Features

AC drives help modernise hot rolling finishing mill 15/05/2012
The existing DC main drives of a hot rolling finishing mill at Aperam's stainless steel plant in Châtelet, Belgium are to be replaced with more powerful AC systems supplied by Siemens, as part of a project of modernisation plans within Aperam's Leadership Journey to reduce costs and improve profitability. Full Story...

Is industry ready to adopt IT trends? 08/05/2012
Christian Schad, CEO and founder, and James Hannay, senior VP of international development, at SCHAD, discuss the issues surrounding adoption of some of the latest mainstream IT trends by the industrial sector. Full Story...

3D imaging developments 01/05/2012
There can be no doubt that the use of 3D imaging for volumetric comparisons, volume measurements and bin picking of random parts is now a very real and growing part of the industrial vision market. Suzanne Gill reports on the developments in 3D imaging and asks whether the technology can offer real benefits. Full Story...

An economic case for reliability 19/04/2012
Ron Stallworth, global business manager, Asset Management at Honeywell Process Solutions, believes that a facility can now only be considered to be ‘world-class’ if they can create competitive advantage, for example, through the use of reliability and asset management programmes. Full Story...

Reverse engineering of DCS, PLC, SCADA and MES systems solves legacy problems 19/04/2012
An increasing number of control systems are becoming obsolete, which presents a major replacement problem for many manufacturers. These legacy control systems can prove difficult to maintain and support. Spare parts can be a problem and finding skilled personnel to provide system support for both hardware and software, becomes increasingly difficult. Full Story...

Real-time TOC tightens effluent control 17/04/2012
The installation of a Total Organic Carbon (TOC) monitor has improved the wastewater treatment process for Greencore Foods, a UK-based food manufacturer whose effluent can contain an array of inorganic salts and organic components which enter the waste water stream. Full Story...

Shipbuilder employs Integrated Automation Systems on new vessels 17/04/2012
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding have announced that they will use Honeywell’s Integrated Automation Systems (IAS) in five vessels commissioned by ship owners in Norway, Russia and the United States. Full Story...

Driving forward with fieldbus 10/04/2012
Steve Malpass, principal applications engineer at ABB Limited, explains how the trend towards the provision of enhanced fieldbus capabilities is allowing more useful data to be collected from drives to provide energy management information as well as offering a greater insight into process performance. Full Story...

Control solution for Deepsea Challenger 10/04/2012
Opto 22 has provided the primary control system for a record-setting dive to the Mariana Trench, by filmmaker and National Geographic explorer-in-residence, James Cameron, as part of the Deepsea Challenge expedition. Full Story...

Working towards an intelligent energy management solution 03/04/2012
Suzanne Gill spoke to Dr Richard Bateman, from the Advanced Manufacturing & Enterprise Engineering (AMEE) group at Brunel University, to find out about the EuroEnergest project which has the ultimate aim of reducing energy usage in the automotive industry. Full Story...

Remaining vigilant to cyber attack 27/03/2012
In April 2011, not even a year after the discovery of Stuxnet, the Hungarian Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) identified a new malware which has been named Duqu because it creates files with the field ending ‘-DQ’. Professor Dr. Peter Fröhlich, director R&D networking & Controls at Belden EMEA, explains more. Full Story...

Don’t underestimate the feeling of being in control 20/03/2012
Hannu Paunonen and Jaakko Oksanen of Metso Automation, discuss the importance of usability in the overall design of a process control system. Full Story...

Flow control advances 20/03/2012
Suzanne Gill takes a look at some of the latest technology developments in the area of flow control and, importantly finds out more about the benefits being offered by new valves and actuators being introduced to the market. Full Story...

Bus technology moves into the panel 13/03/2012
A Frost & Sullivan report highlights the convergence of PLC's but states that this is a technical strategy that has yet to demonstrate it can yield results. Stuart Greenwood of Eaton's Electrical Sector argues that this trend is already advanced and is delivering results. Full Story...

Data access is key to improving water network performance 13/03/2012
Siemens has produced a Whitepaper – Potable Water Network Monitoring – which examined the role of high resolution monitoring of water quality as a means of improving the performance of the potable water supply network. It advocates the implementation of Proactive Infrastructure Management as a strategic approach to cost effective, network-wide water quality monitoring. Full Story...

Plant-wide drives save £100,000 annually for Ricoh 13/03/2012
Variable speed drives supplied by ABB are saving office equipment manufacturer, Ricoh, over £100,000 per annum on energy costs at its UK-based production plant which manufacturers colour imaging technology as well as undertaking the processes of machine recycling, toner production, injection and blow moulding. Full Story...

The business case for safety 28/02/2012
Mark Eitzman, safety market development manager at Rockwell Automation, argues the business case for safety and highlights the direct links between improved worker safety and increased productivity, sustainability and financial stability. Full Story...

Wireless communications in safety systems 14/02/2012
The motivating factors for installing wireless sensors are easy to see – simplicity of installation and operational flexibility. However, there are also potential challenges. The main challenges for safe wireless communication are to guarantee a short response time and to immediately detect loss of contact with sensors. Control Engineering Europe reports on a possible solution. Full Story...

Tandem encoders explained 07/02/2012
Tandem Encoders are increasingly being used by mechanical and electrical designers. Mark Howard, of Zettlex, explains more about this relatively new term. Full Story...

PXI-based test platform cuts costs 31/01/2012
Woody Beckford, Rob Whitehouse & Dan Weinberg of Analog Devices explain how the use of PXI and LabVIEW has allowed the company to test its MEMS devices at a fraction of the cost, weight, power consumption, and footprint of its previous ATE system. Full Story...