Control Engineering articles from December 2008

Control Engineering archives from December 2008

Wireless I/O stamps out press machine downtime.
December 1, 2008... Adrienne Lutovsky, ProSoft Technology At the McCalla, AL, plant of Gestamp Automocion, a tier one automotive supplier based in Spain, everything is oversized. The floor is a vast concrete slab, bare but for two giant 2,000 metric ton...

HART Plant of the Year: heavy crude upgrader in Venezuela.
December 1, 2008... Peter Welander, Control Engineering One of Venezuela's major oil fields lies in its Orinoco River basin; however, crude from this field is extra-heavy and must undergo upgrading in one of several plants before refining. One of those plants,...

Arc flash blowout.(Editorial)
December 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Arc flash is quite different from electric shock. When a person gets an electric shock, effects arise from the passage of electric current through sensitive tissues, mostly nerves. Arc flash occurs when...

Economics and engineering careers.
December 1, 2008... David Greenfield, editorial director There has been grim news on the manufacturing front: Total orders in September declined 2.5% after a 4.3% drop in August, with non-durables falling 5.5% (the biggest drop in two years); and though...

Direct-Drive Linear Motion Matures.(Electric motors)
December 1, 2008... Frank J. Bartos, P.E., Control Engineering This distinct motion technology eliminates all rotary-to-linear conversion devices between motor and load--such as ball screws, gear boxes, rack-and-pinions, and belts--to obtain high-dynamic...

IO Link: Sensor to Automation System Communication.
December 1, 2008... Michael Babb, Control Engineering Europe New communications technology makes the 'final yard' of cabling in automated systems more communicative and intelligent. Innovations in sensors such as proximity switches have been impressive....

Challenges of Temperature Sensing.
December 1, 2008... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Measuring each of the "big four" process variables has its specific peculiarities, but temperature seems particularly controversial. In fact, this apparently simple task often gets complicated. This...

Open-source Software Controlling Japan's Top Particle Accelerator.
December 1, 2008... Shin Kai, Design News Japan The KEK B-factory double-ring electron-positron collider in Japan has begun using Linux-based PLCs and open source EPICs software for beam mask and magnet controls. It was about quarter past seven on the...

Picking a Controller Technology.
December 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Unlike traditional control-system technologies, such as PLCs, PACs, and PC-based systems, embedded control provides a wide choice of controller targets. Microcontrollers are the best known, but this tutorial...

'DONA' forget about security.
December 1, 2008... Dennis Brandl There are some headlines that every manufacturing IT professional should dread. A recent one was the late October announcement that Microsoft was releasing an out-of-band security patch. This patch fixes a problem that allows...

Sustainability advice, tips.
December 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, editor in chief Smart process design and technology implementations go a long way to promoting sustainability and energy efficiency goals. Sustainability efforts involve many of the same things involved in effective...

Use the 2008 Economic Stimulus Act to automate.(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Staff The 2008 Economic Stimulus Act that provides tax benefits to businesses will expire at the end of 2008. To encourage companies to use the Act to help automate current systems, Barcoding Inc., a provider of automatic identification...

Energy sectors bolster instrumentation and systems sales.
December 1, 2008... Staff Without above-average performance from the oil & gas, refining, utilities, and pharmaceutical industry sectors, the annual growth rate for the process instrumentation and automation (PI&A) industry would be much lower than the 3.8%...

Technology expected to play critical role in Obama administration policies.
December 1, 2008... Staff As the federal government transitions to a new administration, technology will emerge as a significant factor in implementing many policy priorities for President-Elect Obama. According to a recent report from Input (an organization...

New cyber security blog tackles DCS, SCADA vulnerabilities.
December 1, 2008... Staff A new Control Engineering blog, "Industrial Cyber Security," can help end-users, system integrators, and others with distributed control system (DCS) and SCADA system implementation and management. Bloggers Matt Luallen and Steve...

History of industrial wireless.(Interview)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Staff Peter Welander, Control Engineering process industries editor, recently interviewed Kris Pister, CTO and co-founder of Dust Networks. This interview has now been posted on the Control Engineering Website as a podcast. Following...

Advanced metering, power monitoring for U.S. Marines, Navy.
December 1, 2008... Staff The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps selected Schneider Electric as one of three firms awarded a firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract in support of the Advance Metering Infrastructure Program....

CERN accident findings released.
December 1, 2008... Staff On Sept. 19, 2008, only nine days after proton beams were first circulated at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), a fault occurred resulting in mechanical damage and release of...

What makes a system open?
December 1, 2008... Staff In the recent Control Engineering Webcast, "Bridging Gaps with Wireless," one participant claimed another's wireless system was an "integrated but closed architecture." While fisticuffs were avoided on air, it did prompt moderator...

NEMA offers free download of interactive standards and products guide.(National Electrical Manufacturers Association )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Staff Electrical standards will get easier to find, says National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), since it has published an online interactive version of the 2008-09 Electrical Standards and Products Guide (ESPG) for free...

