BEST OF THE BLOG

Automation Gear Debuts

The text of our brand new way to report on products. Introducing the Automation Gear Blog. Add this to your RSS feed or your favorites. Kicking off the blog is a new product line from Opto 22. For anyone who has had to wire control panels, you know that it can be tedious, time-consuming and open to error. Companies have been developing wiring aids for some time. Opto 22 has entered the fray and developed and introduced a family of mounting and wiring accessory for its control and input/output systems. Snap Tex includes a wide variety of terminal extender cables, breakout boards, wiring harnesses, DIN-rail kits, jumper straps, rack adapters, and other mounting and wiring components... Read more

Developing young minds

Just heard about this from National Instruments. Lego Education, The Lego Group's educational division, announced Lego Education WeDo, a new product that redefines classroom robotics making it possible for primary school students (ages 7-11) to build and program their own robotics projects. The product was unveiled last week at the National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio, TX and will be available in the United States and Brazil January 1, 2009. They call it "hands-on, minds-on" educational experience. The product combines Lego products and NI's LabView programming product... Read more

Brewery automation

I see that Anheuser-Busch has apparently agreed to a buy out by InBev creating the world's largest brewery company. From the automation perspective, I'd make a comparison to SAB Miller. I've had several conversations with corporate engineering managers at the latter company. Their challenge is to get all the various control and information systems talking with each other and gradually standardizing information and contol. They find ISA95 to be a valuable tool in that effort. This new creation could be an interesting challenge and opportunity for both the engineers involved--and for their current suppliers who will undoubtedly be jockeying for position... Read more

Emerson acquisition

Just finished up several intensive days of meetings. Now, ready to blog again. And, it's with another industry acquisition. Emerson has acquired TopWorx. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TopWorx becomes part of Emerson Process Management expanding its valve instrument offering and "extending the reach of Emerson's PlantWeb digital plant architecture to on/off valves and other instruments."... Read more

Mind set

Rex Hammock posted a blog entry about the dangers of having a "fixed mind set." He quotes Carol Dweck and if you haven't read her book on mind set, you've missed something. The premise is that some people have a closed mind set that assumes they've reached their maximum growth. Other people see life as a continuing opportunity for growth and development. I've always been the latter. What about you? (thought I posted this July 9, but it's lost in the Ether)... Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT

Upcoming Webcast -- "Connecting and Managing Remote Devices with Wireless Technology"

In this Webcast from Automation World, experts will discuss how digitally enabled devices can be read remotely and ultimately connected over the Internet using a variety of wireless topologies and IP-enabled gateways. Highlighting automatic tank level sensing as a typical example, our speakers address how to connect and manage process data from solids, liquids or gases in a wireless application. Register Now