International news
ABB, the global power and automation technology company, expects sustained revenue growth and increased profitability under its new mid-term strategy for 2007 to 2011. The company expects profitability (measured as earnings before interest and taxes as a percentage of revenues) to increase by as much as five percentage points during the five-year period, compared to 2006. The improvement will be driven by economies of scale, such as strong factory loading, and further operational improvements. As a result, the company forecasts earnings per share to grow by a compound average of 15-20% a year over the planning period and its return on capital employed, after tax, to exceed 30% by 2011.
Beckhoff Automation has expanded its international sales network with the establishment of a subsidiary in India. The newly established Beckhoff Automation started operations in India on 1 August 2007. The branch headquarters is located in Muttha Towers technology park, Pune. Since 2001 the company has been represented throughout the Indian market via its distribution partner Inteltek Automation, which also has its headquarters in Pune and branch offices with trained engineers in major cities.
Emerson Process Management has announced that Fawley Power Station Unit 3 is standardising on the company’s Ovation expert control system as it upgrades plant operations in several key areas. Under separate contracts, Emerson’s Power and Water Solutions industry centre is replacing existing turbine and burner management system controls at Fawley Unit 3 with its Ovation system. The contracts were awarded by RWE npower, the UK’s largest electricity supplier with approximately 6,8 million customers. As part of its unit-wide adoption of Ovation technology, Emerson is modernising controls for the unit’s SIL2-rated burner management system.
ISA Technical Report: ISA-TR99.00.01, Security Technologies for Industrial Automation and Control Systems, has been submitted to ANSI for approval as an ANSI Technical Report. The technical report introduces several categories of cyber security technologies and countermeasure techniques and discusses specific types of applications within each category, the vulnerabilities addressed by each type, suggestions for their deployment, and their known strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, guidance is provided for using the various categories of security technologies and countermeasure techniques for mitigation of the above-mentioned increased risks.
Krohne has announced it will manufacture a line of high-performance flowmeters for Honeywell. The announcement was made to approximately 1200 participants at this year’s Honeywell Users Group Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. At the event, Honeywell presented its new flowmeter line, VersaFlow, which is to be supplied by Krohne on the basis of a private label agreement. The product groups involved are the electromagnetic, Coriolis, ultrasonic and Vortex flowmeters.
GE Fanuc Automation has announced that it has achieved ‘Powered by SAP NetWeaver’ certification for manufacturing. The certification combines the company’s Production Management Software with SAP xMII to gather, analyse and execute realtime order information; and continuously improve plant performance, productivity and profitability.
Matrikon has announced that PPL Corporation has selected Matrikon Suite to provide an integrated platform for asset management and data visualisation for its equipment reliability and performance centre (ERPC), a ‘virtual’ centralised monitoring facility which will initially cover two PPL fossil fuel plants in Pennsylvania. The solution includes a variety of Matrikon products, including Operational Insight, Alarm Manager, various OPC interfaces and Resolution: Intelligent Plant Data Model, to monitor equipment performance and reliability.
PPL Corporation controls more than 11 000 MW of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key US markets and delivers electricity to more than four million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.
Metso Automation will deliver the process automation system to a new bio power plant under construction in Pori, Finland. The Metso Automation delivery includes a plant wide metsoDNA automation system with boiler protection and an extensive plant management system including emission reporting. The plant will produce energy for the industrial processes of Kemira Pigments Oy, supply steam to the industrial area of Pihlava and district heat for the district heating network of Pori Energia Oy. The planned capacity of the new power plant is 65 MW of electricity, 140 MW steam and 70 MW district heat.
Mitsubishi Electric has announced consolidated financial results for fiscal 2008 first quarter ending 30 June, 2007. Net sales were 872,7 billion yen (up 6% from the same quarter last year), operating income 65,9 billion yen (+63%), income before income taxes 67,0 billion yen (+65%) and net income 46,5 billion yen (+87%). The announcement noted that the Japanese economy has experienced a general trend of underlying strength despite a sense of stagnation in demand for capital investment. In the Industrial Automation Systems business total sales were up 4% at 239,7 billion yen and operating income up more than 12% at 37,8 billion yen.
MTL Instruments Group (MTL) has announced that it has acquired Ocean Technical Systems (OTS), the UK-based specialist in scada solutions for the oil and gas industries, for £3,0m in cash. OTS has established a strong position as an international provider of scada solutions for the automation of the berthing, loading and unloading of oil tankers and oil production vessels’ floating production units (FPSOs), unmanned wellhead production platforms and the monitoring of oil and gas pipelines. This equipment operates in hazardous and potentially flammable environments and is, therefore, a natural fit for MTL, which has a world-leading position in the provision of hazardous area control and instrumentation equipment. The directors believe that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership
National Instruments and the Lego Group have announced the latest software update for the popular Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics invention system. Powered by the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical programming environment, the robotics software version 1.1 now provides support for the Windows Vista operating system and Intel-based Macintosh computers in addition to improving memory usage on the NXT Intelligent Brick.
Pepperl+Fuchs has won the contract to be the fieldbus interface supplier, partnering with Emerson Process Management, for a project awarded by BP. The project is to automate the floating production, storage, and offloading vessel that will develop the Greater Plutonio Deepwater offshore oil fields of Angola. Emerson will implement the Pepperl+Fuchs fieldbus installation system FieldConnex, a range of Foundation Fieldbus interface solutions which includes the FieldBarrier, a unique fieldbus distribution module which combines the three essential physical layer functions of distribution, short circuit limitation, and ‘intrinsically safe’ explosion protection in one product.
Rockwell Automation has received the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) mark for a majority of its safety product lines. This certification helps OEMs who are building machines and systems for the fast-growing Chinese market to incorporate safety control systems that meet local product licensing requirements.
The Rockwell Automation, CCC-certified, safety product lines include cable pull switches, monitoring safety relays and safety switches. The company is pursuing certification for other safety product lines, including non-contact interlock switches and additional safety relays.
Other CCC-certified, Rockwell Automation product lines include motor control centres, contactors and accessories, circuit breakers, smart motor controllers, electronic overload relays, pushbutton and indicators, and the control relay 700 series.
Schneider Electric has reported strong growth in earnings in first-half 2007. The management board reported that sales are up 25%, EBITA is up 23% and net income is up 21% with a record 14% organic growth. Also reported were positive signs in growth and profitability in the new APC-MGE business unit.
UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, and Eni S.p.A. announced recently that Eni will build a production facility using Ecofining technology to produce diesel fuel from vegetable oils. The facility, to be located in Livorno, Italy, will process 6500 barrels per day of vegetable oils to supply European refineries with a high-cetane ‘green’ diesel fuel, to meet growing demand for high-quality, clean fuels and biofuels throughout Europe. It will be the first facility to use the Ecofining technology developed by UOP and Eni. UOP announced its efforts to develop commercially viable solutions for renewable energy in refineries with the creation of its Renewable Energy & Chemicals business unit in late 2006. The Ecofining process for green diesel is its first renewable technology offering.
Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced that Yokogawa (Thailand) has received a contract to supply control systems, field sensors, and other devices for a petrochemical plant complex construction project of Map Ta Phut Olefins, a petrochemical company of the Siam Cement Group. Yokogawa will participate in the project from an early stage as a main automation contractor (MAC) together with engineering, procurement, and construction contractors. This will enable the company to contribute to the standardisation of control device specifications, improvement of engineering quality, and reduction of costs and delivery times. This is the first time Yokogawa has won a MAC contract in Thailand.
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