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Industrial I/O Portal

Application Stories

		Fuel cell generator units controlled by NI hardware and software - 05/21/12 Machine Building, May 2012 By National Instruments To turn ammonia into electricity, ammonia must be reformed into hydrogen and nitrogen, the hydrogen is separated from the gas stream, and the pure hydrogen stream fed to a fuel cell to produce electricity. In Diverse Energy's PowerCube, NI CompactRIO hardware controls and monitors the entire process.

		Monitoring Solution Keeps Extruders Safe - 04/21/12 IEN, April 2012 An unnamed plastic tubing manufacturer uses CAS DataLoggers to monitor its plastic extruders for both power and temperature to ensure reliable and safe operation. www.ien.com/article/monitoring-solution-keeps/172760

		Helping Veolia Water save 1.5 million litres of water a day - 02/15/12 Control Engineering Europe, January 2012 Veolia Water has made savings in excess of 1.5 million litres of water a day - nearly £100,000 a year - following the rollout of i2O Water’s integrated network monitoring system across 31 Veolia Water sites in the UK.

		Optima Control Solutions boosts production performance of Biax line - 12/18/11 Process and Control Today, December 2011 Optima’s solution for Biaxal geogrid production included PLC remote I/O units, a redundant Siemens WinCC Scada package, and Optima’s Infoserve365 Data Acquisition product

		Simplicity = Freedom - 12/18/11 Control, December 2011 By Jim Montague Southern States Chemical used Emerson's CHARacterization Modules (CHARMs) for Delta V electronic marshalling to simplify and streamline a new sulfuric acid plant in Wilmington, N.C.


		Building Your Own 20kW Hydroelectric Power Plant - 11/18/11 Design News, November 2011 By Joel Froese, Red Bank Hydro A PLC, sensors and I/O from AutomationDirect control this home-built hydroelectric plant, which will provide a complete return on investment after only eight years.

		Orwin selects HBM amplifier to monitor crucial processes - 09/08/11 Process & Control Today, August 2011 Orwin, a machine builder in the UK, uses HBM’s MP85ADP in an Active Engine Mount Cell assembly line. It enables engineers to input up to eight measurement windows whilst monitoring the applied force and distance throughout the crimping process.

		Remote Emergency Shutdown Device for Oil Production Platform - 08/18/11 Control, August 2011 ENI Petroleum installed a solution from Moore Industries consisting of a NET Concentrator Systems. The system uses an IEC 61131-compliant software configuration program, which sets up the data concentrators to collect contact switch input signals, timers and communicate with each other.

		Improving Batch Operations with Load Cells - 07/23/11 Control, July 2011 By Kirsten Strahlendorf, et al When every batch is worth a fortune and accuracy is paramount, load cells may be the answer. Here’s how Sanofi Pasteur used load cells to make vaccines.

		Instrumentation challenges of walnut processing - 07/23/11 Control Engineering, July 2011 By Ben Orchard, Opto 22 Walnut meat kernels have to be dried to optimum moisture content quickly and efficiently. How do you measure that?

		Laser profile scanner inspects weld seams on steel pipes - 07/11/11 Using Micro-Epsilon’s scanCONTROL 2710 laser profile scanner, the positioning process is performed automatically at Metco, Israel’s largest manufacturer of steel pipe. The calculated profile information is used to directly control the positioning process.

		Analyser performs vital role in Hydrogen fuel project - 06/27/11 Process & Control Today, June 2011 A Process Hydrogen Analyser from Quantitech is performing critical safety analysis in the UK’s largest ever cross sector hydrogen vehicle refuelling trial.

		Laser sensors measure height of concrete blocks - 05/23/11 Micro-Epsilon’s optoNCDT 1700 laser displacement sensor is being used to measure the height of concrete blocks during the production process.

		Remote Wind Energy SCADA Control System - 04/17/11 Control, April 2011 By Harm Toren, Iberdrola Rene Iberdrola Rene installed a SCADA system supplied by PcVue. Among other things, each wind turbine has a control box containing a PLC, power converter, control boards and I/O device. Sensors for wind speed, wind direction, shaft rotation speed and numerous other factors collect and transfer data to the PLC.

