Articles and News

Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor The PlantTriage "true believers" gathered at the ExperTune User Conference from around the world to improve their skills and share their project successes. The conference focused on ways to improve process control performance with training, access to industry experts, and case studies.

Automation.com, May 2011 By Roy Kok Over the years, we’ve had sensor upgrades, improved controllers, better operator visibility, data archiving and analytics, and now we have enterprise integration for improved material management, corporate agility, regulatory compliance and a host of other features.

Strain gauges are widely employed in sensors that detect and measure force and force-related parameters, such as torque, acceleration, pressure, and vibration. The strain gauge is the building block for strain sensors that often employ multiple strain gauges in their construction.

Modernization of a municipal waterworks with SCADA standardization: Past, present, and planning for the future

Automation.com, May 2011 By Thomas R. Cutler Within the manufacturing sector, particularly those involved in Engineer-to-Order (ETO) manufacturing, there are special issues and challenges that typical ERP implementations don't address.

Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor The size of Hannover Fair can be overwhelming but there were industry and technology trends reflected in products and presentations at the event. Here are some specific examples for illustration - in most cases there are many more companies that have products supporting these trends.

A gripper can be attached to a robot or it can be part of a fixed automation system. Many styles and sizes of grippers exist so that the correct model can be selected for the application.

Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor This was the largest AHR Show ever held outside of Chicago or New York with over 54,000 registered HVACR professionals. Attendees visited the 63rd AHR Expo to see all the latest products and innovations on display from 1,938 exhibiting companies covering 379,360 square feet of exhibit space.

Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Here are a few highlights from ABB Automation & Power World 2011. The event attracted a record number of participants, totaling more than 4,200, and featured over 400 educational workshops and hands-on training sessions, over 45 customer-presented case studies, and an exhibition of ABB and partner products.

Automation.com, May 2011 By David A. B. Laing, VDC Research Group VDC Research Group teamed up with Automation.com to conduct a survey on the market for power protection products including the hard wired surge suppressors often used in industrial machines and facilities. This article provides a summary of those survey results.

Automation.com, April 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor The openSAFETY standard supporters are posing an interesting idea to the industry - use a single Ethernet-based safety protocol, openSAFETY, on all automation applications regardless of industrial Ethernet protocol used for controls.

Improved Solid State Hydrogen-Specific Analyzing Systems

Dick Morley On Black Holes, Nanotechnology and Chocolate

Automation.com, April 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Energy has become a hot topic with vendors and standards organizations, many of which are offering and creating solutions for energy users.

Automation.com, April 2011 By Roy Kok How did Scotty know? How do you know when your systems are normal? Are the Dilithium crystals at their proper temperature and vibrational frequency for this Warp Speed and area of space? Could he be sure he caught every last Tribble, and none are blocking the cooling ducts to the Anti- Matter Drive?

By Mark Steinmetz, Vincotech Using an electronic drive to regulate the output speed of a motor for the mechanical load required—with the addition of Power Factor Control—improves efficiency of the drive by correcting the out of phase voltage and current being used.

Automation.com, April 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Hannover Messe 2011 was larger than any other in the last 10 years, with more than 230,000 visitors. More than 6,500 businesses from 65 countries came to Hannover to display their solutions. The attendance numbers represent a growth of 10 to 15 percent over the comparable 2009 event.

Do we need to include valve in SIL verification or can we limit up to the solenoid operated valve considering valve as a mechanical device.

Automation.com, April 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor The asset management study was done through Virginia Tech’s Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Survey results indicate companies that elevate the importance of APM through involvement of upper level management or organization-wide involvement tend to out-perform others based on a variety of metrics.

Automation.com, April 2011 By Jeff Kamin, QComp Robots are the buzz for anyone in manufacturing, assembling, packaging or distributing products. Many end users rely on an integrator or OEM to provide a robot solution without really understanding the potential benefits and liabilities. This article poses some of the questions that a robotic user should consider prior to selecting a robot and a robot programmer/installer.