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CONTENTS DEC 2009/JAN 2010
42
Rockwell Automation Fair 2009
ISSUES & INSIGHTS
SOFTWARE & NETWORKS
ENERGY
22
32
40
2010 Market Outlook
Leaders in the automation industry reveal their thoughts and tell us the plans they have in store to emerge from the recession in a competitive position.
CONTROL POINT
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Operator Interface Terminals: Build vs Buy Time to market, risk assessment and cost analysis are factors to consider when deciding whether to build or buy a HMI. By David Pascoe in conjuction with QSI Corporation
31
Simulation software provides the ability to cut down costs without compromising on quality. By Mary-Anne Sotto, National Instruments ASEAN
48
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industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
As countries revitalise their infrastructures to meet increasingly stringent energy policies, energy management and smart energy grids have become a hot topic in the industry. By John Morrell, Aleri
Field Failure Data: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
High quality data depends on accurate recording of enough information so that assumptions are minimised. By Dr William M Goble, and Joseph F Siebert, Exida Consulting
SECTOR SPOTLIGHT
38
ADVANTECH WORLD PARTNER CONFERENCE
2
Grid Data Energy: Get Smart
INSTRUMENTATION & MEASUREMENT
Customer Preference For Automation Cranks Up The Market For PLCs The PLC market is expected to earn revenues of US$458 million by 2015. By Yandan Chen, Frost & Sullivan
A Little Simulation Goes A Long Way
Warehouse Management Optimisation: Picking Up Speed Incorporating advanced algorithmic design into the WMS will see the material flow efficiency from orders request to customers’ delivery improve. By Vincent Lim, Daifuku Mechatronics (S)
38 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT OPTIMISATION: PICKING UP SPEED
ENQUIRY NO. 070
CONTENTS DEC 2009/JAN 2010
FEATURES
42
Rockwell Automation Fair 2009
Drawing a global audience of end users, partners and journalists, Rockwell’s annual automation extravaganza highlighted the company’s focus on OEMs, sustainable manufacturing and the concept of plant-wide optimisation. By Derek Rodriguez
46
Hand In Hand: Integrating Electrical & Automation Systems The seamless integration of the electrical and automation systems are highly desirable in a process plant. By Peter Tubaas and Martin Stamnestro, ABB
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52
Advantech World Partner Conference
REGULARS
The world is becoming ‘instrumented’, ‘interconnected’, and ‘intelligent’, and Advantech is an enabler in creating this smarter planet. By Derek Rodriguez
8
News
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Fieldbus Foundation
Green By Design
20
EtherCAT Technology Group
21
Profibus
56
Products & Services
63
Calendar of Events
64
Advertising Index / Ad Sales Office
With the 2010 release of SolidWorks, the company has unveiled its intentions to join the green movement. By Joson Ng and Derek Rodriguez
HAND IN HAND: INTEGRATING ELECTRICAL & AUTOMATION SYSTEMS
46
64A Product Enquiry Card Cover: Asif Akbar, India
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EDITOR’S PAGE
On Your Marks
Published by:
EASTERN TRADE MEDIA PTE LTD
(A fully owned subsidiary of Eastern Holdings Ltd) MANAGING DIRECTOR
Kenneth Tan
Time flies when you are busy and this year has come and almost gone seemingly in the blink of an eye. At this same point last year, many companies were bracing themselves for the full impact of the recession, thinking of ways to weather the storm. The situation, though not completely rectified, is much more optimistic this year, with some already recording positive numbers. Advantech, in their World Partner Conference, made it a point to highlight the company’s sales performance, showing a gradual increase in quarter on quarter growth over the last few quarters. Hopefully, this is an indication of the direction of the entire industry. It is also heartening to know that despite the many It is enforced cutbacks, many of that the companies’ representatives I spoke to were proud the many enforced that to declare that they were , many still investing heavily on the research and development of companies were new products, ensuring that the advancement of automation and technology still continues in this tough period. The downturn has also forced companies to look into their internal structure and, maybe by streamlining their operations or through other means, emerging a more efficient organisation. It will be interesting to see which companies will be quickest off the line as the economy repairs itself. The month of December has always been my favourite. The transition from December to January is a fascinating one. Technically speaking, it is no different to the others, but what it provides is a representation of new possibilities. It is, as Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes so aptly describes, ‘like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on’. Another reason, of course, is the holidays. It is the time for us to put down our pens for awhile and spend time with our loved ones. From the IAA team, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
M heartening to despite know
ASSISTANT EDITOR
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cutbacks
still investing heavily on research development
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Irene Tow irenetow@epl.com.sg CONTRIBUTORS
David Pascoe, Yandan Chen, Mary-Anne Sotto, Dr William M Goble, Joseph F Siebert, Vincent Lim, John Morrell, Joson Ng EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS
Jim Pinto Industry Analyst
Alastair Ross Director, Codexx Associates Ltd
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Celebrate with Us.
Our heartfelt thanks for your continuous support to Industrial Automation Asia, and we wish you a prosperous new beginning with us in 2010.
Kenneth Tan Derick Chia
Derek Rodriguez
AisyahWong
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Industry News
Sustainable Manufacturing Centre To Reduce Environmental Footprint Singapore: The Sustainable Manufacturing Centre, spearheaded by the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), was launched by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, at SIMTech. The Sustainable Manufacturing Centre or SMC aims to showcase and promote the concept of sustainability in manufacturing and create a platform to converge relevant government agencies, industry associations, research community and industry to engage in R&D and implementation of sustainable manufacturing technologies and methodologies. The centre will work with the manufacturing industry to develop and implement innovative technologies that reduce emissions, wastes and toxicity in manufacturing, promote the recycling and reuse of resources and strengthen the global competitiveness of Singapore’s 8 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
manufacturing industry in the world where environmental issues have become a major concern. The SMC also showcases exhibits of sustainable manufacturing technologies, best practices, capabilities, success stories and an array of products to inspire innovations in green manufacturing technologies and products. Dr Lim Ser Yong, executive director of SIMTech said: “It is timely to set up the Sustainable Manufacturing Centre at SIMTech because we have received strong interest and feedback from the industry in sustainable manufacturing. The institute has been working with industry since 2007 in life cycle assessment and environmental impact analysis; eco-efficiency analysis and optimisation of manufacturing systems, and sustainable materials and green product developments. These capabilities have been extended and applied in the industry, achieving successful green products for the local and global markets.” One of the four strategies of the
National Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development (IMCSD) to ensure Singapore’s continued sustainable development is to build up Singapore’s technologies and capabilities in order to realise the country’s sustainable development targets, spur economic growth and export our expertise. SMC, which fits into the Singapore Sustainable Blueprint, will play an important role to help achieve these national objectives through technology and capabilities development and knowledge transfer to industry. Over the next five years, SIMTech will spend S$10 million (US$7.2 million) in the development of sustainable manufacturing technology and manpower, and spur many times of that amount by the industry. Some areas for collaboration have already been identified with industry partners to develop sustainable manufacturing capabilities in the areas of remanufacturing; recovery of resources from manufacturing waste and sustainable packaging.
Industry News
Infor Makes In-Roads In Transportation Sector
Singapore: The dramatic expansion of railways as the mass transportation solution of choice for the 21st century, fuelled by a perfect storm of population growth, urban sprawl and environmental concerns, is challenging the railway industry to manage a growing number of assets more effectively. Chongqing Metro (Group), Seoul Line 9 Operation and Shenzhen Metro have successfully implemented Infor’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution to ensure they can meet these challenges. With Infor EAM, these organisations will gain more control of their capital assets, drive out inefficiencies and save time and money by optimising resources. According to IDC’s software
Invensys To Supply Solutions For Power Plant In India
tracker released in May 2009, the EAM applications market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan is estimated to reach US$136.9 million in 2009. It is expected to grow steadily at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent, reaching US$233.1 million by 2013. “Over the last year we’ve seen the adoption of Enterprise Asset Management solutions being driven by industry-specific challenges and initiatives,” said Lars Faeste, VP, EAM Sales, Infor Asia Pacific. “In particular we’ve experienced a considerable amount of traction in the transportation industry, as companies seek ways to enhance operating performance while reducing costs, ensure safe operations and improve their services to meet customer expectations.”
CADEM Appointed Distributor For NX Software Singapore: Siemens PLM Software has appointed CADEM Technology Center as the sole Singapore distributor of NX software, Siemens PLM Software’s flagship digital product development solution for computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering analysis (CAD/ CAM/CAE). Under the terms of this agreement, CADEM will market, license, manage and support the distribution of NX in Singapore. They will provide users with professional support and also provide both software and industry domain-based training.
Singapore: Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of technology systems, software solutions and consulting services to the process and manufacturing industries, today announced that it has signed a deal with Coastal Gujarat Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power Limited, to provide endto-end integrated services and solutions that will fully optimise India’s first ultra-mega 4,000MW power plant. Located in Mundra in the Gujarat Sate of India, it will be India’s largest coal-fired power plant when completed in 2013. Under the terms of the agreement, Invensys will provide distributed and critical control systems, emergency shutdown systems, advanced process control, plant optimisation and operator training simulator technology. The scope of the project includes the provision of end-to-end solutions, from boiler management systems to turbine auxiliary controls, with interfaces for seamless systems integration with other technology vendors. India’s rapid economic development will continue to drive energy demand, and the country has a five-year plan to create more than 78 GW of additional capacity by 2012.
Siemens Supplies Automation Solution For Singapore Facility Singapore: Siemens has been awarded a contract to supply the automation for Singapore Recombinant plant of Baxter Bioscience Manufacturing. Siemens will provide basic and detail engineering services and will deliver, install and commission the automation system, process instruments and motor control centers. Siemens’ concept of Totally Integrated Automation will allow a tight integration of all devices and components, based on Profibus and industrial Ethernet communication.
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 9
Industry News
VIPA Honoured As An Innovator
Emerson Acquires EIM Controls St Louis, USA: Emerson Process Management has acquired Missouri City, Texas-based EIM Controls, a manufacturer of valve actuators. EIM Controls will join the company’s Valve Automation division, expanding Emerson’s electric-actuator portfolio while strengthening the company’s applications for Foundation Fieldbus and other major bus protocols. The addition of EIM Controls brings Multi-Turn and Quarter-turn actuators in incorporating MCP, M2CP, TEC2000 and the ECP2000 electric and electronic controls into Emerson’s portfolio.
Building Standard Provides Foundation For Green Building Codes Herzogenaurach, Germany: VIPA is one of the 100 most innovative small and medium-sized companies in Germany. So say the results of this year’s ‘Top 100’ corporate benchmarking competition - a cross-sectoral business initiative covering the entire country. One key element of the firm’s success in this was its finely-tuned innovations management. To qualify for the award, VIPA had to undergo a stringent, two-stage process devised by the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. “Our results show that the 100 top innovators generally tackle challenges head on and are thus well-equipped to deal with the current economic situation, for example. Innovation is a matter of priority at management level for most of these companies,” commented Professor Nikolaus Franke, head of the research team, on the analysis. In the past three years, these awardwinners generated two thirds of their revenue from innovations and innovative improvements, compared with 30 per cent in a sample of similarly-structured German SMEs. In addition, Top 100 firms were able to shave some 12 per cent off their costs through process innovations, compared with 4 per cent on the part of ‘average SMEs’. 10 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
Atlanta, USA: A proposed highperformance building standard and a stronger version of Standard 90.1, both being released next year, together will provide a total green resource for local and state governments looking to set building code requirements to reduce energy use. Proposed Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is being developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The standard is slated to be the first code-intended commercial green building standard in the United States
when published early in 2010. It covers key topic areas typically included in green building rating systems: site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and the building’s impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources. ASHRAE and IES also are working to strengthen the requirements in ANSI/ ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, which provides minimum requirements for the energyefficient design of buildings except low-rise residential buildings. It is estimated that the 2010 standard will result in 25 to 30 percent energy savings over the 2004 version. The 2010 standard is expected to be released in mid-2010.
US Awards Grant For Eco-Friendly Transport Projects USA: The US government has announced a US$100m grant for 43 environmentally friendly transportation projects. The grant comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment 2009 Act under its Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) grant program. The projects have been selected from a large number of proposals that were submitted after the Federal Transit Administration (FRA) announced the grant in March 2008. The road projects include the purchase of hybrid electric buses in Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington to replace the diesel buses. The project is also aimed at developing technologies to reduce global warming as well as energy consumption to lessen the country’s reliance on oil.
ENQUIRY NO. 036
Industry News
Nearly Half Of US Consumers Would Choose A ‘Green’ Handset New York, USA: Results from a 2009 ABI Research survey of 1,000 adult mobile phone users in North America reveal that approximately 7 percent would be willing to pay a premium for an environmentallyfriendly handset. A further 40 percent would choose a green handset over a conventional one if price, features, and performance were equal. “These survey results mean that almost half of those surveyed were at least committed in principle to use of a green handset,” comments industry analyst Michael Morgan. “However the public is largely uninformed about their availability: only 4 percent said they were ‘very familiar’ with green handsets.” Is that ‘equal in price’ condition a deal-breaker? Not necessarily. Some recyclable components may be slightly more expensive, but the vendors have in most cases offered handsets with comparable functionality while keeping costs down. Generally the price differential between green and non-green models is not remarkable. The cost to handset manufacturers can be, though. Creating a verifiably green handset can mean revamping the whole supply chain and retooling the production process. Watchdog groups such as Greenpeace are on the alert for ‘greenwashing’. Says Mr Morgan: “There’s an avalanche of information to be managed, just to prove that you’re green.”
Legislation and regulation play roles too. The EU has the most comprehensive regulations in place, with targets which the most proactive handset vendors such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson view as worth meeting globally. However, says Morgan: “There’s a difference between being merely compliant and being truly green. The three key factors are: using recyclable or renewable materials; ensuring that handsets are in fact recycled after use; and introducing low-power chargers. Even more crucial for the long-term: leveraging the lessons learned in this process and applying them right through entire handset portfolios.” As these lessons are applied, ABI Research believes, the percentage of properly recycled handsets will grow from 8 percent in 2009 to 17 percent in 2014.
