About Bill Lydon Bill Lydon has been active in the Building Automation and industrial controls for over 25 years. Bill is a business development consultant working with various companies in the controls and automation field. In addition Bill speaks on Industrial Building Automation at industry events and is currently writing a book on Industrial Building Automation for the ISA organization www.isa.org. Bill is also the Managing Director of PLCopen North America and industry trade group promoting the IEC 61131 open architecture control standard. www.PLCopen-NA.org. More Info...
OPC Interview: OPC Test Lab Certifications By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The OPC Foundation is launching certification labs to ensure a high level of quality and reliability of OPC products. Automation.com's Contributing Editor, Bill Lydon, interviewed Tom Burke, OPC Foundation President & Executive Director and Paul Hunkar, Director of Compliance for the OPC Foundation and Consultant engineer for ABB, to learn more about the certification. Read full article.
Do PLCs Eliminate Need for a DCS? In the past it was fairly easy to determine whether a PLC or a DCS was right for an application but in recent years this has become more difficult. It is argued that more powerful PLC products coupled with new software tools provide an integrated process control system rivaling a distributed control system (DCS) for process control applications. Read full article.
Invensys...Extreme Makeover - Review from IPS User Conference After attending the IPS North American Client Conference it is apparent that the company is reinventing itself with a clearly defined strategy. IPS's (Invensys Process Systems) view of the major challenge facing industry was summarized by Paulett Eberhart, president and CEO - "Industrial business is now a real-time business, and the only way to effectively perform in a real-time business is in REAL TIME." Read full article.
PROFIBUS hits new highs, PROFINET to follow? This year's PTO General Assembly Meeting again was attended by an enthusiastic group of users, suppliers, and distributors that apply PROFIBUS and PROFINET technology. Michael Bryant, Executive Director, was master of ceremonies and forecasted PROFINET will be the leading Ethernet Technology for automation applications. Read full article.
Product Spotlight: Micro DCS - Small to Midrange Process Control Our contributing editor, Bill Lydon, recently reviewed the newest hardware and features of the ABB Freelance control system. ABB describes Freelance as a small footprint DCS for small to medium sized plants in the process industry and for applications requiring DCS functionality in a compact system with intuitive and efficient engineering tools. Read full article.
Get Physical with Security While there is a great deal of legitimate concern about cyber security, many industrial facilities may be at high risk due to poor physical security. There is a need for a comprehensive security strategy for these facilities and other critical infrastructure. Honeywell Process Solutions' industrial security initiatives go beyond cyber security to address physical plant security. Read full article.
Honeywell 2008 Users Group - Heroes Gather in Phoenix The 33rd annual Honeywell Users Group Conference was held June 15 - 19, 2008 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ with over 700 customers in attendance. According to Honeywell Vice President/General Manager, "The conferences super hero theme, Power to Perform, highlights the heroic efforts of process industry professionals to perform well despite rising costs and resource constraints." Read full article.
Tridium Niagara Summit Attendance Increases 52%! The Tridium 2008 Tridium Niagara Summit titled, "Carry the Vision Forward", was held at the Saddlebrook Resort, Wesley Chapel, Florida May 4-6, 2008 with a record number of attendees and sponsors with 667 in attendance and 50 sponsors participating in the event. Read full article.
ABB is powered up and running at high efficiency! The products and services shown at ABB Automation World in Houston, Texas, along with the enthusiasm of the ABB employees and users would seem to explain why the company’s 1st quarter 2008 earnings beat investment analysts’ consensus by over 40%. The three-day trade show and conference ran from April 29 through May 1 in Houston, Texas. There was a great deal of energy and enthusiasm at the event which showcased ABB products, ABB services, partner products, and over 300 workshops/training sessions. Read full article.
Yokogawa Technology Fair & User Conference 2008 Review Our own Bill Lydon reviews the recent Yokogawa conference and includes highlights for those readers who were not able to attend. David Johnson, President & CEO, Yokogawa Corporation of America gave an impressive report on progress towards their goal. This includes a summary of a number of Yokogawa product announcements, as well as a couple other industry control product offered by Yokogawa partners. Impressive keynotes were given by Gordon Bethune, former Chairman & CEO of Continental Airlines; Mike Brooks of Chevron and Rob Hoffman of the Idaho National Laboratory. Read full article.
AHR Expo towers above the rest By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The 2008 AHR Expo, held in New York City, January 22-24, shattered attendance records with over 39,000 attendees. The latest in “green” products, trends, technologies and solutions were featured with an array of new, energy-efficient, products on display from more than 1,800 companies around the world. Read full article.
