Control and Instrumentation articles from April 1999

Control and Instrumentation archives from April 1999

Proprietary solutions take up the Chicago incentive.
April 1, 1999... Last month's National Industrial Automation trade show, which took place in Chicago, provided further proof of the rapid adoption of commercial networking technologies in the process automation sector. Coming only a few weeks after...

Operational safety by design.
April 1, 1999... Siemens Automation and Drives has developed a system which provides integration between operating and safety process controls. The Safety Integrated system allows users to design systems around a range of modules such as motion control sensors,...

NEWS IN BRIEF.
April 1, 1999... Major enclosures contract Armagard has won a 500,000 [pounds sterling] contract to supply environmental PC enclosures to Ford Motor Co in Europe. The enclosures are for a PC-based quality and inventory control system. Quality control...

COMPANIES.
April 1, 1999... * Festo has opened a new, fully-automated customer service centre in St Ingbert-Rohrbach, Germany. * Meggitt Mobrey has moved headquarters to new purpose-built premises in Slough. * Enterprise business software provider JD Edwards has...

Baker toasts Schneider deal.
April 1, 1999... British Bakeries has signed a landmark deal with Schneider that will seal a relationship with the latter going far beyond anything before. It represents, says BB, simply a `new generation of industrial strategic alliance' between a leading...

Government demands key escrow response.
April 1, 1999... In a bid to make Britain `the World's best place to do business electronically', the DTI has published a consultation document with only three weeks for industry to respond. The DTI has already shown its own ability to respond rapidly by...

Go green to stay in the green.
April 1, 1999... The CBI/BSI conference at the environmental technology exhibition ET99 will focus on `Profiting from the environment'. Delegates will hear how environmental best practice can enhance their competitive edge and profitability. The theme of...

Environment awards are re-engineered.
April 1, 1999... The Engineering Council has redesigned, its Environment Award For Engineers. The new classifications are said to `mirror current environmental concerns and Government initiatives'. The top prize is 5000 [pounds sterling] and the Lloyd's...

PEOPLE.
April 1, 1999... * MDC Technology, supplier of real-time optimisation and advanced process control has appointed Pete Sharpe as vice president of operations in Houston, Texas. * Peter Cusworth has joined Yokogawa UK as Control Room Product Specialist for...

CONTRACTS.
April 1, 1999... * Lockheed Martin Solartron Systems has placed a 100,000 [pounds sterling] order with Kewill Systems ERP division for its Enterprise IBS Elite software. * SSP Projects is to supply and install mechanical and electrical pumping plant for...

Oliver seals valve deal.
April 1, 1999... Oliver Valves is celebrating its 20th anniversary with further expansion and its largest order to date, a 1.4 m [pounds sterling] contract from PDO Oman. Michael Oliver set up the company in 1979 after designing a needle valve which...

Taxing business for European small firms.
April 1, 1999... The European Small Business Alliance (ESBA) -- the pan-European small firms lobby group -- is to campaign against proposals for tax harmonisation in favour of tax competition between EU member states. The decision by ESBA on this...

A model for success in metrology.
April 1, 1999... Technologies developed in areas such as medicine, entertainment or IT may have applications in the field of data visualisation and modelling. Sira has been awarded a contract from the National Measurement System Policy Unit to examine ways of...

Chernobyl cleans image.
April 1, 1999... Two staff from BNFL Instruments have returned from the Ukraine, where they donated a Radscan gamma ray imager to Energoatom, the operators of Chernobyl, and helped to train staff in its use. The Radscan can locate contamination before...

Gambica reports on US sensors mission.
April 1, 1999... Gambica, the association for the instrumentation, control and automation industry in the UK, has published a 40 page report on the findings of its recent (October 1998) research mission to the USA on Environmental Monitoring and Sensors. ...

EMC policing holds the key to growth.
April 1, 1999... The market for EMC endorsed equipment needs the further stimulus of enforcement if it is to provide the commercial returns many suppliers would like. That's the conclusion of a report(*) by Frost & Sullivan, the marketing consultants, which...

Global safety gains.
April 1, 1999... Intrinsic safety specialist MTL has reported a 7% increase in pre-tax profits for 1998. Total sales increased by 9% to 45.9m [pounds sterling] and the annual dividend was increased to 6p per share. While the company's global business has...

