May 2007 Contents
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Cover Story
Industrial Strength Security
For this month’s Cover Story we take a look at the burgeoning issue of cyber security. First off, Andreas Kopke explains why when it comes to securing IT infrastructure, the plant floor is a very different place to the top floor.
Problems and faults in the recent past have made many companies aware of the need for IT security measures. A start has also been made in the industrial environment in meeting the increasing th...
Editor Comment
Green is good
Bob Gill/Group Editor
There was a time not too long ago when interest in the environment and what we all may be doing to it was strictly a fringe activity. And most of that seemed to come from northern Europe and ...
Inside Process
The Three Faces of PID
The elements of PID control each have a distinct personality, but they can be made to work together and loop tuning becomes easier when you understand the interactions. By Vance Van Doren.
A (PID) controllers dominate the process control landscape, they do have their limitations. PID loops can be difficult to configure properly, their behavior is not easily understood, an...
Interview
In Good Health
Helping companies to keep their critical equipment running is all in a day’s work for Robin Lu, Director, Machinery Health Management, Emerson Process Management Asia Pacific. He explains more to CE Asia.
CEA: What is the position of the Machinery Health Management unit within the Emerson organization? Lu: Machinery Health Management is one of the business...
News
Hannover Fair 2007
The total attendance fi gures of over 230,000 visitors at this April’s HANNOVER MESSE was an increase of more than 10 percent on the last directly comparable year, 2005. Visitors fro...
OMRON Launches STI Machine Safety Brand
OMRON Corporation has established a new category brand, STI (Safety, Innovation & Technology), as it ramps up expansion of its machine safeguarding business. The company also revealed that...
Cisco and Rockwell to collaborate
Rockwell Automation and Cisco are to work together to help manufacturers achieve the visibility, flexibility and collaboration necessary in today’s global manufacturing environment, throug...
FDT and EDDL set to converge
An historic automation industry agreement, announced jointly by EDDL Cooperation Team (ECT) and FDT Group representatives at the 2007 Hannover Messe, lays the groundwork for developi...
Schneider Electric aligns with ODVA
ODVA has announced that Schneider Electric will significantly increase its level of support for the industrial network organization by becoming one of its principal members, joining ...
Citect supplies SCADA upgrade for PETRONAS
For the recent SCADA System upgrade for PETRONAS Gas in Malaysia, Citect’s local system integrator, Into Solution, was awarded the turnkey project to migrate the legacy HP RTAP S...
Yokogawa announces ‘mega event’
Yokogawa Engineering Asia will host an R&D Technology Innovations Fair and its biennial Users Conference 2007 on July 3-7, 2007. This mega event will be held conjunction with the Off...
Roadblocks to Pharma RFID adoption identified
Market research firm Health Industry Insights, an IDC company, has announced survey findings that identify the top factors contributing to the pharmaceutical industry’s slow adoption...
Taiwan to establish Robotics Association
With backing from the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), the Taiwan Robot Industry Development Association (TRIDA) is to be established with a synergistic effort from g...
Fieldbus Foundation celebrates 10 years
The Singapore marketing committee for Fieldbus Foundation celebrates 10 years of activity in Singapore and the Southeast Asia region this year. The anniversary will be commemorated by a...
Emerson to automate largest Vietnam power plant
Emerson Process Management has received a contract to install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation expert control system in Units 1 and 2 of the new Vietnam Haiphon...
Passive backplanes dominate embedded market
Passive backplane-based computer systems continue to dominate the embedded integrated computer systems market – according to VDC’s recently released Global Market Analysis of Embedde...
Belden buys Lumberg Automation
Belden has entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of Germany’s Lumberg Automation Components and related entities for an undisclosed price. This follows two recent purchase...
New Solutions
Extremely fast control
With XFC technology Beckhoff presents a new, fast control solution based on an optimized control and communication architecture comprising an advanced Industrial PC...
Tester for fieldbus networks
The Fluke ScopeMeter 125 is the latest addition to the ScopeMeter 120 Series from Fluke. ...
MES gives global visibility
Version 3.1 of Ampla, the manufacturing execution system (MES) solution from Citect, provides real-time data access to promote effective planning and global operational i...
Digital display for flowmeter
The digital FlowCom Register from McCrometer provides simultaneo...
All set for Vista
National Instruments announces the availability of the latest version of LabVIEW, its graphical design platform for test, control and embedded system development, for ...
Monitoring SIS health
With reports suggesting that more than 20 percent of plant incidents are caused by SIS maintenance and testing errors, Honeywell Process Solutions introduces a set of ...
Measuring for metals
The new Marathon MM 3M infrared (IR) sensor from Raytek has been speci...
Supplemental safety functions
The Sinamics S120 drive system from Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D)...
High productivity development
UGS has released Version 5 of its NX digital product development (CAD/CAM/CAE), which promises breakthrough technology innovations, including the highest level of p...
Inside Machines
Keeping in Step
Inherent control simplicity, miniature motors and drives, and higher torque density add up to make stepper systems to a viable alternative to servo motion. Frank Bartos reports.
It’s the only motion-control method able to run in open loop, without the need for position feedback. This makes stepper-motor-based systems simpler than servo motion systems, with the ...
Inside Business
Selecting the Right System Integrator
Vance Van Doren details the things to ask when interviewing integrators for your next automation project.
What you don’t find out now can sneak up on you later. That’s why it’s critically important to ask system integrators the right questions before partnering on an automation project. ...
