Control Engineering articles from June 2008

Control Engineering archives from June 2008

Dairy Processor Stays Flexible.(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... Walter Staehle, Siemens Energy & Automation Wireless control helps specialty plant stay efficient and effective while handling a variety of critical dairy products. Milk is a demanding product. Let the temperature drift during...

JavaBot: Automating Coffee?
June 1, 2008... Paul Garcia, Wago Corporation Could a "robot" replace the baristas at your local coffee specialty shop? The next time you're on the lower east side of Manhattan, you might want to check out the Roasting Plant Coffee shop at 81 Orchard...

Giving Chocolate its Crunch.
June 1, 2008... Mike Jamieson, Rockwell Automation Mars Austria has expanded production for one of its popular confectionery brands. More sophisticated control makes higher candy production levels a piece of cake. When sales of a popular product are...

Keeping Tabs on Coca-Cola Production.
June 1, 2008... Denis du Buisson, Wonderware South Africa Accuracy and reliability of a new automated labeling system extends the reach of process control into the packaging line. Given the volume of product flowing out of Coca-Cola Canners Wadeville...

See the unseen: Power data diagnostics.
June 1, 2008... Staff Using reports from relay events can help diagnose power system problems, increase system reliability, lower maintenance costs, and reduce potential for system damage and outages. Today's microprocessor-based relays collect and...

Soft starter designs, functions.
June 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering High inrush currents and mechanical wear and tear are two principal causes of motor damage. Drives can protect attached mechanical components from wear and tear by slowly starting and stopping the drive...

China catches up?(Editorial)
June 1, 2008... David Greenfield, editorial director With the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing approaching and the round-the-clock construction of the modern China regularly trumpeted on news programs, it's difficult to not believe that China will assume...

Electrical Design Software.
June 1, 2008... Renee Robbins, Control Engineering Use of electrical CAD software is driving productivity gains for panel builders, system integrators and end users by adding layers of intelligence to two-dimensional drawings. Troy Schmidtke is...

Living With Safety Testing.
June 1, 2008... Peter Welander, Control Engineering While safety testing of instrumentation and control equipment adds cost and time-to-market for vendors, the upside for end users is more important than most realize. While we take it for granted, the...

Silence of the Drives.
June 1, 2008... Frank J. Bartos, P.E., Control Engineering Along with energy savings and other benefits, adjustable-speed drives have a downside--a tendency to generate disruptive electrical noise that must be minimized in the drive's design and...

Single Board Computers for Control Applications.
June 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering One of embedded systems' greatest advantages for control applications is the variety of form factors available. Haydn Povey, senior product manager at embedded processor designer ARM, points out: "People...

Anatomy of Steam Plant.(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... Frank O Smith for Control Engineering To lower the cost of steam generation and become a performance-driven enterprise, this petrochemical company optimized its processes from the bottom up with dynamic performance measurements. ...

End user initiatives, safety dominate panel discussions.
June 1, 2008... David Greenfield, Control Engineering Two panel discussions held at Hannover Industrial Fair 2008 in Germany provided a chance for attendees to interact with a variety of global industry representatives on trends and developments...

Energy-efficiency dominates Germany's Hannover Fair.
June 1, 2008... Frank J. Bartos, P.E., Control Engineering Efficient energy usage and alternative energy sources, relatively recent issues for the U.S., have been long-term concerns in Europe and elsewhere. No surprise, energy-efficiency and energy...

PCs Cover Coating System Control.
June 1, 2008... Norm Hardy, Semicore Equipment Semicore's versatile automation and I/O platform takes workload off in-house designers and greatly reduces their reliance on multiple device vendors Semicore Equipment Inc, based in Livermore, CA,...

Modeling Hybrid Control Systems.
June 1, 2008... Krzysztof Pietrusewicz, PhD, Control Engineering Poland and Institute of Control Engineering, Szczecin University of Technology Hybrid control systems arise from computer-aided control of continuous processes in manufacturing, communication...