		Distributed and Remote I/O Improves Performance at Water Treatment Plant - 03/22/11 By Geoffrey Miller, OCWA, and Jim McConahay, Moore Industries Part of the upgrades at Onondaga County Water Authority included distributed and remote I/O that reduced wiring costs for field instrumentation while improving operational readiness and reliability.

		Airfield Lights Using Wireless POINT I/O and Mobile Operator Interfaces At the heart of the lighting systems are ControlLogix PACs utilizing Ethernet/IP wireless communications modules. Airfield lighting circuit status is served to a FactoryTalk SCADA operator console located in the Air Traffic Control Tower.

		One man’s waste is another man’s energy - 03/06/11 Granger Electric operates a landfill-gas-to-energy program that extracts methane from decomposing waste and supplies it to customers as an alternative "greenhouse" fuel. This story highlights the communication system used between the control center and customers’ sites, to remotely access and monitor energy consumption.

		Wireless I/O Control System Proves Successful for Vehicle Manufacturer in India - 03/03/11 India manufacturer of utility vehicles built a modern greenfield facility with state-of-the-art EMS conveyor enabled by Rockwell Automation control architecture and a ProSoft Technology wireless communication system.

		Genzyme monitors 50,000 SCADA points with HMS Anybus Communicator - 03/02/11 Using about 30 HMS Anybus gateways, Genzyme converts serial and ASCII data from centrifuges, pH-meters and balances and sends it over Ethernet or Profibus to the central SCADA.

		The Bright Side to Energy Conservation - 02/21/11 By Beckhoff Beckhoff Automation industrial PCs, I/O and TwinCAT PLC software help Fifth Light deliver up to 80% energy savings via intelligent lighting systems for buildings.

		Distributed I/O and Remote I/O Solution Improves Performance and Reliability of Water Treatment Plant - 02/17/11 By Moore Industries February 17, 2011 - The Onondaga County Water Authority in NY modernized its control system with a Distributed I/O and Remote I/O solution. This reduced wiring costs for field instrumentation while improving operational readiness and reliability.

		Audi Plant Claims Technological Lead with PROFINET - 02/14/11 Thanks to a large-scale PROFINET network the new Audi A1 manufacturing line at Brussels in Belgium is the newest and most modern Audi plant in Europe.

		Choose Your Case-Packing Option - 01/16/11 Control Design, January 2010 By Joe Feeley The modular design of Elliott Manufacturing's Case Packing System, which uses Rockwell motors, remote I/O and a PLC, allows packagers to run a pick-and-place module today and switch it out for a drop-pack module tomorrow, or even to break the line apart and redeploy the erector to another location in the factory.

		Meat packing plant solves temperature mystery by monitoring energy - 01/16/11 Plant Services, January 2011 The Mariah Meat plant in Columbus, Indiana, used enegy monitors from Opto 22 to figure out why their refrigeration system was so inefficient. Fixing the problem saved them $250,000 in annual energy costs.

		Monitoring Critical Parameters in Oil Processing - 12/18/10 IEN, December 2010 SpecElectroMechanika in Russia uses Turck MK32 measuring amplifiers to monitor the input signals of Pt100 temperature control sensors on oil tanks in the huge oil terminal at Russia’s largest seaport in Novorossiysk.

		Wireless helps Plains Exploration & Production (PXP) - 12/12/10 Control Engineering, November 2010 PXP transformed its steam injection metering and data acquisition systems into a highly sophisticated, automated process comprised of a large network of WirelessHART transmitters and industrial broadband radios.

		Gathering Remote Data at a Water Treatment Plant - 12/12/10 Control Engineering, November 2010 The Onondaga County Water Authority in NY upgraded its legacy control system with Emerson’s ControlWave programmable automation controllers and I/O from Moore Industries.

		35 Cases Per Minute By TURCK Pro Pack Systems’ Pro Print/EBS-HS-2 packaging machine will print, erect and seal a corrugated shipping case. Pro Pack uses TURCK proximity sensors and AIM I/O module stations on the machine for I/O acquisition and control.