Matrikon Buys Out Indian Joint Venture Company Alberta, Canada: Matrikon has purchased the remaining 51 percent of MatrikonSoftDEL India from joint venture partner SoftDEL Systems on November 11, 2009 for CAN$575,000 (US$547,000). The company, with approximately 30 full time staff, will be operating as Matrikon India going forward. “We initiated this joint venture in July 2008, at the peak of the resource markets,” stated Ian Brown, Matrikon’s VP of Europe, Middle East & Africa. “Due to the changing global economic situation since then, we have not been able to expand the operation as we originally intended, by providing access to qualified engineers in the event of labour shortages outside of India. Where we have succeeded is in leveraging the talented resources in India to supplement our global research and development teams. 12 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
APPOINTMENTS & NOTICES ABB Appoints Business Unit Manager Daniel Huber has been promoted to Business Unit manager for the A B B ’s C o n t r o l Systems business (BU Open Control System) within the Process Automation Division. He will be responsible for the global product business of ABB’s vast portfolio of control systems. Mr Huber will also have the business responsibility of specific system solutions, applications, and services for the life science, specialty chemical, food, beverage and printing industries, and help to build and strengthen the company’s network of third party sales channel partners.
Check Point Appoints Regional Director For South Asia Check Point Software Technologies has apointed John Ong as regional director for South Asia. In this capacity, Mr Ong oversees the company’s overall business performance throughout the ASEAN region, leads the company’s local sales operation and manages and develops channel and customer relationships in these markets.
Rockwell’s Regional Director Scott Teerlinck has been named regional director, Southeast Asia, effective November 1, 2009. In this role, Mr Teerlinck will report to Keiran Coulton, president, Asia Pacific Region, and will be responsible for the overall sales and commercial leadership for Southeast Asia.
Industry News
Manufacturers Struggle To Hire High-Skilled Workers
Michigan, USA: As employers across the country continue to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs, many manufacturers are facing an ironic dilemma. As they eliminate positions – mainly repetitive, assembly type jobs – they still have unfilled job openings for high-skilled workers.
According to a recent survey conducted by Deloitte, The Manufacturing Institute and Oracle, ‘almost one-third of responding companies report some level of shortages today.’ These shortages of high-skilled workers are particularly acute within ‘the most profitable companies, aerospace and defense and life science sectors,’ and among ‘skilled production workers, scientists and engineers.’ “This is certainly an employer’s market, but not as much with manufacturers,” says Mark C Tomlinson, executive director and general manager of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. “Manufacturers are looking for employees who are the opposite of the stereotypical factory worker doing repetitive, assembly line work. They are in need of 21st century workers with specialised technical training such as
Check Point Completes Acquisition Of Application Database Singapore: Check Point Software Technologies will add security controls for over 50,000 Web 2.0 widgets and more than 4,500 Internet applications. The addition is a result of the acquisition of the application classification and signature database from FaceTime Communications. New developments from Check Point combined with the acquired technologies will provide businesses granular control over application usage and enable security administrators to prevent threats associated with the use of certain Internet applications. Check Point will offer this level of security controls as a Software Blade that will be available for all gateways.
OPC Releases Specification For Analyser Devices Arizona, USA: The OPC Foundation has announced the release of the OPC Analyzer Devices Integration (ADI) Specification as a companion specification to OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA). The completion of the OPC ADI specification provides industries such as the pharmaceutical industry with a common method of data exchange for: analyser data models and process/laboratory analysers. Developed as a logical extension of the OPC UA specifications, the OPC ADI Specification serves as an information model for analyser devices which enables true plug-and-play multivendor interoperability. Analyser integration based on this standard offers end-users a seamless experience in data management and integration for solutions such as Process Analytical Technology (PAT).
machinists, operators and technicians,” he adds. The survey also shows that many manufacturers are ‘not acting’ on finding these types of workers or are depending on largely ineffective ‘traditional approaches to managing and developing their employees,’ like current performance, rather than on the latest ‘talent management trends’ such as ‘lean and industry-recognized skills credentials.’ Respondents to this survey also reported dissatisfaction with the skills of their current employees. Nearly half indicated many workers have inadequate basic employability skills, such as attendance, timeliness and work ethic, while 46 percent reported inadequate problem-solving skills, and 36 percent indicated insufficient reading, writing, and communication skills.
Aeroflex, Agilent, & Test Evolution’s Test Standard Colorado, USA: Aeroflex Corporation, Agilent Technologies, and Test Evolution Corp has proposed a new modular test standard, AXIe (AdvancedTCA Extensions for Instrumentation and Test). AXIe is an open standard based on AdvancedTCA (ATCA) that creates a robust ecosystem of components, products and systems for general purpose instrumentation and semiconductor test. AXIe leverages existing standards from ATCA, PXI, LXI and IVI. The AXIe standard provides the maximum scalability to address a range of platforms including general purpose rack-and-stack, modular systems, semiconductor ATE systems, bench top, and module plug-ins. “AXIe removes the division between instruments and systems. I believe AXIe will drive a new business model in the industry, which will lower costs throughout general purpose and semiconductor test,” remarked Lev Alperovich, president and CEO of Test Evolution Corp. Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 13
Industry News
GE & AVIC Joint Venture Creates Business Opportunities
Beijing, China: GE Aviation of the United States and AVIC Systems of China have announced an agreement on forming a joint venture company to develop and market integrated avionics systems for commercial aircraft customers. The announcement was made as part of ‘GE’s Clean Technology Week in China’ activities. Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE and Lin Zuoming, president of AVIC, signed a framework agreement for open architecture avionics.
Definitive documentation is being put in place with the goal of launching a new JV company by mid-2010, subject to receiving all required regulatory approvals. The new avionics company, to be headquartered in China, will offer fully integrated, open architecture avionics and services for future commercial aircraft programs. “The joint venture creates approximately 200 jobs in the US, in addition to
Suppliers Unified For Field Device Integration Hanover, Germany: To accelerate deployment of the Field Device Integration (FDI) technology, key suppliers agreed to enlarge the scope of the EDDL Cooperation Team (ECT) and will become the FDI Cooperation. This cooperation will initially consist of the associations: FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communications Foundation, OPC Foundation and Profibus Nutzerorganisation, as well as the companies ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa. The FDI project was kicked-off at 2007 Hanover Fair. At this time ECT welcomed FDT Group with the primary objective of harmonising EDDL and FDT/ DTM technologies. Since then, the project has carefully shaped the technology direction for the converged FDI solution. The addition of supplier companies, which have agreed to support FDI Device Packages in their systems and products, will strengthen this effort by providing resources for the completion of this project. Besides the finalisation of the FDI specification, which is scheduled for mid 2010, the scope of the enlarged EDDL Cooperation Team is covering common design and test tools, common binary format and interpreter across the protocols of HART, FF and Profibus. The intent is to assure a uniform device integration solution for process industries across all host systems, devices and protocols as required by end users. 14 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
creating bilateral industrial cooperation with China,” said Lorraine Bolsinger, president and CEO for GE’s Aviation Systems business. “Aviation is a national priority in China to everyone’s benefit. The joint venture creates a major integrated supplier to airframers worldwide,” continued Bolsinger. “Our participation helps the US to grow high-tech jobs and capabilities, while serving the aviation market with the latest technology.”
Invensys Announces Collaboration For Wonderware Windows CE HMI Texas, USA: Invensys Operations Management has announced a number of innovative, strategic partnerships with human-machine interface (HMI) hardware manufacturers. The Powered By Wonderware program delivers Invensys Operations Management’s Wonderware InTouch HMI software in a compact edition form factor for Windows CE devices. The program was created in partnership with Advantech Corporation, Arista Corporation, Axiomtek, B&R Industrial Automation, Beckhoff Automation, Beijer Electronics, Kontron and Vipa. Powered By Wonderware certified devices are now available from these vendors, with pre-installed images ready for use out of the box.
Industry News
Mitsubishi Electric Solar Panels To Power Logistic Centre
Tokyo, Japan: Mitsubishi Electric has completed a 2,906 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) installation for Coop’s CNNA-Prato logistic centre in Prato, Italy. Of the 15,710 lead-free solder PV modules used for the 2,906kW system, 15,650 modules (2,895kW) have been installed on the warehouse roof, covering a surface of 21,000 sq m, equivalent to five soccer fields. The system will reduce dependence on non-renewable energy, and is expected to generate 3.2 million kWh per year, which will not only completely meet the energy needs of the new
logistic centre, but will also generate an estimated amount of 500,000 kWh excess electricity that will be transferred to the national distribution network. The 2,895kW installation on the warehouse roof has become the largest rooftop PV system on a single building in Italy. The warehouse roof was specially designed for PV installations, given that rooftop installations in Italy receive a higher feed-in-tariff rate than those on the ground, and effectively use space. In addition to the 2,895kW rooftop system, an 11kW system of 60 PV modules has been installed on the parking lot grounds.
Doosan Ships Water Desalination Evaporator From Vietnam Seoul, South Korea: Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction successfully produced and shipped seawater desalination facilities for the first time at its Vietnam plant, which was inaugurated in May, as it is beefing up its global production system. Doosan Vina, the company’s Vietnamese affiliate, held a ceremony at its plant in the Dung Quat Industrial Complex in Vietnam’s central east coast region on October 13 to commemorate the shipment of a vaporiser, which will be installed at the Phase 2 Shuweihat Seawater Desalination Plant in the United Arab Emirates. In attendance at the event were Hoang Trung Hai, Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, and Cho Bongjin, chief of the Vietnamese affiliate. Doosan Vina produced and shipped the first installment of power generation facilities supplied to the Pecem Power Plant in Brazil in September. With the production and shipment of the water desalination facility, Doosan Vina is emerging as Doosan’s second production base after the Changwon Plant in Korea.
NAMUR Confirms WirelessHART for Process Applications Texas, USA: The HART Communication Foundation welcomes the recent report and confirmation by NAMUR that WirelessHART technology meets the requirements for wireless sensor networks in process applications. After conducting an extensive multi-vendor field test, NAMUR reports that WirelessHART Communication provides the flexibility, security, robust performance, coexistence with other radio technologies and device interoperability within a WirelessHART network that its members should expect.
The NAMUR field test used WirelessHART products to evaluate and verify WirelessHART compliance with NAMUR Recommendation NE124, ‘Requirements for Wireless Automation’ and NAMUR Working Document NA115, ‘IT Security for Process Automation Systems’. The field test conducted at the BASF facility in Ludwigshafen, Germany, included laboratory evaluation of performance characteristics and several implementations in operating process plant environments. “Our tests prove that WirelessHART is an appropriate technology for
applications within the NAMUR use class ‘Monitoring’ for wireless sensor networks,” reports Martin Schwibach, senior automation manager for BASF and chairman of the NAMUR AK4.15 Wireless Automation Working Group responsible for the field test. “WirelessHART technology provides a good alternative where wired networks are too expensive or too difficult to install. This field test verified the alignment of the WirelessHART standard with the NAMUR requirements for wireless automation in process applications.”
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 15
Industry News
Eaton Puts Range Of Sustainable Products In Action Cleveland, USA: Energy efficient products for use at home, at work, on the road and more are showcased in Eaton Sustainable Community, the web feature from Eaton Corporation. Visitors to Eaton Sustainable Community can click through the company’s sustainable products in familiar applications. From office and plant facilities, to solar farms, cityscapes, airports and hydropower dams, each of the 12 scenes present multiple sustainable products that help customers use power more efficiently and safely. Dozens of products are featured, including electrical solutions such as the 9395 Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) and power-saving meters for buildings of all types; hydraulic solutions like hydropower controls for dams and efficient fuel pumps for aircraft; mechanical applications including hybrid power systems for commercial vehicles and superchargers for passenger cars.
Molex Expands RF Capabilities with Acquisition Illinois, USA: Molex has completed the acquisition of China based radio frequency (RF) and microwave products manufacturer Zhenjiang Tean Telecom & Appliance (Tean), located in Jiangsu Province. According to Mike Dunne, GM, RF Products unit of Molex Incorporated’s Global Integrated Products Division, this is a strategic acquisition that will help Molex boost its share of the rapidly growing global market for RF and microwave interconnection systems. “Tean is an excellent fit for Molex because it expands our RF and microwave product capabilities and gives us a strong presence in China,” said Mr Dunne.
16 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
First Solar & Ordos Take Step Forward In 2GW China Project
Beijing, China: First Solar has a Cooperation Framework Agreement with the Chinese government that takes another step towards the realisation of the world’s largest solar power plant in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, China. First Solar president Bruce Sohn and Mayor Yun Guangzhong of the Ordos City Government signed the Cooperation Framework Agreement in the presence of Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Minister Liu Qi of the National Energy Administration, and US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. The Agreement between First Solar and Ordos spells out additional project details and local support that advance the development of the 2 gigawatt (GW) solar power plant and confirm the June 1, 2010 expected construction start date for the 30 megawatt (MW) Phase 1. First Solar and Ordos also agreed to establish two committees to ensure the successful execution of the project and to develop a new energy industry in Ordos.
Hitachi Plant Technologies Gets PBT Contract Tokyo, Japan & Beijing, China: Hitachi Plant Technologies has concluded a contract with China Petrochemical International (SINOPEC) to license its polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) production process for use in a plant with a yearly capacity of 60,000 tonnes. In addition, the company will also carry out basic engineering work related to this project. Plant construction and the production of PBT polymer are scheduled to start in February 2010 and early 2011, respectively. This is Hitachi Plant Technologies’ first contract for the supply of a PBT production process to a plant in China. PBT is a highly-functional thermoplastic polyester produced through esterification and polycondensation of terephthalic acid and 1,4-butanediol. In addition to high levels of both heat and weather resistance, it benefits from excellent dimensional stability and moulding flexibility; accordingly, this material is widely employed in the manufacture of automobile electrical components, general electrical and electronic components, and many other products. As the corresponding industries are currently undergoing particular expansion in China and Southeast Asia, the market for PBT polymer in these areas is expected to grow rapidly.
