Control Engineering articles from August 2007

Control Engineering archives from August 2007

USB's universal appeal.(universal serial bus)
August 1, 2007... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Perhaps the most common computer connector you will find today is the USB port that adorns every type of computer hardware, including printers, keyboards, cell phones, cameras, flash drives, games, and an...

Digital Manufacturing Takes Off.(Company overview)
August 1, 2007... Frank O Smith for Control Engineering With the evolution from 2D to rich 3D CAD visualization, product lifecycle management (PLM) software is reaching into manufacturing. The latest advances will directly impact control engineers. ...

Paper mill combines ac and dc drives to reach upgrade goals.
August 1, 2007... Jeremy Nighan, ABB, Low Voltage Drives Advanced technology in dc drives allows paper manufacturer to save expensive high-power dc motors during machinery upgrade. According to The Federal Network for Sustainability, a voluntary,...

Down at the Bit Level.
August 1, 2007... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Many large machines use lots of small sensors. Specialized networks designed for these devices can save wire and time. Discrete manufacturing and some traditional process areas depend on vast numbers...

More energy-efficiency awareness needed.
August 1, 2007... Frank J. Bartos, P.E., Control Engineering Engineers have an implicit goal to design and build efficient equipment, but cost tradeoffs affect the process of how efficient to make products or systems. While not a new consideration, cost of...

Create a Wireless-to-Ethernet Bridge.
August 1, 2007... Brant Ivey, Microchip Technology Inc. In many factories, there is a need for multi-function-capable, portable, and versatile handheld devices. Such handhelds should be able to report sensor data, and process set points, run rates, schedules...

Global engineering teams take advantage of diversity.
August 1, 2007... Dave Purvis, Solectron To create a winning sports team, one must have players with superior talent. Since one player in a complex sport cannot master all of the skills necessary, a group of players with complementary skills are necessary....

Model-based Instructions Help Streamline Avionics Refit.
August 1, 2007... Jack T Thornton, Paradigm Tilt Boeing used model based instructions to make its C-130 avionics modernization run faster and smoother. Model-based instructions (MBIs) are shop floor work instructions generated from engineering 3D models...

Motion Control Meets Medical Imaging.
August 1, 2007... Kevin Steele, Bosch Rexroth Corp. Medical imaging OEMs are turning to motion control platforms that help control costs, streamline production, and deliver high-quality clinical images. Medical imaging original equipment manufacturers...

Custom Submersible Motor Assembly Makes Waves.
August 1, 2007... Rick Halstead, Empire Magnetics From drawing board to operation in 3 weeks, this motion technology provides 7+ years of robust operation before requiring maintenance. Empire Magnetics, a supplier of specialty motor products, motion...

SOA explained.(service oriented architecture)
August 1, 2007... Dennis Brandl The most recent buzzword in the IT industry is SOA, short for service oriented architecture. SOA is the current favorite of IT managers, system integrators and IT vendors, yet few managers, integrators, or vendors agree on...

Manufacturing software glue.
August 1, 2007... Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief The control loop is the core of manufacturing efficiency: sensors measure, logic decides, and actuators move the process where it should go. Then do it again. Networks and software bind it together and help...

'OptoGreen' technologies, policies deliver energy savings.
August 1, 2007... Staff Opto 22, a developer and manufacturer of hardware and software for industrial automation, remote monitoring, data acquisition, and machine-to-machine applications, implemented a full-scale company-wide energy conservation and...

National Manufacturing Week event starts Sept. 24.
August 1, 2007... Staff National Manufacturing Week will be held Sept. 24-27, 2007, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, near Chicago. The conference starts the first day, and show floor opens on Sept. 25. Organizers say it is an...

Reinvent the industry, not accounting, says Invensys.
August 1, 2007... Staff The process of integrating control techniques with accounting measures to drive business was reiterated at the Foxboro Users Group Conference in Boston, July 16-18, 2007. Dr. Peter G. Martin, vice president and manager of performance...

Robotics and electroindustry see solid growth.
August 1, 2007... Staff Both robotics and electroindustry are growing in 2007, according to the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) in separate announcements. Robotics companies posted gains of...

World's strongest robot sets records.
August 1, 2007... Staff Applications that used to require at least two robots, lift stations, or other lifting equipment can now be completed with one Kuka KR 1000 Titan robot from Kuka Robotics. Recently earning a place as the world's strongest robot in...

Use, comment on Make2Pack and ISA-88 Part 5 standards.
August 1, 2007... Staff Products will flow more efficiently from production through packaging as those on standards committees and others continue to refine the details of ISA-88 Part 5. Machine builders, users, automation vendors, system integrators and...