		Wiri Oil turns to Honeywell - 09/12/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, September 2010 Wiri upgraded to Honeywell’s Experion R300 HMI with the help of the Legacy Input/Output Module (LIOM), an integrated solution for taking advantage of Experion while ensuring the best utilisation of existing LCS I/Os. It used its existing LCS 620 I/O, keeping the hardware in place.

		ABB controls silicon production line at plant in Norway - 07/27/10 The System 800xA solution includes operator workplaces, five AC 800M controllers, and approximately 3000 I/O, and uses Foundation Fieldbus to communicate with the various types of process equipment.

		Pet food manufacturer focuses on eliminating I/O failures - 07/24/10 Reliable Plant, July 2010 By Rockwell Automation Hill’s Pet Nutrition migrated to Rockwell Automation ControlLogix PAC. This solution offered Hill’s a cost-efficient way to convert its existing I/O to the Allen-Bradley Flex I/O platform also communicating with other controllers in the plant.

		Schneider Electric PLC controls Waste Management System - 07/10/10 Process & Control Today, June 2010 The Cawleys plant in Luton, UK, uses a M340 PLC to control 80 Tesys Model U direct on-line integrated motor starters, 18 ATV71 variable speed drives and four racks of Advantys fieldbus I/O.

		Mogale Gold - 07/10/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, July 2010 Opto 22 rack mount and standalone programmable automation controllers (PACs) and I/O, connected via wireless, control mine tailings in a processing plant situated between the gold mine and the dump.

		TURCK Sensors and I/O Help Grow Potatoes - 06/10/10 By TURCK Quantum Tubers uses TURCK’s distributed I/O system and analog input modules to obtain inputs from humidity, temperature, light, CO2 and flow sensors to grow potato plants in only 50 days.

		PROFIBUS solution manages a helium-cooling system - 04/21/10 By Softing Softing Profibus equipment controls DESY, Germany’s largest helium cooling system. Profibus protocol software provided the foundation for achieving redundancy, with Profibus guaranteeing an instantaneous and bump-less switchover of all connected I/O devices.

		Diversity linked on a common platform - 04/08/10 Control Engineering, April 2010 By Christine Eckert, FDT Group Device integration at the world’s largest wastewater treatment plant, the Changi Water Reclamation Plant in Singapore, links multiple manufacturers on common fieldbus and management networks.

		CNC machine gets integrated drive system - 04/08/10 Control Engineering, April 2010 Advanced Industrial Machinery redesigned its stone-cutting saw/waterjet system using an IndraMotion MTX CNC machine control platform, Profibus remote I/O, and IndraDrive Mi integrated motor and drive system, all from Bosch Rexroth.

		Opto 22 controls water in Leadville By Opto 22 The Bureau of Reclamation installed Opto 22 SNAP PACs and I/O to replace older Opto 22 Mistic controllers in a water treatment system to cleans up water from mines near Leadville, Colorado.

		Opto 22 Controls New Belgium Brewing Wirelessly By Opto 22 SNAP PAC systems handle 10,000 digital and analog I/O, use a wireless Ethernet system, and control seven brewing processes at New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire beer.

		Opto 22 upgrades furnace control system By Opto 22 Older Opto 22 controllers on a furnace control system at Advanced Energy were upgraded by Malisko Engineering to SNAP I/O and controllers.

		Opto 22 Controls Carlsbad water system By Opto 22 Opto 22 SNAP controllers and a Wonderware HMI/SCADA system monitor and control all water and reclaimed water for the city of Carlsbad, California.

		Oystar Jones Puts the PLC in Packaging Equipment - 03/19/10 Control Design, March 2010 By Mike Bacidore Oystar Jones’ soap packaging machines use PLCs, servo motion, discrete I/O, analog I/O, variable frequency drives and operator touchscreens, and a mix of hardwired and digital networking, depending on the vintage of upstream and downstream equipment.

		What Wireless Network? By Boss Automation The Cockrell Ranch Waterflood project in Texas recovers oil from wells that would have once been considered ‘tapped.’ Its SCADA system includes HMIs, PACs and PLCs from Rockwell Automation, and a wireless system from Prosoft Technology.