ENQUIRY NO. 082
DigitalVision
First Foundation Fieldbus H1 Device Couplers Registered The Fieldbus Foundation has announced that it has registered the first Foundation fieldbus H1 device couplers. The device coupler registration process provides automation end users with greater assurance of the interoperability of independently manufactured fieldbus physical layer components. The Fieldbus Foundation’s Foundation Device Coupler Test Specification (FF-846-1.1) defines a suite of vendor self-tests for fieldbus device couplers with spur short-circuit protection. The tests cover device coupler requirements as specified in the FF-816 FS 1.5 Physical Layer Profile, as well as the IEC 61158-2: 2003 standard. The registration process includes additional tests beyond the scope of these
standards, which determine if a device coupler is fit for its intended purpose of preventing spur short-circuits from disrupting a fieldbus network. The device coupler registration program initially addresses two classes of devices: Foundation device couplers and Foundation wiring blocks. Device couplers are a critical component of an H1 fieldbus network enabling connection of multiple field devices to the segment. Characteristically, these units will have ports for trunk-in, trunkout and one or more spurs, with the requirement of spur shortcircuit protection. Registered device couplers must be networkpowered (DC/DC conversion is not included). Wiring blocks a re s i m p l e d e v i c e s w i t h a
minimum of one trunk input and one spur output. Registered wiring blocks may contain surge protection circuits, integral terminators or indicating LEDs, but cannot provide spur shortcircuit protection. Fieldbus Foundation managerfieldbus products, Stephen Mitschke, commented: “With the initiation of device coupler re g i s t r a t i o n , t h e F i e l d b u s Foundation is helping to ensure robust and reliable fieldbus physical layer performance. Registration signifies that a coupler is suitable for any fieldbus installation. End users can now have even greater confidence in Foundation-based automation systems thanks to our rigorous suite of device coupler test cases.”
device couplers are a critical component oF an h1 Fieldbus networK enabling connection oF multiple Field devices to the segment. ENQUIRY NO. 8101
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industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
Device ITK Profile Final Specification Available T h e Fieldbus Foundation’s Device Interoperability Test Kit (ITK) Profile Final Specification (FS 1.0) is available. The purpose of the specification is to offer an easy way of mapping field device requirements to the foundation’s ITK versions, including unique Foundation technology features such as advanced field diagnostics. An excellent tool for troubleshooting and debugging devices, t h e F i e l d b u s F o u n d a t i o n ’s H1 and High Speed Ethernet (HSE) interoperability test kits help automation equipment manufacturers verify device interoperability as specified by the Foundation fieldbus registration testing procedure. By using the test kits, device developers can run tests identical to those used by the foundation before submitting their device for official registration. The ITK Profile Final Specification includes a set of tables listing all Foundation technology features, and indicating whether the features are optional or mandatory at a particular ITK level. Profiles defined in the specification document contain features that may be incorporated into new device implementations. These features include, but are not limited to: standard block profiles, non-block features, extensible parameters such as ‘Opts’, Features, etc, Device Description (DD)/Capability File (CF) technologies, and communication ‘stack’ requirements.
The specification helps new fieldbus device suppliers to identify minimum required features for their products, and at the same time, allows existing equipment manufacturers to identify the latest requirements. For example, field diagnostics is optional on current ITK versions, but will become mandatory for all fieldbus devices in compliance with ITK 6.0, which will be released in mid-2010.
Field diagnostics per the NAMUR NE107 recommendation provides a standard and open interface for reporting all device alarm conditions, as well as a means of categorising alert conditions by severity. The technology facilitates routing of alerts to appropriate consoles based on user-selectable severity categories. It also provides recommended corrective actions
Field diagnostics technology will optimise plant asset management programs and enable improved process performance, greater reliability, increased uptime and lower operating costs. The Device ITK Profile Final Specification is part of a comprehensive suite of development solutions enabling end-users to leverage the unique features of Foundation fieldbus. All ITK devices now support the latest advancements in field diagnostics, which build upon the existing, powerful diagnostic capabilities of Foundation fieldbus equipment, and at the same time, add a greater degree of organisation so field instruments can represent their diagnostics in a more consistent way.
and detailed help, and an indication of the overall health of the device. In addition, field diagnostics technology offers a robust solution for implementing role-based diagnostics, meaning the right information is sent to the appropriate person – when they need it – without flooding others in alarms. This technology will optimise plant asset management programs and enable improved process performance, greater reliability, increased uptime and lower operating costs. ENQUIRY NO. 8102 Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 19
Asia EtherCAT Now A Factory Network
With the EAP the factory network is covered as well
EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) has also put a focus on the factory network, enhancing the EtherCAT specification by defining services for the supervisory control level. As a result, it now also comprises the Ethernet communication between control systems, as well as to the supervisory systems. The new EtherCAT Automation Protocol (EAP) simplifies the direct access of process data from field devices at the sensor / actuator level and also supports the integration of
wireless devices. For the factor y level, the base protocols for process data communication have been part of the EtherCAT specification from the very beginning. Now the ETG has enhanced those with services for the parameter communication between control systems and for routing across system boundaries. Uniform diagnostic and configuration interfaces are also part of the EAP. It can be used in switch-based Ethernet topologies
as well as via wireless Ethernet. Process data is communicated like network variables, either cyclically or event-driven. Both the classic EtherCAT Device Protocol, which utilises the special EtherCAT functional principle of ‘processing on the fly,’ and the new EAP make use of the same data structures and facilitate vertical integration to supervisory control systems and networked controllers. Development of the EAP was kicked off in March 2009. The corresponding ETG working group plans to publish the specification in January 2010. Since EAP mainly uses already available protocols and services, for example, those already implemented in many EtherCAT control systems for access to field devices from outside via TCP/IP, it is a fully compatible enhancement of the standard. While EAP handles the communication in the millisecond range on the process control level and between control systems, the EtherCAT Device Protocol handles I/O and motion control communication in the field level in the microsecond range. ENQUIRY NO. 8103
Plug Fests In America & Europe FOLLOWING the first Asian EtherCAT Plug Fest in South Korea ETG held the first North American Plug Fest. The main goal of this event, was to check interoperability of EtherCAT implementations. Dr James Truchard (left), president, CEO and cofounder of National Instruments, underlined in his opening speech the need of conformance and interoperability for the success of a communication technology. The eighth European Plug Fest, in Pforzheim, Germany was also well attended. Eight different master implementations were tested with the slave variety of 15 different vendors. ENQUIRY NO. 8104
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industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
Industry Updates Suppliers Unified For Field Device Integration the integration of FDI into process control systems. This step will create confidence and investment
protection for users who for a long time have been calling for a single standard for device integration. ENQUIRY NO. 8105
New Fully Managed All Gigabit Industrial Ethernet Switch • All Gig Six Port Ethernet with Jumbo Frame Support • -40ºC to 85ºC Operating Temperature • Configuration Backup via SD card • SNMP v3 with Web Browser Management • GUI Based DHCP Server with Option 82 Relay • N-Ring™ Ring Management • IGMP Auto Configuration • N-View™ OPC Monitoring • EtherNet/IP™ with CIP For a free catalog visit www.n-tron.com/form.php Shanghai: +86 021 6133 7770 • Beijing: +86 139 1029 0271 N-TRON_Sales@n-tron.com • www.n-tron.com
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia
ENQUIRY NO. 083
TO accelerate deployment of the Field Device Integration (FDI) technology, key suppliers agreed to enlarge the scope of the EDDL Cooperation Team and will become the FDI Cooperation. This cooperation will initially consist of the associations: FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communications Foundation, OPC Foundation and Profibus Nutzerorganisation, as well as the companies ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa. The FDI project was kickedoff at the 2007 Hanover Fair. At this time ECT welcomed FDT Group with the primary objective of harmonising EDDL and FDT/ DTM technologies. Since then, the project has carefully shaped the technology direction for the converged FDI solution. The addition of supplier companies, which have agreed to support FDI packages in their systems and products, will strengthen this effort by providing resources for the completion of this project. Besides the finalisation of the FDI specification, which is scheduled for mid 2010, the scope of the enlarged EDDL Cooperation Team is covering common design and test tools, common binary format and interpreter across the protocols of HART, FF and Profibus. The intent is to assure a uniform device integration solution for process industries across all host systems, devices and protocols as required by end users. PNO supports the effort to expand the consortium because the direct involvement of system suppliers will greatly accelerate
21
H
it by the recession in 2009, many companies scrambled to reorganise and restructure, looking for a way to ride the economic storm. The opportunists saw an opening to explore new segments of business, others took the chance to streamline operations. The year 2010 brings with it some signs of recovery. While it takes a brave man to predict for certain a full recovery, there is a sense of cautious optimism in the industry. In this feature, leaders in the automation industry reveal their thoughts and tell us the plans they have in store to emerge from the recession in a competitive position.
Q
Was 2009 a good year for your company? What was your biggest achievement in 2009?
T
he business environment has been very challenging. While we do see a slow growth in orders in some markets, we broke into new markets, and saw an increase in orders for some existing businesses.
James Foo
President & Country Manager ABB Singapore
Overall, 2009 has been a reasonably good year for ABB in Singapore considering the negative economic situation. There are many things we can be pleased about this year, such as new business opportunities, gaining significant tractions into both the offshore FPSO and water sectors, winning tough orders and good cash flow. Though all these are important, I feel the biggest achievement for 2009 would be that the tough economic situation had triggered in us a greater sense of team play, a strengthening of our operational discipline and commitment to excellence in our service to customers amongst our employees, and this something that I am proud of. It is an achievement for everyone to maintain the drive and enthusiasm despite the negativity out there, and this is reflected in our performance in 2009.
Q
What are the strategies you will be employing in 2010 to strengthen your position in key markets? What will be the main drivers of growth for your company in 2010?
W
e are increasing our customer focus, continuing to strengthen our market approach, and will seek ways to exploit the full potential of our comprehensive portfolio for the benefit of our customers. We are positioning ourselves for growth beyond the economic cycle, and there are promising long term growth trends such as demand for power, renewable energy focus, energy efficiency and industrial productivity. In the near term, productivity and cost continue to be issues for businesses who are looking to retain competitiveness and profitability. Our energy efficiency and service portfolio will definitely support customers who are looking for ways to improve their energy consumption and productivity.
Âť2010
market
outlook
Q
What are the emerging trends from your segment of the business to look out for?
A
s a power and automation company, we are in the business of using energy, and energy use is set to increase. From an environmental viewpoint, there is also a concern to manage energy use more efficiently. According to the World Energy Outlook 2009, by 2030, the world will see primary energy demand at 40 percent higher than 2007 levels. While we are thinking about energy efficiency, there is still a problem of access to electricity for millions in Asia, and a total of 1.5 billion people worldwide. Expanding access to electricity is fundamental for economic well-being, and investment in power infrastructure is important. By being a company that is involved in the energy market from the point of resource extraction to building automation, there is much potential for us to be involved in rethinking the way we produce and use energy, and we will continue to improve on our technologies, systems and solutions, to help customers, utilities and industries to use energy more efficiently.
Q
If you had to make one prediction for 2010, what would it be?
W
e have somewhat seen the bottoming of the economic crisis and there is now a cautious optimism of recovery. I think the economic crisis has triggered a change in mindset, as many are placing value in long term planning, with a focus on long-lasting quality and real value. This is likely to change the way our customers make investments, and how companies develop new technologies, and market their products and businesses.
market outlook
Q
Was 2009 a good year for your company? What was your biggest achievement in 2009?
G
David Soon
Regional Managing Director South Asia Pacific Advantech
enerally, 2009 was an extremely challenging year given the good sales growth for the past years. Despite the double digit sales decline year on year, the company has been able to keep our cost/margin in balance, focus on new product development and launches, and continue to stand by our customers with good support and services. The greatest achievement was the hosting of the World Partner Conference 2009 in Suzhou, China, where despite the challenges of 2009, we saw a record 800 participants and more than 30 journalists from our channel and solution partners around the world gathering together to share business success stories and to learn from one another through crossover collaborations to enable a smarter planet.
T
he year 2009 was a difficult time for National Instruments. In the first three quarters we contracted by more than 20 percent in revenue. However we continued to be profitable, we gained market share, continued robust investments in product development, and we continued to be a stable employer.
Chandran Nair
Managing Director Southeast Asia National Instruments
We had some major product releases that contributed significantly to growth in our market share and sustained profitability. This included the launch of our flagship software LabView 2009, our new line of wireless data acquisition wireless sensor network range of hardware, and many new releases in our modular instrumentation product line.
Q
What are the strategies you will be employing in 2010 to strengthen your position in key markets? What will be the main drivers of growth for your company in 2010?
O
ur focus will be on expanding on our ‘Branding and Solution Business’ to enable a smarter planet and this will be done through the focus of providing products and services that will enable an instrumented environment, through intelligent devices that are interconnected with another. At the same time, we will continue to work with our key customers on the embedded design-in services to enable them to maximise their value proposition of time to market, flexible manufacturing and cost effectiveness, to their customers. We see great opportunities and potential in the area of green energy and the focus on sustainability. There will be new innovations in the vertical markets that embrace these initiatives. We are excited by these developments and the opportunities that they will bring.
I
n 2010 we will be concentrating in growth areas of measurement and control applications in industrial data acquisition, structural monitoring, green engineering and defence applications and production test. We will be extending the capabilities of our software and hardware products and strengthening our direct sales and support teams.
W
e have noticed a growing shift from general purpose industrial PC to more application specific platforms and increase sharing of the domain knowledge with strategic suppliers to increase partnership value. We have also noticed that creative industrial design ,look and colour has also become one of the influencing factor in the procurement and selection process.
T
he trends are technologies that contribute to reducing cost and increasing productivity. Also technologies that help address concerns of climate change, energy efficiency and research into alternative fuels can be expected to out perform other areas. We see tremendous increase in the requirements to take measurements in diverse areas that contribute to the mentioned trends and figuring out how to use these measurements to make improvements in systems. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and FPGA based reconfigurable measurement and control systems are some of the most prominent trends in this area.
