High on Hannover

Not just another exhibition, Hannover Messe is a herald of future trends, a barometer for the economy, a technology transfer platform, a forum for innovation, a knowledge hub, a driver of new cooperative ventures, and much, much more

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While automation-related exhibitions in other parts of the world increasingly experience lackluster attendance and vendor interest, that’s definitely not the case at Hannover – some 200,000 visitors came to the show, which comprised 10 international flagship trade fairs. including for the first time ever, Power Plant Technology – devoted to the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of power stations.	The biggest and the brightest: the Siemens booth was again was a multi-million euro, multi-storey extravaganza. As well as the plethora of product stands – now in new corporate white instead of blue – a live demo of automobile production showcased the company’s comprehensive range of solutions across the design and manufacturing value chain. A separate booth in Hall 17 was dedicated to Siemens PLM solutions.
Foundation fieldbus dominates the process market, said Fieldbus Foundation chief Rich Timoney. Among the press conference announcements: demonstration site plans for safety instrumented functions (SIF); continuing support for efforts to develop a single Field Device Integration (FDI) solution; and development of a High Speed Ethernet Remote I/O (HSE-RIO) solution.	(l-r) Eric Tan and Wilson Tan from the Singapore regional office spotted at Weidmuller’s distinctive orange and black booth. On show for the first time, SAI Active Universal modules with integral Profinet I/O interface. They can be deployed as slaves in real-time networks and are compatible with IRT (isochronous real-time) networks.
Banging the drum for Centum VP. Yokogawa’s new DCS was the centerpiece attraction at its Hannover stand. But also on show were the various elements within the Vigilant Plant concept, including instrumentation, safety systems, and plant asset management software.	Advice from the top: Hans Beckhoff taking time to answer queries during the very well attended evening drinks session held at the Beckhoff booth. The company now offers IO-Link integration for the EtherCAT terminal system, and presents for the first time a PC/104plus industrial motherboard.
Dr Thomas Oelschlagel of Hirschmann Automation and Control points to some of the new products from the German industrial Ethernet specialists. Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology has been integrated into the MACH 1000 managed switch series, enabling up to four Fast Ethernet ports with 15.4 W output power.	With alternative energy being a prominent feature at this year’s Hannover show, Dolf Joekes of Singapore’s Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies points out the company’s product offerings, which range from novel fuel cell educational kits to commercial systems. Its polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) solutions deliver 0.3 W to 15 kW power.
Making a number of acquisitions and then being acquired itself, it’s been a busy time for Graham Philp, CEO, MTL Instruments, seen here addressing the assembled media. The company’s future focus will be fieldbus physical layer components, wireless infrastructure, and industrial Ethernet components and security.	In response to increasing concerns over plant IT security, Phoenix Contact presented the FL MGuard RS Firewall, an industry firewall/router solution for individual protection of distributed automation systems. Production cells can only be protected by a concept that works at a distributed level, based on a solution for providing end-device security, says Phoenix.
If he’s wearing a bow-tie then it must be Endress+Hauser. The process instrument specialists launched a number of new products at the show, including the Liquiphant M limit detection switch that can be used in combination with the FML621 density calculator for density measurements.	The magic number is now 23.3 – that’s the number (millions) of Profibus nodes now installed. Meanwhile, for Profinet, the figure stands at 1.14 million. PI also announced the publication of documents on the integration of IO-Link into Profibus and Profinet, and held a live application of IO-Link products.
On show for the first time at Hannover, and designed specifically for the needs of factory automation, Mitsubishi Electric’s iQ Automation Platform unites four different controller types – PLC, CNC, motion control, robot control – in a single integrated platform. The iQ platform also includes an interface module for the CC-Link IE gigabit network	Already the largest supplier of automation products for wind turbines, ABB is now targeting offshore windfarms, of which more and more are set to be installed over the next few years. Marine environments, such as the North Sea, demand compact and reliable products, and the new LV contactor type AF2050 has been specially developed for wind turbine service.
A clear message on sensing and connectivity at the Turck stand. And among the launches, the high temperature RFID system, BL Ident, has been expanded to include a special read-write head for roller conveyors, which can detect several tags simultaneously, tags for direct use on metal, and an I/O module for plug & play connection to controllers.	Taiwan’s Moxa says it is focusing on the trend in wireless technologies and the two vertical markets of power and transportation. Accordingly, at Hannover, Moxa presented new models of Wireless Access Points, GSM/GPRS Modems, and Wireless Enablers, plus a range of IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 certified switches, the PT series.
Get ready for WirelessHART: Ron Nelson (above), HART Communication Foundation (HCF) Executive Director, talks through the top 10 essentials; and (below) Pepperl+Fuchs announces that it will enter the market in early 2009 with a WirelessHART Gateway for connection to control systems, and a WirelessHART Adapter for standard field devices.	From the Wireless Pavilion: a first time appearance at Hannover for Singapore’s iWOW (above), a provider of modules and modems for the M2M market; and (below) Rich Mangam of Perpetuum, shows off the company’s battery-replacing energy harvesting technology, which targets powering of industrial wireless sensors.