Control and Instrumentation articles from April 2000

Control and Instrumentation archives from April 2000

The tough little gauge.
April 1, 2000... FLOTECH SOLUTIONS claims the 3D in the name of its 3D Instruments panel mounted pressure gauges stands for "direct drive difference", referring to an inconel Bourdon tube in the form of a helix capillary, directly coupled to the pointer needle,...

Integrated manufacturing.
April 1, 2000... Nobody can deny that the process and manufacturing industries are undergoing a period of change. The way we control our plant and machinery is developing at an almost unbelievable pace and the control engineer sector has been engulfed in an IT...

Fisher-Rosemount.
April 1, 2000... Pharmaceuticals giant SmithKline Beecham has signed a world-wide buying agreement with Fisher-Rosemount, after a full evaluation of available automation systems and field devices. Dermot Hoynihan, VP of Medicinals at SB, was especially...

H&D Fitzgerald.
April 1, 2000... H&D Fitzgerald has completed the new laboratory complex In St Asaph, North Wales which is to house its UKAS accredited facility for density calibration and measurement. For maximum stability, the entire complex has been constructed under a...

Strategic partnership.
April 1, 2000... eMation, formerly PC Soft International, has announced a strategic partnership with Factory Client Computers a Division of Total Control Products and GE Fanuc, to provide a complete software arid hardware solution for Windows CE-based operator...

Fieldbus community is bemused by patents fear.
April 1, 2000... A CLAIM by patent engineers at Endress+Hauser that essential parts of the recently published fieldbus standards are undermined by patents has been received with bemusement by the Fieldbus Foundation itself and by other member organisations, ...

USB.
April 1, 2000... Universal Serial Bus can replace different kinds of serial and parallel port connectors with one standardised plug and port combination. USB-compliant PCs and peripherals offer true plug and play and a hot-swapping facility so that the user...

ISDN.
April 1, 2000... Integrated Services Digital Network is a set of communications standards allowing a single wire or optical fibre to carry simultaneous voice, digital network services and/or video transmissions. The telephone network is almost entirely digital,...

PCI.
April 1, 2000... Peripheral Component Interconnect is an interconnection system between a micro-processor and attached devices in which expansion slots are spaced closely for high speed operation. Designed by Intel, the PCI is now installed on most new...

Alstom Drives & Controls.
April 1, 2000... It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it. Alstom Drives & Controls has been awarded a [pounds]1million contract to refurbish the transformer and rectifier power unit at Alcan Smelting's Lynemouth plant in Northumberland. This plant processes...

Conformity project matures.
April 1, 2000... THE CASS (Conformity Assessment of Safety-related Systems) project has reached a watershed with the end of the first phase of the project and the establishment of a company, The CASS Scheme, to continue with the establishment of an assessment...

Severn Trent in PLC supply deal.
April 1, 2000... SEVERN TRENT ENGINEERING has entered into a Framework agreement with Rockwell Automation to cover the supply of Programmable Logic Controllers. Up until now, Severn Trent was operating equipment from a dozen different manufacturers and its...

IRPC Group.
April 1, 2000... * The Business Support Helpline is a new and welcome telephone service for Gambica members. Operated by the IRPC group, it gives free, immediate and unlimited access to professional consultants who will advice on diverse business and employment...

Pepperl+Fuchs Group.
April 1, 2000... * The Pepperl+Fuchs Group has bought Berlin-based photoelectric sensor manufacturer, Visolux, thereby further strengthening its position in the factory automation market.

Instrument Express.
April 1, 2000... * Visit www.uk.endress.com to access Instrument Express, the new on-line sales platform set up by Endress+Hauser to give 48 hour delivery of the company's measurement devices and other products.

Aspen Technology.
April 1, 2000... * Aspen Technology has launched ProcessCity.com, a new collaborative Internet portal for process industry professionals. The site provides process industry-specific news and event information, in-depth discussion forums, career guidance and...

Jetline Engineering and AMET.
April 1, 2000... * Jetline Engineering and AMET have formed a technological alliance to provide joint mechanished welding solutions. Jetline will provide hard automation fixturing and controls and AMET will provide its Advent 'intelligent' welding computer...

Honeywell's Customer information Centre.
April 1, 2000... * uk.infocentre@honeywell.com is the new central e-mail address for Honeywell's Customer information Centre and can be used to request details of products and services. Honeywell's UK home page remains www.honeywell.com/uk

Foxboro.
April 1, 2000... * Following a recent collaboration agreement, Foxboro is to incorporate Compaq BusinessBus applications and services into its automation solutions. Compaq's flexible BusinessBus framework provides a standard framework for passing information...

Cadence Design Systems.
April 1, 2000... * Cadence Design Systems and Analogue Devices are planning to assist companies with the development of a wide range of next-generation embedded systems and products that use digital signal processing (DSP) technology. Analog says that it...