		Corrugator Retrofit - 12/18/09 Control Engineering, December 2009 International Paper hired systems integrator Concept Systems to rebuild a corrugating machine. Concept replaced the PLC with a Rockwell unit, upgraded the motors, and replaced the I/O and HMI.

		Bottom Line-driven Integration - 12/18/09 Control Engineering, December 2009 By David Sanders and Bob Cheek, Metcam Metcam specializes in custom sheet metal fabrication. They installed a control system based on a DL260 PLC, analog I/O, signal conditioners and an HMI, all from AutomationDirect.

		Machine Builder Saves With AS-interface - 11/17/09 Automation World, November 2009 Automacad Concrete in Canada builds concrete splitters that once had more than 300 wires connected from the skid to the main control panel, leading to wire bundles that were cumbersome and unsightly. The wire bundle was replaced with AS-Interface from ifm efector.

		Biomass Power Plant Rebuilds I/O with NCS - 11/15/09 By Moore Industries The IVRR power plant had an electrical explosion that destroyed the control room. They replaced I/O wiring with an NCS NET Concentrator system from Moore Industries.

		TRUNKGUARD Optimizes Fieldbus Installation at Ethanol Plant By Tim Wilson, Abengo Bioenergy, and Jeff Marsh, FeedForward Abengoa used a Yokogawa CENTUM CS3000 DCS, Foundation fieldbus for analog I/O, Profibus for motor control, and MooreHawk TRUNKGUARD device couplers to connect the FF and Profibus segments. The system had 72 fieldbus segments and 650 nodes.

		Moving On Up - 10/22/09 Control Engineering Asia, October 2009 By Bob Gill Increasingly frequent breakdowns and difficulties in sourcing spare parts for its ageing control system finally made this Thai cement producer decide to migrate to Siemens and its PCS 7 Cemat process control system, PLCs, Profibus DP, and remote I/O stations.

		The Water Works - 10/19/09 Control, October 2009 By Tom Pagakis, Carlsbad Municipal Water The SCADA system employed by Varlsbad, CA, monitors current status and provides remote control abilities for all of Carlsbad's water and reclaimed water. The key components for these systems are SNAP controllers from Opto 22.

		Vital Ingredients - 09/20/09 Control Engineering Asia, September 2009 Unilever Vietnam’s factory in Ho Chi Minh City makes shampoo. It uses the ISA S88 batch standard, Siemens PCS7 control system, and Simatic S7-400 PLCs linked via Profibus DP to eight ET 200 remote I/O modules.

		ARC Informatique´s PcVue software controls wind farms in Spain - 09/17/09 PcVue SCADA software centralized information from 10 Iberdrola Ingenier wind farms. Up to 2.5 million data items are monitored by 13 PcVue file servers and multiple FrontVue client stations, which communicate via OPC over a 1,000 Mbps redundant TCP/IP Ethernet network.

		Operating safely - 09/13/09 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, September 2009 Hirschmann installed fibre-optic fieldbus systems in oil production at two new oilfields 50 km southwest of Abu Dhabi. The process control units constructed by Honeywell provide a primary and a secondary Profibus DP interface with the remote I/O stations.

		Achieving interoperability - 07/21/09 InTech, July 2009 By John Haydock The OPC driver is a key component of Rea Magnet Wire’s production processes in addressing device-to-device and bus-to-bus interoperability needs.

		Fiberoptic Networking Powers Up Plant - 07/14/09 Industrial Networking, July 2009 Black Hills Power and Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power use fiberoptic cabling and remote control I/O cards in field devices and expect to eliminate 54,000 ft. of hardwiring.

		Tinytag Temperature Data Loggers Help Meet Stringent Meat Processing Regulations Process Industry Informer, April 2009 Food processor A1 Bacon needs to be concerned about the temperature surrounding meat coming in for processing, the storage of that food and when transporting the finished product to its final destination. Tinytag self-configuring Wireless Radio Data Loggers were placed in specific points around the premises and in delivery trucks where temperature needed to be monitored.

