Germany’s Black Forest has long been famous for its natural beauty, clean water and clean air. It also has a tradition of precision workmanship going back many centuries, with products such as its clocks being famous the world over. The Rothaus brewery, maker of the famous Tannenzäpfle beer, uses four ABB robots in handling and packaging. [ + ]

The iron ore industry in Western Australia consumes in excess of a 3 million litres of diesel each day. This diesel is delivered to the mine sites either by rail up to the site load-out or by a combination of rail and road. The use of mine transport corridors for transport of fuel not only adds significant costs, but also has a considerable safety impact. [ + ]

In the upcoming decade, software tools will play a more critical role in system design and development. [ + ]

As centralised information technology has advanced towards the use of decentralised PCs with servers, the typical utility’s SCADA architecture has not kept pace. [ + ]

CompAir’s Quantima compressor system has helped Australia’s largest milk processor, Murray Goulburn (MGC), reduce costs and carbon emissions. [ + ]

Every manufacturer and user active in the area of process engineering is familiar with the HART protocol but experience has shown that the procedure is commonly known but rarely used. [ + ]

An automation system from Omron helps move props for South Pacific. [ + ]

Formula SAE is a design competition that is organised for university students by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The competition sees teams of engineering students from universities all over the world design, build, test and drive a Formula-style race car. It is a true test of a broad spectrum of engineering creativity and expertise. [ + ]

ZF Sachs, with 16,500 employees, has been a renowned partner in the automotive industry for more than 100 years. The traditional office network security solution, using VLANs, was rejected by ZF Sachs as being unsuitable in the harsh environment of the plant floor. [ + ]

It often seems that the cards are stacked against Australian manufacturers and the industry in general. If we’re not facing a global financial crisis, it’s a high Aussie dollar and expected increases in energy prices. [ + ]

Using electronic work instructions to improve changeover processes paves the way for manufacturers to recover valuable production time, accelerate margin and control product quality. [ + ]

The photovoltaics industry is booming and the market for solar farms is growing quickly all over the world. Yet the task of planning PV power plants to make them as efficient as possible is far from trivial. Fraunhofer researchers, working with Siemens Energy Photovoltaics, have developed software that simplifies conceptual design. [ + ]

All control system projects include the same basic components: scope definition, hardware build, software implementation, test, commission. But system migration projects have a very different risk profile to greenfield projects, which means the project management of the two types is quite different. [ + ]

Selecting a Dematic robotic layer picking system proved to be a wise choice for Nestlé Australia. It received three logistics awards for its Arndell Park national distribution centre (DC), which uses a Dematic system. [ + ]

An upgraded conveyor system has helped Australia’s largest cold-chain logistics service provider stay on top of its game. [ + ]