Articles and News

Automation.com, October 2010 By Mark Howard, Zettlex Traditional rotary encoders can be readily fitted to shaft diameters of less than 2 inches, but what happens if your design needs a much larger diameter through shaft or bore?

By Don Morrison, Honeywell Process Solutions Key misconceptions are based on the common shortcomings of traditional model predictive control: complexity of configuration, speed of execution, interpretation of noise in the system, and over-active movement of the final control element. But an intelligently implemented MPC strategy can result in increased plant efficiencies over PID.

By Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx Energy harvesting is the conversion of ambient energy into electricity to drive small or mobile electronic and electrical devices.

By Mubeen Almoustafa, Flow Dynamics Inc In order to be confident that a meter is accurately measuring the flow volume or mass, it must be recalibrated on a periodic basis.

Automation.com, September 2010 Honeywell Process Solutions India organized its annual User Meet on 30th & 31st Aug 2010 at Madh Island, Mumbai on the theme of ‘Optimize. Innovate. Sustain.’ The event saw an overwhelming participation from companies across all industry segments and focused on providing solutions to increase business performance & protect automation investments.

Enough has been written during the past couple years to convince most plant managers of the benefits of connecting plant floor equipment and processes to the Internet or Intranet. So, now that we're all convinced of the benefits of web-enabled automation, what pieces and parts are required to put this technology to work?

Automation.com, July 2010 By V. Lakshminarayana, CMC Limited India’s transmission and distribution losses are among the highest in the world--up to 50%. A Smart Grid will help cut losses.

Automation.com, July 2010 By Mark Howard, Zettlex The accuracy, resolution and repeatability of a position transducer are critical selection factors, but often cause confusion amongst engineers.

By Mark Lampert, Banner Engineering Vision provides a valuable snapshot of the full Food and Beverage application in process. Thus, it is able to analyze multiple features of interest at once, such as label presence and placement, and hue variations that could mean the difference between a “good” and “bad” product.

Automation.com, June 2010 By Tony Udelhoven, TURCK Conditions sensors must endure in welding environments remain consistently harsh: temperatures in excess of 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, currents ranging from 15,000 to 35,000 Amps, and frequent weld flash occurrences.

Automation.com, June 2010 By Sam Drury, Impress Sensors & Systems The latest silicon pressure sensors have much-improved mechanically-sealed designs, which use only a fraction of the volume of oil compared to previous versions.

As the manufacturing world becomes more and more automated, industrial sensors have become the key to increasing both productivity and safety.

Automation.com, June 2010 By Scott Howard, Byres Security Although Trusted Network Connect (TNC) was originally conceived for protection of IT networks, it addresses many security issues that are also encountered in industrial control and SCADA systems.

Automation.com, June 2010 by Andy Stadheim, President of Barix Technology The flexibility of the smart grid and the many tools and devices available can be used to build a manageable and effective load shedding system.

Automation.com, June 2010 By Harald Poesch, Siemens Permanent magnet synchronous torque motors offer significant advantages on high energy consuming and high dynamic applications.

Automation.com, May 2010 By John Boville, Schneider Electric Companies are partnering with their supplier of electrical distribution, automation and control products and solutions to ensure seamless process changeovers.

Automation.com, May 2010 By Mark Howard, Zettlex A key step in selecting a suitable position sensor for an application is to be absolutely clear about what is needed, particularly with respect to sensor resolution, repeatability and linearity.

Automation.com, May 2010 By Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx Wireless Sensor Networks are machine to machine M2M mesh networks operating like the internet in that they are self organising and self healing.

A RFID Case Study demonstrated the benefits of using a single RFID tag to carry information critical in manufacturing, logistics and retail processes.

As many of you know, Hannover Messe is taking place this week in Hannover, Germany. As one of their US-based media partners, three of us from Automation.com had plans to be there to cover the show. Unfortunately, the Iceland volcano had other plans.