		Pick-to-Light Sensor Error-Proofs Assembly IEN, March 2009 TG-Missouri Corp. needed to effectively mistake-proof its assembly processes. Omron designed a poka-yoke system based on pick-to-light sensors. The popular Japanese mistake-proofing method known as “poka-yoke” gives an assembler the opportunity to correct an error in parts picking at the least expensive point in the process.

		Stabilizing Controls Design News, April 2009 By Al Presher Building a camera mast that extends as high as a 12-story building with the dynamic stability to support a full-sized 50-kg camera at speeds of 2m per second in high winds is a challenge. But the design requirements also included stowing and operating the mast from a single-axle trailer and self-contained operation from batteries.

		Closed Loop Hydraulics Design News, April 2009 By Al Presher Position and pressure control of a hydraulic cylinder is a common application, but precise control of these systems has traditionally presented significant challenges because of the high speeds and pressures. Euro Electronics developed a system using the LabVIEW FPGA module and CompactRIO hardware from National Instruments.

		Effective machine monitoring without the frills Design Products & Applications, April 2009 The GSM module fitted to WERMA’s standard 24V KS71 signal tower provides a simple and cost effective method monitoring a machine or critical storage area from a remote location. The mobile ‘phone transmitter unit is fitted to a standard KS71 signal tower and is able to send a simple text message to one or more recipients that the machine monitored by the tower has gone into fault mode.

		Torque measurement is central to development of ‘intelligent’ lubrication Design Products & Applications, April 2009 Engine lubrication systems are dumb. A non-contact torque sensor from Sensor Technology is helping Powertrain Technologies in their project to develop an intelligent automotive engine lubrication system, which aims to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy.

		ABB controls pumps 25 miles out and 1,000 ft under the North Sea - 03/03/09 An undersea cable connects an ACS1000 frequency converter on an oil and gas platform off the coast of Norway to a motor and pump injecting seawater into a new oil field 25 miles away.

		Tank control at Klawer South Africa Instrumentation & Control, February 2009 Klawer required a reliable solution for its wine tank control system. Critical parameters such as temperature set-points, pump cycle times and variable pump speeds are all addressed through Adroit SCADA screens.

		HART-Enabled Plug-In Control System Migration By Invensys Process Systems Two companies--Dakota Gasification and Teck Cominco—upgraded their control systems to use HART communications. In both cases, the companies had HART instrumentation that had been installed years earlier, but were not using the HART data because their old control systems didn’t support it. IPS solved the problem.

		Madison Water Utility uses Longwatch Video Surveillance - 02/23/09 By Al Larson, Madison Water Utility The Madison Water Utility uses the Longwatch Video Surveillance system to monitor 32 remote sites, transmit video over low-speed wireless, and display the video on Wonderware HMI/SCADA screens.

		No-Worry Wireless Industrial Networking, February 2009 By Joe Feeley In a highly automated robot cell in Lippstadt, Germany, automotive parts supplier Hella KGaA Hueck produces front headlamps for luxury vehicles. The company found that a move to wireless connectivity for a key sensing operation greatly reduced process stoppages caused by signal cable failures.

		System 800xA automates Hunan Juntai pulp mill in China - 02/09/09 With more than 20,000 I/O and 46 operator stations, the solution is one of the largest process automation systems ever delivered by ABB in China.

		Hella uses WISA wireless to assemble headlights By ABB Hella’s plant in Wichita Falls, TX, was plagued with defective signal cables on a weekly basis. Hella replaced the previous I/O module on the transfer slide by a wireless I/O pad with WISA technology from ABB.

		Wireless I/O stamps out press machine downtime Control Engineering, December 2008 By Adrienne Lutovsky, ProSoft Technology At Gestamp Automoción, two transfer presses had been become a problem. At least once a quarter, the hardwired network supporting the machines suffered breakage or damage. To replace the hardwired system, ControlNet communication adapters were replaced with EtherNet/IP adapters and a ProSoft Technology Ethernet radio.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		BMW uses SafetyBUS BMW is directly integrating robotic safety functions using a safety-related fieldbus.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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.

		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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