Control and Instrumentation articles from June 1998

Control and Instrumentation archives from June 1998

Process and control firms lead the information race.
June 1, 1998... Process control companies are well ahead of the pack when it comes to business use of the Internet and other new technologies, according to GAMBICA. Hot on the heels of a DTI report Moving into the Information Age - International...

Microsoft counts down.
June 1, 1998... Y2K The 'Countdown to 2000' conference, was held recently in Birmingham, the timing to coincide with the inauguration of Microsoft's product resource centre. The function of the centre is to provide information on Microsoft's...

European PLC market escalates.
June 1, 1998... The European market value for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is forecast to increase by 65% by the year 2004. A report from international marketing consulting company Frost & Sullivan says factors driving this growth - from $1.7bn in...

They've FIX'd it.
June 1, 1998... After three years in gestation, Intellution's FIX Dynamics has made its debut. Fix is grandly billed as the first fully integrated automation system based on component object technology. Intellution claims the package 'allows...

Directors' salaries at odds with performance.
June 1, 1998... If you're grooming fat cats, make sure they earn their cream. That's the message implicit in the latest Plimsoll report(*) on the C&I industry which examines how companies are performing relative to their directors' fees. The results are...

PAPERLESS RECORDING.
June 1, 1998... BRIAN MATTOX Personal computers (PCs) and industrial PCs are ubiquitous on the plant floor and companies are rapidly integrating PCs, third party data acquisition products, SCADA systems, and distributed control systems (DCS) to best find...

A PC with PLC power.
June 1, 1998... Mitsubishi Electric has linked up with Steeplechase Software to launch Melsoft MX, a PC-based process control system that offers a powerful alternative to traditional PLC technology. The system uses a Mitsubishi Profibus system, and is...

Guiding lights.
June 1, 1998... MICHAEL SCOTT In all fields of measurement, a consistent approach is ever important, so an increase in the understanding and use of common terms and procedures will reduce the chances of misunderstanding and improve both quality and...

Pollution monitoring gets the ENVIRONMENTAL MAKEOVER.
June 1, 1998... CHRIS WEBB Worldwide, it's worth an estimated US$400bn. So why is the market for Environmental Technologies so lack~ lustre; so low on the shopping list of many British - and, it has to be said, foreign - companies? The UK...

Raising the standard.
June 1, 1998... As chairman of ISA SP50 and convenor of IEC SC65C/WG6 Fieldbus Committees, I feel that some of the erroneous implications expressed by Geoff Hodgkinson in last month's Feedback (C&I, May p31) must be corrected. The world has spoken and...

Kent firefighters improve response.
June 1, 1998... Kent Fire Brigade has installed an incident and resource management system from Syseca, to co-ordinate and direct responses. The command and control system is based on Syseca's Incident Based Information System (IBIS). A similar system is...

NOVEL SENSORS offer economies.
June 1, 1998... ALAN REEVE Sensors have a vital role to play in optimising process operations, improving productivity and reducing costs. ETSU estimates that new sensor technology could cut energy consumption and waste production by 10%. This would not...

Multidimensional processing.
June 1, 1998... ROBIN BROOKS Most plant operation involves multistage processing such that the operating characteristics of any stage are a function of earlier operations. A process operator may need to be aware of relative values for, typically, 20 to...

Laser system measures surface roughness.
June 1, 1998... Launched at the engineering exhibition MACH 98, the SMS mu Scan system from Schmitt Europe is a portable, non contact surface measurement instrument which uses scattered laser light to determine surface roughness. From a single...

Filter aids chromatography.
June 1, 1998... Pharmaceuticals company, 3M Health Care, Loughborough, has improved the accuracy of the liquid chromatography equipment in its analytical lab. The company has fitted a third-harmonic filter from ABB Control to reduce interference from...

DATA LOGGING now going a la carte.
June 1, 1998... MIKE PISAPIA Our ability to gather data from instrumentation has never been greater. Yet, as always, our ability to use it effectively depends on how easily we can configure instruments to obtain data, analyse it and then act on it. ...

Effectively model electrical power.
June 1, 1998... The Power System Blockset design tool has been introduced by Cambridge Control for users of its modelling and simulation tool Simulink. For the first time, users are now able to effectively model the transmission and distribution of electrical...

Decontactors boost safety.
June 1, 1998... The stainless steel manufacturer, Avesta Sheffield, has chosen Marechal decontactors to isolate the electrical equipment in its Sheffield works. The decontactors are the first to provide the company with an indication that equipment has...

