Articles and News

Rockwell Automation will provide a PlantPAx distributed control system (DCS) with solar field local controller panels for Godawari Green Energy in Rajasthan, India.

The market for Programmable Logic Controllers I/O modules recovered quite strongly after the recession with double-digit growth in both 2010 and 2011.

Automation.com, April 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor There is a great deal of discussion about DCS migrations and retrofits these days, raising questions that can be overwhelming for users. Suppliers offer upgrades from their legacy systems as well as upgrades from a competitor’s DCS. I interviewed industry veteran, Paul Galeski, to get his insights on this important topic.

Automation.com, February 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor These results of the Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) Emerging Technology Benchmarking Survey addressed major automation topics including DCS vs. PLC, Fieldbus Technology, Smart Devices, VFDs, PAT, APC, Wireless, Operator Interfaces, Computing Technology, Validation and Skills gaps.

Siemens Simatic PCS 7 will be the control platform for Dow Corning’s batch, continuous and discrete process automation solutions.

Rockwell will replace the DCS, installed in 1994, with a PlantPAx process automation system.

The distinction between PLCs and distributed control systems is narrowing, but their combined market in Europe will hit €6.45 billion in 2017.

Rockwell will replace the DCS at Nyrstar Hobart’s zinc smelting operation in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, with a PlantPAx process automation system.

The DCS (distributed control system) market in 2010 rebounded from 2009, increasing by 3.3 percent.

While 2010 showed a comeback in DCS revenue numbers, ARC does not expect the revenue to surpass the 2008 peak until 2012.

Metso will supply a batch cooking optimization solution for the specialty cellulose pulp mill of AV Cell Inc. in Atholville, Canada.

PcVue constantly monitors and enables the operator to adjust the exact amount of raw materials needed to make each paint batch perfect.

A CNC system from NUM helped Sinico create a fully automated 9-axis rotary transfer cut-off and end-finishing machine for manufacturing volume batches of parts from metal bars and tubes.

Metso will supply a DCS and environmental technology to control five biomass power plants to be built by Dalkia in France.

Automation.com, March 2011 By Jay Mellen, Savigent Software HallStar, a specialty chemical company near Chicago, uses Catalyst xM and PDC software to automate batch execution, electronic batch record management, and collect key manufacturing intelligence related to plant asset management.

Invensys will to provide safety systems, HMIs and DCSes for Fujian Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant, units 3 and 4, two 1,000MW nuclear power units under construction in Fujian province in southeast China.

InFusion ECS will manage the operating facility, controlling major processes and integrating the existing SAP enterprise resource planning, batch process and final packaging and shipping systems.

Six Mark VIe control panels were supplied for the Rolls-Royce turbines and process compressors, along with redundant network and communications interfaces to third party equipment and the plant DCS.

The upgrades to the DCS and PLCs include the installation of Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) and Safety Manager.

Kao Brands, a manufacturer of premium beauty brands including Jergens, Ban, Biore, Curel, Guhl and John Freida, will use Proficy for a complex batch execution system in primary operations across its many consumer products.