Q
Âť2010
Q
What are the emerging trends from your segment of the business to look out for?
If you had to make one prediction for 2010, what would it be?
W
ith the launch of Windows 7, new breakthrough in CPU and wireless technology and increased capital expediture spending, there will be renewed demand for products and services that will set in motion for a strong 2010 recovery across all segments. The need to innovate to stay competitive is a key enabler for growth.
T
he first half of 2010 should see an uptick in the automation industry, but reduced visibility makes it hard to predict the second half results. The stimulus towards green engineering and possible increases in fuel prices could result in profitable forays into measurement and control applications in this area.
market outlook
Q
Was 2009 a good year for your company? What was your biggest achievement in 2009?
C
onsidering the global economic crisis Sick has done well. When the crisis hit, most businessmen adopted a kind of denial mode in the beginning and only slowly realised the seriousness of its impact.
Alvin Tan
Managing Director Singapore and Southeast Asia Sick Optic-Electronic
Fortunately for us, at Sick we started waking up early enough and began to think in terms of scenarios and reacted accordingly as the situation changes. Our greatest achievement in 2009 is to be able to launch 52 product innovations for our factory automation and logistic automation business. That means one new innovation for every week of the year. And that is really something in this economic situation. For our process automation business we launched 12 product innovations for the year meaning one for every month of the year, another admirable achievement.
T
his year (2009) for Rockwell globally, was very challenging. We do feel that we acquitted ourselves very well. This year for Rockwell in Asia Pacific, although we were affected by the global economic crisis, we think that we continue to make good progress and we are very satisfied with our results.
Keiran Coulton
President Asia Pacific Rockwell Automation
We think that we took market share in some important markets and we performed and executed to the strategy that we laid down. We have probably taken market share in process business, in the integrated architecture business and the medium voltage drives business.
Q
What are the strategies you will be employing in 2010 to strengthen your position in key markets? What will be the main drivers of growth for your company in 2010?
W
e will continue to invest in technology to differentiate ourselves with continuous innovations in our products and services to offer to our customers. Customer satisfaction is the core of our strategy. We have established an Application Centre for our advanced products here in Singapore. If we look closely at the quarterly GDP figures of most of the countries here in Southeast Asia the contraction is getting lower. These countries will present opportunities. China and India will also continue to drive the other countries along with their demands. Also due to the crisis, companies adopted cost cutting measures in 2009. This will reach a point soon when companies will need to relook further into the future and will need to invest in upgrading, re-tooling, pent-up demand etc. These will be opportunities to look at.
W
e are satisfied with our results in 2009 because we continue to execute a strategy we formed in 2007 and 2008. Next year (2010) we will stay focused on the same strategic areas that we had. In addition, you will see more government stimulus come through the business but our focus is plant wide optimisation with integrated architecture up through the enterprise. I am not sure there will be any key changes in our strategies. What we will do though, and we have been doing this for a couple of years is, we will target our investments very much around places where we think we will get a return or build market share. So for instance, our process business, where we have relatively low market share, we have a high growth rate. It is a good market and we will invest there.
E
merging from this crisis we believe businesses now understand better the pressure and demand to reduce operating costs and improve productivity and energy efficiency in their operations and will invest in measures to address these.
Q
If you had to make one prediction for 2010, what would it be?
W
hen the crisis took its toll everybody was comparing it to the ‘Great Depression’ of the 1930s. Fortunately due to the quick actions taken by the governments of the world it probably will not be. My wish is that 2010 will be known as the ‘Year of the Great Recovery’
All our products and services address these concerns in one way or another. In other words they improve efficiency and productivity. For example - detecting production discrepancies, protecting humans and machines, handling inspection and identification accurately, monitoring emission and measuring gas flow precisely just to name a few. Properly implemented these will all optimise processes, prevent downtime and increase the availability of plants and machinery adding to costs savings.
F
irst of all, there is a regulatory trend that continues to be present and therefore systems that can have genealogy and traceability. Also, most CEOs that we talk to today, the two biggest items that are on their minds are safety and energy saving and the third one coming along now is sustainability. We have great software platforms that allow genealogy and traceability for any manufacturing process to be applicable for the food industry as well as life science. In energy saving, we have some great products that give you instant return on investment in energy saving. In safety, we have the largest and widest safety range in the world. And in sustainability, be it storing alternative energy or doing smart grid products that are going to allow you to get onto smart grids, that is where we are building as well right now.
»2010
Q
What are the emerging trends from your segment of the business to look out for?
W
e have all learnt how to live with unpredictability so we are all expecting a recovery but I think we are prepared if the recovery takes a different course. I think it will be better than 2009 and Rockwell is very well prepared to execute better than its competitors. We are in good shape.
ENQUIRY NO. 8201
control point
Build vs Buy
Operator Interface Terminals:
Time to market, risk assessment and cost analysis are factors to consider when deciding whether to build or buy a HMI. By David Pascoe in conjuction with QSI Corporation
M
any of the machines and vehicles in daily use in commercial and industrial settings worldwide feature displays and touch pads for operator input and control. These devices are known as Human-Machine Interfaces or HMIs, but are also co m mo n l y c a l le d O p e rator Interface Terminals and Mobile Data Terminals. A s the main means of communication between machines and their human operators, HMIs must be functional, durable and reliable. In many cases, they must be ruggedised to operate in extreme conditions, impervious to heat, cold, dust, liquids, shaking, jarring or other environmental hazards. Any manufacturer of complex machines or vehicles that include HMIs must face a crucial decision: should you build your own human machine interfaces or should you buy these vital components ready-made or customised from an outside source? To help solve the build versus 28 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
buy dilemma, let us take a closer look at what is involved in designing, building, testing and maintaining a human machine interface system by outlining a typical product development cycle. • Planning Begin by making an honest assessment of your engineering capabilities. Given your company’s core competencies and priorities as well as the opportunity costs involved, is the design of a humanmachine interface terminal the best use of precious engineering resources? • Design Phase The first consideration in the engineering design phase is whether your engineers have the experience to design and build for environmental ruggedness. Next, consider that many aspects of electrical and mechanical design are highly specific, if not unique, to the requirements and constraints of environmental ruggedness.
In particular, the ability to specify components that will operate at extreme temperatures, to mount components so they can withstand vibration and shock, and to seal displays and keypads from liquids, dust and other environmental hazards is highly specialised knowledge that most engineering design teams struggle to master. Developing those skills from scratch is a costly and timeconsuming effort. Finally, do not discount the complexity of software development for even a simple human-machine interface. Today, most displays provide graphical feedback to the human operator. The demands of programming in a graphical environment are many times more complex than programming for character-only displays. Unless you build your terminals to use a general purpose software platform such a s Microsof t Windows or Windows CE, you must plan for a significant software development task in addition to
• Prototyping It is important to prototype early and often in the design phase of a new product. Assess your company’s ability to develop mechanical prototypes quickly and cost effectively. Do your engineers have access to a 3D printer, for example, or will they have to send CAD files to an outside service? Have they identified prototype sources for custom components of your human machine interface such
as keypads, touch screens and housings? Prototyping is costly and time-consuming if you do not have the necessary tools in-house or strategic partner relationships in place. • Testing How will your engineering team address the issues of testing both the hardware and software components? Does your team have the capability to design and build test fixtures and write the testing software? Also, fixtures and software must be created prior to the final assembly of product. It is important to note that manufacturers of rugged human machine interface terminals typically ‘burn-in’ production ter mina ls in a n environmental chamber for 24 hours at temperatures ranging
from -20 °C to +70 °C to ensure the units’ production quality. Does your company have the equipment to perform environmental tests such as these? • Iteration How many iterations of a design will your product development schedule allow? There are many potential failure points in the design and manufacture of an human-machine interface that must function in harsh conditions. M u lt ip l e re - d e si g n s a n d prototypes can use up critical weeks of development time. Yet most complex engineering projects require from three to six prototype stages to fully optimise the final product. • Final Testing & Certification The final testing and certification
ENQUIRY NO. 076
the hardware development of your human-machine interface. In addition, using an OS such as Windows involves a very challenging and costly ‘port’ to the specific hardware platform. Decisions such as these can greatly affect time-to-market for your final product.
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 29
control point
of rugged HMIs is a demanding discipline. Depending on the environment in which the machine will be used, HMIs may have to be tested for operation over extreme temperature ranges, as well as for thermal shock as devices are taken instantaneously from one temperature extreme to another. They may have to meet humidity requirements or be tested for sealing against immersion or high volume liquid spray. They may need to meet vibration and shock tests, and they must withstand electrostatic discha rge a nd electromagnetic interference. In addition, they will have to pass regulatory certifications such as FCC Part 15, UL , CSA , or CE. • Release To Manufacturing The final release to manufacturing involves the generation of many types of documentation, including manufacturing documents, assembly drawings and flow diagrams. Repair manuals are required for service technicians and operator manuals for end users. The documentation task alone for an HMI involves many 30 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
man hours of coordinated work, as well as a documentation tracking and updating system. Manufacturing also requires its own specially designed testing software and fixtures. • Sustaining Engineering Once a human machine interface is incorporated into your product, the issues of maintenance, repair or replacement are major cost factors that must be planned for up front. If you source a terminal from a third party, product maintenance and repair will be covered by warranty, so no internal engineering effort is required on your part. In addition, when an HMI that you design requires an upgrade or becomes obsolete, your engineers w ill be re sponsible for the redesign. A strategic partnership with an experienced third-party manufacturer, however, will provide an upgrade path or replacement products in a timely, efficient and cost effective manner. • Product Management A key issue for the product manager to weigh in determining
whether to build or buy an HMI is time to market. While your engineering team may have the skills and resources to design, build, test, certify and manufacture the human-machine interface you need, does the product manager have the time to wait for a non-core competency piece of technology to be developed and deployed for the first time? The alternative is to turn to a specialist in HMIs for a customised product. Another issue for the product manager to consider is cost. There are many hidden costs to developing a rugged human machine interface that your engineering team may not consider or may not be able to estimate accurately. Risk factors must be honestly assessed by the product managers. These run the gamut from the risk of losing key members of an in-house design team to the need to change a crucial specification, such as screen size, in the middle of product development. A final consideration for the product manager is the product upgrade path for an in-house humanmachine interface terminal. The Bottom Line The build versus buy question in any manufacturing industry finally comes down to a handful of key questions. Three questions are crucial to consider: time to market, risk assessment and cost analysis. All three are subject to the overriding question of core competency and opportunity costs. If designing and building reliable terminals for your company’s line of products is not a core competency of your business, then the fastest, safest and most costeffective course is to partner with a reputable manufacturer of rugged human machine interfaces. ENQUIRY NO. 8301
Customer Preference For Automation Cranks Up The Market For PLCs The PLC market is expected to earn revenues of US$458 million by 2015. By Yandan Chen, consulting analyst, Frost & Sullivan The increasing awareness of automation and the sustainable growth prospects in major enduser industries have galvanised the Asia Pacific programmable logic controller (PLC) market, encouraging it to live up to its impressive potential. End users have begun to prefer automation to manual systems to op t i m i s e p ro ce s s e s and thereby, improve productivity and reduce down time and human e r r o r. T h e m a r k e t is expected to ea rn revenue s of U S$45 8 million by 2015.
traditional industries such as food and beverage, chemical and petrochemical, as well as emerging industries such as water/wastewater and life sciences. The booming water and wastewater industry with
slowdown. There has been a slight shrinkage in the market due to the decline in the general manufacturing industry and the sluggish consumer sentiment in North A merican and European countries.
Industries are increasingly demanding efficient factory automation of mechanical processes, and PLC is perceived to be the first step towards complete automation.