Regulated or not, know good manufacturing practices.(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Staff A Control Engineering technology Webcast provides guidance for how and when regulations influence manufacturing processes. Successfully producing sellable products on a global market can be achieved by producing them according to the...

Rockwell safety products receive certification from China.
August 1, 2007... Staff The China Compulsory Certification (CCC) mark was given to Rockwell Automation for a majority of its safety product lines. The CCC, which is assigned to the product and to the factory that produces it, helps OEMs who are building...

By the Numbers.
August 1, 2007... Staff 3 motion applications were among those featured in the July 2007 'soft launch' of CE TV, Control Engineering 's online station delivering innovative videos to engineers. Videos include product demos, how-to's, messages from solutions...

EXCLUSIVE: Kepware delivers WeatherBug for automation.(licensing agreements of WeatherBug and Kepware Technologies)
August 1, 2007... Staff Kepware Technologies under exclusive license from WeatherBug, a brand of AWS Convergence Technologies, now can deliver live, streaming real-time weather information through the KepServerEx OPC Server. WeatherBug, sole proprietor of...

Stylized enclosures with rugged construction.
August 1, 2007... Staff ARCA enclosures from Fibox are designed with a rugged construction and stylized covers featuring an overlapping design providing protection of the formed-in-place polyurethane gasket. Manufactured using injection molded...

CANopen enabled servo motor controller.
August 1, 2007... Staff Low cost CANopen servo motor controller, Silverdust IGC, from QuickSilver Controls Inc., is a single axis controller which can be configured for peer-to-peer, master, or slave, allowing the controllers to share I/O with other CANopen...

Master simulators for Profibus, DeviceNet, and CANopen.
August 1, 2007... Staff Bihl+Wiedemann's master simulators are universal tools for data exchange with almost every slave of a particular fieldbus. The Profibus, DeviceNet, CANopen master simulator as well as the serial Profibus master are small masters in a...

Versatile rotational connectors.
August 1, 2007... Staff Multi-axial rotational connector (MARC) from Anderson Power Products is designed to mate while traveling through an arc with a 3 in. minimum radius. Suited to medical and mobility applications, it is rated to 30A while combining...

2-core industrial PC.
August 1, 2007... Staff The newest generation of industrial PCs from B&R Industrial Automation adds new products to the Automation PC product line at the top of the performance range. The APC810 is based on the newest Intel Dual-Core technology, which...

Easier HMI/SCADA costs less.
August 1, 2007... Staff GE Fanuc's Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX provides comprehensive monitoring, control and data management for companies globally. In September, the company will release the latest version of the software: iFIX 4.5, which addresses a wide...

Loop Controllers: Dedicated Units Gain Popularity.(Survey)
August 1, 2007... Peter Cleaveland, Control Engineering Process loops can be controlled by a variety of devices. Subscriber research tells why standalone loop controllers use is going strong, with 70% purchasing as many or more in the next 12 months,...

The wall comes tumbling down.
August 1, 2007... Renee Robbins, editorial director Says Frank O Smith in this month's cover story: 'One of the great gaps in manufacturing has always been between design and manufacturing, with design engineering developing the blueprints and figuratively...

Supercritical Control.
August 1, 2007... Charlie Menten, Emerson Process Management Technologies for supercritical boilers bring new efficiencies to coal-fired power plants, but require specialized control strategies. Because of its abundance and affordability, coal continues...

New SCADA for Power Grid.
August 1, 2007... Marcel Van Helten, GE Fanuc Upgrading the SCADA system for an electric distribution coop helps keep the lights on in Minnesota by monitoring consumption, current loading, switching, and problems. Moving electric power from the...

Model Predictive Cost Control.
August 1, 2007... Michael Tay, Pavilion Technologies Ethanol producer increases production, reduces costs through MPC control strategy. East Kansas Agri-Energy, LLC, in Garnett, Kansas, is not a company that takes things slowly. When a direction is...

Optimize wireless infrastructure for application needs.(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Peter Welander, process industries editor The promise of wireless is clear: You can measure more in a plant situation, with new pieces of instrumentation checking different things and giving you more information (or at least data). But more...

Machine builders: Driven by consumer standards.
August 1, 2007... C.G. Masi, senior editor Wireless links have a number of advantages for data communication within machine-control systems, and between these systems and larger facility- and enterprise-level networks. While numerous proprietary wireless...

