See Archive Page for earlier news.

31/10/02

Four awards for made for Software - GE Fanuc Automation, recently received four awards for its CIMPLICITY collaborative production management software from the well-respected industry trade publications Control Engineering, Instrumentation & Automation News (IAN), and Plant Engineering. GE Fanuc won a Control Engineering Editors' Choice Award for CIMPLICITY HMI Plant Edition and IAN Editorial Excellence Awards for CIMPLICITY Machine Edition and the overall CIMPLICITY Collaborative Production Management software suite. Plant Engineering has named the CIMPLICITY Collaborative Production Management software suite as a Finalist for its Product of the Year Award.

Industry expert is Worldwide Director of T&M innovators - Tektronix, a leading innovator of test, measurement and monitoring equipment, today announced that Othmar Kyas has joined Tektronix as Worldwide Director of Marketing for its Monitoring and Protocol Test (MPT) business.
DAD (Design and Documentation) is a software package which expedites wiring design by automating the documentation. The latest Version 3.1 has new functionality. DAD allows the user to build data objects representing their equipment; to assemble and wire them as in the real world. It automatically creates all documents on request as views on the data model. "DAD liberates design from CAD. Work procedures are more flexible and efficient. Data can be re-used between jobs. All documents are automatically distilled to .pdf files. DAD creates offline web browsers for distribution outside the design office. Data can be exported from DAD as .xls files. DAD is available in standalone and multi-user Client/Server forms. It has complete security, work flow management and change audit recording in the multi-user forms." according to Dermot Kennedy, CEO. "View the material onour web site. Watch the screen animations of DAD in action then request a full function copy. Use DAD free for 30 days. The trial CD comes with training material and examples."
DAD has been adopted by Fortune 100 companies worldwide over the past 4 years.
See their advert on our Home Page.
Management and board changes announced - USDATA Corporation announced today that its board of directors has accepted the resignation of Robert (Bob) Merry, president and chief executive officer. Mr. Merry has also resigned from the board of directors. The resignations are effective immediately. The board of directors has appointed James E. Fleet as interim president and chief executive officer and he also joins the board. Mr. Fleet is a vice-president with Phoenix Management Services, Inc., an operationally focused turnaround management firm headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has previously served as interim chief financial officer of USDATA. USDATA also announced today that Winston Churchill has resigned as the Company's chairman but will remain a director. Elected to the board of directors and replacing Mr. Churchill as chairman is Yaron Eitan. Mr. Eitan is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Selway Partners, LLC., a diversified high technology holding company. Also elected to the board of directors is Randy Illig. Mr. Illig is a venture partner with Selway Partners and is the founder and former chief executive officer of Visalign, an IT service company.

Power award - Artesyn Technologies is proud to announce that Robert (Bob) White has received the 2002 Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Power Electronics Society. This prestigious award is to honour long and distinguished service to the welfare of the Power Electronics Society at an exceptional level of dedication and achievement. Bob White is a Staff Engineer with Artesyn's Worldwide Technology Development Group in the USA, responsible for supporting Strategic Marketing with the definition and specification of new products for future power system architectures. Bob has worked for Artesyn in a number of senior managerial roles for nearly five years; he was Engineering Director of High Power DC/DC Converters from 1997 until 2001 - when he assumed his current position - and is widely recognised as an expert on distributed power systems.

Interesting software purchas - GE Fanuc has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Intellution, Inc., a leading supplier of industrial automation software, with more than 185,000 installations around the world, and a division of Emerson Process Management. The transaction, which is subject to government approvals and other customary conditions, is expected to close in the near future. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Safe retention of doors, hatches and other enclosures in Ex areas - Doorholder magnets are now available in accordance with the new ATEXÝ100a guideline. Schischek has obtained the approval of conformity with guideline 94/9/EG for Ex magnets that have proved successful over many years. As ever, the magnets are PTB-tested in accordance with the highest standards and protection class. With this certification the magnets can be used in all gas environments. An additional approval for dust laden atmospheres is in preparation.

