Automation.com e-News - September 14, 2005



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September 14, 2005 - Volume VI, Issue 37
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In this Issue	Our Sponsor
From One Techie to Another: Katrina: Response from the Automation Industry Featured Article: Intelligent Programmable Drives Become a Control for the Entire Machine Product & Company News Featured Application Tool: OPCcalc Calculation Engine Featured Products: Micro-IPm compact RTU Switch2Citect SCADA System Fiber Optic Converters Non-Contact Electronic Pressure Switch New Job Opportunities Featured Book: Pinto's Points – How to Win in the Automation Business New Auctions & Classifieds Dilbert Pick of the Week	Create Custom Control Systems with National Instruments LabVIEW-Powered PACs View a 15-minute multimedia presentation to learn about LabVIEW-Powered Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs). These powerful industrial controllers allow you to use one software language to quickly implement any combination of digital logic, advanced control, industrial I/O, motion control, machine vision, and more. Learn More About LabVIEW-Powered PACs
From One Techie to Another
Katrina: Response from the Automation Industry It's been over two weeks since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, leaving behind more destruction than anyone could imagine. Aid is being sent from various levels of government, organizations, companies - big and small, and individuals from all over the world. Automation product and service suppliers are also doing their part to help get the region back on its feet. According to ARC's recent Featured Article: Impact of Hurricane Katrina on US Oil & Gas Industry Will Be Lasting, the rebuilding effort will affect all industries, not just the oil and gas industry. Many local manufacturers have lost critical infrastructure and need to rebuild and restart manufacturing systems as soon as possible. As a result, product suppliers will likely experience a significant demand for automation, control and instrumentation products and support. Here are a few stories highlighting some actions taken by a few suppliers in the wake of Katrina: Invensys, Wonderware and Business Associates Offer Special Assistance to People and Companies Affected by Hurricane Katrina OMRON Pledges $300,000 US Dollars for Victims of Hurricane Katrina ABB Task Force Establishes Disaster Relief Phone Number for Customers Hardy Instruments Helps Clear Channel San Diego Collect Almost $300,000 for Storm Aid Other sources indicate that Siemens has provided generators, medical equipment, water filtration systems and is implementing a 100% employee donation matching program; and Schneider Electric has pledged $1M dollars and is implementing an employee matching program. Systems integrators and engineering firms may also have trouble meeting the demand for engineering assistance. Two immediate needs are purifying water and restoring electricity. According to their most recent newsletter, the CSIA (Control & Information Systems Integrators Association) has offered to send 40 volunteers from member companies with water/waste water and electrical distribution systems expertise. The effects of Katrina will be felt personally, economically and socially for a very long time. But, I have no doubt that we, as a society, can all pull together and rebuild the affected areas. Here's a link with more information about how your company and/or you personally can contribute: http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html. This week, I thought it was more important (and more timely) to write about our industry's response to Katrina. So, I'm going to put off the results of the Online Information Request Survey until next week. If you haven't already responded to our survey, please take a few seconds to complete the survey at: http://www.automation.com/sitepages/pid2069.php. Thanks in advance for your feedback! Enjoy the rest of this eNews! Rick Zabel
Featured Article
Intelligent Programmable Drives Become a Control for the Entire Machine Mechatronic solutions and modular machine concepts become more and more important for machine manufacturers. Mechatronics has proven to simplify machine construction with servo drives and intelligent Motion Control software. With the right control architecture, machine building becomes extremely efficient and allows the development of very flexible machines with a high degree of quality and throughput. This is number three in a series of white papers that were presented at the SPS Electric Automation America Exhibition and Conference in Chicago on May 23 -26, 2005. Read complete paper by Josef Hammer of Siemens Energy & Automation. Read other white papers presented at SPS Electric Automation 2005. More articles and white papers on various automation topics More application stories using various automation products
Product Announcements & Company News
