Factory Automation
Rockwell Automation announces acquisition of Italy-based ASEM
The transaction includes the purchase of a minority interest in ASEM held by KEB Group, Germany. Post-close, Rockwell Automation will maintain ASEM’s strategic supplier and technology partner relationship with KEB.
Industrial Internet Consortium announces winners of Smart Buildings Challenge
Designed to help digitalize the smart buildings industry, the Smart Buildings Challenge had technology suppliers compete to design solutions for four different use cases.
Cimcorp announces Joel Kuusman as Manager of US Operations
Through his experience on numerous projects, Kuusman has acquired a breadth of knowledge in the company’s systems and site work management, which he now brings to this new role. Namely, he will be responsible for leading the Cimcorp U.S. office in Norcross, Georgia, guiding its strategic growth and quality of customer service and after-sales support.
Wunderlich-Malec Engineering (WM) announces acquisition of AECm Architects | Engineers
This strategic initiative is intended to expand Wunderlich-Malec’s services including Civil and Structural Engineering and enhance their capacity for Architectural and MEP services.
VDMA Robotics + Automation starts development of OPC UA Companion Specification for joining technologies
The initiative "Industrial Joining Technologies (IJT)" describes all joining technologies used for manufacturing processes such as riveting, welding, gluing and tightening. The scope of the specification was developed with the help of DIN 8580 and shows which joining processes can be classified under Industrial Joining Technologies (see figure).
Purdue University announces opening of SOL4CE Cyber/Cyber-Physical Laboratory
The SOL4CE (Scalable Open Laboratory for Cyber Experimentation) is a collaborative initiative between CERIAS, the interdisciplinary cyber/cyber-physical security research institute, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories.
Robotic Industries Association report: 2019 North American robot unit orders up 1.6 percent from 2018
The largest driver of the growth was a 50.5 percent increase in orders from automotive OEMs and a 16.6 percent increase from the plastics and rubber industry. Orders to automotive component markets were down 6.6 percent, and all other non-automotive industries, including food & consumer goods, life sciences, metals, and semiconductor/electronics, contracted by single digits.
Abaco Systems announces move to Huntsville, Alabama headquarters
The move provides Abaco with the head room and resources that will allow the company to continue to develop the embedded computing technologies and solutions that have enabled it to become a supplier to the defense market.
National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) announces support for vocational and technical training efforts to close skills gap
A recent industry survey by NTMA through found that more than 90% of manufacturers are struggling to fill open positions. Other data show that the number of job openings in manufacturer is expected to grow even more in the next decade if there is not a significant investment in skills training.
RobotWorx announces strategic partnership with OCTOPUZ
The collaboration will allow RobotWorx to expand its service offerings into offline robot programming with a software creator. OCTOPUZ enables path-sensitive, complex robot applications to be programmed without disruption to the manufacturing process.
HANNOVER MESSE announces entries open for 2020 HERMES Award
When judging entries for the award, the emphasis will be on the following criteria: degree of technological innovation, benefit for industry, environment and society, economic viability and readiness for implementation.
Coordinate Metrology Society announces formation of Board of Directors
In addition to electing its current seven-member Executive Committee, the CMS membership voted to establish a formal Board of Directors at the 35th Coordinate Metrology Society Conference in Orlando, FL in July 2019.
CoreTigo and SKF partner to implement wireless energy conservation solution at French plant
The project includes an implementation of a wireless energy conservation solution that enables SKF a deployment with minimal impact on the manufacturing line.
Verizon partners with Honeywell to integrate connectivity LTE solutions into smart meters
By integrating Verizon’s Managed Connectivity LTE solutions into Honeywell’s smart meters and other electric, gas, and water solutions, the two companies intend to drive energy savings by more quickly deploying smart electric grid technologies.
PI (Physik Instrumente) announces Dave Rego as the President of PI North American Operations
Rego has been with PI for 19 years, having grown within the sales operations and in progressive sales management. He built relationships with customers and gained a solid understanding of PI’s manufacturing capabilities, an important factor in PI USA’s future growth.
Lanner Electronics announces partnership with MBX Systems for Taiwan-based system manufacturing
The partnership enables MBX customers to have their Lanner-based platforms imaged, tested, configured and shipped directly from Lanner's Taiwan plant, while also giving Lanner and its customers full access to MBX's manufacturing controls, inventory management programs, and global logistics and export compliance capabilities.
Open Systems International to enhance energy management for Tucson power company
This will replace TEP’s legacy EMS system in mid-2021. TEP has previously contracted with OSI to implement OSI’s Advanced Distribution Management System with Outage Management capabilities for control of their distribution networks.
HARTING and Expleo announce cooperation agreement with focus on IoT solutions
HARTING is offering the modular edge computing MICA, which has been designed according to industrial standards for multiple industrial applications, and Expleo is contributing its know-how in connectivity and data-scientific competence.
StratEdge announces Reginald (Regi) Nocom joins company as process engineer
Nocom comes to StratEdge from Samtec, where he served as a research and development process engineer. He is certified in Six Sigma Green Belt training, has 5S and RETC semiconductor training, and has developed numerous manufacturing tools and processes.
