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A Rugged Logger for Better Wheel Welds
Sensors, September 2008
By Peter Cheetham, Sigmapi Systems Ltd
GKN Wheels was experiencing high levels of bad welds. They wanted the ability to monitor several properties of the butt-weld process to improve the success rate. Sigmapi Systems built a portable data logger that could be moved from site to site anywhere in the world.
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High winds tester
InTech, September 2008
By Kent Lowrance and Cynthia Whitley
When it is time for an old aerodynamic test facility to go back into service, it is important to restore all data acquisition systems capabilities within the facility. The solution was a flexible distributed data system for large wind tunnel testing that allows per-test configuration and execution without the need for reprogramming.
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Vishay installs Reel Optimizing System in European paper mill
- 07/09/08
The Reel Optimizing System uses strain gage-based load cells to improve roll density by controlling the nip force throughout the entire reel spool change-over process.
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Relay Races to Forefront of New Design
Control Design, June 2008
By Barry Stringer, Solvere
MikroPul, in Charlotte, N.C., manufactures dust control and product recovery equipment. For its PulsePro EC baghouse control and monitoring system, MikroPul uses Siemens’ LOGO! programmable relay.
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How to Control a 27-km-long Machine
- 06/23/08
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 µm.
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Emerson automates world's largest pulp mill
- 06/18/08
The PlantWeb solution includes DeltaV, 3300 FOUNDATION fieldbus, Profibus DP and DeviceNet devices, MCCs, PLCs, Modbus, Fisher valves with Fisher FIELDVUE digital valve controllers, and AMS Suite.
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PCs Cover Coating System Control
Control Engineering, June 2008
By Norm Hardy, Semicore
To automate its vacuum coating and etching systems, Semicore installed an HMI and control package based on Beckhoff's C6330 industrial PCs, CP7802 control panels, TwinCAT automation software, distributed I/O networked over Ethernet TCP/IP via bus couplers, Ethernet switches, motors, and servo drives.
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Suppliers Bring Data Logging to Drag Racing
Design News, May 2008
By Charles J. Murray
Nearly all serious drag racers now use so-called “black boxes” to record fuel pressure, oil pressure, shock travel, engine rpm, clutch rpm, acceleration and a host of other parameters. Radiated electrical noise serves as a problem for such data recording, however. Alcohol funny cars employ high-powered magnetos, causing noise problems for sensors, especially those mounted near engines.
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Drag Racers Log Sensor Data
Control Engineering, May 2008
By Mike Guerra, Setra Systems
A dragster engine is not the most hospitable environment for a pressure sensor or data logger. Extreme vibration and tire shake that dragsters generate — which can actually break a chassis — was shattering sensors. RPM Performance Products’ data loggers are now equipped with pressure sensors by Setra Systems.
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Upgrade delivers spare parts
Control Engineering, May 2008
By Marvin Coker, Bachelor Controls
Golden Triangle Energy Cooperative in Craig, MO, had control system hardware that had been deemed obsolete by the manufacturer, and replacement parts were becoming difficult to find. Bachelor Controls upgraded the system to Rockwell Automation’s Process Automation System, ControlLogix PAC and I/O, and RSView.
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World's first plant with IO Link technology
Control Engineering Europe, May 2008
Duni GmbH in Bramsche, Germany, a producer of table decorations, uses IO Link technology on the packaging line. A dozen SICK photoelectric proximity switches communicate with the controller, which is in a Profibus fieldbus environment.
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Condition monitoring system prevents downtime at nuclear plant
Process & Control Today, April 2008
A FAG VibroCheck remote condition monitoring system is helping E.ON Kernkraft’s nuclear power plant in Grafenrheinfeld, Germany, monitor more than 90 electric motors, pumps and fans, providing early warning of impending failures and helping to keep plant availability above 90 per cent.
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Out of the Cabinet, on the Job
Control Design, April 2008
By Jim Montague
Users simplify networks, reduce troubleshooting and save wiring and labor with machine-mount, IP67-rated I/O components.
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Hands Across the Water
Control Design, March 2008
Trumpf uses Tele-Diagnostics to fix 90% of its machine problems. Sensors embedded in each machine allow technicians to diagnose remotely. Data is transmitted by an analog phone line using the software package PCAnyWhere and through the Internet via WebEx, provided that the customer’s machine has Internet access that is not blocked by a firewall.
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A Machine Renaissance
Control Design, March 2008
By Joe Morrissey, Conflex
Conflex, a builder of shrink-wrapping machines, substantially redesigned each machine in its product line and converted to Beckhoff’s DIN-rail-mounted embedded PC and IEC 61131-3-compliant automation and motion control software.
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Monitoring System Tracks Worker Efficiency
By TJ Johns, AutomationDirect
BG Industrial Control builds its Greer Monitoring System for textile plants based on AutomationDirect's touch panels, Terminator IO, DirectLOGIC 205 Ethernet-based controllers, and Think & Do Studio PC-based control software.
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Automotive Data Acquisition System uses Industrial I/O
By Data Translation
A component manufacturer needed to acquire 24 analog and 8 digital inputs during in-car-testing at speeds up to 160 mph and over rough roads. They use two DT9836-12 data acquisition USB modules in tandem and an industrial notebook computer.
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NI software and hardware controls particle accelerator
Using LabVIEW software with R Series reconfigurable PXI I/O hardware, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) developed a motion control system capable of intercepting misguided or unstable particle beams.
