Control Engineering articles from January 2008

Control Engineering archives from January 2008

Managing MS Windows NT4.
January 1, 2008... Bob Vieraitis, Solidcore Systems In a manufacturing environment, change to critical IT systems such as production controllers on the plant floor, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and directory or DNS systems can present...

Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
January 1, 2008... Renee Robbins, Control Engineering Overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE, takes the most common sources of manufacturing productivity loss and distills them into consistent metrics that can be used to monitor and improve manufacturing...

'Life planning' for industrial systems.
January 1, 2008... Robb Dussault, Schneider Electric Making financial decisions by numbers alone is laden with risk, as the numbers are too often one-dimensional. When it comes to planning for a manufacturing plant's financial future, it pays to take the same...

Closing the Skills Gap.
January 1, 2008... Marc Moschetto, Control Engineering Programs designed to inspire the next generation of engineers ensure that fresh talent is ready to work as today's engineers begin to retire. The U.S. industrial sector has seen its fair share of...

Energy as a Process Variable.
January 1, 2008... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Will the big four become the big five? While electrical energy consumption may not be quite the same as flow or pressure, optimizing it can bring huge savings in a process environment and help in efforts...

Signal Conditioning for PC-Based Control.(programmable automation controller)
January 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Control-system designers need to pay extra attention to signal conditioning issues when using PC-based controllers. When you're using a standard control solution such as a programmable automation...

CNC open architectures.(computer numerical control)
January 1, 2008... Krzysztof Pietrusewicz, Ph.D., Control Engineering Poland Most computer numerical control (CNC) systems are closed for users. Engineers typically can only program the machine, nothing more. Even if it has a so-called programming interface...

Ammonia Plant Reduces Gas Consumption.
January 1, 2008... U.S. Department of Energy Terra Nitrogen cuts gas use after DOE plant study recognized inefficiencies outside of existing energy management systems. Savings reached $3.5 million annually. Editor's note: Material for this article was...

Advanced Technology Exceeds Expectations.
January 1, 2008... David DeBari, Advanced Elastomer Systems Commissioning time reduced by three weeks, HMI greatly improved, and operators say new production line runs 'best.' Editor's note: This account is a first-person experience, written by the...

Optical Fibers Need Critical Process Control.
January 1, 2008... Kelly Downey, M.S.E.E., Opto 22 Tricky optical-fiber forming process depends on carefully timed and controlled heating and cooling cycles to ensure consistent results. Optical fiber is designed to guide or transmit light in...

Mathematics of information.
January 1, 2008... Dennis Brandl Information is the important element of manufacturing IT, and one skill that every well-rounded control engineer should have is knowledge of the mathematics of information- specifically, the mathematics of relational...

That was easy? Standard profits.
January 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief I love the office supply store commercial where someone pushes a button, something good happens, and it was easy. Wouldn't a profitability button be a great thing? There is one, though it's not quite as easy...

'Makeover' for manufacturing.
January 1, 2008... Marc Moschetto, editorial director No matter what your company produces, product innovation and process efficiency keep you one step ahead of the competition. An increasingly scarce supply of new engineering talent joining the ranks,...

Rockwell Automation, Dassault Systèmes partner.(Dassault Systemes S.A.)
January 1, 2008... Staff Promising 'a true collaboration of design and manufacturing engineering throughout a product's lifecycle,' Rockwell Automation and Dassault Systemes announced an agreement to work together to make the virtual design and production...

Westinghouse, Emerson join for nuclear plants.
January 1, 2008... Staff Nuclear power plants (and many conventional power plants as well) are not known for their cutting-edge automation technology. Nuke plants have been particularly slow to modernize due to strict controls from regulating bodies such as...

ABB joins North American PTO.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Staff ABB Inc. joined PTO North America. PTO develops and promotes the use of Profibus fieldbus and Profinet industrial Ethernet standards for automation. ABB has been actively working with the PNO (Profibus and Profinet...

Baldor helps Dolphins make big impression.(Baldor UK Ltd.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Staff Although the Dolphins will not be Super Bowl-bound this season, the team did leave an outstanding impression on fans in the United Kingdom. The real-life model of the towering 26 foot high animatronic figure 'Big JT' - NFL Miami...

Promoting engineering to girls.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Staff Encouraging young women to pursue engineering careers has become a pressing issue in the pre-college engineering education community. To address the matter from a national scope, Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) has...

SERCOS III unanimously accepted as IEC standard.
January 1, 2008... Staff The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) unanimously approved SERCOS III, the real-time Ethernet version of the SErial Realtime COmmunication System (SERCOS) interface, as part of international standard IEC 61784-2...

