Omron Electronics fuels growth with partners, products

Hoffman Estates, IL—Omron Electronics LLC introduced nine partner companies, four new products, and reported a 9% increase in worldwide automation sales for fiscal year 2005 during its Editor’s Day 2005 last week.

By Control Engineering Staff July 5, 2005

Hoffman Estates, IL— Omron Electronics LLC introduced nine partner companies, four new products, and reported a 9% increase in worldwide automation sales for fiscal year 2005 during its Editor’s Day 2005 last week. Integrating technologies with its new partners is one way Omron plans to double its revenues in two years, stated Craig Bauer, Omron Electronics’ president and COO.

Omron’s nine new partners include: Ann Arbor Technologies; Digi International; CCL Label; Domino Amjet; Indusoft;, Gross Automation, which imports Westermo’s products; Motoman, which is part of Yaskawa; Navitar; and Yaskawa Electric America. The partners exhibited a variety of applicable solutions in tabletop displays at the press event. Some of the partners reportedly will have a private-label arrangement with Omron, while other will sell products directly.

Bauer adds that Omron’s industrial automation division had worldwide sales of $2.3 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, which represented a 9% increases over the previous year. Industrial automation sales by Omron Electronics in the U.S. outperformed that figure with double-digit growth over the previous year. “This has been a record year for us in automation sales,” says Bauer. “I credit our spectacular growth, in an uncertain business climate, to our associates increased attention to customer service, our new strategic focus, and our success in the packaging space.”

New products launched at Omron’s press event included:

  • CJ1W-NCF position controller allows up to 16-axis high-speed positioning with one controller, which reduces cabling cost of cabling and programming each positioning drive individually, Omron says. The controller is compatible with the compact, powerful Omron CJ1 PLC, eliminates the need for a separate positioning CPU, and uses the new Omron high-speed Mechatrolink-II (ML2) high-speed network, communicating at 10Mbps, resulting in extremely quick response times, company says.

  • F210-ETN Ethernet vision sensor controller has onboard storage for compressed inspection images, which can be streamed via Ethernet to a remote PC or laptop for analysis and long-term storage without interfering with ongoing production output. The controller features parallel processors for measurement and communication functions, enabling continued inspecting without interruption while processing and sending data. Access from a remote location using Omron’s Vision Composer Net software lets users start or stop sensing and set or change scan parameters without the need to directly access onboard controls.

  • Three new UHF-RFID starter kits help companies meet the growing demand today for RFID labeling on cases and pallets entering the supply chain and retail marketplace, Omron says. The kits intend to guide users easily through initial stages an RFID system setup, with specific “hands-on” learning and internal testing for RFID EPC-compliant label reading and writing, followed by a modular approach to system startup.

  • DeviceNet safety controller is the first safety control device that can control multiple safety functions without need for a costly safety PLC, Omron says, thereby greatly reducing the cost of an integrated safety and control network. The controller operates either with a DeviceNet PLC or alone. It can be used with systems other than DeviceNet to coordinate safety functions. It is based on the recently-developed CIP Safety protocol (ODVA) and conforms to EN954-1 Category 4 and IEC 61508 SIL3 standards.

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief
MHoske@cfemedia.com