Off-the-Shelf PLC Optimizes Motion Control Functionality.
June 1, 2008... Matthias Erhardt, Siemens SEA The PLC handles control functionality with built-in integration of parison control, synchronized camming of blow pins with carriages, linear positioning of shuttles, and 30 zones of heat control. Like most...

Auto Plant Modernization Features Controls Refit.
June 1, 2008... K.K. Mitra, Rockwell Automation To produce 150,000 of its new model per year, Tata Motors needed a new plant next to the existing facility. Located in Pune, India, Tata Motors manufactures a range of passenger and commercial vehicles...

Your personal downturn plan.
June 1, 2008... Dennis Brandl Ups and downs in manufacturing are inevitable. Having a plan to survive a downturn is critical to support organizations such as manufacturing IT. They are often the first to suffer in a downturn because it's hard to tie their...

Does PE licensing matter?
June 1, 2008... Mark Voigtmann At the annual Control System Integrators Association conference for member executives in Savannah, GA, I took a moment away from my talk on the legalities of professional licensing to poll the audience: "Stand up if your...

Trust: Set it, forget it.(Feedback control systems)
June 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief Since the earliest pages of Control Engineering in the mid-1950s, engineers have argued fervently about the merits of closed-loop versus open-loop control. Please, set up closed-loop controls where possible...

FIRST Robotics Championship.
June 1, 2008... Staff The final day of the 2008 FIRST Robotics Competition (FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in Atlanta's Georgia Dome featured last-minute adjusting, expert coaching, teams celebrating and...

Siemens' exiderdome prepares for U.S. tour.
June 1, 2008... Staff Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. has announced details surrounding the U.S. leg of the company's "exiderdome" world tour. exiderdome, a traveling technology expo and learning laboratory, will begin its tour of the U.S. in Chicago on...

Firewall device creates its own rules.
June 1, 2008... Staff Creating cyber defense-in-depth often involves adding small firewall devices at internal levels of a control system. Now those devices can be smart enough to create their own firewall rules based on observation of traffic patterns....

Why are PID loops so difficult to master?(proportional integral derivative loops)
June 1, 2008... Staff Getting PID loops to operate well is a major concern in most process industries. Loop tuning related topics are the most heavily researched subject on the Control Engineering Website, year after year. Tuning articles are always...

SmartSignal, General Physics deal focuses on expertise exchange.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Staff Improved predictive maintenance efforts, along with enhanced business performance, for power generation companies are the goals of a recent agreement between SmartSignal Corp. and General Physics (GP). "We will share equipment...

CSIA conference sets record.(Control System Integrators Association)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Staff In keeping with expanding membership numbers, Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Executive Conference attendance set a record at the event held in Savannah, GA, May 1-4, 2008. Integrators and automation product and...

Rockwell to acquire Incuity Software.
June 1, 2008... Staff Rockwell Automation has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Incuity Software Inc., a privately held company and supplier of enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) software. Incuity's software provides real-time...

OPC for embedded applications.
June 1, 2008... Staff OPC interoperability has brought connectivity to many things; next efforts may include embedded controllers, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), Thomas J. Burke, OPC Foundation president and...

Connecting sensors, embedded devices on low-power networks.
June 1, 2008... Staff A new Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Working Group is chartered with developing a framework for using IP-based routing techniques over low-power, "lossy" networks--networks that wirelessly connect large numbers of sensors and...

Environmental stewardship featured in new CETV video.
June 1, 2008... Staff A new 23-minute video, focusing on several aspects of "green" engineering, is available for download at www.controleng.com/BCVideo.html . In the video, Joel Shapiro, group manager for industrial measurements and control at...

By the Numbers.
June 1, 2008... Staff 1,000 trillion calculations per second (petaflop computing) may emerge on the new June list of world's fastest supercomputers. www.top500.org 3 associations (AESF, MFSA, and NAMF) operate as one, NASF. National Association of...

Pushbutton control components.
June 1, 2008... Staff Elobau Sensor Technology Inc. has introduced a new micro pushbutton, Model 145MA, a Hall Effect device with linear analog output, designed for integration into an industrial joystick knob or control panel. The device is based on Hall...