The First Step Industries are increasingly demanding efficient factory automation of mechanical processes, and PLC is perceived to be the first step towards complete automation. Once installed, the PLC system requires less maintenance and presents fewer operational challenges than other automation technologies. PLC companies are making the most of this inherent product advantage by focusing on new applications, moving away from the long-established hardware ladder logic to a more structured one using sophisticated software methodologies. The market is sustained by strong dema nd from
its need to minimise water losses and optimise the treatment pro ce s s ha s p a r t ic u la rl y benefited the PLC market in the Asia Pacific. Furthermore, the food and beverage end-user industry, buoyed by population growth and rising standards of living in the Asia Pacific, is sustainable and is likely to increase the uptake for PLC. Meanwhile, major oil and gas companies continue to invest substantially in Asia Pacific and as these projects usually last long, PLC adoption in petrochemical plants is less vulnerable to economic downturns. However, that is not to suggest that the market is completely insulated from the effects of the
Constant Improvement Add to that the limited domestic market in this region for general manufacturing industry products and the PLC market participants have a real challenge on their hands. Therefore, in this everchanging globalised industry, organisations need to be flexible toward adopting the latest technologies and trends. PLC vendors have to stay abreast of the market dynamics and react swiftly and appropriately. The best course of action in these straitened conditions is to constantly upgrade the technology and diversify the product portfolio to satisfy customer demands in a dynamic industry landscape. ENQUIRY NO. 8302
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia  31
software & Networks
A Little
Simulation Long Way
Goes A
Simulation software provides the ability to cut down costs without compromising on quality. By Mary-Anne Sotto, applications engineer, National Instruments ASEAN
T
hough cost budgeting has always been a consideration in every company, the recent wave of the global economic crisis has made companies invent more ways to cut down cost, without compromising on quality. Companies are deemed to have a competitive edge if they can cut associated costs by investing their design and engineering capabilities to start the next trend in the industry. As engineers, our task is to create such innovations that will put our product to the worldwide market with careful considerations in design, research and development, package, assembly, testing, evaluation and eventual release. Imagine you are given the massive task of designing an exceptional product that will surpass the strengths and capacities of all the similar products available on market. Once the design phase is completed, what are your testing options? One way is to create a design prototype immediately. Prototyping allows you to test the features as indicated on paper, analyse the test results against the specification sheets of competitors’ products for comparison, and other quality control concerns. The drawback of this approach however, is that it is associated with sky high costs for the completion of the design. Without prototyping, we cannot determine if the designs and theories on paper can be actualised in real-life. And if it does not work, we will modify or 32  industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
change our design, and thereafter, create another prototype for testing. The cycle continues until we are satisfied with the final product. This approach, although effective can be really expensive. It usually involves providing the materials for construction and other associated processes that may make the entire project costly. This goes against the grain of creating more value at lower cost; as these additional expenses will ultimately be transferred to the customers. Another approach that one can take is to simulate the design or model that was created and do an initial testing in simulation mode. This is a much preferred method since you are able to test out the capabilities of a design without incurring too much cost. Before the prototypes are created, it is best if the design undergo simulation testing first to verify the capabilities of the design. Moreover, the percentage of error that you get will be lower! If you have the tool that can simulate the outcome of any proposed design, the end results will help greatly in cutting down the cost of creating prototypes as well as minimising errors in the design. How can simulation minimise errors? Well, during simulation itself, you will be able to detect the flaws of your design when subjected to different conditions; and you can add in variables that might also impact your design. Factors such as extreme ends of the temperature range can be easily simulated and imposed on your design. From there, you can determine how the model reacts to these factors and thereafter modify your design accordingly. Testing in simulations is the most cost effective way to test a model or design. Theory alone is not enough to be used as pure basis for the design. As in the saying ‘In theory, theory and practice are the
simultaneously. There is also a lower rate of errors and misuse as users working with the instrument are already trained in the simulation environment. All these translate to minimised operating costs, reduced repair costs and maximised efficiency usage of the instrument. For the employees, they can freely explore the boundaries of the instrument in simulation mode without fears of damaging the equipment. In effect, they are maximising their learning experience to the fullest. Generally, a company can exercise the use of simulation for both devices training and testing. By doing so, costs will be lowered and more domain experts can be cultivated. Simulation software is also a great tool to use in schools to teach future engineers. By deploying a simulation environment, students can explore the behaviours of actual devices in the field. Inputs can even be simulated to reinforce the learning experience by re-enacting the possible results that can happen. Most engineering concepts are difficult to comprehend, especially for those who have not truly experienced it yet. By using simulations, the steep learning curve can be tapered; and students can better grasp and understand the behaviour of engineering theories and concepts, thus growing more competitive engineers in future.
Figure 1: Analysis of existing wind turbine done in simulation
same. In practice, they are not’. Many engineers have experienced that this is indeed true. How many of you have created a design, and yet when you assembled the prototype, it doesn’t work? You see, there are factors that you have to consider that may not be present when you created the design. By doing simulation before prototyping, you will be able to foresee possible mistakes in the design that you have created and do rectifications before you create the actual prototype. Simulations are not only used for designs verifications. Simulation is also a great tool that can be used during training, especially for critical applications. Rather than having neophyte engineers or operators be taught using the actual instrument, a company can opt to have a simulation model set up for training purposes. This arrangement is beneficial for both the company and the employees. There will be zero downtime for the company, as the instrument can be running at full capacity, while training of new users are ongoing
What Is Simulation? Simulation is a reproduction of an actual behaviour or process. A model or a design is a representation of a system. Generally, you use the computer to imitate the behaviour of the real thing to determine its possible reactions to certain circumstances. One advantage of simulation, aside from lowering costs, is the fact that you will be able to clone situations that are difficult to replicate in real life. For example, you need to design an automobile meant for frost conditions, and yet winter season is still months away. Instead of waiting till the winter months to conduct the tests, you can deploy the simulation software to impose extreme conditions on the automobile design or model to test its durability. If the test results of the simulation model are favourable, then the probability of the actual device prototype to operate well under similar conditions will also be proportionally higher. There are various simulation software to choose from, depending on the application that you are doing. Four common simulation model types are Stochastic or Deterministic, Steady State or Dynamic, Continuous or Discreet and Local or Distributed. Engineers are normally exposed to dynamic simulations. Dynamic simulations changes in response to changes in the input signal. A continuous dynamic simulation performs numerical solutions. This type Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia  33
software & Networks
of simulation model have applications that ranges from flight simulators, con st r uc t ion a nd ma na ge me nt simulation games, chemical process modelling, and simulations of electrical circuits. Basically, dynamic simulations involve mathematical models and these models are subjected to different inputs in order to see what will be the probable output that it will give out. Mathematical models, without simulation, will just be a bunch of numbers and letters without much meaning when only a few can interpret the results. Just as a 3D model of a car will just be a work of art, a circuit’s schematic diagram with no functionality is just scribbles in a workspace. Figure 3: Graphical programming makes simulation easy Simulation gives life to the models, without incurring too much cost. However, one must be careful in choosing the and adjust your model accordingly, before simulating software simulation tool to use. There are a lot of the revised model again. This cycle continues until an software simulation tools available in the market. understanding of the behaviour of the model, given the How do you pick the right one? A rejoinder: reducing conditions, is attained. cost without compromising quality. It is not enough Once the simulation results are successful, you that you are able to simulate your design; you have proceed to create the prototype for stage two testing. to choose a simulation software that can accurately Otherwise, you can scrap the design and create a new simulate your design. one again. You can also simulate on a design that you want When Do You Simulate? to subject to extreme conditions. Let’s say you want You can simulate any mathematical model, 3D drawings, to test a circuit that was originally designed for 10 schematic diagrams and the likes given the right tools. Amperes beyond its rated value. If you are going to So when do you create simulations? It is ideal to conduct the test on an actual circuit, you will waste simulate every design or model first before creating a components, and even jeopardise your own safety. prototype. You can observe the simulation outcomes By testing it out in simulation, you can safely monitor the behaviour of the circuit and create the changes in the components without any wastage. If the design fails, you can always scrap the file without spending a single penny.
Figure 2: From design to simulation - easy migration from 3D modelling software to graphical programming simulation
34  industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
What To Look For Simulation makes creating of the design more cohesive and it lessens incurred error in the design as well. However, given the variety of simulation software available on market, how do you choose the most suitable software to use? A key factor in any simulation software is its ease of use. The main grouse of doing simulation is that it can be time consuming, thus delaying the process of creating the prototype. With the use of a simulation software that is easy to use, the time allotted for testing your design in simulation can be reduced significantly. We should aim to look for a simulation software that is easy to learn and use. A graphical interface is one good example of
Doing More For Less Using simulations offers a lot of advantages and during these hard times, having a tool that is able to cut down costs while still maintaining quality is the way to go. Carefully select the software that you will use, and look for one that can give accurate results, plus or minus a small variance. Get one with more functionality, but still easy to use. Do not let the current economic crisis be your reason for delivering low quality products. If you haven’t tried simulation yet, this is the best time for you to try it. If you are already doing simulations, explore more on improvising. The main takeaway is to be able to deliver quality products at lower cost - doing more, for less. ENQUIRY NO. 8303
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TURCK Singapore Pte Ltd 25 International Business Park, #03-22/23 German Centre Singapore 609916 Phone: +65 6562 8716, Fax: +65 6562 8719 Email: Singapore@turck.com.
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a user-friendly simulation software. As engineers are trained to interpret diagrams and drawings, having a user-interface aligned with this type of engineers’ mindset will be an added advantage. Another point to consider is the available functions. Your simulation software should have most if not all of the testing parameters that you need for testing out your design. If the functions are not available, then the software should at least have that capability of adding functions either in the form of modules, or you should be able to at least create the needed functions yourself. Software that has the capability to be customised and programmed is something that should be noted when selecting the simulation software. Of course, you still have to keep in mind that the programming should be easy to do and user friendly. Flexibility is also another factor that to consider. It should be able to adapt to any changes that was created in the model or design. If you can have a simulation software that you can use in a wide range of applications, for example, simulation of test programs, simulation of 3D drawings or simulation of electronic designs, one software that can be as flexible to be used in any applications will not only lessen the cost but also broaden the possible applications that you can actually do. Software reliability is an important consideration as well. You must choose a software that is widely accepted and commonly used in the industry. By doing so, you can be assured that the test results you are getting are indeed accurate. If you can get a simulation software that has the capability to cross over platforms, that will be truly ideal. The simulation software that you have should be able to accept the model that you have created. It should be able to adapt to continuous change, not only in changes in the design but changes in technology as well.
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 35 F0412_80x241+3mm_FA-Voll-Prog_EN-Singapore.indd 1
24.11.2009 09:40:19
Ilker, Turkey
instrumentation & Measurement
Good, Bad, Ugly
Field Failure Data: The The
The
&
High quality data depends on accurate recording of enough information so that assumptions are minimised. By Dr William M Goble, CFSE and Joseph F Siebert, CSFE, Exida Consulting
T
here are many benefits to a company when they have access to good field failure data. Most of the benefits are categorised as saving money. At the same time, most of the expenditure to get good failure data is already being spent. Given a small incremental cost of added data collection and better data analysis, the benefits could be achieved. Good high quality field failure data has often been described as the ultimate source of failure data. However, not all field failure studies are high quality. Some field studies simply do not have the needed information. Some field studies make unrealistic assumptions. The results can be quite different 36 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
depending on methods a nd assumptions. Some methods produce optimistic results that can result in bad designs and unsafe processes. The Good A good field failure data collection program needs to be founded on a good reliability/safety culture where there is management support, the field failure data is valued and procedures for gathering the data are well defined and followed. The system must allow for easy capture of the data right after a failure is resolved not the next day, the next week or the next month. Generally, a good system is tied to the plant work order system.
The collected data must be carefully analysed and actually used to identify opportunities for cost savings. There is nothing like a documented cost saving to generate continued ‘management support’. A good field fa ilure data collection program has a number of important attributes. It specifies a site inventory database that includes for each instrument: • Product manufacturer and model number • Serial number • Design version level • Product classification • Com m i ssion i n g date a nd decommissioning date • Operational duty cycle • Installation site • Operating environment as i n sta l le d – a mbie nt a nd process • Failure event records and proof test records – dates, methods, results • Calibration information Failure Events For each product in the site inventory database all failure related events are recorded. This includes all failure events detected by any automatic diagnostics, any process disruptions or false trips, failures caused during maintenance activities and any failures detected during manual proof tests. For each event, the date/time should be recorded. The person responsible for the repair must be recorded along with failure type, ideally from a short pick list of defined failure events. Any suspected causes should be recorded even when caused by a maintenance mistake. The failure rate database should never be used to reprimand or even evaluate the maintenance team. Any correlating events that might be related to the failure should be recorded.
The Ugly One of the most abused and potentia lly misle ading field failure study methods is the manufacturer’s warranty field return study. Problems are caused not by the calculation method itself but rather the lack of information. Often the assumptions used result in highly optimistic failure rates being published. A typical analysis method includes a n e st imate of op erat iona l hours in the field and a count of ‘failures’ reported. The failure rate calculation is simply the number
of failures divided by the total operational hours. Ultimately field failure data is the source of all reliability information. Therefore the importance and value of high quality field failure data cannot be argued. However, high quality data depends on accurate recording of enough information so that assumptions are minimised.
Since this does not always occur, field failure data must be provided along with a full explanation of the failure event definitions, methods for data collection and methods for data analysis including all assumptions. Without this, the results can be dangerous. ENQUIRY NO. 8401
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The Bad When the kind of data described in ‘The Good’ field failure data system is not available, assumptions must be made. Even without all the information, very useful data can be obtained. However, depending on several variables, the quality of the data can vary considerably. If the application environment and site information is not recorded for each product it is possible that a wide variety of different stress conditions can be mixed together giving results not quite right for any environment. Perhaps the biggest issue is the recording of all failure related events. The definition of ‘failure’ varies substantially. In one site ‘failure records’ were kept only when a product had to be sent off site for repair. All failures were not recorded. If the data analyst did not know that, resulting numbers would be very optimistic. Some field failure data systems record only failures that cause a process upset/trip. Any ‘failures/ issues’ discovered during manual proof testing are not recorded. In some systems all items ‘replaced’ during a repair are considered a failure. Often multiple items were replaced because it is faster and cheaper to replace them all rather than troubleshoot to the point of identifying the actual failure.
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 37
sector spotlight
Warehouse Management Optimisation:
Picking Up
Speed
Incorporating advanced algorithmic design into the WMS will see the material flow efficiency from orders request to customers’ delivery improve. By Vincent Lim, assistant manager, Information Systems Department, Daifuku Mechatronics (S) aifuku Singapore deployed two eWareNavi Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) into Malaysia’s Chee Wah Corp and Campap Marketing warehouses within a time of three and a half months. On April 1, 2009, Daifuku Singapore ( DM S ) bega n its discussions of two eWareNavi deployments with Chee Wah. Chee Wah’s STK1 warehouse uses an AS/RS system with a storage capacity of 3,480 pallets. The STK1 warehouse has an additional conventional storage capacity of 1,200 pallets. There are more than 100,000 cartons of stocks in its inventory holding. Campap Marketing’s operations are based solely in the STK4 conventional warehousing. There are more than 1,000,000 stock units in its inventory holding.
38 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
Requirement Studies & Systems Analysis In the month of April, requirement studies, functional specifications and system analysis were being executed concurrently. Meetings were held throughout the entire month and the first confirmed functional specifications were released by end-April. At the same time, software quality reviews were being implemented on the deployed systems.
