Industrial PCs
Sensors and data acquisition gain sensitivity
Sensors and data acquisition products at NMW are likely to give PC-based systems data they need to succeed in automation and control fields.BEI Sensors & Systems Co. (Sylmar, Calif.) launched its LIE5 Series linear incremental encoders in North America following its recent strategic alliance with Carl Zeiss (Jena and Oberkochen, Germany) to market the latter's pr...
Industrial PC with Windows CE
Delta, British Columbia, Canada— Dynapro has announced the availability of what is said to be the first Microsoft Windows CE-based industrial PC. The ET4500 is a diskless system offering features that previously required a full computer to support. It is a TFT flat panel computer that features a 486 DX5 processor, two ISA and one PCI expansion slots.
PLCs Adapt, but Will They Withstand Assault of PCs?
Rumors of the death of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) may be—as Mark Twain said—greatly exaggerated. Originally called programmable controllers ("PC"), the PLC has been the foundation of factory control for almost 30 years.But technological battle lines have been drawn. Only a few years ago, few engineers would have considered using a personal computer (PC) for machine ...
cSiemens increases world PC, PLC market share
Following recent gains in market share for its PLCs in Europe, America, and Asia, Siemens currently accounts for 28% of the DM 8 billion world market, according to Hubert Ovenhausen, director of Siemens' Industrial Automation Systems Division. "We attribute our additional profits to the success of the Totally Integrated Automation system introduced last year, wh...
National Industrial Automation Show shines at National Manufacturing Week
Expected to draw more than 21,000 visitors and about 215 exhibitors, this year's National Industrial Automation Show (NIAS) may have eclipsed its own expectations. Final attendance figures aren't available yet, but many aisles were jammed during much of the event, especially on March 17 and 18 when control and automation professionals swarmed the south building at McCormick Place, Chicago.
Chrysler drives new assembly line with PCs
'We wanted to maximize machine up-time, move away from PLC technology, and greatly reduce floor space requirements for the system," says Chrysler's Kokomo, Ind. plant manager Ken Moore.To meet these requirements, Chrysler chose Cutler-Hammer's (Westville, Ohio) Open Automation Computer, Steeplechase's (Ann Arbor, Mich.
Nematron expects growth, seeks president, coo
Nematron's (Ann Arbor, Mich.) growth and new leadership were emphasized during a review of $75 million in major contracts won by the industrial PC-based hardware and software company in a March 17 statement by company officials at National Manufacturing Week here March 16-19.
GE Fanuc Buys Rest of AFE Holdings, Forms Integration Team
More than year after buying 70% of AFE Holdings in late 1996, GE Fanuc Automation North America Inc. recently bought the remaining 30% of AFE.A manufacturer of operator interface (OI) and software products with subsidiaries in the U.K., U.S., and Canada, AFE's products are now sold under GE Fanuc's family of Cimplicity OI products.
PLCs Aren’t Just Older, ‘They’re Better’
What functionality/features are today's programmable logic controller (PLC) users seeking? How are they applying PLCs? Is any other technology, such as personal computers, taking away market share from PLCs? Control Engineering wanted to know, so we asked a random sampling of 1,500 readers to participate in a survey about today's PLC.
Redundancy in Control
How is redundancy implemented for PC-based control? The first step is defining a physical interface to the real world that will provide multiple computers controlling the same I/O system.One way to provide multiple "controllers" is to implement a "mirroring backup" so that another system also collects all data.