EPN Industrial Automation Blog

Automation on track

Industrial automation systems can be quite versatile - take them out of the factory and beside a rail track and even Britain’s or Germany’s infamous trains might run like an oiled automation line. In order to prove this hypothesis, a transportation company and an automation expert join forces.

Hannover Messe: Eaton and Phoenix Contact cooperate

On the first day of the Hannover Messe, two automation companies announced their cooperation in the field of motor starters. It’s supposed to establish a new communications standard for switchgears.

ACOPOS drives are talking BISS

B&R extended its range of plug-in modules for the ACOPOS drive family to include a module for evaluating BiSS encoders.The BiSS fully digital bidirectional sensor interface is an open and license-free communication standard that allows sensor data to be read synchronously.

More Germans in the UK

In order to the growing demand in the British and Irish market, Beckhoff Automation has decided to acquire his exclusive representative since 1994: Hayes Control Systems has now been taken over by Beckhoff and renamed Beckhoff Automation Ltd.   

All-in-one controller

Motion control, safety and standard tasks are implemented in the “Simatic CPU 317TF-2DP” controller from Siemens Industry Automation Division. The system utilizes PLCopen-compatible motion control blocks and is suited for coupled motion sequences of multiple axes. Possible applications range from controlled single-axis positioning to synchronized sequences of motion, for example geared synchronous motion, curve synchronization, or print mark correction.

Premiere: Young Engineer Award

If you aren’t older than 35, clever, rife with enthusiasm, smart and nevertheless an engineer with the focus on automation or drives, you might be an excellent candidate for catching the first ever Young Engineer Award, conferred for the first time during the trade show SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2010 which will take place in Nuremberg in November from 23rd to 25th, 2010. Young engineers with the best conference papers will be awarded, announced organizer Mesago.

Drilling down

With oil companies drilling deeper than ever before to obtain increasingly valuable deposits, components within the drill tool must deliver reliable operation at the most extreme ambient temperatures. This is also valid for data acquisition components which conduct so called "Down Hole Measurement While Drilling" (MWD) applications.

Siemens: New management for "Mechanical Drives"

Effective of April 1st, 2010, Theo Maas (52) will be the new head of the Mechanical Drives Business Unit of Siemens, formally known as A. Friedrich Flender AG. The member of the Flender board will succeed the CEO Manfred Egelwisse of A. Friedrich Flender AG who will be resigning at the end of March at his own request. He intends to maintain close and amicable relations with the company in the future.

6-Axis Compact Control Unit

With the MACS4-DC6 the Swiss manufacturer of motion controllers zub machine control presents a compact 6-axis control unit which is meant to offer a low cost solution for simple positioning tasks.

For a softer start

Soft at the start and high on torque is the promise Eaton Moeller is making to users of the soft starter switchgear DS7, which is part of the “xStart” system. All components in this series fit together thanks to the toolless plug connections, ensuring simple connection and wiring with other switching devices such as motor-protective circuitbreakers or motor protective relays.