Business is profitable--but just how profitable?
April 1, 1999... Plimsoll Publishing's latest report on over 1000 companies in the Instruments and Control Devices sector shows that overall profitability has improved slightly in the period 1993 - 1997, and preliminary figures for 1998 suggest the trend is...

Electrical business powers up.
April 1, 1999... Business expansion at AVK|SEG has forced the company to move to new premises in High Wycombe. Commenting on the company's progress, sales Director Chris Pritchard said: "We are now perceived as a major supplier in the power industry, and our...

OSI sales leap.
April 1, 1999... OSI Software, the California real-time data collection software provider, has announced its 1998 sales, its best result to date, up 22% over 1997 to US$39.7m (24.4m [pounds sterling]). OSI, 90% of whose income comes directly from software...

Aggreko gains.
April 1, 1999... Aggreko plc have announced preliminary results for its first year as an independently quoted plc. Operating profit is up 17.2% on a 9.5% increased turnover. The company has invested 65.6 million [pounds sterling] and increased pre-tax profits...

Compressor helps to green the earth.
April 1, 1999... The patented SBS (soils bio-stimulation) process used by Soil Remediation employs vacuum to remove ground water, free phase products and natural gases, coupled with air and nutrients injected through a series of hollow lances to stimulate...

Whisky needs a Rare Blend of control systems.
April 1, 1999... J&B Rare Whisky has installed Alstom PLCs and SCADA at its tank farm in Renfrew, Scotland. At the same time the number of whisky storage tanks has been increased to 43, each with a capacity of a quarter million litres. The site receives...

Parking problems all end in tiers.
April 1, 1999... One solution to car parking problems is the fully automatic multi-level parking system developed by Otto Wohr GmbH, now used both in Germany and Taiwan. Customers leave cars at a parking area from where they are moved to a multi-level bay....

Controls that lead a long enriched life.
April 1, 1999... Allen-Bradley controls have been chosen to run the safety and operating systems for a uranium enrichment plant at Capenhurst. The cascaded centrifuge enrichment plant is designed to operate continuously for up to 20 years without any stops for...

Putting power on the right tracks.
April 1, 1999... Freightliner is taking delivery of locomotives modified to haul heavier loads with no increase in basic power. The `Class 57' locomotive is essentially a Class 47 which has been overhauled and fitted with a wheel slip tractive effort control...

Low-flying camera gets all the best shots.
April 1, 1999... Aerial Camera Systems has developed an automated camera that has been used to take difficult TV shots at over 30 sporting events around the world. The camera is mounted on a carbon fibre reinforced carriage with active suspension running...

Good reasons to be in hot water.
April 1, 1999... Hamworthy Combustion Engineering and Bulgarian company Toplofikacia have co-operated on a project to upgrade boilers of the Russian PTVM design which is widely used in eastern Europe. The upgrades increase both capacity and efficiency while...

Straining to find the best performance.
April 1, 1999... Micro Measurements' T-Rosette strain gauges have been fitted to Lola Cars International's new endurance racer B98/10. The gauges on the suspension pushrods measure wheel loads at speed, allowing design engineers to analyse performance and...

The eyes have it.
April 1, 1999... British Steel has installed a Smarteye tracking system from Colter Distribution at its Roundwood Mill in Rotherham. Slotted metal plates are attached to all the 200 carriers on the mill's overhead conveyor system. The plates are `read' by units...

Keep your cool.
April 1, 1999... Brunner Mond in Northwich, Cheshire, has reduced water and energy use in the cooling water supply to its soda ash plant by installing Alstom Alspa GD4000 inverter drives. River water is pumped from a reservoir and the drives, each with its...

Rigged out for all situations.
April 1, 1999... Denmark's first fully integrated North Sea oil and gas platform is to be automated with ABB's Advant OCS system, The South Arne field platform combines wellhead, process operations and living quarters on one unit. The Advant system will...

Stage set mirrors reality.
April 1, 1999... A theatre performance held during the 1998 Edinburgh Festival called for a 1000 kg mirror, 3m x 6m, to be lifted from a face-down position on the stage, moved around in the air and finally returned to the ground. Motor Technology had a...

Canny design for printing.
April 1, 1999... Retek has developed a rotary printing machine for aerosol cans that is compact, quiet and allows rapid order changes. Toshiba T1 programmable controllers are used to run all motors in the machine. Specialist programming was provided by CDI...

