Control Engineering articles from June 2009

Control Engineering archives from June 2009

Machine vision's GigE Vision standard.
June 1, 2009... Renee Robbins, Control Engineering GigE Vision is a camera interface standard developed using the Gigabit Ethernet communication protocol. In industrial machine vision applications, GigE Vision allows fast image transfer using low cost...

What good are economists anyway?(Control System Integrators Association)(Conference news)(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... David Greenfield, editorial director Yes, I borrowed that headline from BusinessWeek . But I did so with a reason. The BusinessWeek article I'm referring to focused on how wrong so many economists were recently by saying either a recession...

Safety via Fieldbus--Hanging by a Wire?(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Fieldbus is breaking new ground in discrete and process safety networks, a bastion of hard-wired systems. Users are drawn by promises of easier troubleshooting and maintenance. Safety networks have...

Airplane Artists Aided by Advanced Motion Technology.
June 1, 2009... Ed Diehl and Scott VanDelinder, Concept Systems Inc. Improvement of aircraft object modeling and better control technology permits the new aircraft painting system at Boeing to put operator cranes within 4 inches of the aircraft without...

Contracting for services? Qualifications should come first.
June 1, 2009... Vance VanDoren, Ph.D., P.E., Control Engineering, and Ron Brenke, American Council of Engineering Companies - Michigan Selecting a controls engineering partner on price alone can cost you plenty. Here's how the qualifications-based...

Kinematics Equations for Control of Robotic Systems.
June 1, 2009... Jason Goerges, ACS Motion Control Kinematic equations relate the Cartesian coordinate system to a crane's spherical coordinate system. These equations also allow modern motion controllers to perform the calculations necessary for the...

Predictive Emissions Monitoring for Regulatory Compliance.
June 1, 2009... Rich Hovan, Pavilion Technologies Software-based continuous emission monitoring proves to be a more viable--and cost effective--tool for controlling emissions than traditional hardware-based systems. New environmental regulations are...

Solution for mixing industrial, standard-office Ethernet.
June 1, 2009... Michael Babb, Control Engineering Europe Mixing industrial Ethernet and standard office Ethernet on the same cable has its risks. With no sense of priority, an industrial telegram, which may be critical for operating some machine, might be...

Effective Maintenance and Upgrades Keep Gantry Mills Flying.
June 1, 2009... Don Trotter, Siemens Careful use of predictive maintenance and retrofits extends life and productivity of large milling centers for aircraft supplier resulting in cost savings. Like most manufacturers, aerospace component suppliers are...

Flexible Assembly.
June 1, 2009... Vance VanDoren, Ph.D., P.E., Control Engineering, Oliver Weise, Behr Heat Transfer Pre-assembly of components leads to flexible, accurate assembly of multiple combinations sequentially. RFID helps information flow, machine vision guides...

TRUST in software engineering.
June 1, 2009... Dennis Brandl It seems that every generation needs to relearn the lessons of previous generations. This is equally true in manufacturing, where older engineers are retiring and must pass on knowledge to younger engineers. Unfortunately...

Behavioral automation.
June 1, 2009... Mark T. Hoske, editor in chief Ideas related to behavioral economics seem to continue to expand and influence U.S. domestic policies. Behavioral engineering has been applied to many disciplines, including how organizations function and...

Energy management central to leading manufacturers.
June 1, 2009... Staff According to a study ("Energy Management: Driving Value in Industrial Environments") just released from Aberdeen Group, leading manufacturers are more than three times as likely as laggards to invest in an energy management solution...

Sustainable Engineering: Efficient Use of Materials.
June 1, 2009... Staff While most industrial sustainability efforts are focused on energy, the other major cost for manufacturers--materials--should not go unnoticed. In this Webcast, three materials-related processes are investigated that can make your...

Event notice from ARC Advisory Group: ARC asset lifecycle management event.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Staff Reduce risk, reduce costs, reduce project cycle time, reduce energy use, reduce carbon footprint! These are key challenges for asset-intensive organizations today and they can all be achieved through better Asset Lifecycle Management...