'Going green' can be good for business.
January 1, 2008... Staff Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States will require far-reaching efforts spanning all sectors of the economy, but significant savings generated by 'going green' can outweigh the costs over time. So says a...

By the Numbers.
January 1, 2008... Staff >1,600 Automation System Integrators are in the Automation Integrator guide online, searchable eight ways so you can find an appropriate match of qualifications and expertise. Tools include a multi-parameter search function....

Immersion-rated data carrier system.
January 1, 2008... Staff Datakey Electronics, Inc. has released a patent-pending line of immersion-rated receptacles to compliment its data carriers. The SR4310 receptacles are available in IP-66 (splash-proof), IP-67 (immersion-rated), and IP-67-EMI...

Chilled mirror hygrometer.
January 1, 2008... Staff GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies has released the OptiSonde humidity indicator, transmitter, and datalogger, reportedly the first chilled mirror hygrometer that offers precision and repeatability found in laboratory standards. It...

Industrial Ethernet switch.
January 1, 2008... Staff Rockwell Automation adds to its portfolio of industrial Ethernet switches and media with a line of managed switches integrated with Cisco technology. Included are features in use by IT and controls organizations that deploy standard,...

Servomotors with higher moment of inertia.
January 1, 2008... Staff Beckhoff Automation has expanded its drive technology products with the AM3500 Series servomotors. A higher moment of inertia makes them suitable for machine tool axes with stringent synchronism requirements. The motors can eliminate...

Portable hot stamp wire marker.
January 1, 2008... Staff Energy Management Corp. has released the Hz2.1 Portable Hot Stamp Wire Marker as a solution for permanently marking wires in large, pre-planned batches. Hz2.1 uses heat with imprint foil to emboss thousands of possible alpha and...

wLAN serial port adapters.
January 1, 2008... Staff connectBlue offers two wireless local area network (LAN) serial port adapters that enable cable replacement in industrial applications such as programming, configuration, service, diagnostics, and data acquisition. The adapters...

PC-based numerical control.
January 1, 2008... Staff A single processor control from Okuma, The Intelligent Numerical Control (THINC), permits access to a variety of applications and peripherals, including factory management systems, and interfaces with barcoders, feeders, robots,...

Submersible transmitter.
January 1, 2008... Staff STS has released the ATM/N/T precision pressure and temperature depth and level transmitter, which is fully submersible for monitoring ground or surface water, waste water, or tank level measurement. ATM/N/T features a modular design...

Inch-wide Ethernet distributed I/O modules.
January 1, 2008... Staff The BusWorks line of high-density Ethernet I/O modules for distributed I/O and SCADA applications from Acromag now includes Model 989EN isolated discrete I/O that also performs counter/timer functions. The inch-wide modules provide...

Extra-large display meter shows process data.
January 1, 2008... Staff The LDP63100 Series from Omega Engineering is a versatile extra-large display meter that encourages increased productivity by providing the plant floor or production area a visible display of its temperature or process status. This...

Footswitches and pushbuttons.
January 1, 2008... Staff Automation Direct adds foot switches and 22 mm pushbuttons to its line of product offerings. The switches, in single and double units, are designed for machines such as shearing and spinning machines, lathes, wrapping machines and...

Insertion style turbine meters.
January 1, 2008... Staff Hoffer recently introduced a series of insertion style turbine meters for liquids that can be installed in small metal, composite, or plastic piping. It is suitable for 2-, 3-, and 4-in. line sizes and is interchangeable among the...

Secure WiFi for any electronic device.
January 1, 2008... Staff MatchPort b/g Pro from Lantronix is an embedded module that provides 802.11 b/g wireless connectivity for virtually any device with a serial interface on its microcontroller. This application-ready device server enables OEMs to build...

Dual-line 6-digit process meter.
January 1, 2008... Staff Precision Digital Corp. introduces a 1/8 DIN panel meter with 6-digit dual-line LED display. The ProVu process meter provides the operator with a more precise and informative view of their process for better overall control,...

Photoelectric sensor in metal housing.
January 1, 2008... Staff The OG-Cube photoelectric sensor from ifm efector inc. provides high optical performance in a compact metal housing. The sensor offers position detection in industrial applications such as conveying, packaging, material handling and...

Servo Motors Speed Up.(Survey)
January 1, 2008... Jeanine Katzel, Control Engineering No slow-down in sight for these automation workhorses as they meet increasingly demanding applications and add networking and control capabilities. Rapid and often dramatic technological advancements...