Control Engineering articles from November 2008

Control Engineering archives from November 2008

New Technology Changes the RTOS Game.
November 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Multicore microcontrollers and software virtualization make the impossible possible for real-time control applications. Not long ago, building a digital control system for a real-time application was...

Control system mounting options.
November 1, 2008... Michael Thompson, Timken Co. In any machine control design, the designer is faced with choices regarding the mounting of individual components. Mounting options can be broken down into several basic categories: wall-mount, rail-mount,...

Engineered for sustainability.
November 1, 2008... David Greenfield, editorial director The topic of sustainability is quickly becoming a reality for manufacturers of all types. A majority of you are implementing sustainability initiatives for reasons related to your own operations as well...

Industrial Machining Embraces Nano Positioning.
November 1, 2008... C.G. Masi, Control Engineering Where several ten-thousandths of an inch was once considered to be high precision, some applications now require the ability to reach sub-micron levels. Forty years ago, in the early days of computer...

The Art of Instrumentation.
November 1, 2008... Peter Welander, Control Engineering Can your process and equipment ever have enough instrumentation? What's better--more, or smarter, devices? New technologies promise wider-than-ever deployment of devices, but deciding when and where to...

Practice Safe Sensing.
November 1, 2008... Hank Hogan for Control Engineering Safety-certified sensors promise to cut costs and boost performance. But the tradeoffs must be carefully considered. With process safety and sensors, sometimes garbage in equals more than garbage out....

Get the Most HMI for the Dollar.(Human Machine Interface)
November 1, 2008... Ken Keiser, Siemens Energy & Automation Frugal plant upgrades lead to connecting multiple controllers to the same HMI, allowing for the addition of new functionality and solving obsolescence problems without busting the budget. Jim...

Analyzing Critical Flow Measurements.
November 1, 2008... Jim Ralston and Scott Monton, ProSoft Technology Part 1: Custody transfer of fuel products demands sophisticated flow analysis beyond volume readings. Product characteristics can be dynamic, requiring monitoring at the same time. The...

Economics of Fault-Tolerant Fieldbus Wiring.
November 1, 2008... Mike O'Neill, MooreHawke Careful and clever analysis of fieldbus segments can yield fault tolerance where it's needed most without adding hardware costs over less effective strategies. It's ironic: Network cables in a safe and...

Release your inner geek.
November 1, 2008... Dennis Brandl Unless you are paying close attention to the actual statistics, it is possible to believe that manufacturing in the U.S. is in decline and that manufacturing professionals should start looking elsewhere for employment. The...

Humans vs. technology.(Column)
November 1, 2008... Mark T. Hoske, editor in chief Who wins? Oh, please. How many times have you explained to family and other friends that the argument never has to be humans versus technology? You've noticed, I'm sure, that any dichotomous proclamation is...

Northern Illinois University partners with AutomationDirect for new student lab.
November 1, 2008... Staff As automation changes, educators need to maintain pace in the classroom to produce well-qualified graduates. To support this effort, Northern Illinois University (NIU) has unveiled the AutomationDirect Automation Laboratory in its...

Your own home fuel cell plant: Electricity, heat, hot water.
November 1, 2008... Staff "Pillar to Post" blogger and Control Engineering process industries editor Peter Welander has been following Baxi Innotech, a small R&D company in Germany that is developing a home-scale fuel cell appliance said to provide both heat...

NEMA approves of energy efficiency portion of financial bailout package.
November 1, 2008... Staff With energy efficiency and renewable energy provisions included in the legislation, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) praised the House of Representatives for passing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of...

Engineering-driven Ethernet.
November 1, 2008... Staff From its industrial introduction as an IT-driven project to connect plant-floor and front-office systems on a common corporate network, Ethernet has since evolved for engineering-specific applications. This transformation is leading...

Security module addresses government SCADA concerns.
November 1, 2008... Staff Byres Security Inc. and MTL Instruments, a division of Cooper Crouse-Hinds, introduced the Tofino Modbus TCP Enforcer Loadable Security Module (LSM) at the ISA show this week in Houston, TX. The module performs detailed analysis and...

OPC Foundation to release analyzer devices integration draft specification.
November 1, 2008... Staff OPC Foundation members representing process analytical technology (PAT) and laboratory industries are extending OPC UA capabilities to enable multi-vendor interoperability for analyzer devices. Progress has been made on the goals of...

Wireless: Create stronger connections today.
November 1, 2008... Staff Industrial wireless capabilities are quickly being extended well beyond the limitations of self-contained instrumentation and supporting systems. This Control Engineering editorial Webcast explores how wireless technology can be...

Wonderware focuses on front-line innovation.
November 1, 2008... Staff Built around the theme of "enabling innovation for real-time operational excellence," Wonderware's 2008 WonderWorld conference, held in Las Vegas, Oct. 6-8, 2008, spotlighted the company's new technologies and a refined approach to...

Top 5 things you need to know about process safety.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Staff This Webcast is designed to help you gain a complete understanding of process safety technologies, identify which solutions are most appropriate for specific applications, and how to tie them in with your existing plant...

PLC/PAC product research information revised.
November 1, 2008... Staff Control Engineering 's September Product Research survey on PLCs and PACs (North American print edition, p. 83) included a list of representative products from 20 vendors. The information from Mitsubishi Electric Automation was...