Warehousing automation for hazardous areas.
April 1, 1999... Daifuku Europe has installed an automated storage and retrieval system at the flammable paint storage operation of NP Automotive Coatings. The design had to comply with Zone 2 hazard regulations and temperature classification T4. Two fully...

Cementing progress.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... CompAir has supplied over 20 BroomWade compressors worth a total of 800,000 [pounds sterling] to the Tourah Cement Works in Egypt. 14 V-major and eight V-compact reciprocating compressors formed the bulk of the order. These models are...

Windows for the watchers.
April 1, 1999... Photon (TG) has installed a Micross for Windows manufacturing planning system from Kewill in just six weeks. Photon requires some 3500 stock parts for its high-resolution CCTV systems, including integrated security and control systems for...

PRODUCTS CONTROL SYSTEMS.(Product Information)
April 1, 1999... Acting like a cost of thousands DataManager is a SCADA system for small batch and continuous operations. It can operate with up to 512 devices such as PLCs and intelligent instruments, costs only around 550 [pounds sterling] in its basic...

PRODUCTS.
April 1, 1999... Measuring VOCs on the move The Bernath Atomic 3006 is a portable FID monitor which measures total VOCs over a range of 1 to 100,000 PPM. The design minimises warm-up time and integral zero and span reference standards simplify calibration....

SYS*BUILD/NEWS.
April 1, 1999... Baan for user group's conference ERP USERS Baan UK is supporting the launch of an independent User Group for the UK and Ireland. Members are expected to benefit from help with implementation and customisation issues. `Baan is a...

SYS*BUILD/PROJECTS.
April 1, 1999... Custom cutting needs careful control LASERS MTP Laser operates a custom production business so complex that its new commercial manager, Gerry Winfield, considered expansion impossible without a complete change to administrative...

SYS*BUILD/SOFTWARE.
April 1, 1999... New Windows on process control PC Soft has introduced a `soft process controller' which enables a PC running Windows NT to operate real-time industrial process control applications. WizDCS provides a graphical configuration system that...

SYS*BUILD/PRODUCTS.
April 1, 1999... Speaking exel-ent English The latest version of Exel's efacs enterprise software can be operated flora a single WindowsNT server running Terminal Server 4.0 over a WAN. Older PCs and terminals that cannot themselves run the latest...

Ultimate reliability.
April 1, 1999... Data relating to the performance of installed plant is vital to efficient operation. But when equipment is replaced or modified without notification, suppliers tracking their own data come into their own. Here, we look at an application based...

Conform to survive.
April 1, 1999... Stuart Nunns of Eutech, Project Manager for the Conformity Assessment of Safety (related) Systems (CASS) Project, talked with Colin Carter about how UK industry will benefit. During the mid 1980s, fears were expressed in many quarters...

KEEPING TRACK of the fast moving plot.
April 1, 1999... Digital technology has increased both the versatility and the response speed of the chart recorder The requirement for chart recorders in process, research and testing applications is as strong as ever, and digital techniques have...

TECHNOLOGY and the new Millennium.
April 1, 1999... With just eight months to go to the new Millennium, Richard Shield questions what the environmental market has to offer New technology is starting to impact product development and market opportunities in environmental monitoring. Like any...

INTEGRATION.
April 1, 1999... Where Java meets process control The arrival of Java has probably not gone unnoticed by anyone who regularly uses computers. Alan Halley and Peter Gauld consider that Java has much to offer the process industry in terms of increased...

EMISSIVITY a real surface problem.
April 1, 1999... Over the years, IR thermometry has been providing reliable temperature measurements. In practice, the limit to accuracy has always been uncertainty in the object's surface emissivity. Many techniques have been proposed to solve problems of...

FIELDBUS plays its cards right.
April 1, 1999... Steve Blakely looks at the use of Fieldbus in the electronics manufacturing sector and discovers that there is not a clear winner in the protocols race Brooks Automation Software of Richmond, BC, Canada focuses on controls for the...

C&I PREVIEW: A glimpse of the future?
April 1, 1999... As the last C&I Show of the Millennium draws near Control and Instrumentation thought it appropriate to ask a few industry figures to look into their crystal balls. David R Lewis Sira Test & Certification Ltd. Fieldbus technology...

Show briefs.
April 1, 1999... The Yokogawa Group on stand G30 will be highlighting the latest release of the Exaquantum PIMS system, which can handle any size or complexity of process or plant. Input data can be derived from process control and other sources up to and...