Turck and Banner get together.
April 1, 2000... GERMAN PROXIMITY SENSOR manufacturer Hans Turck GmbH and US photoelectic sensor manufacturer Banner Engineering Corporation are teaming up to supply the UK market through a new joint company - Turck Banner. Up to now, MTE Turck provided the...

Siemens secures safety stake.
April 1, 2000... SIEMENS A&D GROUP is to buy a 25% interest in Leuze Lumiflex thereby combining the optoelectronic know-how of Leuze Lumiflex in the field of industrial safety with safety integrated systems. The latter was launched by the Siemens A&D Group at...

Lenze integrates in the UK.
April 1, 2000... Bedford-based drive specialist Simplatroll has renamed itself as Lenze Ltd, thereby fully integrating itself into the worldwide group of which it has been a member for the past 12 months. The renamed organisation will sell a wide range of...

Solartron Mobrey.
April 1, 2000... Two well known names in process instrumentation - Mobrey and Solartron - have joined forces to form Solartron Mobrey. The new combined business will offer a single-source supply for measurement and control sensors covering level, flow,...

Fujitsu uses Baan solution.
April 1, 2000... Fujitsu ICL Espa[tiled{n}]a and Fujitsu Sorbus have chosen Baan solutions to replace their enterprise management applications and incorporate new functionality using the latest technology platforms. The project will be based on a highly...

Intellution to up efficiency.
April 1, 2000... Intellution has introduced an Enterprise System Integrator Program to connect customers with an integrator that will deliver tested tools, services and solutions for any application from the customer's plant floor to business systems. The aim...

SAP certification for OSI.
April 1, 2000... OSI Software has achieved SAP certification for the Quality Management module of its SAP R/3. The company's RLINK interface provides the infrastructure required to collect data from various plant systems, validate the data and determine what...

Software cuts sweet stops.
April 1, 2000... Plant Focus is a Windows software package that monitors wrapping, bottling and canning production lines to maximise efficiency. A confectionery manufacturer used it to reduce the number of daily stoppages on its wrapping line from 2000 to 400...

Windows CE solution cuts down development time.
April 1, 2000... BLUE PLANET is a new embedded PowerPC development platform for Microsoft Windows CE available from Embedded Planet. It is based on the Motorola PowerPC MPC8xx family, combined with board support packages from the top Windows CE system...

Schemas speed up introductions.
April 1, 2000... SEQUENCIA CORPORATION has just released two Extensible Makeup Language (XML) BizTalk schemas that enable the new processPoint portal, the only site on the Internet for buying and selling process manufacturing capability, and in doing so should...

TwinCAT comes betwixt high end NT PCs and embedded Windows CE devices.
April 1, 2000... HAYES CONTROL SYSTEMS has released details of the latest version of Beckhoff's TwinCAT PC software system for PLC and NC motion control functions. Designed specifically for use with Windows NT Embedded 4.0 -- a control solution that occupies...

GE Fanuc.
April 1, 2000... GE Fanuc's CIMPLICITY HMI control and monitoring software and PLCs are setting new standards of precision, ease of use and traceability at Unicorn Abrasives where they were recently Installed. Unicorn Abrasives manufactures high quality...

An award winning program.
April 1, 2000... LEGO Dacta, an innovative educational program from National Instruments which incorporates ROBOLAB 1.5 software for creating robotics models, has beaten over 300 entries for the title of 'Best software application for secondary education at the...

Software goes on the Internet.
April 1, 2000... From the second quarter of this year, Fourth Shift Europe will be offering its customers an ASP facility and making its full suite of Microsoft based Fourth Shift e-RP supply chain management software available as a leased or outsourced service...

Fieldbus patent squabble denied.
April 1, 2000... Despite fears that patent restrictions will ruin the chances of the fieldbus community working an air of openness, John Pittman, President of Fieldbus Foundation, is delighted with the Cenelec ratification PATENT ENGINEERS at Endress+Hauser...

Gaming chips sorted by image processing system.
April 1, 2000... A MAJOR MANUFACTURER of gaming machines has installed image processing units from Active Silicon and Series 38 encoders from Encoder Technology in more than 1000 top-flight chip sorting units during the last 18 months. Most casinos have...

Integrated solution for remote scraper bridge control.
April 1, 2000... PANTEK MONITORING Solutions and SLS Engineering have jointly installed a radio telemetry system that will remotely monitor and automatically control scraper bridges at NorthWest Water's Ellesmere Port Waste Treatment Works. Part of a site...

Ball valves shutdown world's biggest petrochemical plant.
April 1, 2000... CONTRACTORS SPECIFYING the emergency shutdown system for what is currently the World's largest petrochemical development have chosen ball valves to control the fuel feed to the main burners. Opening at the end of 2000, the plant, which is...

