B&R POWERLINK Day a great success

B&R POWERLINK Day 2011 was a great success.

More than 60 participants from various industry sectors, among them automation device manufacturers and process automation professionals, accepted B&R’s invitation to the Salzburg Radisson Blu hotel on May 24th.

B&R POWERLINK Day a great success

The convention chiefly addressed manufacturers of electronic automation components such as sensors, actuators, motors, drives, and bus couplers for I/O modules, as well as complete control systems suppliers. In a series of talks, managers and engineers from B&R, IXXAT, port, and Hilscher discussed technical questions and implementation strategies for POWERLINK and the bus-independent safety protocol openSAFETY.

In the opening presentation, Stefan Schönegger, Open Automation Business Unit Manager at B&R, introduced the new POWERLINK Slave Development Kit. Hans-Jürgen Hilscher, owner and manager of the systems automation company Hilscher, spoke about multi-protocol solutions based on high-end netX processors.

Marcus Tangermann, CEO of port, gave a presentation about consistent parameterization of field devices, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of FDT/DTM over XML-based device description files. Wolfgang Seiss from the Open Automation Technologies department at B&R then presented the company’s POWERLINK Master solution.

Concluding the session, IXXAT CEO Christian Schlegel spoke about the implementation of openSAFETY solutions in specific projects.

“We welcome the positive feedback and the large number of participants who took part in B&R POWERLINK Day”, says Schönegger. “Once more, this overwhelming response underscores our leading position in the market for real-time Industrial Ethernet systems.” The Ethernet Powerlink Standardization Group (EPSG) is an independent organization founded in 2003 by leading companies from the drive and automation industry. Its aims are the standardization and further development of POWERLINK, which was first introduced by B&R in 2001.

The high-performance real-time communication system is a protocol extension of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, designed to ensure real-time data transfer on the microsecond level. EPSG cooperates with leading standardization organizations, such as CAN in Automation (CiA) and the IEC. Anton Meindl, Business Manager Controls at B&R, is the EPSG’s CEO.

TI take National Semiconductor

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) and National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) has announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which TI will acquire National for $25 per share in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion.  The acquisition combines two industry leaders in analog semiconductors, each with unique strengths in delivering products to improve performance and efficiency and convert real-world signals in electronic systems.  The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction.

TI to acquire National Semiconductor

“This acquisition is about strength and growth,” said Rich Templeton, TI’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.  ”National has an excellent development team, and its products combined with our own can offer customers an analog portfolio of unmatched depth and breadth.  In recent years, National’s management team has done an outstanding job of improving margins and streamlining expenses, which upon close will increase TI’s profitability and earnings per share, excluding transaction costs.  Our ability to accelerate National’s growth with our much larger sales force is the foundation of our belief that we can produce strong returns on our investment.  The combined sales team will be 10 times larger than National’s is today, and the portfolio will be exposed to more customers in more markets.”  

“Our two companies complement each other very well,” said Don Macleod, National’s chief executive officer.  ”TI has much greater scale in the marketplace, with its larger portfolio of products and its large global sales force.  This provides a platform to enhance National’s strong and highly profitable analog capability, power management in particular, leading to meaningful growth.”

Each company has unique strengths.  Among them are the breadth of TI’s 30,000 analog products, extensive customer reach, and industry-leading manufacturing including the world’s first 300-millimeter analog factory.  National brings a portfolio of 12,000 analog products, a strong position with customers in the industrial power market, and excellent customer design tools.  Upon close of the transaction, National becomes part of TI’s analog segment, and sales of analog semiconductors will represent almost 50 percent of TI’s revenue.

The combined company also will benefit from National’s manufacturing operations, located in Maine, Scotland and Malaysia, which TI will continue to operate.  Each site has additional capacity to increase production.  National’s headquarters will remain in Santa Clara, California.

Under terms of the agreement, National stockholders will receive $25 in cash for each share of National common stock they hold at the time of closing.  TI expects to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash balances and debt.  The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including review by U.S. and international regulators and approval by National’s shareholders.  The transaction is expected to close in six to nine months.

The market for analog semiconductors was $42 billion in 2010.  TI is the market leader with 2010 analog revenue of $6.0 billion, or 14 percent of the market.  National’s revenue in calendar year 2010 was about $1.6 billion, or 3 percent of the market.

The AS-i Safety OEM Slaves with 2 Standard Outputs

Connect your standard safety switches simply to AS-i Safety

With the amazingly simple >>AS-Interface Safety at Work<< concept you can send safety data over the same cable as standard data. Would you like to profit from this system but still continue to use your own standard safety switches (e.g. E-STOP switches, key switches, enabling buttons)? The Safety OEM Slaves from Bihl+Wiedemann enable you to make your standard safety switches AS-i capable and integrate them easily into AS-i Safety at Work.

Fig. 1: AS-i Safety OEM Slave with 2 standard outputs and contact pins (BW2521)

 

The AS-i Safety OEM Slaves in detail:

• Dimensions (L / W / H in mm): 43 / 30 / 10
• Connection of 2 safe switching contacts
• Support applications up to Category 4 / SIL 3
• 2 standard outputs with LEDs
• Modules fully powered out of AS-i
• Length per connecting wire: 90 mm
• Especially simple to install in your safety switch having a standard contact set using the contact pins of the Safety OEM Slave (BW2521)
• Also available without contact pins (BW2426)

 You can find all information on our products on our homepage.

