Emerson acquires Cascade Technologies

The acquisition is intended to expand Emerson’s gas analysis portfolio, adding laser-based measurement analysers and systems for enhanced industrial emissions monitoring, production efficiencies and regulatory compliance.

Emerson has announced that it has acquired Cascade Technologies Ltd, based in Stirling in Scotland, UK, a leading manufacturer of gas analysers and monitoring systems using their Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) technology. This innovative technology measures multiple gases simultaneously, helping companies improve industrial emissions monitoring, production efficiencies and environmental compliance.

Emerson is expanding its analytical measurement capabilities by adding this innovative laser technology to its Rosemount Analytical gas analysis portfolio.  QCL technology provides a step change in gas analyser performance through its increased sensitivity, speed of response, and fingerprinting capability. These technology advances in the gas analysis market space provide a powerful solution for customers in various industries such as petrochemical, food and beverage, marine, automotive and pharmaceutical. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of Cascade Technologies is an exciting step as we further strengthen our gas analysis portfolio,” said Tom Moser, group vice president of Emerson Process Management’s measurement and analytical businesses. “Our customers depend upon Emerson to solve their toughest analytical measurement problems. We are now better positioned to serve that need.”

Dr. Iain Howieson, chief executive officer of Cascade Technologies, added: “Joining a global leader like Emerson represents an incredible opportunity for business growth. The Emerson global presence and market leadership will have an immediate impact on the adoption of cutting edge QCL gas analysers and monitoring systems.”

Changes at the Emerson PR Agency for Europe

Two years after the untimely death of Charles Lewis, the PR agency he founded, HHC Lewis, has continued its successful business relationship with a varied client list, one of which is Emerson Process Management. For around 20 years a team at HHC Lewis in Southampton has acted as the PR and advertising agency for Emerson across Europe, producing copy for editors under the guidance of US and European marketing, and ensuring a consistent advertising presence in published material. For the last two years the Emerson team and external responsibilities have been headed up by Adrian Chesney.

Cherie Pearce and Adrian Chesney

Now Adrian Chesney and Cherie Pearce, previously the Company Accountant, have led an MBO and are the new joint managing directors. Nick Taylor, Marketing Director for Emerson Process in Europe, is pleased to see HHC Lewis moving forwards, and hopes their excellent working relationship will continue in the future.

Pearce and Chesney bought the business without outside funding, having acquired the shares from the previous owner. They are now the company directors and joint owners and will lead the business. Chesney joined the agency seven years ago as a PR account manager and Pearce has been with the company since 1995.

Chesney said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to guide the direction of HHC Lewis and enhance the enormous potential of our company. The HHC Lewis team has a wealth of experience and continues to develop innovative ways of serving our clients.”

Earlier this year the Agency relocated from offices adjacent to the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, to a new office block in Southampton town centre. Other contact details remain the same.

InduSoft Web Studio software

InduSoft Web Studio software has been declared the winner of the Automation Inside 2014 Readers’ Choice Awards in the Best Automation Software category. InduSoft was selected from among 26 automation product competitors based on votes from Automation Inside readers in 36 countries. As a Readers’ Choice award, this recognition indicates a high degree of end user satisfaction with Web Studio, and is thus particularly important.

InduSoft Web Studio v7.1+SP3 gives a powerful collection of automation tools that provide the automation building blocks needed to simplify the creation of HMI and SCADA applications. This comprehensive development and runtime HMI/SCADA software solution provides over 240 built-in communication drivers allowing easy connection to a wide variety of PLCs and controllers. The full-feature set software includes all the tools users need to develop, deploy and present HMI graphics, alarms, trends, reports, recipes, and historian and database data.

Easy integration to the latest web, cloud, and mobility technologies allows users to create screens, widgets, animated graphics and controls that can be displayed, monitored and controlled, using the HTML5 standard, on a wide variety of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The HMI/SCADA application can truly be deployed and accessed from almost anywhere.

InduSoft is grateful to all the end user customers, OEMs, certified system integrators, and distributors who use their products, and appreciate the continued support provided by InduSoft Web Studio.

About InduSoft

InduSoft, a Schneider Invensys company, offers a powerful family of HMI software products for industrial machines, embedded systems, intelligent embedded systems, and M2M. InduSoft develops tools and technologies that empower machine builders, OEMs, and other industrial automation customers to develop graphical interfaces for embedded PCs, PCs, industrial machines, and mobile devices. Today more than 250,000 InduSoft systems are operating worldwide through direct and partner sales.

 

 

GE event: Improving Profitability with Big Data

In January, GE will launch a new Roadshow at three European centres: London, Paris and Milan. The event title is “Predict for Profit”- the GE Intelligent Platforms business will present their most advanced solutions to allow customers to transform the industrial internet information into reality, to gain valuable insights from the internet “Big Data” available from their processes and machines.

Big Data sets with no apparent value for the enterprise can be transformed into real Insights and information that customers can catch at the right time, and when the correct information is needed for decision makers.

The Industrial Internet is a key part of the GE strategy: it satisfies the need to combine machines, data, insights and people together in a connected infrastructure, a network that can be accessed by all operators regardless of the geographical position of devices and plants.

Every “intelligent” machine generates data that can be captured with the right devices and applications: these data can be represented through metrics along a time gap. The correct analysis and understanding of these data allow operators and managers to anticipate faults before they happen, and to plan the corrective action needed in advance.

The main benefit of predictive analysis is overall cost reduction, – or even cost avoidance – and profit increase, thanks to scheduled maintenance and leaner and more optimized operations.

‘Predict for Profit’ is an unmissable event for users that want to learn real application stories of companies that gained competitive advantage from the quantifiable production, profits and asset management improvements available using GE Solutions. It will be specific for professionals that want to know how to leverage the Big Data asset that each enterprise already owns.