Control without crossed wires.
April 1, 2000... Mannesmann Dematic has upgraded its wiring design software to now handle a growing number of control systems' wiring diagrams of increasing complexity ONE OF THE WORLD'S LEADING suppliers of material handling systems, Mannesmann Dematic...

Stencilling over etching.
April 1, 2000... One of the movements in electronics manufacture in recent times has been the move towards laser etching of semiconductors as a more cost efficient alternative. Laser etching is claimed to offer greater technological performance, improved...

TESTING TIMES.
April 1, 2000... Colin Carter looks at the use of a software test platform in the manufacture of electronics components for use in Ericsson's Private Radio Systems Division What are the issues facing the electronics manufacturing industry today? Cost...

DATA ACQUISITION HAS USB FUTURE.
April 1, 2000... Imagine adding data acquisition capabilities to your PC as easily as plugging in a mouse or a keyboard. Thanks to USB-compatible modules, this could soon be a reality Acceptance of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) has grown amazingly in its...

Positional feedback achieved WITH LESS WIRING.
April 1, 2000... High speed machinery users can look forward to new levels of axis performance, with the adoption of distributed digital servo control system with speed loop motor technology Speed loop motor (SLM) technology is a quantum leap forward in...

Integration keeps Nestle in control.
April 1, 2000... Nestle says that a new warehouse management and control system has played a central role in optimising storage facilities, improving stock control and maximising efficiency across the entire distribution operation at its York depot One of...

GENERATING BENEFITS with object orientated database.
April 1, 2000... Nigen is one of Northern Ireland's privatised electricity generators and is an early adopter of an object oriented real time process database for data logging purposes. A real time object orientated database, combining various data sources...

PRECISELY LEVEL.
April 1, 2000... Peter West, Marketing Manager of Krohne introduces level meters based on time domain reflectometry which are rapidly becoming a viable and cost effective alternative to pressure transmitters, capacitance, ultrasonic and displacer types ...

SHOTTON - SAVING ON THE PAPERWORK.
April 1, 2000... Today's knowledge based control systems can automate data handling and integrate factory control from manufacturing right up into the supply chain Shotton Paper Company, a member of the UPM-Kymmene Group, needed to modernise the control...

Walsh's ten rules of intrinsic SAFETY.
April 1, 2000... Peter Walsh of Sira's Hazardous Area Centre near Chester has been certifying electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres for 15 years. Here are his 10 rules for intrinsic safety. Irrespective of the product and the...

Clipping controllers.
April 1, 2000... THE ADDITION of programmable BC3100/BC2000 and BC8000/BC8100 bus terminal controllers has enabled Hayes Control Systems to expand its Beckhoff PLC controller series to exploit the advantages of bus terminals and offers consistent programming in...

Fibre optic rotary joints to increase slip ring versatility.
April 1, 2000... IDM ELECTRONICS, one of the largest slip ring suppliers in Europe, says there are many engineering problems where only slip rings can provide the solution. Now Kaydon Corporation, parent company of IDM Electronics, has acquired Focal...

Actuator restyled with Asic technology and data logging.
April 1, 2000... WHILST retaining all the innovative traits of the original non-intrusive unit, Rotork has restyled its 10 electric actuator with a host of new features. These include rationalised electronics and replacing separate components with Asic...

I/O and SCC lines up.
April 1, 2000... NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS has expanded its data acquisition digital I/O and signal conditioning components lines with two new optically isolated digital I/O boards and nine SCC Isolated analogue input modules. Isolation capabilities protect a...

On-site calibrations.
April 1, 2000... AMETEK SAYS it has designed the new JOFRA ATC (Advanced Temperature Calibrator) dry-block Industrial calibrator to be a complete portable test laboratory which the user can program and then use on the process line to calibrate at temperatures...

Four waveforms make for a versatile choice.
April 1, 2000... THE TGA1244 4 channel arbitrary waveform generator from TTi is for applications needing up to four waveforms, generated fully independently or else linked using simple or complex relationships. It provides full interchannel triggering,...

Specialist AC high-current test fixture.
April 1, 2000... Magnus Power's new AC high current control desk based fixture is for testing devices that need calibrated current measurements. To use the new test fixture, the operator threads a busbar through up to twelve transducer units under test, and...

Accurate temperature sensors come as chips.
April 1, 2000... INTENDED AS REPLACEMENTS for thermistors in temperature applications, the new low-cost temperature sensors from Heraeus Sensor-Nite provide high accuracy, long-term stability and near linear output over a -50[degrees]C to +130[degrees]C...

Non-invasive meter.
April 1, 2000... THE ABLE ENERGY Metering System uses ultrasonic clamp-on transit time technology and clamp-on precision RTD temperature sensors to continously monitor thermal flow in pipes providing they are sized from 1/2 to 48". Furthermore, the clamp on...