A day in the life of a hacker - The most recent results for the >Irish HoneyNet project show that the Irish HoneyNet continues to be subjected to a barrage of attacks from Internet hackers. The HoneyNet, which refers to a group of computers that are designed from the start to be compromised and attacked, has just published a detailed exposé of one such attack. Commenting, Gerry Fitzpatrick, enterprise risk services partner at Deloitte & Touche, urged companies to follow a few simple guidelines to manage their risk. He said that companies should "have an independent risk assessment performed on the organisation's information assets; perform regular security audits; ensure your software vendor provides you with the latest updates/patches as part of the maintenance agreement and, most importantly, act on any threats and vulnerabilities identified". The Irish HoneyNet project is a research initiative sponsored by Deloitte & Touche, operated by Espion, and hosted by Data Electronics.

New instrument tests quality of multimedia displays - The new 3298 Multimedia Display Tester from Yokogawa Martron is a quality-of-display instrument designed to test the display screens used in modern multimedia products such as notebook computers, PDAs, games consoles and digital cameras. The new tester, which is equally suited to use in research & development departments or on production lines, measures display quality in terms of luminance, contrast, flicker and chromaticity. Each parameter is displayed in both digital and bargraph form, with the ability to carry out automatic 'go/no-go' evaluation on the basis of pre-programmed criteria.

ABB on verge of collapse - ABB, Europe's second biggest engineering group, was on the brink of collapse after a shock profits warning cut its share price by nearly two thirds. See Story in Financial Times.
European court derails European Commission's ruling on Schneider/Legrand merger - The European Union's powerful competition authorities suffered a crushing blowon Tuesday when Europe's second highest court ruled they were wrong to block a merger between the French electrical groups Schneider and Legrand.
Lifelong leadership in the process automation industry recognised - John M. Berra, executive vice president of Emerson with responsibility for the process management business, has received the Life Achievement Award from ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society. Berra received the award at the Honours and Awards Banquet in Chicago last Sunday evening, held in conjunction with ISA 2002, North America's largest exhibition, conference, and training event for instrumentation, systems, and automation professionals, The ISA Life Achievement Award traditionally has been a discretionary award of the Society created to honour individuals with a history of dedication to the instrumentation, systems, and automation community. Including Berra's award, the Society has recognized only nine individuals for life achievement in its 57-year history.
Worldwide batch control market Is poised for growth - After a year of little growth, the batch control market seems poised for expansion. The market for batch control systems (BCSs) in 2002 will exceed $2.4 billion, and will grow at an average annual rate of 3.4 percent through 2007, according to "Batch Control System Worldwide Outlook", a recently released study from ARC Advisory Group.

All the questions you wanted to ask Jim Pinto but were afraid to ask!!! - From time to time visitors to this site will have seen mentions of Jim Pinto in despatches. His trenchant views on things help make the world of automation so much more fascinating. Read Perry Marshall's interview with him and learn what makes this renaisance man tick! Strikes me that an interview Perry Marshall might be interesting too and you'll find it if you look on his own page as a pdf file.

Alliance offers brewery customers the industry's best expertise, project management, technology and life cycle services - Forming a single source for complete, advanced brewery automation solutions, Emerson Process Management has entered an alliance with Heinrich Huppmann GmbH, one of the world's largest engineering, design, and equipment manufacturers for the brewing industry. The combined capabilities of these strategic partners deliver proven innovation for unit upgrades and optimisations, and for full turnkey brewhouse design and construction.
Next year's Diary - IDC Technologies have produced their 2003 diary. "Whether you're an engineer, technician or a professional working in a technical environment, this diary has been designed especially for you. This outstanding technical diary will aid you in your working environment - a permanent reference at your fingertips. Be quick and order your copy of this exclusive diary jam-packed with 40+ pages of the latest reference tables, charts, formulas and useful tips."

Robotic rheology - Complicated sample preparation and tedious cleaning procedures are now things of the past thanks to Paar Physica's second generation automatic rheometer system. Featuring automatic testing of up to 32 samples, the new system helps boost laboratory productivity while reducing errors in sample handing and analysis. Ideal for fluid applications such as cosmetics, paints, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food, the ASC features a temperature controlled sample magazine with either 16 or 32 measuring cups, which are easy to remove from the magazine and simple to clean. Each cup remains sealed until the measurements begin, so volatile components won't evaporate, and samples won't dry out.
New IR transmission system - OMEGA's new low cost OS102 mini infrared transmitter system features a remotely mounted infrared temperature sensor and high performance microprocessor based signal conditioner with built-in LED display. The OS102's miniature sensor head design is ideal for measuring temperature in confined, hard-to-reach places and harsh environments. The sensor head is connected to the main electronics housing via a 1.8 m (6') shielded cable standard on all models. This connection can be extended in the field with a minor adjustment.