Wireless alliance for 60 GHz technology.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Staff More than 15 technology companies announced the Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance, an organization formed to establish a unified specification for 60 Gigahertz (GHz) wireless technologies. The widespread availability and use of...

Toyota receives Energy Star Award for sustained energy management.
June 1, 2009... Staff Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing of North America has been recognized with the Energy Star Award for sustained excellence in energy management. Energy Star is a federally sponsored program designed to promote energy...

Green energy: Rooftop unit generates electricity in moderate wind.
June 1, 2009... Staff Green Energy Technologies LLC launched its WindCube, a 60 kW rooftop wind turbine designed for on-site power generation by commercial and industrial power users in urban and suburban locations. The turbine, which captures and...

Whirlpool to make electronically controlled appliances smart grid compatible.
June 1, 2009... Staff At the 2009 EE Global Forum & Exhibition in Paris, Whirlpool Corporation announced its commitment to making all of its electronically controlled appliances smart grid compatible by 2015. According to Bracken Darrell, president of...

Control Engineering launches Twitter coverage and LinkedIn group.
June 1, 2009... Staff David Greenfield, Control Engineering editorial director, has launched his coverage of sustainable/efficient technologies and products via Twitter. You can follow his posts at http://twitter.com/djgreenfield . "For those...

ISA100 committee approves industrial wireless standard.
June 1, 2009... Staff The ISA100 Standards Committee on Wireless Systems for Automation has voted to approve a major new industry standard, ISA100.11a, "Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation: Process Control and Related Applications." The approval,...

U.S. manufacturing vibrant, claims economist at CSIA conference.(Conference news)
June 1, 2009... Staff This year's Control System Integrator Association's (CSIA) conference in Naples, FL, began with an end. Long-time executive director Norm O'Leary officially announced that this would be his last conference as host. Robert Lowe,...

Milliamp clamp meters save time for automation technicians.
June 1, 2009... Staff Fluke Corp. introduced two new milliamp (mA) clamp meters designed to help technicians test critical automation and control circuits without breaking the circuit or interrupting operations. The new Fluke 772 and 773 milliamp clamp...

Minimize arc-fault energy.
June 1, 2009... Staff Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc. (SEL) offers arc-flash detection (AFD) capability in the SEL-751A Feeder Protection Relay, providing automatic protection against dangerous arc-flash events. AFD interrupts power to the arc...

Siemens weld-free compact starter.
June 1, 2009... Staff Siemens Energy & Automation Sirius 3RA6 compact starter is a new "one-stop" motor starter product for three-phase ac standard motors up to 32 amps. This represents a new generation of weld-free starters that offer the combined...

View real-time electrical system data via Web browser.
June 1, 2009... Staff Schneider Electric's Square D PowerLogic EGX300 integrated gateway-server combines Ethernet gateway functionality with an embedded Web page creation function and extensive on-board memory to allow users to view critical real-time...

Custody transfer flowmeters.
June 1, 2009... Staff GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies announces the Sentinel LCT and Sentinel LNG flowmeters. Sentinel LCT has been designed for liquid custody transfer measurements of crude oil and refined oil products. Sentinel LNG provides...

Wireless handheld infrared thermometer.
June 1, 2009... Staff Omega's Omegascope Wireless Handheld Infrared Thermometer OS530E Series provides "unmatched performance at an affordable price of $295 for basic unit," company says, and the product's built-in wireless measurement makes it "the first...

Uninterruptible dc power supply.
June 1, 2009... Staff Sitop UPS500S capacitor-based dc uninterruptible power supply (UPS) from Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. provides a 24 V dc backup without requiring a connected battery, saving significant maintenance time and cost associated with...

Cost-effective dc/dc universal isolator.
June 1, 2009... Staff Weidmuller introduces the new WavePak dc/dc isolator -- a cost-effective, adjustable conditioning solution for applications with high-level signals, such as flow transmitters in process applications. WavePak is designed to interface...