Fig. 2: AS-i Safety OEM Slave mit with 2 standard outputs (BW2426)

Yokogawa Releases FieldMate™ R2.03 Versatile Device Management Wizard

Yokogawa Electric Corporation (www.yokogawa.com) has announces that it will release the FieldMate™ R2.03 Versatile Device Management Wizard. This is an upgraded version intended for use in plants and other production-related sites. In response to rapid growth in the Chinese market, Chinese language support has been included as a standard feature. Support for the ISA100.11a field wireless communications standard is also provided.

FieldMate™ Versatile Device Management Wizard

Development Background

Digital communications standards play an increasingly important role in communications between plant central control systems and field sensors. With conventional field communications, only measured values from sensors are sent to the central control systems. With digital communication technologies, however, additional data such as sensor settings and maintenance information can be sent, and operators in a central control room are also able to remotely configure and adjust the sensors.

Plants using sensors from multiple vendors that rely on more than one communications standard require versatile software tools for device configuration, adjustment, and management. FieldMate, an open standard software package that supports FDT/DTM* as well as all other major field communications standards, is ideally suited for such requirements. Yokogawa has come out with this upgraded version of FieldMate to capitalize on opportunities for growth in the device maintenance market.

* FDT/DTM

Field Device Tool (FDT) is a communications interface that links control systems with field sensors such as pressure transmitters and flowmeters. Device Type Manager (DTM) is an FDT-based device driver that is provided by a vendor of a device or a control system.

Product Features

1. Chinese language support provided as a standard feature
   FieldMate now supports the Chinese language, in addition to Japanese and English, positioning this product to capture a larger share of the rapidly growing Chinese market. Yokogawa has plans to add support for other languages at a later date.
2. Support of the field wireless communications standard
   The upgraded version of FieldMate is now capable of supporting the ISA100.11a field wireless communications standard, which is gaining rapid acceptance in the marketplace. FieldMate’s support of all major field communication protocols allows customers to manage a wide variety of devices, and select field sensors from different vendors.
3. Free basic version
   Beginning in March 2011, a basic version of FieldMate that includes sensor setting, adjustment, and management functions may be downloaded free of charge from the Yokogawa website. An enhanced basic package with interfaces for various types of field sensors as well as an advanced package with a database function and a synchronization function for the efficient maintenance of a variety of field devices will also be available for purchase. This advanced package has all the functions provided in the enhanced basic package.

Main Target Markets

Facility maintenance divisions in process industries such as oil, petrochemicals, chemicals, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, foods and beverages, and iron and steel

Applications

Sensor configuration, adjustment, and inspection and device information management in plants and other production facilities

FieldMate

FieldMate is a PC-based device configuration tool with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that is used to perform initial setup, routine maintenance, and device replacement. It supports all major industry-standard communication protocols such as FOUNDATION fieldbus, BRAIN, and HART, as well as the FDT/DTM open framework for setting and adjusting any vendor’s network-capable field device, regardless of which communications protocol is used. In addition, support for the ISA100.11a field wireless communications standard enables configuration, adjustment, and management of a wider variety of field devices in plants.

www.icnweb.co.kr

Chinese Wind Farm Gains Reliability with Redundant Fiber Backbone

Project Introduction

Dongfang Steam Turbine Works (DSTW), a Chinese manufacturer of steam turbines, was working on a wind farm project involving 66 1.5 MV wind turbines in Heilongjiang, China. DSTW needed to establish a SCADA system that helps the staff remotely monitor on-site equipment and operations while recording data about ongoing operations for real-time analysis. Due to the harsh weather conditions in Northeast China, the networking devices must be extremely rugged to operate reliably. DSTW found that Moxa’s IKS-6726 rackmount managed industrial Ethernet switches and EDS-408A industrial Ethernet switches were a perfect fit for their specific network infrastructure requirements.

MOXA Industrial ethernet switches for WIND power

System Requirements
• Wide operating temperature to adapt to harsh weather in Northeast China
• Network redundancy with fast recovery capability for system reliability
• At least three fiber optic ports for uplink and long distance outbound transmissions
• Network management software for easy system monitoring

Moxa’s Solution
One EDS-208A-M-SC industrial Ethernet switch is installed atop each wind turbine to connect to the equipment inside the turbine. This switch at the top connects to an EDS-408A-2S1M-ST-T switch at the bottom of the turbine via a fiber optic port.
The EDS-408A-2S1M-ST-T switch comes with three fiber optic ports; one fiber port is the uplink connection to the EDS-208A-M-SC and the other two connect to adjacent wind turbines.
Due to extremely high security and availability requirements, DSTW deployed a ring topology in the wind farm network to provide fast redundancy in case of network failure. The control center employs IKS-6726 rackmount managed industrial Ethernet switches to connect field switches with the SCADA system and network management servers. Moxa’s MXview network management software was also installed to help operators easily monitor network status by automatically discovering the network topology and displaying real-time alarm information.

Why Moxa?
• The EDS-408A provides three fiber optic ports for long distance data transmission with an ST connector ideal for vibration-heavy wind farms.
• The wide -40 to 75°C temperature range of theEDS-208A-M-SC, EDS-408A-2S1M-ST-T, and IKS-6726 allows for reliable operations under extreme temperature conditions
• The EDS-408A-2S1M-ST-T and the IKS-6726 support redundant Turbo Ring topology with recovery time less than 20 ms to increase system reliability and network availability
• MXview network management software is capable of discovering topology automatically

Related Products

EDS-405A/408A Series

IKS-6726 Series

MXview

EDS-205/208 Series

www.icnweb.co.kr