The Euroimpianti Skilled ANT101 is a simple palletising robot. It has a modular construction and can be adapted to any pre-existing product conveyor and packaging line. The fully automatic, compact line dedicated palletisers remove the need for conveying to a centralised palletising area and enable independence of production lines. The Cartesian structured robot with four degrees of freedom houses one or two palletising stations and one pick-up conveyor. Its pick-up station conveyor has sloping rollers in order to guide and centre the cases before pick-and-place palletising. The adjustable pick-up gripper of mechanical or venturi vacuum style equipped with an anti-collision safety device provides the most flexible and reliable pick-and-place operation.

The Realcold Millers Mechanical 3D-Veyor Bi-Planer Chain Conveyor systems are especially suitable for the food processing industry and have applications in many other areas requiring conveying systems.

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has announced the availability of a Profibus-DP bus interface module for its 8000 line of general purpose and intrinsically safe I/O.

Hirschmann Automation and Control has expanded its range of industrial WLAN products to include the leaky cable. This flexible antenna can be used to establish a pipe-shaped transmission field on the 2.4 GHz band with a range of up to 100 m. This easy-to-install solution is particularly suitable for use in long and narrow areas in buildings or production areas. The flexibility of the cable enables even corners to be lit up well.

As rising electricity costs compel companies to examine their energy usage, advanced technologies are emerging which bring new efficiencies to old tasks, such as ensuring a clean flow of compressed air. John Davis, Business Development Manager for the Australian operation of Parker domnick hunter Filtration, explains.

The products and technologies that help make more efficient use of energy in industrial applications are already available. However, maximising energy productivity is not necessarily straightforward.

The WirelessHART standard provides a robust wireless protocol for the full range of process measurement, control and asset management applications.

In the Part 1 of this article, Joel Young explored cellular, Wi-Fi/802.11 and WiMAX/802.16 technologies. In this second part, he examines ZigBee/802.15.4 and provides some guidelines for planning a successful commercial or industrial deployment.

EDDL technology was specifically designed with the process industry in mind. It is an integral part of the bus protocols used in process industries: HART, Foundation fieldbus and Profibus.

Systems for thermal exhaust purification are subject to furnace regulations, and the safety of such plants presents a particular challenge for automation technology. In the past, the safety functions on systems manufactured by Dürr were monitored using conventional automatic gas burner control systems and safety relays, but safety and efficiency have since been greatly improved with the implementation of advanced safety control systems.

Process instrumentation technicians who implement good pH electrode maintenance regimes get more than just greater accuracy in pH measurement. They also benefit from a longer interval between cleaning cycles and extended productivity during a longer life cycle, significantly reducing running costs.

The key factor driving investment in wastewater treatment all over the world is cost reduction, and the only way to maintain high standards while reducing costs is to utilise highly sophisticated measurement and process control technology.

Ethernet is the most prevalent LAN application worldwide, offering the benefits of standardisation, low-cost components and high-performance switching technology. It’s easy to configure and install.

New digital technology now makes it feasible to integrate process control and safety instrumented functions within a common automation infrastructure. While this can provide productivity and asset management benefits, if not done correctly, it can also compromise the safety and security of an industrial operation. This makes it critically important for process industry users to understand where to draw the line. Cyber-security and sabotage vulnerability further accentuate the need for securing the Safety Instrumented System (SIS).

Swiss company Carbo-Link creates carbon fibre components for challenging applications such as rigging for racing yachts.