Control Systems

PPT VISION announces IMPACT® 9.1 Software Suite, the latest edition in the company’s sophisticated machine vision software platform. IMPACT 9.1 enhances the previous pattern find tool with its powerful Pinpoint Pattern Find™ tool, which offers exceptional functionality and ease of use. With the Pinpoint Pattern Find tool, IMPACT 9.1 solves even more challenging applications—including robotic guidance and high-speed inspection of randomly oriented, scaled, and located parts—with sub-pixel accuracy.

Piezo Technology and Motion Control specialist Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe, Germany has strengthened its European sales organization with new offices and people.

Yara Brunsbüttel GmbH, a Yara International ASA company specialising in the production of ammonia and urea for the fertiliser industry, has installed the HIMax safety controller from HIMA Paul Hildebrandt GmbH + Co KG as part of its emergency shutdown (ESD) system for the Brunsbüttel factory's desulfurisation system.

SIS-TECH announces the DIAMOND-SIS High Integrity Protective System, a low-cost standalone logic solver certified for use in applications up to Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3. The DIAMOND-SIS HIPS is used to provide overpressure protection for scenarios where the opening of the pressure relief valve poses unacceptable process safety risks.

WEG has developed a special control panel which monitors the ventilation circuits, temperature, humidity, lighting and feeder lines for Plasson, a company that both manufactures equipment and sells services for Aviculture. The system provided by WEG ensures better use of feed ration, optimises environmental requirements and delivers higher quality and productivity.

The compact NEXACT piezo stepping drives from Physik Instrumente (PI) push forward into a new performance class for linear drives: with high forces of 10 N, velocities of more than 10 mm/s, and at resolutions of a few nanometers they replace the typical stepper or DC servomotors in applications that depend on the combination of force and resolution on large travel ranges. The E-862 driver electronics is the ideal control for the NEXACT drives when operated in open-loop or when used with an external positioning and velocity control. By using an analog input signal, the driver can be connected with external motion controllers or it can be controlled directly by using a joystick.

By using configurable, modular control systems with operator-specific software, users of spot welding robot systems can acquire intelligent tailor-made cooling systems that guarantee zero leakage in their production environment as a result of loss or replacement of electrode tips. Such modular systems, consisting of compact devices with integrated sensor equipment, valves and controllers, can be individually configured to provide optimised cooling solutions for specific applications and operator requirements. Moreover, in contrast to conventional solutions consisting of products from various manufacturers, integrated solutions are much more compact in size and their components are specially chosen for optimised interoperability.

The integration of sensor, control electronics and proportional valves into a single compact device enables Burkert’s new Liquid Flow Controller (LFC) to provide fast and accurate measurement and dosage of small volumes of liquids with nominal flow rates of 10 – 600 ml/min (0.6 to 36 l/h) with a 1:10. measuring span.

Trace Software International, announced that elecworks™, its flagship product, has achieved Certified Gold Partner status with DS SolidWorks Corporation. With this certification, elecworks™ becomes the first Certified Gold Partner application for electrical design, integrated to SolidWorks.

Coverity, Inc., announced that Schneider Electric has selected Coverity Static Analysis to automatically find software defects across its Automation and Control software product portfolio.