By the Numbers.
December 1, 2008... Staff 3,303,000 U.S. high school students are expected to graduate during the 2007-08 school year (about 3 of 4 students enrolled as freshman in public schools), according to the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education...

Temperature data logger.
December 1, 2008... Staff OM-EL-USB-TC data logger from Omega Engineering measures and stores more than 32,000 temperature readings from type A, type J, type K, or type T thermocouple, which plugs into a miniature female thermocouple receptacle at the base of...

PAC for complex machines.
December 1, 2008... Staff The IndraLogic controller line has been expanded with the new IndraControl L65 PAC featuring unified programming software, scalable hardware, pre-developed functions, reusable code, large memory, and built-in connectivity to reduce...

Offline robot programming software.
December 1, 2008... Staff Denso's Wincaps III software lets users to program a robot on an offline computer without the robot having to be in operation. A 3D simulation feature enables layout of the automation workcell in a virtual environment. CAD drawings...

Supervise industrial Ethernet networks via Web browser.
December 1, 2008... Staff Moxa introduces a Web browser based network management system called MXview, which is intended for industrial automation and control applications. MXview provides network management tools for monitoring and diagnosing industrial...

Low-cost PLC/HMI with direct temperature inputs.
December 1, 2008... Staff If your system or process requires temperature measurement, you are familiar with the dilemma--should you use a PID controller, or a high-level PLC that includes PID functionality? The PID controller is cheaper, but you must set it...

Print tags, markers for direct mount onto devices, cables.
December 1, 2008... Staff Weidmuller announces a new tag and marker printer for industrial use. The third-generation of the PrintJet Pro ink-jet printer prints clear and durable plastic markers designed for direct mounting onto devices, cables, relays, and...

Machine Vision Eyes a Healthy Tomorrow.
December 1, 2008... Jeanine Katzel, Control Engineering Survey respondents point to need for performance and ease-of-use, and turn away from proprietary networks. They also stress importance of lighting as they maintain and increase budgets for these...

Cross-study comparison.
December 1, 2008... Staff Over the course of this three-phase Automation in Packaging study conducted in 2008, several questions were asked of respondents in each survey. To highlight the disparities and similarities of opinions among packaging machinery...

Integrators play central role in packaging automation.
December 1, 2008... Staff This third installment of the Automation in Packaging Benchmark Study focuses on system integrators and the role they play coordinating projects for packagers, equipment builders and automation suppliers. Packaging is a specialty...

Packagers suggest integration improvements.
December 1, 2008... Staff Packagers and brand owners say the following would make system integrators' services more attractive to them. An important factor is follow through and follow up . Be flexible enough that your system design will be...

Integrators have their say.
December 1, 2008... Staff Here's what system integrators would tell their packager and brand owner clients about how to better use integration services. Allow the integrator to apply new technology so that you can reap the benefits of innovation--and...

Partnership develops first-of-its-kind document-handling control system.
December 15, 2008... By Julie Nemeth Night after night for 18 years, employees at a Tier 1 supplier hand stuffed each and every vehicle window-sticker package for Ford dealerships. With the help of an integrator, a remedy was found in a...

Gantry-Style Automated Accumulation.
December 15, 2008... Staff An integrator provides a custom automation solution to a partially manual production line, using robotics, touchscreens, and new controllers to manage backlogs between work cells. Feed rates and material flow can be challenging...

From IT integration to panel building, one mine at a time.
December 15, 2008... Staff Optimizing processes and technologies provides sparkling real-time returns. A world-leading diamond exploration company developed Canada's first fully underground diamond mine. The mine, located in the mineral rich, sparsely...

Hatching distributed automation architectures.
December 15, 2008... Staff Michigan fish hatcheries integrate Windemuller-designed systems using Ethernet-based distributed controllers for replenishing fish populations. Automation keeps fish hatcheries healthy by providing a consistent environment for...

Packaging supplier solves its ice cream headaches.
December 15, 2008... Staff A system integrator reengineers a drive system and employs a PLC and HMI to help Norse Dairy Systems decrease mechanical downtime and cut waste. As one of the world's leading suppliers of ice cream novelty packaging and filling...

May we have your vote?
December 15, 2008... Norm O'Leary, Executive Director Are you any better off now than you were four years ago? One might expect a question such as that from the many politicians who were up for election. But it seems out of place in this, a technical business...

What you'll find in this guide.
December 15, 2008... Staff Control Engineering's Automation Integrator Guide, in print and online You've got a problem. You need a partner. Fast. How do you find one who's nearby and who's the best at the type of automation, instrumentation, and control...

Recognizing the Best Integrators in the Business.
December 15, 2008... David Greenfield, Control Engineering Automation system integrators are a diverse lot, but they can generally be described as engineering contractors that design and implement computerized control systems for their clients' industrial...