World's largest robot?
November 1, 2008... Staff The M-2000iA is the world's largest and strongest six-axis robot, claims Rich Meyer, product manager, Fanuc Robotics. "It has the longest reach and the strongest wrist - surpassing all other six-axis robots available today," he says....

By the Numbers.(briefs)
November 1, 2008... Staff $1,738 billion is U.S. manufacturing output, followed, in billions, by Japan at $952, China at $760, Germany at $643, and United Kingdom at $330, rounding out the top five in the "Pocket World in Figures 2008 Edition" from The...

OptoAcoustic gas leak detector.
November 1, 2008... Staff OptoAcoustic gas detection determines gas content via the measurement of acoustic pressure waves that are propagated as a gas is irradiated under an appropriately tuned light. A gaseous mixture sample passes through a membrane into a...

Motor control center with TeSys T motor management controller.
November 1, 2008... Staff The Square D Model 6 Low Voltage Motor Control Center offers increased plant floor intelligence and motor protection with the addition of Schneider Electric's TeSys T motor management controller. In addition to monitoring a motor's...

Simple liquid level detection with floater actuator.
November 1, 2008... Staff Microprecision Electronics has announced the MP300 switch series with an attached floater actuator for cost-effective liquid detection in industrial refrigeration and other process control applications. By adding a floating...

Slim safety light curtains provide heavy-duty protection.
November 1, 2008... Staff SL-V Safety Light Curtain incorporates highly-visible indicators to facilitate setup and to easily see the current operating status. The tough, slim body conforms to IP-65 and IP-67 rating standards. Edge-to-edge mounting and...

Proficy Process Systems for smaller applications, OEMS.
November 1, 2008... Staff GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has released Proficy Process Systems in a new 250 I/O size, single-computer offering targeted at smaller applications and OEMs. Proficy Process Systems. a fully-integrated process control system,...

Standalone Ethernet hub extends segments up to 200m.
November 1, 2008... Staff B&R Industrial Automation offers a standalone Ethernet hub system that is part of the X20 slice I/O series. The modular, expandable design of the active hub allows it to be used as a 4x or 6x hub. Even the smallest version is a...

3D mechanical computer-aided design software.
November 1, 2008... Staff Ascon Group has released a more powerful version of its 3-dimensional solution for mechanical computer-aided design. Kompas-3D V10 includes a framework for 3D solid parametric modeling and 2D drafting, design, and release of...

4 signal conditioner channels, 1-in. footprint.
November 1, 2008... Staff With instrumentation, panel space equals money. The requirement for very narrow instruments is met with the new miniMoore family of multi-channel analog signal conditioners from Moore Industries. The miniMoore delivers up to four...

Scalable, animated Web HMI applications.
November 1, 2008... Staff Just as sports fans use Internet-capable devices to get the latest information about favorite teams, manufacturers can remotely monitor plant-floor operations status with FactoryTalk ViewPoint software from Rockwell Automation. It is...

More network diagnostic tools: eNetMeter.
November 1, 2008... Staff Molex Inc. added BradCommunications eNetMeter for DeviceNet to its line of diagnostic tools. The eNetMeter DN is a passive device that continuously monitors a DeviceNet network and sends information over Ethernet to a PLC or PC...

Power Protection Devices.
November 1, 2008... Peter Cleaveland for Control Engineering Fuses, circuit breakers, relays, disconnect switches, and surge protectors protect automation, controls, and instruments and keep the plant humming. View 10 new product introductions and get...

Materials Use Reduction via Advanced Process Control.
November 1, 2008... Dilip Kannan, Honeywell Automation India Ltd. Like every manufacturer facing rising costs, Nirma sought ways to reduce its fuel and power consumption as well as optimize the recovery of costly feed kerosene used in its manufacturing...

A Step Ahead of Regulations.(Opto 22)
November 1, 2008... Arun Sinha, Opto 22 Compliance incentives abound at the state and federal levels. Recognizing the business value of moving beyond simple compliance, Opto 22, a manufacturer of control, monitoring, and data acquisition hardware, stays ahead...

Safety: Protecting People, Processes, and Brand.
November 1, 2008... Marcia Walker and Dan Hornbeck, Rockwell Automation Machine safety technologies promote sustainable production by emphasizing global standards, innovative technologies, trained personnel, and ongoing risk assessment as best practices to...

Engineers Weigh In On Sustainability.
November 1, 2008... David Greenfield, Control Engineering A recent survey of Control Engineering subscribers illustrates the contradictions that exist in process and manufacturing plant engineers' perspectives of sustainability as an industrial initiative....

Supersizing Our Way to Energy Inefficiency.
November 1, 2008... Per Wikstroem, Jukka Tolvananen, Akseli Savolainen, and Peter Barbosa ABB Overcompensation has been a standard practice in engineering to ensure a system can handle whatever the user or environment might throw at it. In a world where...

New direction for industrial Ethernet cabling.
November 1, 2008... Pete Lockhart, Anixter Today's plant-level networking systems need to interact with central process control and manufacturing execution systems. With the proliferation of Ethernet connectivity, the Internet Protocol (IP) is becoming the...

Symbolic computation delivers advances for model creation.
November 1, 2008... Tom Lee, Maplesoft Faster computers and modeling/simulation software have revolutionized the design process for control system engineers. By using model based development (MBD) methods and crafting a virtual simulation prototype before...