of our news coverage, but to more tightly align with industry trends. Controls Intelligence's focus will remain on the controls and software used in process and manufacturing industries."

• Singapore facility to support needs of growing Asia-Pacific customer base - Wonderware Corp today announced that it has opened a new customer support centre in Singapore to service its growing base of customers in the Asia-Pacific region. The new facility, which began operations last month, reinforces Wonderware's goal to provide industry-leading global support for its customers world-wide.

• PMC Mezzanine Modules for CompactPCl - PEP Modular Computers can now provide superb flexibility for CompactPCl applications by launching a single-height carrier board that enables its comprehensive family of industrial PMC mezzanine modules to be used with its rapidly growing range of CompactPCl products. The CP390 carrier board with its 32-bit bus master interface is being launched with two brand new PMC modules, an intelligent PROFIBUS FMSIDP module and an Ultra2 Wide SCSI module.
• Non-intrusive flow measurement - Endress & Hauser has introduced a new ultrasonic flowmeter to its popular Proline family of flow measurement solutions. The new Prosonic Flow is a clamp-on transit time flowmeter offering contact-free measurement of flow in closed conduits. It is suitable for measurement of practically all clean, homogeneous liquids flowing in pipes of homogeneous material.
• Low-cost arbitrary waveform generator has four channels - The TGA1244, new from Thurlby-Tandar Instruments (TTI), is a 4-channel arbitrary waveform generator capable of generating four waveforms that can be either fully independent or linked using simple or complex relationships.
• Nokia uses Gensym software as part of its new OSS product architecture - Gensym Corp a leading provider of software and services for intelligent operations management, today announced an OEM agreement with Nokia Networks.The OEM agreement covers the use of Gensym’s software within Nokia’s new architecture for its Operations Support Systems (OSS) product family. Nokia's first OSS product based on this software is Nokia ServiceWatch, which helps voice and data service providers better manage service quality.
• Parking is all WAPPED up - Schlumberger and Webraska Mobile Technologies today announced a partnership to demonstrate a new efficient service for motorists. By combining data on parking place occupancy - whether on-street or in car parks - with real-time traffic information, maps and route guidance, motorists with WAP mobile phones will be able to obtain up-to-the-minute information on parking availability at their destination.

• Request for halt to fieldbus standard pending clarification! - ARC Advisory group report on the misgivings of E+H on the new IEC and Cenelec Fieldbus Standards which may result in a delay in the final publication of these standards. See our Fieldbus Page for more details.
• Special Online Information: Valves - In one place the March edition of Flow Control Network has collected the suppliers, products, articles, business news and additional resources related to valves.

• FF joins Europe! - Voting members of CENELEC have decided to include Foundation Fieldbus as part of the fieldbus European standard. It has been refered to the CENELEC Technical Bureau for ratification.
  See also our Fieldbus Page
• Special-needs Variable-pressure Switch - Penny + Giles Computer Products, a division of Devlin Electronics has developed a new 'joggle' switch - a variablepressure switch for special-needs users. The joggle switch is compatible with all popular mounting systems. It is particularly suited to users with poor motor-skills or users with weak, limited movements where a normal mouse or joystick would be too sensitive to control. The joggle switch is comfortably large (125mm) for ease of use, and it features a unique, patented, variable-pressure mechanism. It is simply a matter of rotating the coloured top to increase or decrease the actuation force required, to suit the needs of the individual user.

• "Directions in the New Millenium" - is a special ICS Forum at National Manufacturing Week, Chicago, IL. On Thursday, March 16, 2000, this two-session event will feature an impressive panel of industry experts providing you with crucial information on trends in industrial computing. Speakers include: Dick Morley, "Father" of the PLC always an entertaining and challenging speaker; Mitchell Bunnell, Co-Founder of Digital Lynx - "Is Linux poised to dominate industrial real-time control?"; Robert Nottoli,from Microsoft - "Is Windows 2000 the Desktop Operating System of the new millennium?")

• Software publication - We've just come across a nice publication Software @ Siemens published by Siemens in association with the Siemens Software Initiative. It contains lots of intereseting little pieces on for instance: How to mazimise the lfetime value of your customers; Web @ a glance; and reusing software designs for Siemens control systems.