See Archive Page for earlier news.

30/1/01

• Premier Irish chemical show changes venue - Irchem 2001, the principle fair serving Ireland's thriving and rapidly developing chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry is moving to the new modern Greyhound Stadium in Cork this year. Ireland's exports in this sphere is now close to Euro20 billion and investment in the sector shows little sign of abating. Indeed the Irish industrial development authority states that nine of the world's top ten organisations have established manufacturing plants in Ireland. The dates are 18th to 20th September 2001. Deirdre Quin has full details.
• Reorganisation of distributorship - We reported earlier this month on the purchase of Elcon by Pepperl & Fuchs. Obviously there will be a shake out in the various agencies and distrubuterships because of this. Ireland is one of the first countries where this has been completed with the appointment of Insteco, who previously were Elcon representatives.

• Win a multimeter! - Initial purchasers at TestMart for $100 or more and received a free B+K Multimeter for the past while. Due to the popularity of this promotion they have extended the offer through March 2001 with the slogan, "Become a TestMart customer today to receive your free gift!".

• Control engineering guides - Some years ago, Jumo Instruments published three little guides that have subsequently become some definitive guides. The company has now updated them and is, once again, offering them free of charge to engineers and machine/panel builders. The Control Engineering booklet, by Jumo specialist Frank Blasinger, covers the essential principles of control engineering. Temperature Mesaurement and Electronioc Controllers are the other titles.
• Show dates for 2002 announced - IPC- Association Connecting Electronics Industries announces that IPC SMEMA CouncilÕs Electronics Assembly Process Exhibition and Conference (APEXSM) 2002 willtake place on January 20-24, 2002 at the San Diego Convention Center in the US.
• Robust, yet flexible PC complements package - GE Fanuc Automation will introduce the PANEL i, a new, robust industrialized personal computer for use with GE Fanuc's OpenFactoryTM CNCs, at the WESTEC Advanced Productivity Exposition 2001 in Los Angeles, US, (March 26-29 - Booth #2649). The PANEL i is designed to withstand the harsh environment of the shop floor with significantly better iliability than off-the-shelf PCs and to provide longer service with enhanced upgrades as needed.
  GE Fanuc supports the Signpost see their advert on our News Page
• Merger off - According to an alert issued by the publication Controls Intelligence & Plant Systems Report last week a proposed merger between Nematron and Optimation Technology heralded as far back as last July, is not no to take place. Nematron have suceeded in raising funds through a $950k placement. Full details will no dounbt emerge from the next issue of this invaluable publication.
  Picture shows: Jim Heaton, Publisher CI&PSR

• Crystal clear orders! - In New Zealand, a major manufacturer has placed orders for ABB instruments. The manufacturer, Rakon Ltd, a world leader in the production of crystals for use as frequency oscillators, has chosen ABB Commander 360 multi-recipe profile controllers for its Auckland plant. The 360s, which will be used for controlling ovens, will replace ABB Commander 300 instruments.
• Distributor's activities in Britain taken over - Huba Control AG of Switzerland one of the largest manufacturers of pressure and vacuum transducers in Europe, has opened a branch in the United Kingdom. Huba Control will be taking over all the pressure measurement activities, and employees of the existing distributor Majestic Controls.
• Dual-channel multimeasurand liquid analysis - A new family of process liquid analysers, the 1055 series, has been introduced by the Uniloc Division of Rosemount Analytical. The unique, dual channel, multi-measurand capability makes this analyser ideal for all water treatment applications, and customer requirements. Measurement of pH/ORP, conductivity/resistivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorine and ozone Ñ or even flow: all are factory or site programmable, using the 7 key tactile feedback membrane keypad.
• Bench-top tube benders Ñ Two new Bench Top Tube Benders introduced today by Swagelok Company deliver consistent bends from 1deg to 180deg for such tubing materials as carbon steel, stainless steel, copper and aluminum, in sizes up to 30mm (1 inch) in outer diameter, greatly reducing installation time and effort.

• Major customer wins for software company - Cyco Software, which provides document management software for the design and engineering environment, released the names of major customer wins for its critically-acclaimed AutoManager Meridian EDM software. Over 5000 licenses of AutoManager Meridian have been sold in the past six months. Cyco's customer wins include: Nestle (US), NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), Seattle City Light (US), Labatt Brewing Company (Canada), Hydro One (Canada), Codelco (Chile), Petrobras (Brazil), and Copesul (Brazil). Regis Santamaria, Cyco's Vice-President of Sales, says: "We see a clear trend developing. Major corporations select AutoManager Meridian as their standard engineering document management solution." Santamaria concludes: "AutoManager Meridian allows these corporations to manage their designs and documents across multiple locations with powerful web-integration and database scalability."
• Spotlight on soil pollution - Encouraged by the success of the second soil pollution workshop at the April 1999 Interchimie trade show, the United Nations Commission for Europe has appointed Association Interchimie to organise a third edition of this authoritative European workshop ÒInternational workshop on analysis, treatment methodologies and rehabilitation for polluted soils andgroundwaterÓ, to coincide with the Interchimie, Mesucora, and BioExpo Laboratory shows to be held from 13 to 15 March 2001 at the Paris.