Distinct Services Seamless integration has been made between eWareNavi with the Factory Production System and the Enterprise Financial System. Services provided by eWareNavi system include Automated Factory Goods Storage, Orders Fulfillment, Batch and Pre-Put, OEM Export Ma nagement a nd Tra nspor t Management. • Automated Factory Goods Storage Chee Wah Corporation’s factory runs 24 hours 7 days week; producing over a thousand cartons of goods each week. A more efficient receiv ing method ha s been implemented which integrate the Factory System stock-in information with eWareNavi receive plan. Receiving is performed by RFT and the goods are immediately available for orders fulfillment. • OEM Export & Container Management Chee Wah manufactures OEM products for overseas corpo-
rations. OEM products are handled differently from standard products where stock s a re e x por ted overseas and orders information is thereafter registered in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The WMS manages the goods export process. • Delivery Orders (DO) Batch Processing Chee Wah’s STK1 and Campap Marketing’s STK4 warehouse receives hundreds of DOs on average a week and up to three times that number during the busy period. The WMS users distribute the DOs according to the Kanban, Transport or Destination and perform batch operations for DOs; DOs which are to be picked at the same time. AS/RS high efficiency picking – With the implementation of the DO Batch processing, multiple pickings from a pallet in the AS/RS are performed once for a batched operation. RFT high efficiency picking – The DOs from hypermarket can be up to 50 each time and picking operations in conventional warehouse previously took three days to a week to be fulfilled. The objective now is to group similar pick locations and items together to optimise the pick efficiency. End Result System installation and handover was performed on August 15, 2009. On the first day of operations, 75 Delivery Orders were processed a nd w ithin two week s, 8 0 0 Delivery Orders were processed. Entire hardware-systems project handover was performed on September 10, 2009. Key Performance Indicators Actual scenarios were reviewed to gauge the effectiveness of the implemented algorithms against the warehouse operations.
Lean warehousing principles were applied to streamline and optimise the material handling flow
Campap DO Batch Processing On August 22, 2009, 50 DOs to a hypermarket were received with an average of five items each. Previously, 50 DOs would have taken three full days and a total of 250 distinct pick operations. Using the DO Batch processing function in eWareNavi for the first time, it has been streamlined to seven pick operations and the order is fulfilled within half a day. The seven items are then segregated into the respective DOs at the packing area and shipped out to the customer branches. Performance Improvement
97%
Chee Wah Picking Operations An analysis was conducted on the 540 DOs that are being fulfilled between August 17 and September 10. The time between orders batching till pick completion has improved from an average of five hours to one and a half hours. Responsiveness between orders received from ERP system till orders batching has improved from three hours to one hour. User satisfaction on the system
has improved by two points on a scale of one to five based on a survey conducted. This is with respect to the newly implemented Work Monitor, Cycle Display and Orders Monitor screens. Performance Improvement
66%
Cross-docking efficiency Cross-docking has been introduced to Chee Wah. Goods received from the factory in STK1 or via PO and inter-warehouse transfer in STK4 can be immediately picked for orders fulfillment. Previously, goods received have to be put away into the AS/RS or fixed conventional warehouse location. Now the stocks are directly placed at the cross-dock area, awaiting consolidation. Ten percent of orders received in STK1 and STK4 warehouse are cross-docked. In the absence of put away operations, the order f u lfillment spe e d ha s be en improved. Performance Improvement
60% ENQUIRY NO. 8501
Dec 2009/Jan 2010| industrial automation asia 39
ENERGY
Get smart
T Clough, US
Grid Data Energy:
As countries revitalise their infrastructures to meet increasingly stringent energy policies, energy management and smart energy grids have become a hot topic in the industry. By John Morrell, VP of marketing, Aleri. high-level architecture for next-generation smart energy grid solutions should include three key areas: demand, supply, and reference. Smart grid application solutions consume data from these three areas, and dispatch operational commands to controlling devices on the associated networks. • Demand The primary data components on the demand side of the solution architecture are smart meters and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The infrastructure provides the complete communication infrastructure for transferring data to the utility, as well as the means to issue controlling commands to smart meters. • Supply On the supply side of the solution architecture, applications receive data from traditional generation sources, renewable sources, and energy storage devices on the network. Command interfaces are required for variable devices, including renewable sources and energy storage devices. • Reference Smart grid applications require a great deal of reference data to make accurate decisions that take into account the broadest context. This includes historical data about consumption, reference data about the grid, customer preferences, and external data. Application Solutions At the top of the solution stack are the analytic application solutions that analyse the real-time data from the grid, along with reference data, to make intelligent decisions and drive relevant, critical actions. These applications can include the following: • Billing mediation • Customer e-service portals • Demand response management • Real-time grid monitoring and operation
40
industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
• Renewable energ y a sset monitoring a nd management • Comprehensive resource management Challenges The central nervous system of the smart energy grid solution architecture is the real-time data management and analysis infrastructure. This data infrastructure poses a new challenge to energy firms. Firms in industries such as capital markets (those that manage market and trade data) and telecommunications (CDR) have a history of working with high-volume, highspeed data sources. However, to the energy and utility industry, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and other smart grid data sources represent a critical, valuable, but largely unknown data commodity. AMI will likely be the most voluminous, high-speed data source that utilities have yet encountered. As such, it will introduce a host of challenges. Data Management The smart grid will present many new real-time data management and analysis problems to energy firms. Some datasets and applications will require many person-years for designing and debugging the data infrastructure and layered analytics. As smart grids include components such as smart meters and renewable energy sources, utility firms will have little or no experience in managing and analysing the associated data. Along the way, firms will encounter standard ‘maturity’ problems such as dirty, intermittent, and unreliable data, disintegrated data, and unfamiliar metrics and thresholds. The first two years will involve a steep learning curve, as firms gain experience with the new data. When firms are more comfortable with the data, they can begin to understand how to operate and balance a smarter energy grid.
The Necessities The volume, scale, and sophistication of smart energy grid applications create stringent requirements for a real-time data management and analysis infrastructure. These requirements include: • Support For High-Volume, Real-time Analytics The smart grid infrastructure must support high-speed analysis of millions of grid network messages per second and produce results at real-time speeds. • Outward Scalability The infrastructure will need the modular scalability to generate intelligence and support many new applications over time. • Upward Scalability Eventually, energy firms will move from pilot projects to large-scale regional rollouts, requiring the infrastructure to automatically scale up to higher volumes of messages. • Flexibility As energy firms move through their learning curve, the data management and analytic functionality will change continuously. This will require the infrastructure flexibility to allow IT teams to rapidly modify application modules — especially in the area of data cleansing.
• Sophisticated Analytics The smart grid will need to run advanced analytics, requiring the infrastructure that can support a sophisticated programming language and plug-in analytic functions. CEP Software If AMI and other new high-speed data sources are the nervous system of a smart grid, then CEP and Continuous Intelligence applications are the brain. Traditional application development approaches, such as custom coding or batch processing, would result in lengthy, costly projects and cause protracted delays in processing and analysing data. CEP software provides the scalable, intelligent and adaptable real-time infrastructure needed for modern smart energy grids. It provides a platform for rapid application development, letting firms quickly build and deploy new applications that derive insight from streaming event data, and enabling instant response to changing conditions. ENQUIRY NO. 8601
• Full-range interface program REMOTE-I/O FIELDBUSES
Isolation, conversion, processing, transformation and conditioning of analog signals. TURCK offers a large variety of devices in different housing styles, from DIN rail over 19“-cards to special housing designs.
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CONNECTIVITY TURCK Singapore Pte Ltd 25 International Business Park, #03-22/23 German Centre Singapore 609916 Phone: +65 6562 8716, Fax: +65 6562 8719 Email: Singapore@turck.com.
Point to Point! Point to Bus! Bus to Bus! Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia
F0411_80x241_incl-3-mm_PA-Voll-Prog_EN-Singapore.indd 1
ENQUIRY NO. 085
• Standards & Interoperability With the evolution of industry standards such as IEEE P2030, the infrastructure will require a plug-and-play architecture to support new data sources.
www.turck.com.sg
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features
Rockwell Automation Drawing a global audience of end users, partners and journalists, Rockwell’s annual automation extravaganza highlighted the company’s focus on OEMs, sustainable manufacturing and the concept of plant-wide optimisation. By Derek Rodriguez
R
ockwell Automation’s CEO Keith Nosbusch set a goal a few years back: To have more than 50 percent of the company’s sales outside the US by 2009. True to this, during his keynote speech at the Manufacturing Perspective conference, he announced a 2009 fiscal sales figure of US$4.3 billion (40 percent of total revenue in architecture and software products and 60 percent in control products and solutions), 50 percent of this being outside the US. Not satisfied with this figure, Mr Nosbusch declared that he wants it to be 60 percent and the reason for this is that manufacturing is growing fastest outside of the US. Said Mr Nosbusch: “The US is still the largest manufacturing
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nation but we are going to go where the greatest growth is and our goal is to be a major player on all the sectors on the global economy. To do that we have to invest and grow outside the US.” Investing In Emerging Markets Rockwell’s diversification has also helped the company in softening the impact of the recession. “We know it because of the percentage that we have in the emerging markets today versus 10 years ago and the fact that emerging markets decline was less than the mature markets,” said Mr Nosbusch. Another example he cited was of the automotive industry, which was badly hit by the downturn. “Our
dependence on the automotive industry is much less than it was 10 years ago,” he said. The China market is one that Rockwell will continue to invest in. Said Mr Nosbusch: “We have a research and development lab in Shanghai that is one of our largest on the world. We have acquired a Chinese company for our solutions business in the Xi’an area that allows us to be able to support the heavy industry and the migration from the east to the west in China. We have a very large software capability in Dalian, China. We continue to make investments in China, we will continue to look at expanding our business footprint and we will continue to look for M&A opportunities in China as well.”
Fair 2009 Areas Of Growth An area of growth that has been identified is alternative energy. Mr Nosbusch revealed: “We look at alternative energy as one of our growth opportunities in the future. In fact, we’re very strong in the ethanol industry. With Pavilion Technologies’ process control, we’re in many of the ethanol plants today that were built in the last 10 years. In addition to ethanol, we have a growing business in support of wind and turbine controls. We also have a growing business in solar panels.” “Alternative energy is an area we continue to invest in and we see that as a future growing opportunity. We put that under the umbrella of sustainability and
November 10 – 12, 2009 Anaheim Convention Center California, USA
Quotes
Keith Nosbusch on…
The Recession “This is the worst recession I’ve ever been involved in. The magnitude and the speed of the decline was more dramatic than any previous recession so it has been the toughest to react to and the impact on us as a business is greater because of the steepness and the pace of the decline. We had to cut our costs and we lost over a billion dollars of business in 12 month. We had to adjust our cost structure, which meant we had to take out a lot of discretionary spending. We also had to reduce our headcount. Now we’re sized for the business and the customer demand that we have and we will start to grow again.”
Staying On Track “What we have to do is balance short term financial performance with the long term viability of this business so it’s about protecting the core investments. You should understand what is the core value, the core aspects of your future and protect those at all costs. You go back to your strategy and the important dimensions of it, get rid of everything else and keep investing and focusing on that core. We don’t always listen to the external critics. They don’t always know what’s best for the business although they have lots of advice. We need to be steadfast.”
Motivating The Troops “With respect to the people, it’s a huge challenge. We asked our people to make sacrifices from the standpoint of, pay reduction and doing more with fewer people. They way you ask for those things is by demonstrating that leadership is reducing more than they are, and also by making sure they understand that we are investing in the future and there is a great future in the company. It may not look like that now but there is a reason to stay, there is a reason to be an engaged participant. The best thing we can do is help customers even in their tough times because when they spend more they remember who was there supporting them in their tough times. This is a tough period but we know what we are doing is right for the long term. There will be career, there will be a future, there will be a very strong Rockwell Automation, and we will emerge as we always have, more competitive than we were going in. In the short term it’s a huge challenge but we have to paint the vision of where we are going.” Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 43
features
alternative energy is one of the key areas of sustainability as a business,” he adds. Besides sustainability, the other growth accelerators for Rockwell a re proce ss, OE M s, sa fet y, information and the emerging markets of China, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America and emerging EMEA. Process Success In particular, the process business is an area that Rockwell has made tremendous progress in and where over the last five years, the company has seen a 29 percent annual growth rate. “The breadth of portfolio and how much of the market that we can address continues to grow as we have more capabilities added to our products,” said Mr Nosbusch. Part of the reason is the success
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of its PlantPAx process automation system. “The Rockwell Automation PlantPAx system allows end users to adopt a common control platform for their entire enterprise,” said Steve Pulsifer, global director, process market development, Rock well Automat ion. “ E nd users find that using a common control and visualisation platform introduces significant performance management and optimisation opportunities, and significantly reduces life-cycle costs.” Rockwell’s offerings in this area also provide a huge benefit fo r c u s to m e r s l o o k i n g fo r integrated safety and process control, with Ethernet as a central communications backbone. Som Chakraborti, business director, process automation, explained: “Historically, most automation companies including
ourselves, did not have the type of availability, fault tolerance on open networks such as Ethernet. We have advanced Ethernet to support the fault tolerant architecture and acquired ICS Triplex which is the leader in dedicated safety systems critical processes. Those safety systems that ICS brought in are now a part of our architecture over a common network, Ethernet.” Drawing an example, he added: “The benefit is, if you are on the safety side and you have a critical valve that controls the flow of steam that requires interlocks and inputs from another part of the plant, we don’t have to program the safety system. The safety system can draw upon the plant-wide control system that Rockwell has as interlocks and enable safety operations.” ENQUIRY NO. 8701
Technology & Product Announcements Six Areas Of Focus For Process Automation Building on inve st ments to extend and enhance its process technolog ie s, solutions a nd services, Rockwell Automation outlined six key areas of focus for its PlantPAx Process Automation System at the Rockwell Automation Process Solutions User Group (PSUG) conference. • Core Process Control As part of the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system, the PlantPAx Process Automation System leverages a single control platform for discrete, batch, process, safety, drives and motion control. The supervisory-layer visualisation servers and operator workstations are delivered ready to configure, helping engineers more efficiently build a process system. • Design Productivity By integrating standard Integrated A rch ite c tu re te ch nolog ie s with process-focused system configuration tools, users can experience up to 40 percent reduced project engineering. • Field-Device Integration A cont i nu i n g a l l ia nce w it h Endress+Hauser is a key part of the strategy to improve the end user’s field-device integration ex perience. Interoperabilit y testing between Endress+Hauser field devices and the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx system is conducted, including dev ice connectivity verification on HART, Profibus and Foundation fieldbus. • Asset Management T h e P l a n t PA x s o l u t i o n i s positioned to help users adopt a consistent asset management strateg y across process and factory automation applications,
Integrated Motion On EtherNet/IP Rockwell Automation I nte g rate d Mot ion on EtherNet/IP uses Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) Motion and CIP Sync technology from the Open Device Vendors Association (ODVA). Using the Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000 sof twa re, machine builders can access all the features and benefits of Integrated Motion for configuring, programming, commissioning and maintaining the Allen‑Bradley Kinetix 6500 servo drive and PowerFlex 755 AC drives on EtherNet/IP. The EtherNet/IP drive support also eliminates the need for a dedicated motion network and allows high-performance drives, I/O, smart actuators and any other EtherNet/IP-connected device to be supported on a common network. including management of change, engineering configuration security and disaster recover. • Process Safety & Critical Control System availability and process upt ime a re cr it ica l for t he oil and gas industry and other industry segments. To address these challenges, end-to-end high availability is delivered with the integrated control and safety system, including enhancements such as network redundancy and redundant I/O. • Operations Productivity A data management and decision suppor t fra mework helps enable plant-wide operational productivity improvements. The company leverages the FactoryTalk VantagePoint application to deliver a single reporting and analysis tool that further helps users access system information to make realtime, value-add decisions.