Switch uses sound to get to right level.
April 1, 2000... Chem Resist Europe says it has now added an Ultrasonic version to its extensive range of Flowline level switches. Ultrasonic level switches can be used with a broad range of liquids (including those with light coating or scaling...

Sound analyser now comes as a portable.
April 1, 2000... BRUEL & KJAER has launched a portable version of its Pulse multipurpose sound analyser for measurement, analysis and verification of sound intensity, noise source identification and sound quality in the field. Weighing a mere 6kg, the...

Valve islands boost their range by two.
April 1, 2000... Parker Pneumatic has boosted its Valvetronic range of valve island modules with two new products: Solstar micro solenoid valves with 4mm connection and flows of either 33 NI/min or 50 NI/min; and the PVLC10 module with G1/4 or '8mm connections...

Probes will feed info straight into Scada.
April 1, 2000... MONITRAN IS LAUNCHING stainless steel 4-20mA eddy current probes that enable operators to take accurate, non-contact measurements at distances up to 20mm from a target, and feed the sensor information directly into PLC, Scada or bespoke...

Conoscopic holography inspection.
April 1, 2000... The Conoscan non-contact inspection probe uses patented 'conoscopic holography' to create precise 3D digital images of virtually any surface -- for example, awkward shapes, angles, materials or sizes -- at very high speeds, and at stand-off...

Control build-up of oil level in wet/dry sumps.
April 1, 2000... WITH ENVIRONMENTAL consciousness in mind, lonics has introduced the Leakwise range of oil sump monitors to continuously detect and control the build-up of oil levels in wet or dry sumps, separators and retention tanks, and actuate alarms,...

Tracing with fast steps.
April 1, 2000... HIGH-SPEED DIGITAL SAMPLING and fast stepper-motor drivers enable the new LR series pen recorders from Yakogawa to produce up to twelve individually programmed high speed traces at up to 1600mm/s. At the same time, a number of intelligent...

One for compliance.
April 1, 2000... COMPLIANCE MEASUREMENTS that once required many steps can now be achieved at the touch of a single button. The new combined high speed 50GHz oscilloscope/digital communications analyser (DCA) from Agilent Technologies eliminates cumbersome...

Slim, flat units are enclosed to IP65.
April 1, 2000... MANUFACTURED BY Waterside Solutions to its own in-house design, Panel Point flat panel mountable industrial computers come with touch screen and/or keypad control, the tactile membrane keypad being ergonomically laid out. These slim units...

Well-suited for direct and reverse starting.
April 1, 2000... INLINE POWER terminal blocks from Phoenix Contact are compact actuating devices for direct switching, protection and monitoring of 3-phase ac standardised motors over a 0.2 to 8A range. With simple, toolless handling, plug-in connection and...

Twin function timing at a lower cost.
April 1, 2000... Matsushita Electric Works has added a new low-cast addition for control panels to Its LT4H electronic timer range. The LT4H-W features two timers that can be Individually set to time two sequential operations and a wide timing range of...

Not another logger - just buy more probes.
April 1, 2000... WITH THE EASYSENSE 100 portable data logger, Data Harvest has employed a novel approach to deciding what measurement parameters to specify when buying a multi-channel unit. The instrument uses Smart Q probes which both configure and calibrate...

Add speed or feedback.
April 1, 2000... ROTALINK HAS introduced new low cost add on encoder/tacho units to generate speed and/or positional feedback from existing drive units. The frame size currently available offers an encoder with a 48- or 50-line two channel quadrature...

Control up to 288 I/O.
April 1, 2000... HORNER APG Is introducing the OCS Operator Control Station, a logic controller with Integrated operator interface that can control up to 288 digital I/O. The station can be used In standalone or distributed applications, supporting DeviceNet,...

Weighing up accuracy in bag filling.
April 1, 2000... The Chrono-tronic SpeedAC 8 weighing controller utllises 32 bit technology for dynamic and static accuracy when used in combination with many weighers. In bag filling, the controller offers approved resolution of 6000 digits and an internal...

The importance of training.
April 1, 2000... Schneider Electric's Automation Division's Peter Reeve warns that the UK could be lagging behind with the training of its control engineers KEY INDUSTRIES in the UK do not provide as much training per head as other countries. And because...

COMPANY PROFILE.
April 1, 2000... ROXPUR MEASUREMENT & CONTROL Campbell Court, Bramley, Tadley, Hampshire RG26 56EG Tel: 01256 883900, Fax 01256 582986 WHAT DOES ROXSPUR MEASUREMENT & CONTROL DO? Roxspur Measurement & Control supplies flow, temperature,...

People on the move[ldots].
April 1, 2000... Milltronics have promoted Carl Pinches to European Regional Sales Manager. Carl was previously employed as Technical Support Officer and as a Product Specialist. Bruce Balle has been appointed Director of Operations for the UK, Ireland,...