Key insights are often hidden in the data storage, and can be extracted only with specific, user friendly and easy-to-implement Solutions. During these Roadshows, GE will show how to do this, and make Solutions Experts available from different geographical regions to show how it is possible to generate a real technology revolution in the industry.

The Roadshows will take half a day, finishing with a lunch, and will take place in: London on January 27th, Paris on January 28th, and Milan on January 29th. Apply for a place to attend at one of these events via:

http://www.ge-ip.com/ge-predict-profits

MTL and Yokogawa launch Universal I/O for Hazardous Areas.

In the INSIDER for November this year, it was reported how Honeywell have used the Universal I/S interface module from P+F, and that MTL were happy to remain with the dedicated function units. Well now a new PR from MTL – as you know part of Cooper Crouse Hinds, part of Eaton, who say they are a ‘Power management company’ – so that has got their corporate rubbish out of the way. MTL announced today that it has been supporting Yokogawa in the development of their next generation integrated production control system, Centum VP R6.01.  This is also reported on in the November INSIDER.

However, Yokogawa wanted to design a new system with an intrinsically safe universal input/output (I/O) module for greater efficiency in system configuration and engineering: so they approached MTL, for its expertise in intrinsic safety devices for hazardous area and general process control applications.

“We have a long standing relationship with Yokogawa, having worked together globally for more than 20 years on various projects, so we were delighted once again to partner with them on the Centum VP R6.01,” said Riccardo Codega, MTL marketing director.  “We worked closely with them to understand their requirements for a universal I/O module and recommended our MTL4500 intrinsic safety isolators, which have been adapted to work in a universal environment.  The backplane mounting series is designed with systems vendors in mind and is perfect for DCS applications such as this.”

Yokogawa, a leading manufacturer of process control instrumentation, distributed control systems (DCS) and test and measurement instruments, launched its first version of Centum in 1975, and the company has continued to improve the platform by applying the latest technologies. Recognising the challenges faced by today’s manufacturing plants for increased flexibility as well as improved process efficiencies, with the need to maintain safe operations, Yokogawa wanted to develop an intrinsically safe universal I/O module that would allow its customers to reduce the time required for installing and configuring a control system.

“We chose to work with Eaton MTL for its credibility and expertise in intrinsic safety,” said Nobuaki Konishi, vp of the Yokogawa Industrial Automation Platform Business. “The company is recognised in the industry as being a key supplier and we were confident we could rely on them to provide a high quality and safe solution.”

Now for the required PR paragraphs, first, from MTL:

“As part of the Centum VP R6.01, Yokogawa has expanded its range of I/O devices, which are critical control system components, and a key feature is a new N-IO field I/O device with an I/O module that can easily handle multiple types of I/O signals.  As such, it eliminates the need for I/O modules to be replaced according to the signal they convey, which reduces rewiring, footprint and the time spent on installation and associated costs.

MTL product specialists added additional diagnostic features and functionality so line fault detection is integrated into the Yokogawa system.  Now, there are channel level diagnostics in the control system that help users avoid downtime and increase plant productivity.

A key benefit of the MTL4500 Series isolators is that the base plate does not require intrinsic safety certification. The field connection is on top of the module, so it does not need any additional accreditations and it is accessible to all regions worldwide.  As a result, the approval process into a plant is simplified in virtually any application.

The MTL4500 isolators are a compact integrated solution for flexible cabinet layout.  Incorporating advanced circuit design, a common set of components and innovative isolating transformer construction, the isolators achieve a significant reduction in power consumption while increasing channel packing densities. The 16mm wide design reduces weight and gives exceptionally high packing density.

MTL4500 isolators are plug-and-play with easy commissioning and set up, therefore simplifying project engineering and reducing installation and maintenance costs.  The design is based on existing, proven technologies and provides a reliable solution for manufacturing plants and process industries including oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Eaton continues to work closely with Yokogawa in its development of control systems that will provide customers with an improved operating environment by increasing the safety and efficiency of their operations and achieving greater synergy between their control system and field devices.  In addition to improving production efficiency, this will allow the optimisation of maintenance of the production control system, safety instrumented system, programmable controllers, all field devices, and other components, thereby reducing costs and ensuring the long-term stability of operations.”

Second, a precis of the Yokogawa PR:

Yokogawa launched the new version of Centum VP, the Series 6, this month. Centum was launched in 1975 as the World’s first DCS system, and Yokogawa are proud to claim progressive compatibility and upgradability across all Centum systems over these 40 years. Over 25,000 Centum systems have been installed worldwide in this time, with 88% of these concentrated in Europe and Asia.

The R6 version introduces N-IO, Network IO, which “fulfills the functions of universal I/O and a signal conditioner, enabling configurable software and flexible I/O assignment”. As discussed in the INSIDER report on the Honeywell HUG EMEA meeting in November, Yokogawa also have established agreements with P+F and MTL to enable intrinsically safe interfaces for the N-IO. A FieldMate Validator software tool is also available, enabling the field instrument and wiring loop to be checked before there is any connection to the control system.

The Centum VP R6 also includes an ‘Automation Design Suite’ that facilitates project execution, including program templates for heat exchangers, filters, and other types of equipment commonly used in the field. The database structure facilitates the reuse of valuable engineering knowhow, centrally manages the functional design documents needed, eliminates inconsistencies between the design information and the actual system, manages change, and supports the automation lifecycle, for example in maintenance and expansion phases.

The INSIDER Newsletter is a Spitzer and Boyes publication, which includes reports from Nick Denbow as a European Correspondent. See http://www.iainsider.co.uk