Business Intelligence The FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI business intelligence software for manufacturing helps empower users at every level of an enterprise with information from Webba sed da shboa rds a nd reports on key performance indicators from multiple manufacturing and business data sources. Manufacturers can better monitor a nd ma na ge productivity in real time, and make more insightful decisions about business priorities, such as product quality, equipment utilisation and global supply-chain management to help reduce costs in today’s competitive business environment.
ENQUIRY NO. 8702
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 45
FEATURES
G N I T A R INcTtrEicaGl Automation d:
Hand In Han
Ele S
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S
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d e electrical ana process th f o n o ti ra g inte le in The seamlessystems are highly desirab unications s m n m o istant co automati Martin r Tubaas, ass plant. By Pete ntry communications and etrochemical, manager, cousenior advisor, Oil, Gas & P Stamnestro, mation Division, ABB Process Auto
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he seamless integration of the electrical and automation systems are highly desirable in a process plant, a benefit recognised at the StatoilHydro Snøhvit liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. Here, the electrical control and supervision System (ECSS) communicates with a wide range of equipment and ensures a stable power supply to the LNG facility. Snøhvit: The Background Gas from the Snøhvit field, approximately 140 kilometres offshore in the Barents Sea, is flowing into the gas processing plant for treatment and shipping to the global LNG market. The core products of the plant are liquefied natural gas (LNG; 5.67 billion m3/ year), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG; up to 250,000 tonnes/year) and condensate (up to 900,000 m3/year). All products are exported by ship. Combined with the adjacent Albatross and Askeladd fields, Snøhvit contains more than 300 billion m3 of natural gas. Gas is extracted from the seabed using subsea equipment, which is operated remotely from Melkøya. The subsea control system was delivered by ABB in the United Kingdom (now Vetco Aibel). The topside of the subsea control system, which is an integrated part of the overall Safety and Automation System (SAS), was delivered by ABB in Norway. Complete Control Snøhvit is an extremely complex installation. The process is extensive, encompassing subsea control processing, complex LNG processes, and storage and loading of the final products. No system is more critical to the processing plant 46
industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
than the combined safety and automation system. The number of signals running through the Snøhvit process is enormous; the Process Control and Data Acquisition (PCDA) system has to handle more than 30,000 signals simultaneously. Plant Power Demand Complexes for liquefied natural gas require a reliable and stable energy supply. Most LNG plants are, however, situated in areas in which the power supply is either unreliable or nonexistent. The Snøhvit plant is no exception and must, therefore, rely on its own power supply. To meet the power demand, the plant contains a 1.65 TWh/year power plant with five gas-turbine driven generators of about 50 MW each. These power the large refrigeration compressors of up to 65 MW, driven by variable-speed electrical motors, which are required to liquefy gases. The hot exhaust gases from the gas turbines are used to provide heat for other parts of the process. This setup saves energy and provides about 10 additional uptime days per year due to the much higher availability of electrical drivers (as compared to gas turbine drivers). The plant not only includes its own power station and large compressor drivers, but also a large distribution network with several thousand relatively small electrical consumers. Electrical Control & Supervision The complex nature of the electrical system requires an automated ECSS. This system is required to unite the thousands of motors, switches, contactors and circuit breakers, and to minimise the effects should a
ENQUIRY NO. 8702
Hitachi Variable Frequency Drives Pursuing the Ideal Compact Inverter
WJ200 Series
WJ200 Series (Dual Rating) • 0.1~2.2kW (1-phase 200V class, CT) • 0.1~15kW (3-phase 200V class, CT) • 0.4~15kW (3-phase 400V class, CT)
User-friendly Compact Inverter
&
Designed for Excellent Peformance
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X200 Series (V/f)
0.4~55kW (3-phase 200V class) 0.75~400kW (3-phase 400V class)
0.2~2.2kW (1-phase 200V class) 0.2~7.5kW (3-phase 200V class) 0.4~7.5kW (3-phase 400V class)
L300P Series (V/f) 11~75kW (3-phase 200V class) 1.5~132kW (3-phase 400V class)
Hitachi Asia Ltd
24 Jurong Port Road, #03-05 Office Block, CWT Distripark Singapore 619097 Tel: +65 6305 7400 • Fax: +65 6305 7401 • URL: www.hitachi.com.sg • Email: ice@has.hitachi.com.sg
Tel: +81 3 4345 6063
Dec 2009/Jan 2010| industrial automation asia
ENQUIRY NO. 079
fault develop. A single unscheduled shutdown for the entire plant is extremely expensive. The ECSS is at the heart of the electrical system and communicates with the vast range of products using serial links and Ethernet. It is also linked with the automation system and other third-party deliveries. The system consists of 48 controllers. The ECSS processes some 44,000 signals at any one time – more than the plant’s automation system. The ECSS provides a wide range of functions, enabling a stable power supply to the plant, lowering operation costs and reducing emissions, while at the same time increasing safety. An important part of the ECSS is the Power Management System (PMS). Since a relatively small fault may lead to a cascade of equipment shutdowns that could affect a large part of or the entire plant, faults must be handled quickly and appropriately to avoid a domino effect. The ECSS not only provides an interface between the process plant’s automation and electrical systems; it also provides indispensable functionality and reliability in a plant where a system shutdown could cost millions of dollars. Although full communication and data ex- change with the process plant’s automation system is provided, the ECSS does not depend on it to operate. On the contrary, the ECSS can operate in isolation to ensure safe and reliable operation of the electrical system. Main electrical vendor approach In the past, oil companies and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors have very often purchased different types of equipment (eg, transformers, high-voltage switchgear, medium-
voltage switchgear and low-voltage switchgear) under separate contracts. Project risks can be reduced, however, by including most of the electrical equipment and systems – as well as engineering – under one large contract. The result is lower costs and faster project execution with safer systems that are fully integrated and interoperable. Safety is improved during installation and commissioning since project coordination is more easily achieved with only one contractor. StatoilHydro recognised the merit of such an approach and merged all purchases of highvolt a g e , me d iu m - volt a g e a nd low - volt a g e switchgear, as well as the ECSS, for the project into a single contract. Since the plant is physically connected to the northern Norwegian power grid, it soon became of interest to study the dynamic behaviour of the entire plant – including the gas turbine generator sets – and its connection to the grid. ABB has performed a dynamic stability study that was used to set and adjust the parameters of the power management system, as well as the dedicated generator control algorithms. This ensures not only stable operation of the process plant, but also ensures that the process plant contributes to the stability of the northern Norwegian power grid – as required by the grid operator.
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FEATURES
October 28 – 31, 2009 Suzhou International Expo Center Suzhou, China
Advantech
World Partner Conference
The world is becoming ‘instrumented’, ‘interconnected’, and ‘intelligent’, and Advantech is an enabler in creating this smarter planet. By Derek Rodriguez
aiwan based industrial PC and industrial automation experts Advantech held the 2009 installment of its World Partner Conference in Suzhou, China, bringing together over 500 partners, customers and journalists from 35 different countries. Looking Forward Advantech CEO KC Liu revealed the company’s roadmap to the future, with two business divisions driving the strategy; the Embedded Design-in Business providing ‘Trusted ePlatform Services’, and the Branding and Solution Business ‘Enabling a Smarter Planet’. The Embedded Design-in Business is made up of Design and Manufacturing Services (DMS) and Embedded Computing; the Branding and Solution Business includes Applied Computing and Intelligent Services and Industrial Automation (eAutomation). According to Mr Liu, the world is becoming increasingly ‘instrumented’, ‘interconnected’, and ‘intelligent’, and Advantech is acting as an enabler 48
industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
in creating a smarter planet with smart traffic systems, smart food systems, smart healthcare, smart energy grids etc. Several verticals have also been identified as being key to the advancement of the company: medical/healthcare, transportation, factory and machine automation, industrial mobile (vehicle) computing, power and energy, and retail, self-service
ENQUIRY NO. 069
features
Advantech CEO K C Liu disclosed plans to divide the company into two separate models, ‘Embedded Designin Business’, and ‘Branding and Solution Business’ The 2009 Advantech World Partner Conference opened with the theme “From ‘Trusted ePlatform Services’ to ‘Enabling a Smarter Planet’”
▲ The eAutomation section displayed solutions for building automation, substation automation, industrial communication and surveillance etc A total of 92 theme booth representing Advantech’s different business sectors were on show
The event’s packed agenda included many workshops, product tranings, forums, and seminars held simultaneously over two days
Medical and healthcare account for 10 percent of Advantech’s 50 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010 overall business
Green Automation Armed with the mission statement ‘By including cutting edge power saving technology in our products, we enable our customers to develop automation solutions that minimise energy consumption’, Advantech has concrete plans to join the green movement in the automation sector. Mingchin Wu, GM of eAutomation, Advantech, presented the company’s two-prong approach to green automation, through green power business management (energy generation, transmission and distribution, and building energy management) and green product design (green HMI platforms, green devices, and green connection). Statistics Show… Chaney Ho, MD of Greater China, Advantech, touched on the company’s growth strategy for the next decade and showed the performance of the company in his presentation. According to the 2009 Q3 sales by region statistics, China and North America are responsible for 26 percent of the company’s sales each, with Europe, though declining, coming third with 15 percent. India has also seen good growth. There’s a strong demand for in the transportation industry for China, whereas in Europe and the US, the demand is from the medical industry. The 2008/2009 quarter on quarter growth statistics underlined the impact of the recession, with negative growth figures shown for Q3 and Q4 of 2008, and Q1 of 2009. However, the figures for Q2, Q3, and Q4 of 2009 showed increasing growth figures, hopefully an indication of the revival of the economy. China Focus Mr Ho also reinforced the importance Advantech attached to Greater China, which accounts for 34 percent of the company’s revenue (Taiwan and China combined). Another of Advantech’s goals is to develop a leading brand of ePlatform service in Greater China. The gears are already certainly in motion with six research and development centres, over 30 sales offices, and three manufacturing centres producing over 286,000 units of products a month in this region alone. One such manufacturing centre, the KunShan Manufacturing Campus, played host to several busloads of visitors as part of the event agenda. The 105,000 sq m facility has been integrated with
the China DongKuan Chassis Plant for better operation efficiency. Smarter Planet Michelle Kam, director, IBM Institute for Business Value, China, went further into the development of a ‘smarter planet’. She stated that there is a clear need for progress, with energy, traffic and healthcare as some examples of areas that need improvement and 21st century investments must prepare for the smarter growth vision. The way forward, according to Ms Kam, is by identifying new ways where customers can work smarter, providing smarter technologies to enable customers’ transformation, and with smarter collaboration in every part of the value chain to create value for customers. With ‘smarter planet’ recognised as the next trend, digital signage, video surveillance, and touch screens are some of the technologies that have been pinpointed as the ‘next wave of growth’. The US has already embarked on smarter planet initiatives and China is hot on their heels. Potential advantages associated with China going in this direction are sustainable economic development, environmental protection, job creation, energy efficiency etc. WDDN_83x110 r1.pdf
8/13/09
5:30:04 PM
ENQUIRY NO. 8704
ENQUIRY NO. 064
and hospitality. Mr Liu said that Advantech would make products that were vertical focused as “the value of entering verticals is huge”.
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Green BY
esign W
With the 2010 release of SolidWorks, the company has unveiled its intentions to join the green movement. By Joson Ng and Derek Rodriguez
ith the 2010 release of SolidWorks, the company has made available to users many new features. Ved Narayan, VP, Asia Pacific Operations of Dessault Systemes SolidWorks Corp, explains the company’s philosophy towards product design: “We want to make products that are easier to use, robust, and affordable so people can literally take it out of the box, start using it, and get productive.” Accord i n g to M r Na ray a n , h i s favourite new feature is SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress. He says: “It resonates with what is going on in the world today and what customers are demanding. Many c o m p a n i e s to d a y a re re a l l y t a k i n g
“The biggest influence on the whole overall sustainability for your green product that you can have, is at the design phase.” Ved Narayan
SolidWorks Innovation Day ATE:
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olidWorks partners and end users in Singapore gathered at Swissotel Merchant Court on October 9, 2009, to witness the unveiling of the latest version of the compapny’s CAD software. Organiser and reseller A d v a n c e d Te c h n o l o g y Enterprise’s (ATE) MD, Isaac Chong introduced the software and talked about the new sustainability feature offered with SolidWorks 2010.
the initiative to make their products environmentally friendly or green or sustainable.” Continues Mr Narayan: “That is happening more for the manufacturing side, but if you look from a market perspective, the regulations that are coming, people a re ta lk ing about greenhouse gas emissions and carbon taxes. France is going to have carbon taxes implemented as early as next year (2010). It has an impact on business for people.
