Control Engineering articles from May 2008

Control Engineering archives from May 2008

High-quality HMI access goes where it's needed most.(human machine interface)
May 1, 2008... Renee Robbins, Control Engineering When you want to provide the best, you need to attend to all the details. Integrated Web Finishing Systems, or i-Web, is a supplier of inline and offline finishing equipment and systems for the...

Upgrade delivers spare parts.
May 1, 2008... Marvin Coker, Bachelor Controls Inc. Golden Triangle Energy Cooperative (GTEC) in Craig, MO processes 20,000 bushels of corn into approximately 55,000 gallons of ethanol daily. Operations began in 2001 and, shortly after construction was...

NIST...it's not just for calibration.(National Institute of Standards and Technology)
May 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Commerce. Founded in 1901 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), the agency was the first physical...

You can go home again.
May 1, 2008... David Greenfield, editorial director I'm going to take issue with Thomas Wolfe and the title of his novel 'You Can't Go Home Again,' because this column is evidence that you can, in fact, go home again. For those of you who may not...

Safety Sensors Rise to New Heights.
May 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering An integrated safety system, like any control system, contains sensors, logic, and actuation, with I/O connections, networks, and software to tie it altogether. As connected sensors advance in...

PLCs and DCSs Converge.
May 1, 2008... Bob Nelson and Todd Stauffer, Siemens Energy & Automation The evolution of PLC, DCS and hybrid control technologies makes it more challenging than ever for process manufacturers to select the best technology for their application. The...

Advances in Control Loop Optimization.
May 1, 2008... Vance VanDoren, Ph.D., P.E. Control Engineering Software takes users from simple tuning to plant-wide optimization. There was a time when 'control loop optimization' meant selecting the proportional, integral, and derivative tuning...

Plugging into Network Certification.
May 1, 2008... Hank Hogan for Control Engineering Certification based on testing is one way to make sure a network actually works. Methods vary, and some new certifications are on the way. No man is an island, but then neither is control equipment in...

Global Manufacturing Reality Check.
May 1, 2008... David Greenfield, Control Engineering The effects of an industry in transition play out on the front lines of engineers' salaries, career perceptions, and concerns for the future. More than anything else, the 1,575 responses to the...

Vietnamese thirst for knowledge.
May 1, 2008... Bill Roberts, Technology Forecasters Inc. With nano-thin margins in many electronics segments, it is only natural that OEMs are looking for the next low-cost place to build. Vietnam, which pops up on most radar screens, might be that place...

Manufacturing Control Systems Bridge Production and IT.(Reprint)
May 1, 2008... Ronald E. Menendez, Genentech; Darrell Tanner, Honeywell Process Solutions ISA88 and ISA95 concepts underlie the capability of manufacturing control systems to unify MES and PCS technologies and connect enterprise and plant floor control...

Steam Distribution Metering Solved.
May 1, 2008... Bruce Willard, Pacific Klamath Energy Co-generation facility adopts specialized flowmeter technology to solve multiple source/multiple user steam billing challenges. Pacific Klamath Energy (PKE) operates a 500 MW electric co-generating...

Quantifying Cyber Security Risk.
May 1, 2008... Morgan Henrie, University of Alaska; Paul Liddell, Alyeska Pipeline Service Part 2: Understanding cyber incidents and their severity can help you plot a strategy to prevent them. Part 1 of this article appeared in Inside Process in the...

Drag Racers Log Sensor Data.
May 1, 2008... Mike Guerra, Setra Systems Inc. Evaluating and improving engine performance depends on process data captured in seconds. The extreme nature of the application is tough on equipment. A hundredth of a second is, quite literally, faster...

What business can learn from manufacturing.
May 1, 2008... Dennis Brandl These columns usually describe how Business IT can be applied to Manufacturing IT problems. However, there are many lessons that well-run manufacturing IT organizations can teach business IT organizations. Manufacturing has...

More interoperability, less effort.
May 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief Highest level of interoperability includes the capability to plug in a device and-without additional configuration-have it do what it's supposed to do. Standards, industry organizations, certifications, and a...

GE Fanuc to acquire MTL open systems technology.(GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has acquire MTL Instruments Group )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Staff GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms and MTL Instruments Group (acquired by Cooper Industries in February 2008) announced that GE Fanuc will acquire assets of the MTL Open Systems Technology (MOST) product lines. These include the MTL8000...

Online Newswire.
May 1, 2008... Staff Get fresh news daily at www.controleng.com , including these stories, which first appeared April 14-22, 2008: Rockwell Automation to acquire Incuity Software Enterprise manufacturing intelligence software combines operations data...

Manufacturers express optimism.
May 1, 2008... Staff Wall Street is agitated about a possible recession, but small and midsized manufacturers apparently do not share this consternation according to results of a new survey conducted by Chicago-based Prime Advantage, a manufacturers'...

ISA100.11a: the 4-20 mA standard for the 21st Century.
May 1, 2008... Staff ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute, with support from General Electric, Honeywell, and Nivis, demonstrated prototype ISA100.11a wireless standard-based products at the 2008 International Industrial Wireless Conference in Chongqing,...