Mining system reduces ground currents.
June 1, 2008... Staff Zero Ground announces its High Frequency Extraction System (HFES), which reduces high-frequency ground currents. The HFES solution was engineered for use wherever ac induction motors operate in conjunction with variable frequency...

On/off limit controllers.
June 1, 2008... Staff Athena Controls Inc. is now offering Series 86 and 88 Limit Controllers as an economical solution for on/off limit applications. Designed for quick, easy installation via fast-on lugs or terminal strips, Series 86 Non-Indicating...

HMI fits in 6 in. cutouts.
June 1, 2008... Staff Parker's Electromechanical Automaton Division offers replacement HMI hardware for its Interact software platform. The P13 PowerStation will fit into existing cutouts of many common 6-in. HMI products, including Parker's P1, P1H, P1P,...

80-inch control room display.
June 1, 2008... Staff Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America's Presentation Products Division has introduced MegaView Wall 8482, a video wall cube that measures 80-inches diagonally for use in large command and control centers. The cube is said to be...

Modular, I/O-intensive single-board computers.
June 1, 2008... Staff Diamond Systems Corp. announced a design methodology that reduces costs and risk, and simplifies designs for traditional users of stackable single board computers (SBCs). It consists of off-the-shelf, application-specific...

WirelessHART OEM Acceleration program.
June 1, 2008... Staff AirSprite Technologies has announced the AccelerATE WirelessHART OEM Program. According to the company, AccelerATE gives HART field device manufacturers a simple, quick, low-cost path to enable their product lines to comply with the...

Open-path detection system.
June 1, 2008... Staff MSA's SafEye Xenon 800 Gas Detection System detects a range of hydrocarbons over an open path of up to 120 meters. Resistant to false alarms and poisoning, it is said to have excellent operational records in an extremely wide range...

IEEE 802.15.4 product joins other wireless technology.
June 1, 2008... Staff The new ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 product range shares form factor and electrical interfaces with the connectBlue Bluetooth and Wireless LAN product ranges. It is possible for users to reuse the integration efforts of three different...

Split power from PoE to Ethernet devices, transmit up to 328 feet.
June 1, 2008... Staff Ethernet Direct Corp. offers CUS-100G, an industrial standard power over Ethernet (PoE) splitter that supports 10/100/1000T. It functions as a powered device and splits power from PoE to Ethernet devices. Both power and data can be...

Hot-plug-enabled portable HMI.
June 1, 2008... Staff With ergonomic design and hot-pluggable capability, Rexroth IndraControl's VCH08 portable human machine interface (HMI) makes it easier for equipment operators to set up, run, and diagnose their machinery, especially in gantry,...

Flowmeters with dual interchangeable scales.
June 1, 2008... Staff Dakota Instrument's ACR Clear Acrylic Flowmeters feature direct reading dual scales mounted interchangeably at the rear of the flowmeter. The scales display English and metric system units and are mounted by locating holes between...

Small reader knows many codes.
June 1, 2008... Staff Multi-Code Reader from ifm efector inc. reads 2D data matrix codes (DMC) and 1D bar codes in high-speed industrial automation applications. It can identify, verify, and qualify most marking methods including dot-peened, laser-etched,...

Power supply reduces footprint.
June 1, 2008... Staff Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. introduces its Sitop Modular 3-phase 24 V dc / 20 A power supply. Designed for applications demanding small footprints, it is less than half the width of previous models. Footprint size has become one...

DC Power Supplies.
June 1, 2008... Dick Johnson, Control Engineering Seldom seen as spotlight items, except if they fail, power supplies are the behind-the-scenes enablers and guardians of control systems, big and small. Conditioning. Protection. A personal trainer who...

In pursuit of engineering, fieldbus.
June 1, 2008... Staff Inspiring others in technology I enjoyed reading your article in Control Engineering Vol.55 No.4 [April 2008, p. 39] titled "Help Students in the STEM game." I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy science, technology,...

Open and secure SCADA with DNP3.
June 1, 2008... Paul Gibson, MultiTrode The DNP3 protocol has become widely accepted within water and electrical utilities worldwide for SCADA communications with field equipment. One of the reasons for its acceptance is because it is an open protocol....