Dulaney will continue to serve as president and chief executive officer of Siemens Industry Inc., which comprises the Infrastructure & Cities and Industry Sectors in the United States.
The IC Sector will be organized into five divisions: Building Technologies, Low and Medium Voltage (power distribution for utilities and facilities), Mobility and Logistics (traffic, transport and logistics management), Rail Systems (rail vehicles) and Smart Grid (intelligent power grids).
In a related announcement, Helmuth Ludwig has been appointed chief executive officer of Siemens’ Industry Sector in North America. In this role, Ludwig will be responsible for all business activity and executive management of the Industry Sector business in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America.
After serving as general manager of Siemens’ first organization in Kazakhstan, Ludwig joined the Automation and Drives group and eventually became head of Siemens’ Energy and Industry division in Buenos Aires, and then president of Systems and Software House. Ludwig later moved to the systems engineering business as president before being appointed president of Siemens PLM Software in 2007. In that role, he led the organization’s integration of UGS Corp. into Siemens.
Vistagy acquisition
Composite materials such as carbon fibers have been finding their way into a growing array of products over the past several years, from sports equipment to kitchen and bath countertops. They are also found in the aerospace industry for uses such as the creation of rotor blades on wind power turbines (due to their low weight and high strength) and in the automotive industry for body panels and braking systems.
The fast-growing use of composite materials is what attracted the attention of Siemens Industry (www.siemens.com) to Vistagy (www.vistagy.com), a Waltham, Mass.-based provider of engineering software for the creation of products incorporating composite materials. The agreement to move forward with Siemens’ acquisition of Vistagy was signed in early November, but no terms of the acquisition have been released. The transaction is subject to customary approvals, and is expected to close before the end of 2011. If all goes according to plan, Siemens says it will integrate Vistagy’s products, services and support operations into the PLM software business unit of Siemens Industry Automation Division.
Vistagy’s software products include: FiberSIM for designing and manufacturing durable and lightweight composite structures; SyncroFIT for designing and manufacturing complex assemblies and large aerostructures; Quality Planning Environment used in developing plans to assess aerostructure quality; and Seat Design Environment for designing and manufacturing transportation seat systems and interior components.
To read a recent Automation World article about the drive systems used on Siemens’ rail projects, visit: http://www.automationworld.com/perspective-9049
David Greenfield, [email protected], is Media & Events Director of Automation World
