Accessible automation
Process Industry Informer, June 2008
By Nick Brooker, SKF
Implementing an effective automation solution has never been easier thanks to the latest generation of electromechanical linear motion technology.

Getting From Point A to Point B
Automation World, June 2008
By C. Kenna Amos
Generally, the ability to configure and implement motion-control profiles electronically provides a more powerful and flexible solution than previous mechanical solutions.

Will This Machine Work?
Control Design, June 2008
By Dan Hebert
There are many different ways to test and verify that your machine and its automation system will perform as intended prior to final fabrication, installation and commissioning. Each test method has advantages and disadvantages, and different machine builders employ disparate testing methodologies depending on particular circumstances.

Silence of the Drives
Control Engineering, June 2008
By Frank J. Bartos
Along with energy savings and other benefits, adjustable-speed drives have a downside—a tendency to generate disruptive electrical noise that must be minimized in the drive’s design and installation.

Advancements in modern VFDs
Plant Engineering, May 2008
By Sanjay Kallianpur, Eaton
Understanding the operation of ac variable drives and application issues can help you make better decisions.

Browse these and more articles and white papers on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

National Instruments offers 6,000 drivers for control  
Instrument drivers make it easy for users to connect to and control stand-alone instruments from more than 275 vendors.

Parker publishes guide to Daedal positioning products
The 328-page, full-color guide covers linear motor-driven tables, screw-driven automation tables, miniature positioners, belt-driven automation tables and drives and controllers.

Omron STI's 2007/2008 Machine Safety Engineering Guide
Omron STI's new 1500+ page 2007-2008 Engineering Guide to Machine and Process Safeguarding is now available. This two-volume set details Omron STI's complete family of machine and process safety solutions, and contains more than 225 pages of educational resource material.

Zero-Max publishes three coupling catalogs
Catalogs cover CD Couplings, Control-Flex Couplings and Schmidt Couplings.

Parvalux motor brochure available in Spanish
The brochure provides an overview of motors and gearboxes,
customization services, options and extras.

Browse these and more resources and literature on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

How to Control a 27-km-long Machine
Machine Design, May 2008
By Nipun Mathur, National Instruments
The largest machine in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), covers parts of France and Switzerland and will cost a staggering $3.5 billion U.S. to design and build. The real difficulty is synchronizing collimators that can be 13 km away from each other with jaws that are synchronized to within 100 µsec and move with accuracies of ±10 ìm.

Integrator Uses Simulation to Close Design Loop
Control Design, June 2008
Maverick Technologies uses software emulation to help identify potential control problems upfront, shorten the machine’s start-up time, and provide a good platform for operator training.

Quinn Glass uses Siemens Automation & Drives technology
Process & Control Today, June 2008
The glass container manufacturing plant at Elton, UK, has 13 production lines, and the filling hall has five lines. In total there are more than 7,500 I/O plus more than 10,000 more from Variable Speed Drives and Medium and Low-Voltage equipment that are integrated into the system via Profibus-DP.

EMX turns to Sensor Technology for TorqSense
Control Engineering Europe, June 2008
EMX developed and tested the motor-generator for Lotus Engineering’s EVE (Efficient, Viable, Environmental) Hybrid. EMX worked with a test house to design a simple yet effective test rig. Its engineers specified a TorqSense torque sensor from Sensor Technology.

Giving Chocolate its Crunch
Control Engineering, June 2008
By Mike Jamieson, Rockwell Automation
Mars Austria uses an integrated control environment to monitor the exact status of all system components — such as servo drives, I/O, and HMIs—in its new control system in a chocolate plant.

Browse these and more application stories on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

How to Design IEC 61508-Compliant Hardware and Software
September 22-25, 2008 Natick, MA
Seminar covers safety engineering, IEC 61508 requirements, functional safety management, E/E/PES requirements, case studies, examples, and tools.

Understanding Motion Control Systems - AIT Training Course MCS110
3-Day Course - This practical course introduces engineering concepts of motors and drives that can be easily understood by both engineers and technicians unfamiliar with the technology and not accustomed to complex theory and mathematics.

Basic Electrical Circuits and Controls - AIT Training Course ECM110
This 4-day course covers the basics needed to understand, troubleshoot, and maintain most machine components and control circuits that exist in today’s complex industrial automation systems.

