PXI source measure unit. - National Instruments (NI) has announced the NI PXIe-4135 source measure unit (SMU) with a measurement sensitivity of 10 fA and voltage output up to 200 V. Engineers can use the NI PXIe-4135 SMU to measure low-current signals and take advantage of the high channel density, fast test throughput and flexibility of NI PXI SMUs for applications such as wafer-level parametric test, materials research and characterisation of low-current sensors and ICs.

Our thoughts on that referendum! - The legal situation at present is that Britain is a fully paid-up member of the European Union and will remain so until they activate an Article 50 application. In reality Britain is being excluded already from important meetings for the first time in forty three years. Nobody really expected this result. So despite people saying that they had "contingency plans" in reality the answer to all questions is "Nobody knows!"

New analyser plant. - Endress+Hauser is expanding its manufacturing facility for Raman analyzers. Wholly-owned subsidiary Kaiser Optical Systems is investing US$8.6 million to develop the Ann Arbor, (MI USA) location, which will more than double in size.

Continuing the European exploration tradition. - John O'Sullivan, a automation engineers with Douglas Controls & Automation, has now published "In the footsteps of Columbus" (ISBN-10: 3319275607), telling the story of the ESA astronauts and their work on board the International Space Station over its first decade and how they have lived on board, helped construct the space laboratory and performed valuable scientific experiments.

Automation in water plant! - Modular products from Delta have been selected as part of an innovative automated system installed recently at a major water treatment facility in Romania.

Busy gas detection zone in November! - Gas detection has always been an important component of the WWEM events, but organiser Marcus Pattison says: "Following the publication of important new guidance on confined space entry and a new standard for toxic gas detectors, the Gas Detection Zone at WWEM 2016 will be busier than ever."

Effects of Brexit on the Automation Markets - The impact could exceed the 2009 crisis for European companies, but ARC is actually less pessimistic. However, we think that the Brexit will hinder growth in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Overall, it is a difficult and challenging task to identify all the dynamics and even more to quantify them later. We decided to analyze the effects by geographic region, by subject, and by time-frame.

Contribution recognised! - During the recent AGM of the Ireland Section of ISA the part of Read-out in publicising the third ISA Food and Pharmaceutical Division Seminar (FPID2016) was acknowledged. The Food and Pharmaceutical Division of ISA is one of the most active in the Society.

The internet of zombies. - Last year, a Radware report stated more than 90 per cent of companies surveyed had experienced some sort of cyber attack. However, the term internet of zombies describes a more advanced kind of attack. Here, Jonathan Wilkins of EU Automation discusses the internet of zombies and how companies can prepare for the outbreak.

Hoods and housings! - Harting has extended its range of Han® HPR series hoods and housings, these are designed for safety-critical applications in harsh and dynamic environments, such as railways and rail vehicles.

Online humidity calculator. - With the online humidity calculator from E+E Elektronik, humidity-related parameters can be calculated quickly and easily. In contrast to other programs, it takes into account the measurement uncertainties.

Hyperspectral imaging training. - Stemmer Imaging's new dedicated British Customer Centre at its Tongham offices is devoted to customer activities and will host a free hyperspectral imaging training day on July 5th 2016.

Gender changing connections! - Cliff Electronics have added two new connectors to their very successful range of XLR-Format Feedthrough Data Connectors. The new chassis mounted “gender change” sockets are available in USB2 A-to-B and B-to-A versions and allow designers to integrate USB2 networking and data feeds into professional equipment for broadcast, lighting, audio and industrial applications.

Vibration filtering accelerometers and tilt switches. - Memsic has announced a unique new family of a sensors providing tip-over and acceleration sensing in a wide range of Automotive, Industrial and Consumer applications, such as motorcycle and off-road vehicle tip-over detection, vehicle navigation and Digital SLR camera horizontal position detection.

Werum IT Solutions has appointed Shawn Opatka as Vice President Sales & Marketing in North America.

PE module connection. - Harting has announced an additional Han-Modular® PE module for the pluggable connection of large PE (Protective Earth) cross sections of between 10 and 35 mm².

Push Button Switches. - A range of rugged illuminated pushbutton switches from Dailywell Electronics are available from Diamond Electronics.

Fanless PSU. - The CoolX600 Series is the new, revolutionary, convection-cooled modular power supply platform from Excelsys Technologies which delivers an incredible 600W without fan assisted cooling from a very compact 8.5 x 4.5 x 1U package.