Universal Robots announces "National Cobot Awareness Month" for January
UR cobots allow employees to move from repetitive, low-value tasks to higher-value activities that increase productivity and quality as well as work conditions.
National Inventors Hall of Fame announces 2020 inductees
These innovators, whose landmark inventions range from the hard hat to the sports bra, will be celebrated as the newest class of Inductees during the NIHF Induction Ceremony.
Tompkins Robotics to help Nordstrom enhance distribution operations
Nordstrom is utilizing Tompkins Robotics’ t-Sort system to handle unit and item sortation of e-commerce and store fulfillment orders as well as the provider’s larger t-Sort Plus robots for parcel and carton shipping sortation to outbound carriers and modes.
Cisco's Catalyst IE3x00 Rugged Series switch earns 2019 exida Cyber Award
The exida Cyber Awards honor exida-certified products and processes that best demonstrate new and innovative work in the realm of automation cybersecurity. exida found the Catalyst IE3x00 demonstrated considerable security and resilience according to the IEC 62443-4-1 cybersecurity standard.
International Federation of Robotics announces Steven Wyatt as President
The IFR President, Steven Wyatt, has a decade of international experience gained in the flexible automation industry. He is currently global Head of Portfolio and Digital for ABB’s Robotics & Discrete Automation business.
Siemens announces partnership with Arm to to help automakers deliver electronic design and automotive solutions
This partnership was formed to address the challenges facing the industry in developing platforms to realize active-safety, advanced driver assistance, in-vehicle infotainment, digital cockpits, vehicle-to-vehicle/vehicle-to-infrastructure and self-driving vehicles.
AddUp and Oak ORNL announce collaboration to advance metal additive manufacturing tooling applications
A $2.7 million cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between AddUp Group, a global machine and solutions provider for metal additive manufacturing (AM), and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) aims to advance laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology for the manufacturing of metal molds with complex geometries for the tooling industry.
Professor Rustam Stolkin announced as chairman of Expert Group on Robotic and Remote Systems (EGRSS)
Professor Stolkin was unanimously elected to chair the Expert Group on Robotic and Remote Systems (EGRRS) at a recent inaugural meeting, which brought together 40 experts from 14 OECD member countries as well as three international organisations including the European Commission.
PCB Piezotronics announces completion of clean room facilities
PCB expects that the environmentally controlled clean rooms will enhance their pressure and force sensor manufacturing and assembly processes.. PCB Design Engineers are already working on the next generation of sensors, whose design and manufacturing is dependent upon a clean room environment.
Yokogawa Electric announces strategic alliance framework with SABIC
Under this alliance agreement, Yokogawa will promote localization in Saudi Arabia, and its integrated control systems and safety instrumented systems will be preferentially selected for plants operated by SABIC in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.
Lanner Electronics announces participation in Open Compute Project
By working together with OCP on open architecture business initiatives to drive network infrastructure transformation, Lanner joins the consortium for a number of projects by leveraging network disaggregation, white box economics, open source software, and software-defined standards to revolutionize the carrier industry.
Benshaw announces acquisition of Aucom Electronics
The combined organization, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., offers a full range of applied motor control solutions, and is a supplier of low and medium voltage soft starters. Global operations now include facilities in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Middle East and Asia.
Fives DyAG announces opening of Center of Competency for Controls Engineering in South Carolina
The facility replaces Fives DyAG Corp.’s previous operations in Charlotte, North Carolina, bringing automation support closer to existing customers, while expanding visibility within the region’s commercial manufacturing
IFR Report: Korea hits record 300,000 industrial robots
Within five years, the country has doubled its number of industrial robots. Following Japan and China, the country ranked third in 2018. But the dynamics of robot installations has decreased in recent years and for 2019 a continued decrease is expected.
ARC Advisory Group Report: ABB leads DCS market for 20th consecutive year
According to the report, ABB’s presence in many end-user industries was a major factor in this success. The DCS market saw its main growth in oil & gas, chemicals and refining, where also ABB has a strong footprint.
NUM announces opening of Indian office
NUM AG has opened a branch in Bangalore in November 2019. With this expansion in Asia, the international company with headquarters in Teufen, Switzerland, intends to reinforce its position in the field of CNC controls.
Valcor Engineering announces solar energy effort to enhance environmental protection
Their most recent endeavor involves the installation of 2,194 solar panels on the building’s recently replaced roof.
Microchip Technology announces Early Access Program for PolarFire system-on-chip field programmable gate array
The platform offers the a hardened real-time, Linux capable, RISC-V-based microprocessor subsystem on the mid-range PolarFire FPGA family, bringing class-leading low power consumption, thermal efficiency and defense grade security to embedded systems.
exida announces Honeywell's ControlEdge PLC as winner of 2019 Exida Cyber Award
The ControlEdge Safety PLC was chosen as the winner in the Embedded Device category due to many problem-solving capabilities while demonstrating security and resilience.
B&R and ABB announce integration of robotics and automation solutions
With the ability to offer machine flexibility and precision, merging robotics with machine control into one unified architecture will enable manufacturers to embrace the trend of mass customization and optimize their lot size one processes.
Sager Electronics announces UL508A certification of Power Solutions Center in Texas
UL 508A certification is an industrial control panel directive certifying an assembly meets the standards of electrical inspection.