3 Approaches to Process Plant Wireless.
August 1, 2007... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Three representative vendor solutions illustrate technical and philosophical differences in wireless applications for process environments. One of the words circulating in industrial wireless...

WiFi on the plant floor.
August 1, 2007... Jeremy Bryant, Siemens Energy & Automation Interested in implementing a wireless communications network on your production line, on the plant floor, or even expanding the network outside the manufacturing walls? Manufacturers have three key...

Wireless Keeps Machines Coordinated.
August 1, 2007... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Wireless integration of control systems has been around for a long, long time. Wireless remote control of aircraft and marine vessels-essentially the technology used by RC (radio controlled) modelers...

Statecharts can help program powerful systems.
August 1, 2007... Gerardo Garcia, National Instruments The statechart model of computation is arguably the most functionally descriptive model of system behavior. State-charts give programmers a high-level design tool with powerful scalability through...

Network security is more than encryption.
August 1, 2007... Daryl Miller Your information can be designed and handled to ensure an appropriate level of security for your application. Review these encryption types. Using authentication in conjunction with encryption can provide a high level of...

Learn how to learn.(learning from mistakes )(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Staff We learn from the accumulated wisdom of others and by doing, we combine acquired knowledge with our own experiences. Frankly, I'd rather learn from others to avoid as many of my own mistakes as possible, thanks (recording and...

Robots rock!
August 1, 2007... Staff Robotics continue to grow in packaging operations, according to the most recent Purchasing Plans Study from the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (see Market Forecast, p. 4). While robotics purchases overall actually...

Machine sales to stabilize in 2007.
August 1, 2007... Staff Although a few markets will see growth in packaging machinery purchases-notably pharmaceutical/medical and food-most segments will remain flat. The U.S. domestic demand for packaging machinery is projected to level off this year...

Smooth pizza picking with a robot.
August 1, 2007... Staff Pick-and-place robots load three types of frozen pizzas-triangular, circular and oval-into a flowpack machine ahead of a cartoner at Italian pizza producer Panidea. The equipment also includes a vision system to collate the pizzas...

Dual-loop drive.
August 1, 2007... Staff The co. has added the XtraDrive-DL to its XtraDrive Servo System product line. The new dual-loop (DL) model focuses on precision accuracy within the high-speed system as it automatically senses and compensates for inaccuracies that...

Feedback system.
August 1, 2007... Staff The co. introduces SinCos[R] SEK 52 servo-motor feedback systems with HIPERFACE[R] interface. The product features a design that eliminates components that tend to wear, significantly increasing reliability and uptime, while reducing...

Controller line.
August 1, 2007... Staff The new SOLO™ process/temperature controller line is available in four standard DIN sizes: ¼; 1/8; 1/16; and 1/32. Each unit is equipped with a dual, four-digit, seven-segment display, useful for process variable and...

Encoder.
August 1, 2007... Staff The new RCH50 hollow-shaft encoder features easy installation in cost-effective packaging, the co. says. The foundation of this product is a custom Opto-ASIC, supporting incremental encoder line counts up to 4096. The commutation...

Vision sensor.
August 1, 2007... Staff The co. introduces its new In-Sight[R] 5600 vision sensor, which it says offers twice the processing speed and memory to perform inspections as its 5400 series. The 5600 product line includes standard (6403480) resolution and...

Mobile panel.
August 1, 2007... Staff The new MP40 and MP50 lines of the co.'s Mobile Panel are said to enable safe and simple, on-site operation and monitoring with a range of functionalities. Both lines are available with a 3.8-in. QVGA LCD black-and-white display or a...

Motion-control system.
August 1, 2007... Staff The Guidance System is a complete, four-axis, vision-guided motion-control system in a compact enclosure. The system allows the controller to be located at the point of use, which is connected to motor and logic power supplies, fans...

Safety switches.
August 1, 2007... Staff New D40A noncontact safety switches are said to reduce costs by connecting up to 30 switches to a single controller. High-visibility, two-color LED indicators provide 'at-a-glance' status indication at the guard door for quick...

Your comments on ISA-88 PART 5.
August 1, 2007... Mark T. Hoske Boost efficiency and save time: 'Put science around the magic dust.' Submit your thoughts- editorial or technical, minor or major-on this draft. Products will flow more efficiently from production through packaging, as...

Decentralized Control: Understand the advantages.
August 1, 2007... Edited by Mark T. Hoske Designing machinery with a decentralized design costs nearly one-third less, eases programming and helps with setup and maintenance. Here are answers to frequently asked questions, providing seven means of savings....