The newly named International Society for Automation (ISA) held its annual ISA Expo conference and trade show in Houston Oct. 14-16 at Houston’s Reliant Center. Exhibit space was similar to last year’s. The show floor was busy both Tuesday and Wednesday. While there was some emphasis on wireless and communication at this year’s event, many companies took advantage of the assembled attendees and editors to announce new products. Following is a look at some of them:

Apprion , Moffett Field, Calif., announced the release of the Apprion ION Wireless Audio application, an integrated solution designed to deliver quick, easy and cost-effective compliance with employee safety requirements and site security mandates. The ION Wireless Audio application includes an Audio IONizer and industrial-grade amplified speakers to produce crisp, clear tones, digital voice messages and live public address in harsh industrial environments with high ambient noise levels.

Banner Engineering Corp. , Plymouth, Minn., unveiled its DX99 battery-powered Intrinsically Safe wireless transceiver. Described as a state-of-the-art combination of wireless communication, battery technology and intrinsically safe electronics—all in a single housing—the unit is designed to provide a new way to collect analog, digital and temperature information in hazardous areas. Compared to traditional explosion-proof and intrinsically safe methods, the DX99 provides a simpler way to perform hazardous area sensing by moving the intrinsically safe power supply from the control room to the wireless transceiver, Banner said. The DX99 uses a liquid lithium battery to provide an intrinsically safe power source for the transceiver and a third-party sensor, and can transmit and receive up to three miles.

Byres Security Inc. , of Lantzville, British Columbia, Canada, and British-based MTL Instruments , a division of Cooper Crouse-Hinds, rolled out the Tofino Modbus TCP Enforcer Loadable Security Module, a cyber security product designed to perform detailed analysis and filtering of all Modbus TCP messages. Certified by Modbus-IDA, the product allows owners of control and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems to regulate Modbus network traffic to a level of detail that has never before been possible, the companies said, thereby increasing network security, reliability and performance of critical systems. “As far as I know, no other bus on the market can offer any security, and now Modbus can,” said Byres Security Chief Technology Officer Eric Byres during a press conference announcing the product.

Cypress Envirosystems , San Jose, Calif., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., announced that it has partnered with Honeywell to create a Honeywell OneWireless version of the Cypress Envirosystems’ Wireless Gauge Reader. Based on technology from Cypress Semiconductor, the patent-pending technology will be manufactured by Cypress Envirosystems to Honeywell’s specifications. The Wireless Gauge Reader is designed to clip onto the front face of an existing dial gauge; it uses a tiny, chip-based camera to read the analog gauge and transmits the data wirelessly to a central server, using a proprietary 2.4 Gigahertz mesh network.

Several major automation vendors demonstrated EDDL solutions in their automation systems and for their devices at the ISA104 standards committee's booth. Automation systems from ABB, Emerson, Invensys, and Siemens interoperated with devices from Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Foxboro Eckardt, Metso, MTL, Samson, and Siemens.

The Fieldbus Foundation and ISA announced an agreement to facilitate the implementation of wireless backhaul transport networks. This technology initiative is based on shared interests in serving the needs of end users and suppliers of wireless systems in industrial automation. At an ISA100 meeting in June, ISA100 leaders established a new working group, ISA100.15-Wireless Backhaul Networks Working Group, to develop and maintain a standard to address one or more dedicated or shared wireless backhaul(s) to support technologies running multiple applications. The first of these backbones will be the Fieldbus Foundation's High Speed Ethernet (HSE) implementation.

Green Hills Software Inc. , Santa Barbara, Calif., demonstrated a secure environment for hosting SCADA applications. Integrity Padded Cell secure virtualization technology hosted Microsoft Windows and Linux guest operating systems running on an Intel core 2 Duo processor. The Iconics Genesis32 automation suite was hosted inside one of the secure Integrity Padded Cells. The company also announced a partnership with 3S, Smart Software Solutions , makers of CoDeSys IEC 61131 programming software for creating controller applications.

HIMA, a designer and manufacturer of safety automation solutions, introduced its latest HIMatrix F35 controller for Subsea applications. Together with its Norwegian representative Bjørge Saas System AS, HIMA has developed a HIPPS (High Integrity Pressure Protection System) that monitors excess wellhead pressure and partially isolates pipe pressure by closing off affected pipeline segments. The HIMatrix F35 Subsea ...