Articles and News

By Rick Zabel Maybe it's because oil, natural gas and propane prices are so high. Maybe it's because it's an election year. Whatever the reason, it's about time we see more activity - in Wind.

Could it be that high fuel prices, the weak dollar and crises in the U.S. manufacturing industry are creating opportunities? Andy Chatha of ARC Advisory Group thinks so. He says the U.S. industry has suddenly become competitive on the world market, and companies are no longer moving operations overseas. Instead, many are expanding their facilities, and he predicts a boom in automation right here in the U.S.

European safety legislation is significant and far reaching. At first glance, it can seem like just more red tape which compounds the problems of operating in a highly competitive world. The truth, however, is far from this. The legislation is based on experience and common sense and represents a consistent message for industry — it must be safe! The rational behind the framework of measures is to ensure the safety of individual workers whoever or wherever they may be.

By Darren Barratt, Omniflex Alarm annunciators which involve the human operator in safety functions can only be targeted at SIL 1 level.

While some companies are slowly seeing the financial benefits of investing in safety, other companies view safety as an encumbering and expensive task.

The first step in any power quality strategy is developing a complete understanding of your electrical environment, implementing a good power distribution system design and using good grounding techniques. If you want virtually maintenance free protection from a wide range of power problems, the constant voltage transformer, correctly applied, is still one of the best forms of total power conditioning.

By PLCOpen Backgrounder article explains what PLCOpen is, and what it does.

By Jeff Hunter, Sealevel Systems Many RS-485 users are completely unaware that they are taking unnecessary risk with their data because of the method they use for driver control. This white paper explains.

White paper explains why mobile device vendors and users can choose to forego today’s pre-standard 802.11n radios and stick with proven solutions that support some combination of 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g.

Leveraging the knowledge and know-how of the people in an organization is a powerful way to make improvements and solve problems. The difficulty is getting this done effectively and avoiding an ineffective committee that creates more problems.

By Grace Engineered Products Wiring a voltage indicator (VI) to the primary power source provides a permanently wired "voltmeter" that gives electricians a full-time, visual, independent, thru-door power indication.

By Darren Barratt, Omniflex (UK) Limited The purpose of an annunciator is to provide the plant operator with early warning of a problem, which allows time to take action before a situation degrades to the point where the process can no longer be controlled.

By Brian MacCleery, NI senior product manager How National Instruments LabVIEW as well as multicore and FPGA technologies are impacting machine builders and the growing mechatronics segment.

By Uson LP White paper contains pointers that can help any manufacturing engineer determine which leak testing equipment can recast the QC department into a strong ally of the production schedule while still upholding the highest quality standards.

InfoWorld, May 2007 By Matt Hines The first remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities in Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been identified by researchers.

By Anto Budiardjo, President of Clasma Events Inc. Buildings 2.0 is a vision that intricately intertwines buildings with Internet technologies. It says the future of buildings is one which is controlled, managed and connected to the Internet in a way that goes far beyond simply placing a web server to the control system or in the use of IP. This article describes the concept of Buildings 2.0.

While malware targeting mobile devices is a relatively recent problem, significant increases in shipments of smartphones, as well as increasing market penetration by Microsoft, have made mobile devices much more attractive targets for hackers. According to ABI Research, the newest and most intriguing market opportunity for mobile security is the growth of mobile device security managed services.

Motion control systems are capable of extremely precise speed, position, and torque control. This article compares the three main motion control choices: standalone controllers, PC-based controllers, and PLCs. It describes how indexing, direction and electronic gearing are accomplished, examines future trends in motion control, and describes products available today for motion control.

AutomationDirect’s technical support team compiled a list of frequently asked questions from customers on variable frequency drives (VFDs), on topics such as sensorless vector control, grounding, dynamic braking, ringing, standards, power cables, drives vs softstarts, low speed operation, line reactors, slow pump problems, and more.

Safety light curtains are an advanced method of safeguarding personnel around many hazardous machines. Also called light screens, optical guards, and presence sensing devices, safety light curtains offer freedom, flexibility and reduced operator fatigue when compared with traditional guarding methods such as mechanical barriers, sliding gates and pull-back restraints.