Fieldbus is a wonderful technology with many benefits, but fieldbus installation requires some additional considerations over and above normal 4–20 mA projects, not the least of which is how to prepare for fault conditions.

An apparently simple operation to polish a work piece is in fact highly complex. A skilled person with a long experience in this process can do it very well and most of the handling is based on ‘feeling’.

Conveyor uptime has increased dramatically at Corcoran Concrete’s quarry in County Mayo, following a switch to Dodge-brand gearboxes and bearings from Baldor.

Cooperation on International Standards to promote energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions was given a major boost by a workshop in Paris, France, on 16–17 March 2009, which brought together 290 experts from the public and private sector. Presentations and discussion panels provided insights on the requirements and challenges related to energy efficiency and related standardisation work in a variety of fields, including industrial systems.

At ACHEMA 2009, which will take place from 11–15 May in Frankfurt am Main, manufacturers of pumps, compressors and fittings will be the largest contingent of exhibitors once more. 950 from 4000 exhibitors will be from this sector. For them and the 180,000 expected visitors, surely energy efficiency will be one of the main themes again this year. Solutions that improve availability will also have high priority.

Radiometric measurement, also known as nuclear- or gamma-based measurement, is an extremely reliable and safe, non-invasive solution that is suitable for level limit detection, continuous level measurement, and density and interface layer measurement.

The model 1312/1392 shear-web tension/compression load cells from BCM Sensor are alloy steel (1312) and stainless steel (1392) load cells with protection up to an IP66 standard. The 1312 is also nickel plated. They can measure in either tension or compression, and applications for these load cells include hopper scales and vehicles scales.

The Scalable Mobile Control System from Hirschmann Automation and Control can be used for controlling and monitoring machine functions as well as for safe load indicator. The product family includes controls from the iFLEX series and the iSCOUT operating consoles. The modular concept also ensures that each solution can be adapted economically at any time to changed requirements.

Fieldbus (the use of digital communications networks for distributed instrumentation and control) is a wonderful technology with many benefits, but fieldbus installation requires some additional considerations over and above normal 4–20 mA projects.

Compared to standard level measurements in liquids, the detection and measurement of interfaces has its own particular challenges, leaving many interface applications without reliable level measurement. Most popular today are the electronic or non-mechanical solutions with no moving mechanical parts which offer much higher long-term stability and low-maintenance operation.

The development of the process control system for the Boddington Gold Project in Western Australia, a joint venture by Newmont and AngloGold-Ashanti located 130 km south-east of Perth, is about to mobilise to a site-based phase. This follows an extensive design effort in Perth, Santiago (Chile), Melbourne and Brisbane. Effective teamwork by multiple partners in different physical locations has been vital to the success of the project to date.

Flow measurements in the mineral processing and mining industry suffer from the limitations placed by previously available flowmeters including the commonly used instruments such as ultrasonic meters, magmeters, turbine meters, orifice plate meters, vortex meters, Coriolis meters and Venturi meters. The desire or requirement to make a non-contact measurement that is accurate and robust, and can be performed on practically any type of fluid within practically any type of pipe, has driven the creation of a new class of flowmeters.

There are several fundamental differences between component object-based and traditional tag-based human machine interface (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) products. This article explains the differences between the two methodologies and shows that significant savings in development can be achieved with a component object-based SCADA product, and explains how to calculate the savings.

Zinc smelting began in 1917 on the site of Nyrstar’s Hobart plant in Tasmania. For generations it has involved hard, dirty and risky jobs. One of the toughest — skimming the waste ‘dross’ off molten zinc just poured into ingot moulds — was done by hand with a rake, until four ABB industrial robots took it over in 2008.

The managed Fast/Gigabit Ethernet switch of the MACH1000 family from Hirschmann Automation and Control has all its ports with the exception of a service port located on the rear of the device. The 24 Fast Ethernet ports, up to four of which support PoE, are available with M12 connections as well as in any combination for other connectors such as MTRJ, St, SC or RJ45. For the gigabit uplinks, two combo ports (10/100/1000 Base-Tx) are optionally available and can be equipped with SFP fibre modules (1000 Base-Fx/SX/LX/LH). In this way, the new design offers a high bandwidth in combination with industry-proven M12 connection technology.