Major British award for asset management consultant. - The Asset Management consulting and training services company MCP, is celebrating the award of Britain's highest accolade for business success -The Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2016.

Miniature pressure transducer. - The Model 188 miniature flush diaphragm pressure transducer is part of Interface Force's GP:50 range of pressure sensors and transmitters for hazardous and harsh environments.

Rigidity in a linear actuator. - Thomson Industries has released an educational video that provides design engineers with best practice tips on how to increase the rigidity of a linear actuator.

Current sensors and renewable energy. - Harting has released information for the first time about the uptake of its current sensors by the renewable energy industry.

Following the acquisition of Quantitech by Gasmet Technologies, Ken Roberts has been appointed as the company's new Managing Director.

Gas analysis workshop report. - Gasmet Technologies organised a meeting in Lisbon, immediately prior to the CEM 2016 conference and exhibition in May, to provide delegates with an insight into the wide variety of applications for which FTIR technology is employed.

Gas Detection Controller. - Designed to meet SIL1 requirements, the new MX 32, from Tyco Gas & Flame Detection, is a compact, low-profile controller that continuously monitors gas detection.

Future-proof and cost-effective I/O system. - The IS1+ Remote I/O system makes it easy to achieve considerable savings in planning, installation, commissioning, and operating costs.

Power symposium not to be missed. - The preliminary program for its 59th Power Industry Division (POWID) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Symposium, to be held 27-30 June 2016 in Charlotte, (NC USA).

Precision metering pump. - Blue-White®'s all New Proseries-M® MD-3 Chemical Metering Pump, provides Precision Chemical Metering for the Treatment of Municipal Water & Waste Water.

Speeding Time-to-Deployment of Embedded Computing Applications. - Abaco Systems have announced AXIS DataView, an innovative extension to the company’s AXIS software development environment. DataView is unique in the market, and allows customers to rapidly develop graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for their embedded applications deployed on Abaco Systems hardware.

New features and options for watermeter! - Krohne has introduced several new features and options for WATERFLUX 3070. As water meters are often installed in remote locations, reducing the frequency of visits to the sites and the time spend on set-up and maintenance is crucial.

Industrial Ethernet switches certified! - Harting has announced that its Ha-VIS eCon 2000 and 3000 16-port unmanaged Ethernet switches are now certified by DNV and GL (Germanischer Lloyd) as compliant with Det Norske Veritas' rules for classification of Ships, High Speed & Light Craft and Det Norske Veritas' Offshore standards.

Robert Perks s Vice President of Werum's American operation

Keynote speaker at Water & Waste Symposium announced! - Steven D. Drew, the Water Resources Director for the City of Greensboro, North Carolina and a national delegate of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), will deliver the keynote address at ISA's 2016 Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls (WWAC) Symposium (2-4 August 2016 in Orlando, FL USA)

Safety certification. - Yokogawa has received TÜV Rheinland certification for Functional Safety Management (FSM) IEC 61511-1:2003 SIS Integration Phase 4 (Design and Engineering), FSM 159.

Calibration device puts HART at user's fingertips. - The Fluke 154 provides HART communication functionality that, when combined with a Fluke 750 Series Documenting Process Calibrator or 720 Series Multifunction Process Calibrator, enables the user to calibrate the full range of HART devices used in the process industry.

Transducers for high-precision current measurements. - Harting has announced the launch of a new range of current transformers. These transformers have been developed in close collaboration with key the companies in wind energy plant construction to specifically meet key 'alternative energy industry' requirements.

Encoder with EtherCAT interface. - Hengstler has extended their ACURO® AC58 product line with the widely-used EtherCAT interface. The number of systems using this open, powerful, Ethernet-based system continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Range of detector switches. - An extended product range of detector switches is now available from knitter-switch. Detector-switches are used for recognition of variation or manipulation of movable or removable parts.

Secure remote connections to the network edge. - WeConnect is a new solution that Westermo has developed to allow connectivity to remote networks using the internet

Positioning drive for manufacturing systems. - The EMCA positioning drive from Festo, consists of a maintenance-free and wear-resistant brushless DC motor with integrated power and control electronics.