Communication module tolerates harsh industrial environments - With the National Instruments FP-1601 distributed I/O network module, engineers and scientists now can use Ethernet for communication measurement and control applications in harsh industrial environments. The NI FP-1601 tolerates greater amounts of EMI, decreases power consumption, and radiates less heat, which helps eliminate temperature-induced errors on nearby thermocouple modules.
MBO for FCX - Management at global flow control specialist FCX believe they can take the business rapidly forward after a management buy out. The management team, led by Chief Executive John Perkins, bought back the stock market listed company in conjunction with private equity firm Alchemy ‹ which has invested around £25 million in the company.
Pressure indicating sensor film - Pressurex, from Sensor Products Inc, is a thin sensor film that, by changing color, reveals stress distribution and magnitude between any two surfaces that come in contact. The intensity of the resultant color is quantifiable and enables precise determination of what the PSI is at any point on the contacting surfaces. Film color translates to pressure by comparison to a color calibration table or by utilizing an optional imaging system. This product is useful for assessing interfacial stresses that occur at gasketed and flanged interfaces, in any kind of bolted joint or clamp, in lamination presses, roller systems and heat sealers, during welding, in materials testing and from impact forces.

Low budget press fit control - The proven Press Fit Controller DIGIFORCE 9306 from Burster, has produced offspring. The "Little-One" is meant to serve mainly those application fields where so far a seamless force/displacement control was out of question for economic reasons. Up to now those applications often run with much more simple systems evaluating the press fit quality by measuring only the maximum force arising. It goes without saying that this method inevitably leads to deceptive measuring results. This is the starting-point for the new instrument. Striking features along with an extremely low price now enable more reliable test results on a low budget.

Free - performance boosting Test & Measurement software - PC-based instrumentation specialists Pico Technology has announced the immediate availability of version 5.08.7 software for all three of its flagship PC-based instruments. Version 5.08.7 of PicoScope, PicoLog and EnviroMon feature a number of performance boosting upgrades and can be downloaded, as demo or fully functional versions, from www.picotech.com/download.
Serial input latched source driver IC - The new A6818 driver integrated circuit from Allegro MicroSystems uses the company's DABiC-IV (digital/analogue/bipolar fourth-generation) integrated-circuit process to combine a 32-bit CMOS shift register, accompanying data latches and control circuitry with bipolar sourcing outputs and p-n-p active pull-down devices.

New compact analyser - The LI-820 from Glen Spectra, is a single path, dual wavelength, non-dispersive gas analyser with 1ppm peak-to-peak signal noise. It is a compact, lightweight instrument suitable for industrial and other continuous CO2 monitoring applications, such as safety monitoring, leak detection, TOC analysis, greenhouse control systems and meteorological studies.
New British website for EMC components and systems - The British base of Schaffner Ltd, have launched a web site dedicated to their customers. Visitors to www.schaffner.com/uk will find local news and information on events in Britain.

First dynamic monitoring solution brought to market, speeding UMTS network development - Tektronix, an innovator in test, measurement and monitoring solutions for mobile equipment manufacturers and operators, has announced a new solution for real-time monitoring and analysis of the latest Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) mobile networks elements.
New open DCS controller released - The SixTRAK IPm Open DCS controller is the latest edition to Sixnet's ground-breaking line of truly open LINUX based industrial control products. SixTRAK IPm's powerful communications (5 Ethernet and 3 serial ports) and advanced programming capabilities make it an ideal solution for process control, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), or Distributed Control System (DCS) applications.
The Achilles Heel for suppliers of drives to the HVAC industry - The HVAC customer base in the electric drives market, accruing revenues worth $159.3 million in 2001, remains highly cost-conscious according to a new end-user survey by Frost & Sullivan. The strong degree of price-sensitivity underlines the imperative for drives manufacturers to focus on the demand-based approaches to pricing and on the elasticity of demand. HVAC constitutes the one sector recording the highest total of individual electric drive shipments, estimated at some 14.3 per cent of the total. The benefits associated with improved efficiency and energy saving will support sales of electric drives to the HVAC sector, set to reach $210.9 million in 2008.

