There comes a point in machine safety design when the designer needs to decide if it makes more sense to use multiple safety relays or to upgrade to a safety controller. This point typically occurs when the application requires three or more safety relays. This article focuses on some of the issues that designers must consider when determining whether a safety relay or a safety controller is the best solution for a particular job.

Shell Eastern Petroleum Ltd (SEPL) has recently completed its Ethylene Cracker Complex (ECC) as part of its Houdini project on the island of Pulau Bukom, Singapore. The full project included modifications and additions to the existing Bukom refinery.

A reimagined materials handling solution, paired with the latest control and automation technology, delivers optimised workplace safety, improved security and enhanced production efficiency at the Royal Australian Mint.

A machine with optimum motion control will help the end user improve the bottom line through labour reduction, higher throughput and faster return on investment. Motion control that is easy to use and set up, straightforward to troubleshoot, and backed by a quality support team adds to the advantages of the physical solution.

The vortex shedding flowmeter first emerged 25 to 30 years ago and has steadily grown in acceptance, since then, to be a major flow measurement technique. Its appeal is due, in part, to the fact that it has no moving parts yet produces a frequency output that varies linearly with flowrate over a wide range of Reynolds numbers.

Effective dust control around mine sites is critical from an environmental as well as from a health and safety perspective.

Founded on sophisticated production intelligence software, a new breed of information-enabled energy management systems is taking on the carbon footprint challenge - while simultaneously improving production performance and the bottom line.

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia, operates a steam plant for its huge downtown campus, generating steam for almost 60 buildings, including three hospitals, the governor’s mansion and a museum. Three identical boilers produce around 163,000 tonnes of steam a year.

Developments in technologies for building spectroscopes and spectrometers have advanced in leaps and bounds since the first commercial infrared spectroscope was developed in the 1940s and the first FT-IR spectrometer came on the market in 1969. Today, spectrometry is moving out of the lab and into the field and the process plant.

The Schwenk Zement cement works in Allmendingen, Germany, required a method of quickly and reliably detecting blockages in raw materials hoppers.

Foster’s recently sought to upgrade some of its ageing fleet of ink jet coders. It sought an advanced ink jet coder, with performance characteristics not previously offered on the market. The system will be used for printing information such as the use-by date detail on shrinkwrapped cluster packs.

In order to improve order picking for the large base of small warehouses and assemblies, SSI Schäfer developed an affordable pick-by-light (PbL) system that helps workers to fill customer orders quickly and efficiently, improving pick and cycle times and increasing pick accuracy.

Chinese company Dongfang Steam Turbine Works (DSTW) was working on a wind farm project involving 66 1.5 MW wind turbines in Heilongjiang, China, and needed to establish a reliable SCADA system to help the staff remotely monitor on-site equipment and operations.

KSB Group has supplied Scandinavian Tank Storage Sweden with pumps intended for discharging crude oil from an underground rock cavern.

Motors used in food production areas are primarily selected for either ‘dry’ areas or ‘wet’ areas. These are entirely different situations with very different demands. We assume we are looking at safe areas, where there is no hazard from combustible gas or liquids.