Articles and News

The 2014 ISA FPID Symposium will be held 5-6 March 2014 at ISA headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.

Endress+Hauser Group increased its net sales by approximately 7 percent to over 1.8 billion euros ($2.43 billion) in the 2013 financial year.

Through the donations of Endress+Hauser, Rockwell Automation and TriNova, Polk State College will be the new home to a $1 million, state-of-the-art PTU (Process Training Unit).

By Bill Lydon, Editor With this acquisition, Schneider Electric significantly enhanced its position to serve the process industries and now has a complete portfolio of products to serve the entire industrial and process automation industry. This article highlights a few key aspects of the integration of the two companies.

The global food traceability market (tracking technologies) is expected to grow at a rate of 8.7%, reaching revenues of $14.1 billion by 2020.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The huge installed base of automation software running on Windows XP will be vulnerable to cyber-attacks with the end of Windows XP support April 8, 2014. More than 12 years old, Windows XP is the longest supported version of Windows ever and therefore is the most used in industrial automation systems.

Harpak will define, configure, and deliver fully integrated solutions using Adept robots, software, and grippers to increase speed and efficiency on food processing lines.

By Bill Lydon, Editor I recently had the opportunity to discuss Ocean Data Systems – a little company you likely have never heard of - with Roy Kok, their VP of Sales and Marketing. Their product, Dream Report, is OEMed by a number of well-known software providers. Here is a synopsis of my interview with Kok.

ACM Facility Safety provides SafeGuard Sentinel SIL safety software that systems integrator Autopro Automation Consultants will help implement in process industries.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Foxboro has dramatically stepped up the power of their controller with the Foxboro Evo process automation system introduction. This controller is a great example of the new breed of controllers that leverages the latest technology.

The ERD hygienic design features a round body, smooth edges, stainless-steel construction, welded joints, and a special hygienic bracket to prevent contamination of food processing environment.

By Paul Hodge & Joe Bastone, Honeywell The advantages of optimized project workflow can be realized at both ends of the project schedule. The benefits are essential to ensuring control systems pose the least risk to project schedule and allow for safe, efficient and reliable plant startup and operation.

By Bill Lydon, Editor As government agencies and the pharmaceutical & life sciences industry take measures to reduce drug counterfeiting, product diversion, and increase patient safety, drug manufacturers are faced with the challenge of implementing serialization and tracking systems.

PMMI study says 80 percent of the processors interviewed are evaluating their machine needs, and out of that group, 75 percent plan to purchase automated equipment in the next 12 to 24 months.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The ability to improve manufacturing operations is growing with the application of software that can leverage lower cost computing. More than 30 years ago, ULTRAMAX Corporation commercialized an interesting software product to optimize the operating performance of industrial processes. I recently caught up with the Founder and CEO to learn more about the product and their philosophy and perspective of industrial process optimization.

Endress+Hauser invests 40 million dollars in new plants in expanding its plants for flow, level and pressure measurement engineering in Greenwood, Indiana.

Call for Papers invites authors to submit abstracts for presentation consideration at the conference, which will be held 5-7 March 2014 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.

The Tamar conveyor system had to handle "green totes" - something the existing conveyor system couldn't do.

LaRue Coffee Roasterie of Omaha, Nebraska, has gone live with the Epicor Tropos enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Sensor sales in the food and beverage industry were $2,891.5 million in 2012 and Frost & Sullivan estimates this to reach $4,157.8 million in 2018.