Precise benefits of IMPRECISION.
June 1, 1998... STEVEN FRALEIGH Fuzzy logic and neural networks are two of the newer, higher-level tools available that process and batch manufacturers can employ to develop systems that monitor and control the operation of production processes. Both...

Toolkit features powerful wizards.
June 1, 1998... To speed up the development of OPC-compliant, HMI ActiveX controls for Microsoft Windows 95/98 and Windows NT operating systems, Iconics has a new toolkit. There are powerful wizards to create controls for use with the company's...

It's true: pork pies la Scada.
June 1, 1998... At Pork Farms Bowyers' Nottingham plant, which produces more than 3m pies, sausage rolls and Cornish pasties a week, advanced programmable logic control and GE Fanuc's latest Cimplicity HMI SCADA system are upping production efficiency. ...

NDC pledges end to brittle tile misery.
June 1, 1998... It is claimed that an instrument which measures the moisture content in clay could improve the manufacture of ceramic tiles - something in every kitchen/bathroom. If ceramic powder is too wet, the tiles will lack strength; too dry and the...

Gas relative density meter.
June 1, 1998... The 3098 Gas Specific Gravity Transducer has been launched by Solartron to offer tighter custody transfer control to gas utilities and petrochemical companies. The transducer is integrated with a calorific value analyser to produce an...

Aspen and Intergraph go for integrated path.
June 1, 1998... ALLIANCE A strategic alliance has been formed between Aspen Technology and Intergraph to deliver integrated solutions for plant design, operations and management. The alliance will see Aspen's Plantelligence products integrated with...

Sensor marks red or green.
June 1, 1998... Colour marking with a red or a green light source is available through Omron's new colour mark sensor. The E3X-NVG photoelectric sensor uses a green light source and can provide positioning information for carton printing or labelling,...

F-R digs in with Foundation Fieldbus products.
June 1, 1998... Barbara Gledhill It may have been a long time coming, but Fisher-Rosemount has announced the first two working commercial installations of its PlantWeb field-based architecture converged with Foundation Fieldbus technology. The first...

Who ate all the pies? Nobody.
June 1, 1998... Comark did its bit to enable a giant charity steak & kidney pie get into the Guinness Book of World Records, but it wasn't quite enough to allow Eddie Large get into the records for eating it. To break the record, the 11 tonne pie...

Bright future for C&I show.
June 1, 1998... Next year's C&I show will be organised by exhibition director Simon Bright who heads Miller Freeman's new Industrial Exhibition group, launched at the end of April's expo. In 1999, the show will be held in halls 3 and 3A and be back in its...

Pantek claims the lead.
June 1, 1998... Antony Savvas Pantek has overtaken Intellution in the UK SCADA process industries market, according to a survey from research organisation Benchmark, sponsored partly by Pantek. Through its SCADA product InTouch, Pantek increased its...

Monitoring systems ratified.
June 1, 1998... MCERTS is a rigorous certification scheme for assuring that the quality of data from pollution monitoring equipment meets international standards. It will be operated by Sira Certification Service on behalf of the Environmental Agency; and...

Spectrophotometer has dedicated gas analysis software.
June 1, 1998... Gaslab, a portable benchtop spectrometer which incorporates a dedicated version of GasWorks software, is now available from VG Gas Analysis. The Gaslab is designed for fast atmospheric pressure sampling in R&D applications and, says the...

Training incentives for C&I firms.
June 1, 1998... Antony Savvas Engineering and manufacturing companies are hoping to avoid statutory training levies by introducing a training benchmark of companies which most successfully train. The Engineering Employers Federation and the...

Mitsubishi revises forecast.
June 1, 1998... Automation activities remain strong at the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation - despite recent warnings of higher losses than previously forecast, for the group as a whole. Process control and automation remain in a strong position, said...

OA intends to reshape control.
June 1, 1998... At the Hannover Fair, Object Automation launched OAenterprise, a novel integrated system for distributed automation applications, which is designed to reduce the development time for control systems. Steve Hyde, European Sales manager, told...

Siebe buys SimSci for a cool GBP88m.
June 1, 1998... Siebe has acquired Simulation Sciences (SimSci) for GBP88m, it was announced last month. The deal coincides with Siebe's GBP423m 'friendly' bid for Eurotherm, and follows only weeks after its acquisition of Wonderware (for GBP196m). News...