Articles and News

The SSA deployed Intermec RFID hardware in its Supply Chain Management program to fulfill more than 42,000 orders for forms, publications and other documents each year and ship 240,000 line items to SSA office locations worldwide.

Ernest Rakaczky, cyber security program director at Invensys Process Systems, will be part of the Design Team for the PCSF Annual Meeting, to be held March 6-8th, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia. PCSF was established to accelerate the overall security of control systems worldwide through cross-sector collaboration. It is one of several user and vendor forums sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security.

Leonard Moore passed all the FAA requirements for his pilot's license, and now is certified to fly single-engine land-based aircraft. Mr. Moore has been flying since he was a teenager in Oelwein, Iowa, and soloed for the first time at age 16. Since then, he has continued to fly, but always with instructors or other certified pilots. When he rebuilt an old Ercoupe, he decided to use it to get his license.

The Fieldbus Foundation announced the 2007 recipients of the James O. Gray-Fieldbus Foundation Educational Scholarship. They include Kenneth Ng Choon Guan, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore; Jan Krak, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and Akira Uehara, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

Calvin Wallace has been hired as Regional Sales Manager for Southwestern Ontario. Wallace will provide direct sales support to Beckhoff customers located in an area that extends from Windsor to Guelph.

GE Industrial will acquire the assets of Rochester, NY-based Microwave Data Systems (MDS), a subsidiary of Moseley Associates and a world leader in industrial, wireless, and networking solutions. The transaction is subject to customary government approvals and is expected to close in January 2007.

Advantech has donated three lab setups of ADAM Industrial Ethernet hardware with ADAMView software to the University of Dayton with the aim of cultivating future talent. The products include analog and digital I/O modules, an industrial 10/100Mbps Ethernet Switch, and data acquisition software. The University of Dayton will use this product in three different classes.

Manufacturing companies continue to increase investments in capital expenditures for automation equipment as they recognize the role of automation in the global market. As a result, the worldwide market for total process automation will grow robustly, with ARC expecting a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% over the next five years, to reach nearly $79 billion in 2010.

The new business division was formed to serve the requirements of system integrators and OEMs operating in the professional security market.

Amplicon signed a rep agreement with Militram Israel. Militram, an expert in network and multi-process systems has sales expected to exceed $130 million this year. Based in Tel Aviv, it has over 30 years experience in both the medical machine vision and industrial control fields in Israel. Amplicon supplies Computing, Data Communications, Measurement & Control, and Security Automation solutions.

Matrikon has acquired Industrial Control Software Limited (ICS), a private company based in Matlock, England. Established in 1989, ICS provides process control software and alarm monitoring and analysis solutions which are complementary to Matrikon's solutions. The purchase price was £1.78 million in cash for all outstanding shares of ICS. The net assets of ICS are estimated at £0.78 million.

The Distributed Control System (DCS) market experienced the strongest growth in a decade between 2004 and 2005, increasing at a rate of close to 9%. This strong growth is expected to continue through 2010, with the global market increasing at an average annual rate of almost 7%, according to the new ARC Advisory Group study, “Distributed Control System (DCS) Worldwide Outlook”

“ABCs of the Internet Protocol” explains the IP (Internet Protocol) portion of the TCP/IP stack as it applies to control networks. This document defines TCP/IP and other topics including data encapsulation, routers and hosts, IP addressing and the IP header.

The SERCOS trade organization completed the I/O profile for SERCOS III, the Ethernet-based version of the SERCOS interface. This specifies a device profile for decentralized I/O modules, which can be used for block I/Os as well as modular I/Os. This lets SERCOS III be used as a drive interface and a universal Real-time Ethernet solution for all kinds of automation applications.

These new editions are the second publication of updates in 2006. More than 20 Specification Enhancements were integrated into these editions, allowing more comprehensive and useful information to be contained within EDS files, adding DTM configuration options, and facilitating the deployment of these networks with increased flexibility.

SERCOS International and ODVA announced that SI will adopt CIP Safety as its functional safety protocol for SERCOS. ODVA will extend The CIP Safety Specification to include safety profiles for SERCOS devices. SI will develop the SERCOS III network adaptation to utilize CIP Safety. SI and ODVA, jointly, will develop and establish conformance testing for devices implementing CIP Safety on SERCOS.

Honeywell will provide an advanced automated process control system with integrated wireless technology for Masteel, one of China's largest iron and steel manufacturers. The contract includes Honeywell's IntelaTrac PKS process control system, Uniformance PHD, LIMS. Digital Video Manager (DVM) system, and design, engineering, commissioning, testing and maintenance services.

In this capacity, Mr. Welch will help Invensys develop and deliver a new suite of comprehensive enterprise network and security solutions to Invensys' global customers. He has 24 years of experience in the services industry. This includes positions with companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation/Compaq Computers, Nortel Networks, and Unisys.

PTO is offering a free booklet that takes a fresh look at Industrial Ethernet and addresses some of the myths and facts about PROFINET. The booklet: "PROFINET or The Story of Pretty Polly, Sweet SUE and the White Knight," is available on request in hardcopy, or for download in.PDF format

Thr ISA-SP99 Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security committee plans to issue its first two standards and an updated guideline for committee voting -- while launching a new working group to develop another key standard in the ISA-99 series.