OPC Training Seminars
The OPC Foundation and its sponsoring members will host a series of eight one-day training seminars. These free seminars are tailored for end-users, systems integrators and OEMs, and are designed to cover the fundamentals of OPC including Servers, Clients, OPC Data Access, OPC Unified Architecture, Best Practices and Compliance.

Browse these and more training and seminar opportunities on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

• Elobau introduces J1 mini-joystick for industrial applications
• ACS announces SPiiPlus HP Motion Controls
• Sprint Electric increases PL/X digital DC drives to 1050 Amps
• B&R releawes 8LT series three-phase synchronous motors
• Haydon Switch releases 28000 series Size 11 Linear Actuator
• SEW-EURODRIVE adds AS-Interface to MOVIMOT C gearmotors
• PI releases E-712 Digital Piezo Stage Controller for nanopositioning systems
• Aerotech announces ANT-LX Miniature stage

Browse these and more Product Announcements on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

Search all Products by keyword, category, manufacturer or release date.

Siemens building new plant in Illinois for its Drives Technologies business
The $20 million plant will be used for the assembly and testing of mechanical gear drives used in wind turbines. The new plant, expected to be completed in March 2009, will create approximately 350 new jobs.

Orders quadruple for ABB drive systems in mining
Orders for ABB motor and drive systems that enable mines to grind vast amounts of minerals and ore are at record levels as the mining industry seeks to boost production to meet the global boom in demand.

Bosch Rexroth opens Tech Center East
The facility in Rochester Hills, MI, will house 120 workers from the company’s hydraulics, pneumatics, electric drives, and linear motion and assembly technologies groups.

alpha gear drives changes name to WITTENSTEIN
As of July 2008, alpha gear drives will change its name to WITTENSTEIN, Inc.

Hartfiel celebrates 50th anniversary
The Hartfiel Company was founded in 1958, and has distributed automation and motion control products for 50 years.

Browse these and more company and organizational news on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

ABB supplies controls for 1000 Intersolar solar trackers
ABB's PLCs will control ABB variable speed drives, which orientate the photovoltaic modules across two axes to achieve maximum exposure to the sun throughout the day.

Siemens to supply PCS 7 to Biofine Renewables  
The control system includes an HMI and a PROFIBUS fieldbus network to communicate to Siemens variable frequency drives and I/O modules.

ADVANCED Motion Controls supplies servo drives to ROBOSOFT for service robots
Robosoft's robuLAB series can be used for indoor security, medical assistance, assisted living or any other service need.

Honeywell to automate Finnish paperboard plant
Honeywell will provide its Experion PKS, Da Vinci Quality Control System, and motion controls to Stromsdal Oyj’s paperboard plant in Juankoski, Finland.

B&R supplies control technology to COMAU Robotics
B&R will supply modular servo drives, industrial PCs, and POWERLINK interfaces for COMAU's articulated arm robots.

2008 Siemens Automation Summit
July 23 -25, 2008 Chicago, IL
The 2008 Siemens Automation Summit has presentations from industry experts and analysts, and customer case histories which detail the benefits of Siemens products.

International Manufacturing Technology Show
September 8-13, 2008 Chicago, IL
The largest and longest running manufacturing technology trade show in the United States, IMTS is ranked among the largest trade shows in the world. IMTS attracts over 90,000 visitors from every level of industry and over 40 countries.

Machine Safety Conference
September 30, 2008 Midlands, UK
Attendees will be afforded a comprehensive overview of machinery safety issues in the light of current and forthcoming standards, and will learn about their practical application through case studies. Delegates will also have the opportunity to discuss technologies and applications with organisations participating in the seminars and to browse the integrated exhibition.

The Exhibition for Processing and Packaging Machinery
September 30 to October 2, 2008 Birmingham, UK
The PPMA Show is the UK’s annual showcase for processing and packaging machinery. The exhibition provides the best opportunity to source, evaluate and purchase machinery, equipment and ancillary products & services for all your processing & packaging requirements.

ISA Expo
October 14-16, 2008 Houston, Texas
Organized around six core automation and control themes, ISA EXPO 2007 provides attendees a content-rich environment that offers unlimited opportunity for exploration of key technologies, professional growth, and interaction with like minded professionals.

Browse more industry events on the Motion Control, Motors & Drives portal.

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I hope you enjoyed this Motion Control, Motors & Drives 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, Publisher
Automation.com

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