Eaton Corporation agreed to purchase the businesses of Winner Group Holdings, a China-based company that produces hydraulic hose fittings and adapters for the greater Chinese market.

Previously seen as a run-of-the-mill 'grey box' manufacturer of components for electrical connection technology, Weidmuller is determined to change its hue, according to managing director Andrew Finch.

According to GE Fanuc's European head, Marcel van Helten, process control and industrial automation will become one entity in the not-so-distant future.

Yokogawa Electric has been awarded a contract to supply Foundation Fieldbus (FF) instrumentation for the Groningen gas field development project in Europe. The contract was awarded to the Stork GLT consortium, of which Yokogawa is one of the partners.

Sandvik Materials Technology is claiming a first by supplying the closest, industry specified, thickness tolerances as a standard feature on its Sandvik 20C carbon strip steel used in the manufacture of high performance valves, discs and shims for shock absorbers.

SAP and Infineon Technologies have announced a new radio frequency identification (RFID) offering for connecting and managing RFID hardware and software from multiple vendors.

Wonderware has announced that it is collaborating on the first customer project implementations that use the latest version of SAP NetWeaver in the ISA S95 XML standard-based, plant-to-business integration environment using the ArchestrA architecture.

Industrial automation leader, Rockwell Automation Australia, will farewell its well-known marketing manager, Noel Platt, in December 2004. Widely regarded throughout the Australian industrial automation sector, 64-year old Platt leaves a vastly different Rockwell Automation to that which he joined in 1986. Much of the change and evolution in this period has been under his direction and guidance - most significantly, the growth of the company's unique nationwide distributor network.

Soon you will begin to hear about wireless sensor networks used everywhere in Asia, from farms to factories.

Enough has been written during the past couple years to convince most plant managers of the benefits of connecting plant floor equipment and processes to the internet or intranet.

Matthews Intelligent Identification has signed to EPCglobal Australia, the peak industry body establishing RFID standards for the supply chain.

Schneider Electric has acquired Dinel, a French company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets a wide array of innovative opto-electronic products.

BHP Billiton plans an aggressive near-doubling of its coking coal production over the next five years to meet the China-inspired surge in demand for carbon steelmaking materials through mine expansions and developments in Queensland, NSW and Indonesia.

Six of South Australia's most talented entrepreneurs were honoured recently at the Central Region Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards.

ABB announced it has taken over the distribution rights for the Stromberg range of switches and fuses in Australia.