Hear all about it...industry news is published on our site daily. Here are the latest news headlines for your review...use the following links to read the full article. Check out our Daily News Headlines page frequently to stay up-to-date on the industry events. Product Announcements: National Instruments Announces Its First-Ever Six-Slot PXI Chassis for Low-Cost Remote Control Applications 9/13/05 Siemens Sitrans LR 200 Radar Level Transmitter Gains Approval for Hazardous Area Installations 9/13/05 Emerson's Micro Motion Coriolis Meters Improve LNG Metering 9/13/05 Midwest Motion Products New 24 Volt DC Gearmotor Develops 46 IN. LB. Torque at 100 RPM 9/13/05 SICK STEGMANN, INC. Introduces DGS60 Incremental Encoders for Precise, Reliable Operation in Harsh Environmental Conditions 9/13/05 NDC Infrared Engineering Awarded U.S. EPA Grant to Develop New, Non-nuclear Gauges to Replace Radioactive Sensors 9/13/05 National Instruments Releases New Channel-to-Channel Isolated Data Acquisition Module for Industrial Applications 9/13/05 Rockwell Automation Showcases Quality, Flexibility and Integration Solutions for Beverage Manufacturers at drinktec 2005 9/12/05 ASI Releases New Catalog on Power Distribution Terminal Blocks 9/12/05 APEM Offers High Quality IP Series Pushbutton Switches for Harsh Environments 9/12/05 Intermec 761 Mobile Computer Certified for Voice and Data on Cingular Wireless Network 9/12/05 Acromag Introduces New Ethernet I/O Module with Analog Inputs, Analog Outputs and Discrete I/O 9/9/05 Prosilica to Unveil Gig E Gigabit Ethernet Vision Cameras at Vision 2005 9/9/05 Bosch Rexroth GFT 45 T2/T3 Dual Ratio Planetary Drive Offers Shift-on-the-Fly Capability 9/9/05 ACCES I/O Introduces Eight-Channel PC/104 Analog Output Board with Arbitrary Waveform Generator 9/9/05 Siemens Introduces Point Level Switches for High-pressure, High-temperature, and Liquid/Solid Interfaces 9/8/05 Wonderware Expands Line of Industrial Touch Panel Computers 9/8/05 CimQuest INGEAR Announces NETGEAR.Logix, Microsoft .NET Framework to Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 9/8/05 Measurement Computing Introduces SoftWIRE 6.0, Delivers More DAQ Controls and Tools, with the Same Ease-of-Use 9/8/05 Raytek Introduces Marathon MM Series Infrared (IR) Thermometer 9/8/05 Bosch Rexroth Introduces New Hydraulic Cylinders Catalog 9/8/05 Banner Introduces New Low-cost Light Curtain System for Reduced Risk Applications 9/7/05 Bosch Rexroth Introduces New Smooth, Light-weight Modern Design FRLs Midwest Motion Products New 36 Volt DC Gearmotor Develops 7.5 IN LB. Torque at 700 RPM 9/7/05 JAI PULNIX Introduces TM-6760 CCD Camera 9/7/05 HYRobotics Introduces New Automatic Sprue and Parts Picking Robot 9/7/05 Aspectrics, Inc. Announces Shipment of the First Encoded Photometric Infrared Spectroscopy Analyzer Units 9/7/05 Company & Organization News: National Instruments Hosts Technical Conferences in 84 Cities Worldwide 9/13/05 Hardy Instruments Helps Clear Channel San Diego Collect Almost $300,000 for Storm Aid 9/13/05 UNOVA Board Approves Corporate Identity and Management Changes, Name to Become Intermec, Inc. 9/13/05 ATS Automation Tooling Systems' Shareholders Elect New Director at Annual Meeting 9/13/05 2nd Edition of Electric Automation America Announced for Spring 2007 9/12/05 ISA Releases 'Loop Checking: A Technician's Guide' 9/12/05 ISA Releases 'Good Tuning: A Pocket Guide' 9/12/05 Kengo Saiki Has Been Appointed President of RKC America 9/12/05 Mike Jamieson Named Rockwell Automation Beverage Industry Vice President 9/12/05 SWANTECH Appoints William T. Shaw as Chief Technology Officer 9/12/05 Opto 22 Schedules Nationwide Tour of 'Ethernet in Automation' Seminars 9/9/05 ABB Task Force Establishes Disaster Relief Phone Number for Customers 9/9/05 OMRON Pledges $300,000 US Dollars for Victims of Hurricane Katrina 9/8/05 Invensys, Wonderware and Business Associates Offer Special Assistance to People and Companies Affected by Hurricane Katrina 9/8/05 Carsem Selected by austriamicrosystems as Primary Assembly & Test Supplier 9/8/05 Intermec Names RFID Rapid Start Licensing Program Participants 9/7/05 Intermec and Symbol Resolve RFID Intellectual Property Dispute 9/7/05 Application News: Omron Electronics, Kuehne + Nagel and Avicon Announce Successful Wal-Mart RFID Implementation 9/13/05 North Star BlueScope Steel Uses SWANTECH for Equipment Stress Detection 9/12/05 ATS Awarded $27 Million Automation Systems Assignment in Healthcare 9/12/05 KUKA Robotics Selected By Programing Plus to Provide Robots for First Robotic Machining Cell 9/9/05 Circonix Technologies Partners with Fulton Machinery to Provide Turnkey Solutions 9/9/05 Nyquist and Frencken Mechatronics Cooperate to Complete Large Wafer Handling Project 9/9/05 Borealis Polymers to Train with Honeywell UniSim 9/9/05 Fluke Digital Thermometer Goes on US Space Shuttle Discovery “Return to Flight” Voyage 9/8/05
Featured Application Tool
OPCcalc Calculation Engine OPCcalc allows you to easily create complex calculations which use OPC tags as inputs to equations and outputs of results. Based on Microsoft Visual Basic.Net, OPCcalc handles all of the "plumbing" for your equations, letting you concentrate on your calculation logic. Even non-programmers can use our Equation Editor to define the logic and arithmetic needed for your equations. OPCcalc will then create a compiled Microsoft Visual Basic .Net program which contains the necessary OPC calls, scheduling, and error handling required to execute your equations on a configured interval, outputting the results to other OPC tags. Each equation library contains one or more equations (outputs) and can communicate with tags on multiple OPC Servers. Our Equation Scheduler allows you to configure, start, stop and monitor your equations. More Information on OPCcalc Request Your Trial of OPCcalc
Featured Products
SIXNET’s new Gigabit Ethernet Switches are designed to super speed your network backbone. More Information on Micro-IPm compact RTU. Request Product CD or SIXNET Assistance
Switch to Citect and access the latest technologies with a reliable upgrade-assured SCADA system. More information on Switch2Citect SCADA System Request CitectSCADA Trial or Citect Assistance
Phoenix Contact Fiber Optic Converters allow complete isolation of Interbus, Profibus, Modbus, DeviceNet, CANopen, RS-232 & RS-485 networks. More Information on Fiber Optic Converters.