High power modular drives. - Control Techniques has extended its range of high power modular drives. Both its Unidrive M and Powerdrive F300 variable speed drive ranges are now available in the larger frame size 11, providing a flexible method of building compact, reliable high-power solutions.

High-density signal conditioning modules - A full line of microBlox™ isolated signal conditioning modules are now available from Acromag. Offering over 175 models, microBlox uB modules can safely interface a wide variety of voltage, current, temperature, frequency, and other field signals with a ±5V or 0-5V DC output to host measurement & control systems.

Software for 3D Data Exchange. - The current version of the conversion software "3D Evolution 4.0 SP2" from Core Technologie, makes it possible for the first time to automatically take over material specifications during the JT data exchange.

Ultra-miniature, high-precision pressure and temperature transducer. - Emerson's Paine™ 310-38-0050 Series Transducer acquires critical data for smoother and more efficient downhole oil and gas operations

2-wire loop powered operating device for process analysis sensors. - SMARTMAC 200 W is a 2-wire loop powered operating device with HART 7 communication to the SMARTPAT series just introduced by Krohne .

Industry 4.0 & IIoT papers! - Harting has published two new 'whitepapers' for businesses planning to implement 'Industry 4.0' methods and 'Industrial Internet of Things' networks.

Safe disconnect in accordance with IEC 62626-1. - Two safety switches (load disconnect switches) from R. Stahl, Sers 8146/5-V37 and 8150/5-V37, give users a wide range of products that comply with IEC/EN 62626-1, class 1.

Versatility, Capability and Economy in Industrial Process Monitoring. - A significant upgrade to United Electric Controls' One Series line of explosion-proof, programmable transmitters and switches has appeared. The new line compresses all of the functionality of the preceding line into only five models while adding new operational, programming and diagnostics capabilities.

5 year guarantee VOC detector! - Further underlining its commitment to providing unrivalled technical support and first class service delivery, Ion Science is reminding its global customers to register their gas detection instrumentation online to benefit from industry-beating extended warranties.

Valve island customers given greater flexibility! - ASCO have added a new valve size to their Valve Islands range which gives users greater flexibility across a variety of applications and industries.

Surge suppressor Kit. - A surge suppressor kit is now available for use with Moore Industries’ field-installed instruments enclosed in our BH and SB housings. The kit is approved for use in Explosion Proof applications in the United States/Canada (sCSAus) and Australia/New Zealand (ANZEx).

Small system turbo blowers - The turbo series TB from Aerzen was particularly developed for biologically operating wastewater treatment plants with small and medium volume flow requirements.

Pre-Tested Solution to Analyse Time-Series Sensor Data. - National Instruments (NI) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), have announced a collaboration to facilitate the availability of pre-tested Big Analog Data™ solutions based on NI DataFinder Server Edition software and HPE Moonshot Systems.

Worldwide hub for semicon and IG customers reopened! - Servomex has celebrated the reopening of its Americas Technical Center (TC) located at in Woburn (Mass USA) following an extensive refurbishment including the refit of the facility's manufacturing capabilities.

Drives commissioning from anywhere. - When Newton Tesla sets up new variable speed drives for their customers, they can do configuration, re-programming and monitoring from any location. By connecting the HMS Netbiter gateway to their drives systems, they can offer their customers immediate assistance and do remote commissioning during the critical start-up period.

Fieldbus power supply with integrated FF H1 diagnostics. - ISbus fieldbus power supplies from the 9412 range from R Stahl, provide flexible diagnostic capabilities for the Foundation Fieldbus H1 as a standard feature: they continuously monitor physical layer parameters such as voltage and current, signal level, noise, jitter and shield shorts (unbalance).

Ruggedised computer. - Harting has announced the commercial availability in Britain of its ruggedised computer, MICA (Modular Industry Computing Architecture).

Call for papers for CAN Conference - The 16th international CAN Conference (iCC) to be held in the historic Town Hall of Nuremberg (D) on March 7 and 8, 2017 in conjunction with CiA’s 25th anniversary. The call for papers for the conference has been announced.

Calibrating human vibration accellerometers! - Svantek has launched a new portable vibration calibrator. The hand-held SV110 is designed for verification of machine sensors as well as on-site checks of human vibration accelerometers, in accordance to ISO 8041.

Pressure transmitter for demanding environments. - Viatran Corporation has announced the global market introduction of its industry-exclusive Model 386 Flush Tip Pressure Transmitter.