Features
Sprint drives Vampire ride
An exciting application of control technology saw UK theme park, Chessington World of Adventures turn to Sprint Electric for DC drives to use on its rollercoaster. Trains on the Vampire ride at the south-west London theme park and zoo make an average of 720 laps of the track in one day, causing a great deal of strain on the DC motor control system.
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Measuring liquid depth using pressure instruments
One of the simplest and most reliable ways of measuring liquid depth is via pressure. This article and its accompanying video demonstration offers some practical suggestions.
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Model-Free Adaptive Control: Impact on the Automation Industry
MFA technology has been fulfilling its promise as a ‘next-generation mainstream controller.’ Since its introduction to the automation industry in the late 1990s, the technology has been implemented by a number of end-users and embedded in OEM equipment by a host of process control, equipment control, and building automation vendors.
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Liquids manufacture gets automation boost (29 January 2010)
PZ Cussons, the company behind household brands such as Original Source, Imperial Leather and Carex, has built a new liquids manufacturing facility in Manchester. Endress+Hauser’s FieldCare software was implemented to maintain and configure the army of instrumentation installed at the plant.
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Reduce the risk of system migrations (26 January 2010)
An integrator experienced in quick wiring adapter tools can provide time- and cost-savings, and thus reduce downtime and risk.
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SGS in major oil refinery inspection (26 January 2010)
SGS Industrial Services utilised NDT (Non Destructive Testing) instrumentation when it carried out inspection work during the shutdown of two of Europe’s largest oil refineries. The company turned to Ashtead Technology to hire the equipment for the two month long inspection of the BP Europoort site in Rotterdam and Total’s Vlissingen refinery.
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Model-Free Adaptive Control: Impact on the Automation Industry (24 January 2010)
MFA technology has been fulfilling its promise as a ‘next-generation mainstream controller.’ Since its introduction to the automation industry in the late 1990s, the technology has been implemented by a number of end-users and embedded in OEM equipment by a host of process control, equipment control, and building automation vendors.
...FULL STORY
The impact of human actions on the reliability of safety instrumented systems (24 January 2010)
With increasing SIL level and single safety loops, the impact of human behaviour increases. It can no longer be ignored.
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The automation of the largest and fastest machine in the world (22 January 2010)
When the largest particle accelerator ever built becomes operational at CERN, the nuclear research centre in Geneva, physicists hope to gain new insight into matter and what holds it together. The accelerator and its safety will be controlled and monitored by 130 control systems featuring ‘hardened’ automation technology from Siemens.
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Build a cyber security incident response plan (20 January 2010)
A plan lets everyone respond properly to a control system security breach, whether it’s a failure of a critical cyber component or an intentional break-in.
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