ifm efector's new Non-Contact Electronic Pressure Switch is an alternative to mechanical pressure switches. More information on Electronic Pressure Switch. Request Product Literature or ifm efector Assistance
Product & Supplier Search Other Featured Products for September Find Products by Category Find Manufacturers & Suppliers
New Jobs
Here's a list of new jobs posted on Automation.com: PLC Programmer/Control Systems Engineer: Lebanon, OR - ENTEK Manufacturing Inc. 9/12/2005 Automation & Controls Engineer: Reno, NV - Applied Industrial Controls Corporation 9/12/2005 Account Executive: Minnetonka, MN - GS Systems 9/08/2005 Project Manager: Houston, TX - Tegron 09/08/2005 Application Engineer: Houston, TX - Tegron 9/08/2005 Automation Manager: Bethlehem, PA - Specialty Minerals Inc. 9/08/2005 Electrical Engineer: Shannon, Ireland - Modular Automation (Molex) Ltd. 9/08/2005 Automation Engineer: Brooklyn Park, MN - Protein Design Labs 9/07/2005 Application Engineer: Torrance, CA - ICP DAS USA, Inc. 9/07/2005 Controls Technician: Southern, MN - automationtechies 9/13/2005 Electrical Maintenance Manager: Knoxville Area, TN - automationtechies 9/12/2005 Electrical Plant Engineer: Indianapolis, IN - automationtechies 9/12/2005 Electrical Engineering Supervisor: Minneapolis area, MN - automationtechies 9/07/2005 Senior Engineer: Seattle, WA - automationtechies 9/06/2005 To view other recent job postings, please use our Job Search Function.
Featured Book
Pinto's Points – How to Win in the Automation Business Jim Pinto's new book is just in from the printer. If you need some insightful pointers on how to succeed in the automation business, or an overview of today and tomorrow's hot technologies, then this is the book for you. Pinto's Points covers management topics, globalization, sales and marketing, technology trends and futures, and far-out technology visions. It closes with whimsical humor and poetry which I hope you'll enjoy. It includes 174 brief "points" in 6 different parts, each introduced by an industry guru. Once again, Jim Pinto has gone beyond 'business as usual' to explore the implications of future technology and how it will change the global automation marketplace. Conveniently organized and with insights from other industry leaders, this book is a must read for every automation professional and a classic for your automation library bookshelf. Requeste more information or order Jim's new book at: www.automation.com/store/pdetails15051.php. Order both of Jim's books in a discounted bundle at: www.automation.com/store/pdetails15063.php
New Auctions & Classifieds
eBay hosts over 6500 auctions for industrial automation, control and instrumentation products. From PLCs to sensors, from motor controls to robotics...Use the links below to browse the latest new, used and surplus automation products by category: Control Systems & PLCs Drives & Motion Control Fieldbus, DeviceNet, Ethernet Instrumentation Operator Interface Panels Power Supply, Circuit Breakers Relays, Timers, Counters Robotics Sensors Switches Temperature Controllers Valves & Flow Controls Wiring, Connections & Cables Other
Dilbert Pick of the Week
Sad, but true.
I hope you enjoyed this e-news update. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the content in this e-newsletter or on Automation.com, please don't hesitate to contact me. Rick Zabel Vice President Automation.com View our Privacy Policy For editorial and advertising inquiries, please contact Rick Zabel or see our Media Kit. For automationtechies recruiting and contract staffing services, please visit www.automationtechies.com.