Adaptive control surpassing PID.
May 1, 2008... Staff The advent of microprocessors and advanced computing platforms has catalyzed the shift to adaptive controllers from proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers in process industries, claims Frost & Sullivan. In its 'Continuous...

Motor drives sales parallel rising energy concerns.
May 1, 2008... Staff The worldwide low-voltage motor drives market continues to surpass everyone's expectations. According to IMS Research, early indicators suggest the market had another stellar year in 2007 as it continued its recent trend of double...

Data risk for RS-485 users?(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Staff 'Many RS-485 users are completely unaware that they are taking unnecessary risk with their data because of the method they use for driver control,' said Jeff Hunter, design engineer at Sealevel Systems. New driver control methods can...

Engineering masters degree online.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Staff A recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) points out that engineers need to continue their education to keep up with advancements and technologies in their fields. In an effort to help engineers achieve this...

Cyber security interview with SANS executive.
May 1, 2008... Staff Control Engineering editor Peter Welander caught up with Stephen Northcutt, president of the SANS Institute educational division, a widely recognized source for information security training, certification and research, to talk to...

By the Numbers.
May 1, 2008... Staff 3 specific areas of safety and health information, personal protective equipment, heat stress and reduction, and prevention of silica exposure are the focus of a renewed alliance between U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety...

Zelio relay products enhanced.
May 1, 2008... Staff Schneider Electric Relay Competency Center (SE Relays LLC) has enhanced its Telemecanique brand Zelio line of plug-in relays with a UL-listed approval status when used with Zelio sockets. The line features increased motor ratings at...

Gigabit Ethernet, PoE hardware.
May 1, 2008... Staff N-TRON's 1000 Series family of industrial hardened entry-level Gigabit Ethernet products combines a 2 million hour MTBF, operating temperature ranges of -40 A*C to 85 A*C, redundant power inputs, shock resistance, ESD protection, and...

RoHS-compliant temperature, limit controllers.
May 1, 2008... Staff Watlow's on-off temperature and limit controllers are now compliant with the European Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive (2002-95-EC). Products include the Series CV, LV, CF, LF and TM controllers. Watlow uses...

General machine drive line extended.
May 1, 2008... Staff ABB has extended the ratings of its ACS350 general machinery drives to 20 and 25 HP, at 480 V. Units are RoHS-compliant, with coated boards, and suit a range of machine applications in food processing, material handling, textiles,...

Hinge safety interlock switches.
May 1, 2008... Staff Banner Engineering Corp. SI-HG63 Series hinge safety interlock switches are used in place of standard hinges on swinging guards, gates, or doors. They offer two normally closed safety contacts and one normally open auxiliary contact...

SNMP-managed fiber Ethernet switches.
May 1, 2008... Staff Following the introduction of its line of industrial Ethernet switches and Optolinx media converters, Aaxeon has added a new model into the line of SNMP-managed fiber Ethernet switches. GEN-5509 is an 8-port 10/100TX + 1-port 100FX...

Hydrogen flowmeter for hazardous areas.(Fluid Components International provides accurate and repeatable gas flow measurement )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Staff With a precision thermal mass flow sensor, no-moving parts construction, and space-saving design, the ST75V Hydrogen Flowmeter from Fluid Components International provides accurate and repeatable gas flow measurement in hazardous...

Ethernet, wireless, temperature, humidity monitoring.
May 1, 2008... Staff The new Testo Saveris system monitors temperature and humidity in industrial control, food service, and processing applications via either wireless or Ethernet connection. Saveris 'effectively automates data collection and...

Protocols for Industrial Ethernet.
May 1, 2008... Dick Johnson, Control Engineering Need for wide-ranging application capability and the ability to handle diverse environments drives protocol development, sparks user interest. Ah, the digital era! It seems it was only a short time...

Vision Sensors Error-Proof Oil Cap Assembly.
May 1, 2008... John Lewis, Cognex Corp. Automotive supplier prevents assembly defects, improves productivity with machine vision. Supplying parts to the world's leading automotive companies leaves no room for error. That's why Miniature Precision...

Machine Vision Comes of Age.
May 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Engineers find machine vision can replace more complex point-sensor-based systems. When I first started dealing with machine vision technology about 35 years ago, digital cameras were a laboratory...

Vision for Process Control.
May 1, 2008... Ben Dawson & Wes Philbrook, Dalsa IPD Machines need good lighting to see what they're looking for and 'hands' to manipulate it. Machine vision is generally better than human vision in inspection and control tasks that are fast,...

Self tuning has its limits.
May 1, 2008... Staff Regarding Self-Tuning Control (July 2007 by Vance Van Doren). A linear control loop will not develop a limit cycle - its cycle will either decay or expand, depending on whether loop gain is below or above unity, respectively. Limit...

Manage legacy system assets with HART.
May 1, 2008... Peter Welander, Control Engineering No matter how old your control system is, you can add the benefits of asset management in a way that will minimize costs and operational impact. Using HART data and diagnostics with legacy instrumentation...