Air traffic across Europe was halted in April as ash from an Icelandic volcano drifted towards the continent. Scientists in London discuss the technical reasons for this disruption.

The presence of harmonics can drastically alter the quality of the power provided to electrical systems and may affect equipment on that supply. Peter Tomazic, Solution Consultant for the Systems and Solutions business of Rockwell Automation, explains how harmonics are generated, why they are a problem and discusses various engineered solutions that can mitigate their effects.

Nucleonic gauges can be found everywhere where extreme conditions would mean the end for any other measurement technology. That’s because nucleonic devices measure contactlessly, which makes the measuring systems wear free and practically maintenance free as well. However, since this technology uses radioactive radiation, safety is the top priority.

With an annual production capacity of approximately one million tonnes, Jura Cement is Switzerland’s second largest cement producer and is part of Jura-Holding. Jura Cement’s plants in Wildegg and Cornaux produce high-quality cement for different fields of application.

An Australian waste sortation specialist has devised a turnkey system for councils and regional bodies that uses automated primary sortation as a fast starting point to separate different types of waste.

Australian drive solutions providers are stepping up the fight against counterfeit gear unit and motor ‘copycats’ in order to safeguard Australian industry from breakdowns, inefficiency and downtime.

The Sugarloaf Pipeline will provide a significant boost to Melbourne’s water supply, and is a key part of the Victorian government’s three-pronged approach to securing Melbourne’s water reserves. The 70 km pipeline will transfer water from the Goulburn River, near Yea, to the Sugarloaf Reservoir, outside Yarra Glen on Melbourne’s outskirts.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 22 March as World Water Day. This day was dedicated to technical projects aiming to improve the drinking water supply of people all over the world. One of these projects concerns a unique water supply system on Indonesia’s Java island, which was designed by scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and was commissioned in March 2010.

Pump Industry Australia (PIA) is conducting a Firepump Workshop in Sydney on 12 May 2010. Suitable for consulting engineers, fire protection companies, fire-pump packagers, fire authorities and other regulatory bodies within the industry, the workshop will discuss fire pumps to AS 2941-2008 - Fixed fire protection installations.

Developing a machine vision application for the first time need not be a headache. If you follow a thorough, three-stage process to develop, test and deploy the project, the results should provide an essential tool in product inspection and valuable insight to enhance overall product quality.

The purpose of tuning loops is to reduce errors and thus provide more efficient operation that returns quickly to steady-state efficiency after upsets, errors or changes in load. The ‘forgotten loop’ has been the operator, who is typically trained to ‘average’ parameters to run adequately under most steady-state conditions.

It was about 120 years ago that Mark Twain used the phrase “more than one way to skin a cat”. In the world of PLC programming, that cliché is still applicable today. Thanks to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), five standard programming languages have emerged as the most common, used for both process and discrete programmable controllers.

Every second of every day in any year around the world, Electrolux sells two of its products. This requires state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, such as the fully automated and flexible powder-coating facility for oven and grill cavities recently installed at Electrolux’s manufacturing plant in Dudley Park, South Australia.

Machine builders often find themselves in a contradictory situation. On the one hand they have to react flexibly to customer needs with customised machines, while on the other hand product standardisation reduces costs and engineering effort. Modular machinery design has the potential to serve both aims.

It was about 120 years ago that Mark Twain used the phrase “more than one way to skin a cat”. In the world of PLC programming, that cliché is still applicable today. Thanks to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), five standard programming languages have emerged as the most common, used for both process and discrete programmable controllers.