Siemens Simatic S7-300 controllers
07 February, 2010 bySiemens has developed four Simatic S7-300 controllers with a width of 40 mm. The range comprises the standard controllers CPU 315-2 PN/DP and CPU 317-2 PN/DP and the failsafe controllers CPU 315F-2 PN/DP and CPU 317F-2 PN/DP.
Controllers with long-life contacts
10 November, 2009 byWatlow has developed its No-Arc technology that extends the life of relays. A No-Arc relay is a mechanical relay with arc suppression provided through the use of smart electronics. This technology reduces the amount of arcing across the relay contacts and has a life of more than four million cycles compared to relays without arc suppression that have a life of approximately 100,000 operations.
Distributed I/O system
29 September, 2009VIPA Germany has released an intelligent distributed I/O and PLC system named SLice IO, to cater for ‘per point’, low-density applications. The SLIO I/O system comes with a high-speed backplane that can be combined with VIPA’s 100 V, 200 V, 300 S and 500 S systems, and future releases of SLIO CPU’s.
I/O expansion modules
21 September, 2009 byUnitronics has released a line of enhanced I/O expansion modules. Based on the same platform as the previous modules, these four compact devices offer up to 32 digital I/Os per unit, plus three additional analog inputs for maximum I/O capacity and minimised cabinet space.
Entry-level PLC
30 July, 2009Designed for standalone operation in smaller industrial applications and mechanical engineering, the AC500-eCo PLC can be adapted to meet individual requirements.
Wireless PAC system
30 July, 2009Wireless local area networking (WLAN) capabilities have been added to all of Opto 22's ethernet-based Snap PAC system components, including all of its standalone and rack-mounted programmable automation controllers.
PLC ethernet module
30 July, 2009Omron has recently introduced the CP1W-CIF41, an add-on ethernet option board for CP1 PLCs, enabling communications to these micro PLCs over ethernet networks, boosting their flexibility and usefulness.
Integrated PLC and HMI
25 June, 2009 byUnitronics’ Vision350 incorporates all colour advantages into a compact all-in-one PLC/HMI device. Colour displays are becoming common in today’s automation. They enable machine builders to show more details on the operator panels and to display vivid, attention-grabbing alarms.
Changing gears quickly: high-performance transmission production
29 May, 2009With over 13,000 employees, the VW plant in Baunatal — 10 km south of Kassel — is Volkswagen’s second largest production site in Germany and one of the concern’s most important component suppliers. This primary transmission plant in Kassel supplies the entire Volkswagen organisation worldwide with around 2.8 million manual and automatic transmission systems annually.
High-performance controller and chassis
20 May, 2009The National Instruments CompactRIO programmable automation controller is an advanced embedded control and data acquisition system designed for applications that require high performance and reliability.
Integrated controller and touch screen
18 May, 2009 byThe Unitronics Vision570 is an all-in-one compact controller with a colour touch screen, full PLC functionality, onboard I/O options and built-in recipe capability.
Combined PLC and HMI
11 May, 2009 byThe Unitronics’ Jazz is a PLC that includes onboard I/Os plus a full-function operator panel with numeric keypad. It enables users to replace ‘smart relays’ with a smarter, more powerful device, while keeping the same low budget.
Quad-core embedded controller
11 May, 2009 byThe NI PXI-8110 is a 3U quad-core embedded controller for PXI systems. Featuring a 2.26 GHz Intel Core2 Quad processor Q9100, up to 4 GB of 800 MHz DDR2 RAM and a high-performance 7200 rpm drive, the PXI-8110 provides an up to 80% performance improvement over dual-core controllers with similar CPU clock frequencies for applications that are optimised to use the controller’s four processing cores.
Trio differential pressure transmitter
01 April, 2009The Trio MC464 can support up to 64 axes of motion in a unit the size of a small book. The MC464’s digital drive interface provides a plug-and-play connection between the motion controller and various digital drives. This significantly reduces wiring while providing a much higher axis count compared to what is available in comparable motion controllers.
Scalable mobile control system
01 April, 2009The Scalable Mobile Control System from Hirschmann Automation and Control can be used for controlling and monitoring machine functions as well as for safe load indicator. The product family includes controls from the iFLEX series and the iSCOUT operating consoles. The modular concept also ensures that each solution can be adapted economically at any time to changed requirements.
