Jack Smith, Managing Editor
Articles
2009 Top Plant: Siemens Industry Inc., Norwood, OH
Keith Lang has a clear view of everything that goes on today from his command center at Siemens Industry Inc.’s Norwood, OH plant. He also has a clear view of the plant’s history. As operations manager, Lang can monitor production and systems from his office. It’s the same office where, more than a century ago, George Bullock managed what was then the Bullock Electric Manufact...
Soft starter technology matches profiles, loads
GE Consumer & Industrial (www.geelectrical.com) announced its latest soft starter. The ASTAT XT soft starter is designed to reduce mechanical wear and tear, and lower peak energy charges associated with motor loads for pumps, fans, compressors, material handling, blowers, chillers, conveyors and machine tools.
Looking beyond the symptoms for power quality problems, solutions
Sometimes, the reality of a situation is quite different from how it appears. The real problem may be cloaked by what appears to be symptoms of a completely different issue. Knowing how to look beyond the surface problems and having the tools to do so eliminates many headaches in the long run. This is particularly true when it comes to maintaining plant electrical systems.
Commitment to change
The pursuit of excellence is more than part of the fabric at Square D in Columbia, MO -- it's the culture
The heat is on: Designing Lean manufacturing processes
Watlow is known for its controller systems from Winona, MN; its heaters from St. Louis, Columbia and Hannibal, MO; and its sensors from Richmond, IL. But a little-known fact is the Watlow facility in Batavia, IL is a foundry operation that casts the company’s heater technologies into useful industrial and commercial products.
Fieldbus in focus: Understanding network similarities, differences
There is no one-size-fits-all fieldbus. Individual buses are optimized for different characteristics. Building automation has different requirements from networks designed to support manufacturing processes. Minimizing cost is a priority for building automation buses such as LONworks and BACnet, whereas networks for the manufacturing environment focus on robustness.
In search of a wireless standard
Although the yet-to-be-completed ISA100 standard promises to establish policies and procedures, as well as best practices for using wireless systems in an industrial environment, there are three “standards” vying for prominence in the field device arena: ISA100.11a, WirelessHART and ZigBee PRO.
NI Week puts ‘Poetry in motion’
National Instruments kicks off its NI Week 2008 with LabVIEW enhancements, new technologies and an emphasis on green.
Robots on the rise: Showing their metal mettle
Since the first programmable robot design in 1954, much has happened but little has changed. While the first industrial robots were used in 1962 at a General Motors auto plant in New Jersey to spot-weld and extract die castings, nearly a half century later robots are still performing welding and material handling tasks.
Remote monitoring closes the gap between meters and breakers
Power management solutions – hardware metering devices, protective relays, communications components and software – enable end users to monitor, analyze, diagnose and control their power distribution systems from across the room or across the world. Remote monitoring helps plant managers make informed decisions about operational efficiency, system reliability, employee safety and en...