• Industrial PC and VMEbus company purchased _ Xycom Automation, the market leader in Industrial PC, VMEbus and PC-based control products, reports that Pro-face America, a majority owned subsidiary of Digital Electronics Corporation, has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Xycom Automation Inc. The acquisition is expected to close in mid-February 2001.
• New Year Honour for measurement professional - In Britain's New Year's Honours List for 2001, David McMurtry, Chairman and Chief Executive of the automated metrology company Renishaw, was made Knight Bachelor, "for Services to Design and Innovation". This is the latest in a line of honours, which include Commander of the Order of the British Empire - CBE awarded "for services to Science and Technology", and Royal Designer for Industry - RDI. Irish born Sir David, who holds dual Irish and British nationality, will be formally invested with the title at London's Buckingham Palace later this year.

• Temperature & pressure newsletter - The NEWSLINE-DIRECT email which is produced by the Hawco Group of Companies once a month is for those interested in temperature and pressure, and it contains details of the latest in temperature and pressure sensing, measurement and control instruments, and more, and allows Hawco to highlight special offers too. The email newsletter is completely free. It's only a single email once a month, and very ind it useful. To get the next copy, just send an email now to: join-hawco-news@news.pro-talk.com.
• Embedded computer platforms for electrical power management systems - SBS Technologies, Inc., has been selected by Square D Company to supply embedded computer platforms for their next generation of power POWERLOGIC management systems. Power management systems help industrial and commercial facilities control the cost, quality and reliability of their electric power. These systems are becoming increasingly important as electric utilities deregulate and power shortages surface. POWERLOGIC systems consist of electric meters installed at key points to track energy consumption and power quality, software that gathers and helps analyze the data, and often some capability to automatically control electrical loads, including lighting. SBSÕ PC7 Rugged All-in-One Embedded Computer is used in the Square D power management system as a server into which meters feed data that is then available over the Internet.

• Access real-time plant data anytime, anywhere using WWW technology - Transmitton has released a new web-enabled fastflex Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) that allows anyone with the required security codes to access real-time plant data with just a PC and a modem via an ordinary telephone line. Because no special software is required on the users PC, production managers can stay in touch even when at home or when travelling. Similarly, using web-enabled fastflex, service engineers can arrive at a remote site already equipped with the parts needed, which will deliver substantial time and cost savings and reduce down time for operators of remote located plant such as water, gas and power utilities, transport networks and pipelines. Julie Graham has more information.

• "Deal adds unsurpassed expertise in radar level instrumentation to existing leadership in pressure and temperature instrumentation" - Fisher-Rosemount, the process management division of Emerson, has announced the acquisition of Saab Marine Electronics AB, the world leader in radar level gauging. Saab Marine Electronics, formerly a subsidiary of Saab AB, will become the level instrumentation centre of excellence for Rosemount, the world-leading pressure, temperature and level measurement division of Fisher-Rosemount.

  Appointments at Lotus Automation - Keith Sleater has taken up the position of General Manager Lotus Automation USA Inc. Keith will be responsible for all of Lotus Automations operations in the United States working out of their Boston office. Tracy Regan has taken up the position of Human Resources for Lotus Automation and will be responsible for all HR issues for the Irish, UK and US operations. She will be based at the Corporate HQ in Sligo. Connor Flanagan is the new General Manager of Lotus Automation Ireland.

  Lotus Automation is an advertiser on the Instrumentation Signpost. Your company can be too. Check Details

• Software gives "a completely new level of insight into plant" - The American Textile Machinery Exhibition Ð International (ATME-I) in South Carolina was the venue for the global launch of an important new software product specifically developed to enhance manufacturing and quality performance in Fibre and Chemical manufacturing companies. Anex6 announced a significant order for this software at the show. The Du Pont plant located in Northern Ireland has purchased the ANEX software with implementation already underway. "During a pilot implementation ANEX gave us a completely new level of insight into our plant operation by allowing us to analyse the performance of different processes using multivariate statistics." said John McCormick, Integrated Operations Manager at the plant.
• Improve to excellence - Feabhas aims to encourage engineering excellence in the Software and Systems Engineering Industry. (Feabhas actually is an Irish word meaning both "excellence" and "improve".) The organisation specialise in professional training courses. They specifically only address the real-time and embedded systems and do not do traditional courses for MIS type application. Among their courses during next few weeks is one entitled "CAN at device level" which is scheduled for mid February. Contact Joanne Cooling for the full details of this and their other excellent courses.
• Watchdog Timer - B&B Electronics, have just announced the availability of Windows 2000 drivers for its range of Watchdog Timers. The Watchdog Timers are designed to overcome the dangers associated with PCs locking up. PCs used in remote applications, used for controlling external devices or performing data acquisition can all benefit from a Watchdog Timer. If the controlling software hangs or crashes, the watchdog timer will timeout and reboot the host machine, just like pressing the reset button.

