Articles and News

By Rick Zabel, Publisher Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.

OPC Foundation and Kepware will manage the development of OPC-UA in a managed community “open source code” model.

Boise enhanced safety at its paper mill in St. Helens, Oregon, by using Smart Wireless products to monitor its eye wash and safety shower stations.

The group will develop a common method for data exchange and an analyzer data model for process and laboratory analyzers.

ICONICS' list of compatible OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) and Data Access (OPC-DA) servers is available on line.

By Rick Zabel, Automation.com The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!

OPCTI released a 20 page document containing answers to the top OPC integration questions.

ICONICS provides several OPC tools to assist users in creating OPC servers and in deploying an OPC-based system.

CEView HMI/SCADA software is certified to run on many popular mobile devices, including the AT&T 5700, MOTOQ Global, Pantech Duo, the Samsung BlackJack and BlackJack II.

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.

ABB reported record orders, revenues and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in the second quarter of 2008, with net income reaching $975 million.

Booklet describes the 10 most common and costly errors that companies make when preparing product news releases.

Columbia Weather Systems is a manufacturer of Weather Stations for fixed mount, vehicle mount and portable applications.

Matrikon entered into a joint entity agreement with India’s SoftDEL Systems to support Matrikon’s product development initiatives and provide project consulting globally.

All LyondellBasell production facilities in Europe will integrate and use Matrikon’s Alarm Management software suite with a variety of different control systems.

Third quarter revenue was a record $20.54 million, compared to $19.01 million in Q3-07 and $19.44 million in Q2-08.

Matrikon agreed to sell its SCADANet business to CriticalControl Solutions for $800,000 in cash. The transaction is expected to close July 2, 2008.

The Open Modular Architecture Control Users' Group (OMAC) is now the Organization for Manufacturing Automation and Control (OMAC).

Certification entitles integrators to discount pricing on runtime licenses, special pricing on InduSoft products, and free technical training--all without annual support fees.

Instrument drivers make it easy for users to connect to and control stand-alone instruments from more than 275 vendors.