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FlavourCraft standardises on Beckhoff Automation
SA Instrumentation & Control, February 2008
By Andrew Ashton
The Beckhoff choice allowed FlavourCraft the flexibility to build both small and large systems with the same components and programming languages. They use Beckhoff I/O, Profibus, OPC, PACs and PLCs.
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DL205 Performs in Theatrics
By T.J. Johns
The University of Arizona School of Theater Arts uses motors, computers and Automation Direct’s DL205 I/O to change scenes rapidly. The set has six hydraulic lifts, a rising "throne wall," seven telescoping metal trees and two steel doors hanging from the ceiling, all of which move independently to various positions.
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CompactRIO Helps Nexans Spider Level Seabed
National Instruments LabVIEW and CompactRIO control hydraulic systems on the Nexans Spider remote operated vehicle (ROV) as it levels the seabed and clears a path for the pipeline.
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Small data loggers take trips with perishable goods
Industrial Embedded Systems, January 2008
By Dov Bruker, Fourier Systems
Author discusses the technology that goes into a low-cost, tiny data logger and its accompanying software designed to monitor and analyze goods’ temperature during transportation.
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Advanced Technology Exceeds Expectations
Control Engineering, January 2008
By David DeBari, Advanced Elastomer Systems
Using smart field instrumentation and bus-oriented plant architecture contributed to the timely startup of a new thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) production line for Advanced Elastomer Systems.
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Full Transparency Without a Central Process Control System
Process and Control Today, January 2008
Instead of an expensive centralized process control system, Follmann & Co, a chemical company in the UK, used compact modular controllers and HMI control terminals from Mitsubishi Electric. Follmann uses MX Sheet software to feed the process data from the controllers directly into the existing office software.
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Wireless networking benefits
Intech, June 2007
By Dan Bowen and Doug McNeil
A pickle plant opted to install wireless access points with a wireless controller to extend to every possible area of Mt. Olive's manufacturing footprint, including outdoor areas such as its waste water treatment facility and brining tanks.
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Nuke design: A digital dictum
Intech, June 2007
By Yangmook Chung, John Stevens, and William J. Gill
This Korean nuclear power plant's approach to standardizing design approaches for reliable I&C technologies could offer suggestions to existing U.S. nuclear plants in upgrading with retrofits and even new plant designs. System has more than 14,000 I/O points.
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Treatment Plant Calls Cell Phones with Alarms
Control Engineering, May 2007
By Jason Tincu, Xenia Water Reclamation Division
InduSoft SCADA software and Sixnet I/O modules communicate to operators via cellphones at a water treatment plant in Xenia, Ohio.
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Connecting 4,000 Data Points
Automation World, May 2007
While plant-to-enterprise connections are becoming more common, much of the use of OPC is internal connections within plants. Sky Harbor International Airport, in Phoenix, Ariz., is an example of using OPC to connect a system to itself.
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New DSPs, New Applications
Design News, April 2007
By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor
In the world of electronics, few components are gaining popularity faster than digital signal processors (DSPs). Because they have such extraordinary number-crunching capabilities, engineers are finding new applications for them, almost on a weekly basis.
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BMW uses SafetyBUS
BMW is directly integrating robotic safety functions using a safety-related fieldbus.
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Rugged Oil and Gas Well Logging Data Acquisition System
By: Corin Chepko, Rocky Mountain Wireline Service
Rocky Mountain Wireline Service is an oil and gas perforating and logging company. The data acquisition system we use is rack-mounted in a wireline truck and must withstand vibration and dust generated as the truck moves to different locations over rough roads. These conditions cause problems with industrial PCs. We needed a system that was reliable and easy to repair or replace in the case of failure.
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Using Isolated Counter/Timer Devices in Industrial Applications
By National Instruments
Counter-timer modules perform a variety of functions. Typical applications include quadrature encoder measurement, edge detection, frequency measurement, pulse-train and pulse-width-modulated (PWM) signal generation.
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I/O Problem Solvers
Web page at Moore Industries contains links to 19 papers and application notes involving signal transmitters, isolators and converters. Topics covered include stopping ground loops, fixing “bucking” power supplies, protecting with area isolation, sharing a process signal, passing a HART digital signal, blocking RFI, curing HART interference, split-range valve control and more.
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I/O Case Studies
Web page at Rockwell Automation contains an index of 30 case studies relating to industrial I/O applications, including a cement unloading barge, packaging, robots, shipbuilding, brewery, and an art museum.
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Wireless aids molding machine ERP
By Jim Montague, Executive Editor, Industrial Networking
Cornucopia Tool & Plastics of Paso Robles, Calif., uses a variety of injection molding machines to produce a line of plastic products and injection machine molds. The company partnered with Integrated Quality Management Systems (IQMS) of Paso Robles, a developer of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and wireless hardware developer Crossbow Technology in San Jose, Calif., to beta test a wireless data handling system.
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Wireless Communication Saves the Day...And the Bottom Line
ThyssenKrupp's Waupaca Foundry prides itself on using state-of-the-art technology in its production processes. When plant 4 began looking at ways to improve efficiencies, three key factors drove the decision to implement a wireless communications solution: record keeping, accuracy, and cost reduction. The Waupaca Foundry in Marionette, Wisconsin reaped a $600,000 ROI when they decided to go wireless.
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