• T&M Newsletter - The Measurements and Testing Newsletter is the bulletin of information of the Measurements and Testing generic activity of the Competitive and Sustainable Growth programme in the European Union's fifth Framework programme for research and technological development. The Measurements and Testing generic activity is managed by the Measurement and Testing, Infrastructure unit of Directorate C-Il of the Research Directorate General of the European Commission. The newsletter is free of charge and accessible through CORDIS (Community Research & Development Information Service) Library.
• Instant translation for online communications - IBM on Monday unveiled a new software that instantly translates Web pages, office e-mail, and online chat from English into a host of languages according to a report published by ISA. The IBM WebSphere Translation Server will allow Internet Service providers, corporations and other entities running their own servers to translate in real time English communications into Spanish, German, French, and Italian and from those languages back to English. It also can translate English into traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean but does not have the reverse capability.
• Non-contact temperature sensor with local weatherproof transmitter/indicator - The new Convir OS550 Series non-contact temperature sensor from Calex, offers a wide choice of temperature ranges, viewing angles and analogue outputs to feed directly into panel meters, recorders, temperature/process controllers, data loggers, data acquisition systems or other process instrumentation.
• Controller range enhanced with new models and increased functionality - Yokogawa has added two new models and increased the functionality of other units in its Green Series of digital indicating controllers. The two new models, the UT420 and UT450, are general-purpose high-performance controllers with 5-digit displays, remote setpoint input, 1% measurement accuracy and simplified control functions for ease of configuration. Typical applications include heat-treatment furnaces, incinerators, ovens and kilns in a variety of industries.

• SCADA solution Samsung Electronics, the worldÕs largest manufacturer of semiconductor memory has adopted USDATAÕs FactoryLink SCADA software system as the standard for utilities management at their new production lines. Samsung Electronics has successfully completed a real-time utilities monitoring pro]ect. Previously, Samsung Electronics used distributed control systems (DCS) technology to monitor and control electric power, ventilation, and water handling for their semiconductor production lines.

• Frequency counter measures up to 1.3 GHz - The 1325 frequency counter, now available from Black Star Instruments, can measure frequency and period from 5 Hz to 1.3 GHz. The instrument uses a microprocessor controlled reciprocal measurement technique to give a fast response and high resolution at all frequencies. Its compact size and low weight mean that the unit may be used either on the bench or for portable field use.

• New acquisition - Pepperl & Fuchs has acquired Elcon Instruments consolidating its position in the process automation market.

• Vice President-European Operations appointed - The Fieldbus Foundation announced over Christmas that Flavio Tolfo has been named its vice president-European operations. Tolfo, who serves as director of ABB AutomationÕs asset optimization and fieldbus technology group, replaces Lionel Bridle, also of ABB, who has assumed additional responsibilities in his position with that company.

• New search engine at site - TestMart have launched their new full-site search engine. Now you can search with model numbers, keywords and phrases for products, technical articles, application notes and other resource materials.

• New Modbus alave ActiveX development kit & simulation application - Automated Solutions, Inc. today announced the availability of a new Modbus Slave ActiveX toolkit and a simulation application that sup ports the Mod bus development/sim ulation/testing requirements of PC-based instrumentation manufacturers, developers, system integrators and end users. Both products are Modbus and Modbus/TCP compatible.
• FPAA development board provides environment for rethinking analog electronics strategy - Anadigm - formerly Anadyne Microelectronics - has launched a development and evaluation board for field programmable analog arrays (FPAAs). The new board, AN10DS40, provides a range of resources to help electronics engineers evaluate FPAA technology and develop working systems. It additionally incorporates an onboard microcontroller to demonstrate the way in which FPAA functionality may be adapted in the field, to help users understand the technologyÕs potential for radically reshaping the way electronics products function.
• Wireless automation with standard low-cost packages - Klinkmann has supplied in the last 12 months wireless automation solutions to over 500 applications in various countries covered by GSM mobile phone network.The SMS text message based GSM-Control offers an easy and fast way to make bi-directional control/query systems with standard PC and mobile phones and interfacing into the same environment various devices incl. PLCs with GSM-modems. Their WAP Tool allows 2-way queries with WAP phones to/from SQL database.