Dual independent-output signal converters have double the functionality - Lee-Dickens has extended its next-generation Beta range of signal conditioning equipment to include two new signal converters - BD320 and BM320 - which provide two independent current or voltage outputs from a single input. Placing them apart from the majority of the competition is that either of the outputs can be a current or voltage in any mV or mA range ‹ for example 1 x 4-2OmA and 1 x 0-1 OV. Most similar devices output two mA signals or two mV signals. Inputs can be any of the common mV or mA types. Also distinguishing the BD320 and BM320 is the ability to handle AC current and AC voltage inputs. AC input ranges can be up to 5A or up to 250V respectively.
New Vice President of Worldwide Marketing appointed - Artesyn Technologies has announced the appointment of Todd Hendrix as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for the company's Power Conversion group. In his new role, Mr. Hendrix will be responsible for refining and leading Artesyn's marketing strategy and implementation. With almost 20 years of experience in the semiconductor and high-volume electronics industries, Hendrix brings to bear a broad commercial understanding of OEM markets along with the related product infrastructure. Before joining the company he held a variety of senior marketing, commercial and business development positions with 'Fortune 500' European, American, and Chinese companies.

First serial data Adnalyzers (SDAs) with X-Stream technology for real time analysis of high-speed complex data rates - LeCroy Corporation has introduced two versions of a Serial Data Analyzer, models SDA 6000 (6 GHz signal capture bandwidth with 75 psec typical risetime for data rates up to 3.5 Gbits/sec) and SDA 5000 (5 GHz signal capture bandwidth with 90 psec typical risetime for data rates up to 2.5 Gbits/sec). These products make it easy to accurately and reliably perform measurements on high speed serial data streams.
Compact multi-use AC-DC power source for frequency conversion and test - NSG 1007 is a new series of programmable AC-DC power sources, from world-leading specialist, Schaffner, which pack diverse power provision capability into a cost-effective, space-saving enclosure. The units provide tightly controlled AC-DC power for a wide range of frequency conversion and ATE applications.

PLC market Is turbulent and poised to regain lost ground - PLC suppliers are worried. Rapid changes in computing and communication technologies, a strong user acceptance of open systems, the global economic slowdown, impact of events in 2001, and a small but growing threat from Industrial PCs are combining to create turbulent market conditions and the threat of an uncertain future. According to ARC's PLC Worldwide Outlook, Market Analysis & Forecast Through 2006", the PLC market will revive despite the global economic slowdown. Users need automation to improve productivity, reduce costs, and increase flexibility to meet varying demands. Seeds of revival are also present in the high pace of technological change as fears of obsolescence drive upgrade plans. In addition, the potential of reduced total cost of ownership with open connectivity and programming platforms stimulates demand for higher levels of automation.
Company's portfolio assets doubled in Europe! - USData Corporation, a leading supplier of industrial automation software solutions, today announced its acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding stock of Wizard Information Systems a privately held company located in the United Kingdom and a major distributor of USData. In addition to expanding their portfolio of software assets, the acquisition provides direct access to new customers and markets by more than doubling their capabilities in sales, support, and delivery in Western Europe.

Highly innovative all digital intelligent servo drive to shake motion control market - Parker Hannifin's Electromechanical Division has launched an all-digital intelligent servo drive that sets a radically new cost/performance standard in the low- to medium-power market sector. Combining leading-edge software and electronics technology, the company's latest-generation ViX servo drive packs an exceptionally powerful controller and 250/500VA output stage into an ultra-compact case, and provides truly outstanding acceleration performance. The new servo drive is specifically designed for ease of commissioning and tuning, using auto-configuring software that enables users to implement a fully tuned system within 15 minutes of unpacking the delivery box. Their ViX servo drives are suitable for a wide variety of single- and multi-axis motion control applications, especially those demanding very high levels of dynamic performance; they are also ideally suited to autonomous operation in decentralised control schemes.