A Virtual Experience
According to Mr Chong, sustainable design would be able to help on three levels: environmental, social, and economical. The advantages of sustainable design are minimised material usage, improved material choices, the ability to design for ease of disassembly, minimised energy consumption and product reuse or recycling.
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ENQUIRY NO. 8705
A
ttendees chose from over 40 different sessions from an action-packed agenda at the first SolidWorks Innovation Day virtual event. Speakers included CAD industry veterans, SolidWorks key executives, and product and technical experts. Topics ranged from CAD technology to product innovation trends to sustainable design for the future and how the company addresses the vertical industries’ needs.
SolidWorks initiated the virtual event to complement the offline SolidWorks Innovation Day events and to unite its network of over one million users with one another and the rest of the SolidWorks community. This virtual event was available in three languages, English, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. Attendees were able to connect and chat with one another real-time. ENQUIRY NO. 8706
did you knoW Research by the Aberdeen Group found that 56 percent of manufacturers globally have already deployed some form of a design for greener products strategy, with another 26 percent planning to adopt a similar strategy over the next two years.
SEACAD:
SolidWorkS 2010 launcH
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olidWorks distributor SeaCAD held their launch of SolidWorks 2010 on November 20, 2009 at Cathay Cineplex Cineleisure Orchard. Besides the introduction of the new features and enhancements brought by SolidWorks 2010, the afternoon-long agenda included the announcement of the availability of the document security system Curtain E-Locker and 3D printer by Solido3D. Solido3D: DESKTOP 3D PRINTER Solido3D’s SD300 Pro 3D printer provides a low cost and easy to use option for designers looking to create three dimensional models without leaving their workstation. Using Plastic Sheet
Lamination, the SD300 Pro produces rugged yet flexible models made of SolidVC, a rigid PVC based plastic. The accuracy, strength and durability of the parts produced by the SD300 Pro make them perfectly suitable for wide range
of applications at all stages of the design cycle. Models can be machined, drilled, finished and painted, and they show no distortion over time. ENQUIRY NO. 8707 Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 53
FEATURES
If you are going to pay more for taxes it’s going to affect your profit margin. So they have to take that initiative to really start thinking and incorporating products and materials for that.”
Ved Narayan
SOLIDWORKS 2010:
S
olidWorks 2010 CAD software improves designers’ and engineers’ productivity with a wide range of new capabilities. A configuration publisher lets users publish a model configurator interface to the 3D ContentCentral service – a Web-based marketplace for 3D parts, assemblies, and other content – to enable simple selection of model
Design For Sustainability This green direction, claims Mr Narayan, is a natural progression and is not just a one-off thing. Rather, it is a process that will continue to be built upon. Making sense of the need for green design, Mr Narayan says: “If you truly see the whole lifecycle assessment, the biggest influence on the whole overall sustainability for your green product that you can have, is at the design phase.” Painting an example, Mr Narayan adds: “People talk about designing a green house, people talk about designing a solar energy panel. You can do that design but how do you know the material you use for that itself is green enough in the first place?” “That’s where the advantage of SustainabilityXpress comes in. It will help you choose a material that will give you the same strength, same functionality, but with a lesser impact on greenhouse, energy consumption, air pollution and water pollution.” “We are also going and educating our customers on the design process. How can we make our design modular for
reuse; educating not only with respect to the way you can use a material but also the way you can design a product.” Keeping Ahead With Technology Speaking about the company’s business model, Mr Narayan reveals that it is 100 percent indirect. The company has partners and resellers who are authorised by them both in their skill sets and capabilities, whether it relates to product usage, training or demonstration. This allows the company to focus on it s R & D. D i s c lo s e s M r N a ray a n : “On average, we spend more than 20 percent of the company’s revenue on R&D. In fact, in the downturn, the only budget which was not cut internally was the R&D budget. This is the perfect time to build products because when the economy bounces back, you have that edge.” In fact, the field testing of the programme started some months back. Mr Narayan declares: “Since the product preview in January 2009, we have been testing the product in multiple stages. One is quality assessment, this is a built in process. In every stage of coding there is testing going on. We start from the initial stages so every time we submit back coding it has already been tested.” ENQUIRY NO. 8708
WorkinG SMartEr & FaStEr alternatives. SolidWorks Simulation Premium provides tools to validate design decisions and uncover hidden problems before they affect production. The 2010 version adds capabilities like eventbased motion simulation, which mimics the way machines really work, as well as proximity sensors and automatic edgeweld sizing.
54 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software includes new productivity features for preparing models and drawings for distribution. SolidWorks Sustainability software makes sustainable design accessible. It helps users determine the carbon footprint, energy consumption, and air/water impacts in a product design’s
raw material sourcing, manufacture, use, and disposal. An assembly visualisation tool colour-codes parts based on their total environmental impact. Configuration support in the software also lets users compare multiple design iterations for sustainability concerns. Included with every license of SolidWorks software, SolidWorks
SustainabilityXpress helps users immediately determine the environmental impact of any part. The sustainability products include an environmental impact dashboard, customisable reports, and a tool to find alternative materials to easily compare and instantly improve the sustainability of a part. ENQUIRY NO. 8709
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products & services Adlink:
Banner:
The PCI-8253/PCI-8256 controllers combine a 250 MHz 32-bit MIPS processor, 12,000 logic element FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), I/O buffering circuitry, Adlink softmotion, and motion control characterisation software to control the position/velocity of as many as six ±10 V analogue command servo axes. The controllers leverage Adlink softmotion technology, 250 MHz DSP and 20 MHz encoder rate to meet faster servo update rate up to 50 µs/axis and control requirement in real application. It not only realises the gantry control with closedloop and error handling, but also adopts the feed-forward gain to reduce speed profile following error to meet precise velocity and position control.
The SureCross DXER9 Ethernet Data Radio by Banner Engineering is an industrial grade, long-range 900 MHz radio used to create point to multipoint configurations of wireless Ethernet networks. The DXER9 is designed for industrial applications and will perform reliably in applications that prove too noisy or too far for standard WiFi based systems. Key features include 10+ mile range outside line of sight, 1500+ foot range indoors, 128-bit AES encryption for Ethernet data packets, sub-block error detection and retransmission, automatic scan or manual override for the best of 12 communication channels and more.
Motion Control Cards
Ethernet Data Radio
Enquiry no. 8801
Beijer:
Cognex:
Beijer’s iX is a software-based HMI concept that fills the gap between proprietary HMI terminals and costly SCADA licence solutions. It consists of a development environment and a runtime environment and is available in several versions, including a complete Lauer HMI concept that can run on a panel PC or desktop PC platform as well as a runtime version for PCs from other suppliers. Thanks to support for the Microsoft .Net framework, iX enables a multitude of customer-specific adaptation options. The ability to integrate externally available .Net controls (DLLs) enables the generation of user-defined objects.
Cognex Corporation has expanded its DataMan 200 line of fixed-mount image-based ID readers with three new models with integrated liquid lens. The range of performance options offered by the DataMan 200 means that users can select the features, speed and price point best suited to their application. The ultra-small packaging of the DataMan 200 makes the system easy to integrate into equipment or onto production lines where space is tight. All DataMan 200 models offer Ethernet connectivity for faster communication speed and easier integration with factory controls.
ID Readers
HMI Software
Enquiry no. 8803 56
Enquiry no. 8802
industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
Enquiry no. 8804
products & Services
Dalsa:
Emerson:
Dalsa’s Boa vision system is a highly integrated smart camera that comprises all of the elements of an industrial machine vision system. It incorporates multiple processing engines, which enable algorithm optimisation via DSP, application via CPU, and sensor management via FPSA. Embedded iNspect application software is set up through a standard web browser. The Boa delivers a rugged, easy-tomount enclosure, built-in factory communications, and a low deployment cost. Its 44 mm cube form factor is designed for tight-fit applications. An IP67 rated housing allows deployment in harsh, wash-down environments.
Emerson Process Management expands the benefits of digital field technology and asset management in remote SCADA applications with the introduction of Foundation Fieldbus Interfaces for ControlWave RTUs and ROC800-Series Remote Operations Controllers. The interface combines the benefits of Foundation fieldbus with proven RTUs to reduce costs and increase efficiency in a wide range of oil and gas and water and wastewater applications. It extends the power of PlantWeb digital architecture beyond traditional plant walls where environmental demands on power consumption, temperature range, physical size, and mounting footprint are important system design considerations.
Vision Systems
Foundation Fieldbus Interface
Enquiry no. 8805
Enquiry no. 8806
Exact Flow:
Festo:
E xact Flow’s Mini- C omp dual-rotor turbine flow meter is supported by a miniature flow computer. Flow straighteners are not required with the Mini-Comp, making it easy to install in limited space of ten found in aircraf t, race cars and congested test stands. The system houses the ultimate electronic processor, providing total compensation to enhance flow meter accuracy, while extending the linear flow range. It tracks all variables to compensate for viscosity effects due to fluid temperature variations. Enhanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology allows for signal characterisation and fast response (3 mS) to output dynamic data in engineering units.
Festo’s standard valve, VUVG, offers better flow (up to 100 percent more), greater energy density (up to 10 bars) and space saving with its innovative 2 x 3/2 way design – one single valve to operate two single acting cylinders. This valve adopts the patented cartridge concept with special seal materials for its longer service life. ‘Snap On’ electrical connections offer interchangeable connectors by just a click - quick and easy installation. The integrated 360 degree LED allows reliable diagnostics. In addition, multiple pressure zones are made possible with an optional separator plug.
Dual-Rotor Turbine Flow Meter
Enquiry no. 8807
Solenoid Valve
Enquiry no. 8808 Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 57
products & Services
GE Druck:
HMS:
GE Druck’s ATEX-approved hand-held DPI 620 advanced multifunction calibrator now incorporates full HART capability. It incorporates the latest application software to support more than 1,000 sensors. GE’s DPI 620 simultaneously sources and measures mA, pressure, V, mV ohms, frequency or temperature from RTDs or thermocouples. It can also automate calibration procedures, document results and analyse device trends to support preventative maintenance programmes. It is available in Windows CE version with standard Windows applications, file management and able to view pdf files and jpeg images, data sheets, safety procedures, spreadsheets and to create text documents.
This addition to the Anybus gateway family enables a ProfibusDP Master to read and write J1939 network data for control and monitoring tasks. The gateway accomplishes this by operating simultaneously as a Profibus-DP Slave on a Profibus network and as a CAN node on a J1939 network. Data is exchanged from either network based on a user defined configuration. HMS provides a free Windows-based configuration tool (BWConfig) that allows the user to map J1939 parameter (PGN) data into the module’s input and output tables, accessible by the Profibus Master over the Profibus-DP network.
Intrinsically-Safe Advanced Modular Calibrator
Intelligent Gateway
Enquiry no. 8809
Enquiry no. 8810
Intermec:
Kabelschlepp:
Intermec’s SD61 is a multiport wireless base station that provides a secure connection (ISCP protocol) between multiple Intermec industrial scanners – including the SF51 and SR61B, and the host device. The SD61 allows up to seven Intermec Bluetooth-equipped scanners to operate in the same work area, connected wirelessly to the same mobile cart solution, PC or Intermec printer. The communication between the SD61 and associated scanners is bi-directional, ensuring that data transfers are secure and validated. Additionally, the Bluetooth Class 1 radio allows any SD61 user to work within a radius of up to 100m (328ft) from the base in open air.
The ESD cable carriers from Kabelschlepp are now even more conductive and with a surface resistivity of 105 ohms, surpassing the requirements contained in the ESD standard (DIN EN 61340). Thanks to the large specific surface and the extremely even distribution of the carbon nanotubes in the carrier material, good conductivity is also achieved at the contact points between the chain links and thus over the entire length of the carrier. As a consequence of modifying the fibre-reinforced material with nano-tubes, the stability of the cable carriers increases as well.
Wireless Base Station
Enquiry no. 8811 58 industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
ESD Cable Carriers
Enquiry no. 8812
products & Services products & Services
Mayr:
Ocean Optics:
The backlash-free primeflex can be plugged in for easy installation and disassembly. It can be dismantled safely without putting the steel bellows at risk even after longer operating times. Herein lies one of the decisive technical advantages. On many other plug-in steel bellows couplings, there is a risk of damaging or even destroying the steel bellows when loosening the plug-in connection (tribo-corrosion effect on the conic hub). Primeflex features specific material and geometry to fix this problem. It can be mounted easily onto the shafts via clamping or shrink disk connections.
NIRQuest from Ocean Optics is a fibre optic near-infrared spectrometer easily adaptable for cost-effective on-line process control measurements from 900-2500 nm. A diverse range of applications includes moisture detection in grains and meats, materials characterisation of semiconductor components, bacterial detection in food and beverage production and chemical analysis of pharmaceuticals. It represents the next generation of optical sensing technologies that are moving from the lab to the process line. Flexible detectors, light sources and sampling optics result in instruments more easily implemented into the process stream.
Steel Bellows Coupling
Fibre Optic Spectrometer
Enquiry no. 8813
Enquiry no. 8814
Witte:
Yokogawa:
The new sandwich plate from Witte Far East (Singapore) transforms very quickly - manually or automatically – from one measuring fixture to another. In a defined grid (eg 200mm) the entire plate is equipped with through holes, in which columns are mounted. For positioning a workpiece the columns are set at appropriate positions. The column ends are equipped with quick change couplings enabling part-specific exchange adapters to be mounted simply and quickly. The column arrangement can be speeded up using CNC controls, where only adapters are changed manually. The chief attraction however is the robot version. Selection and mounting of exchange adapters as well as positioning and removal of work pieces to be measured is fully automatic.
Yokogawa Electric Corporation’s ProSafe-RS R2.03.00 is an enhanced version of the ProSafe-RS Safety Instrumented System. The enhancements include a new CPU module that is 3.5 to 4 times faster than the module used in the preceding version and a new digital output module that is intended for use with higher voltage devices. The number of I/O points has been increased to 1,500, an increase of nearly 50 percent, and application capacity has been increased 50 percent. These enhancements make the system ideal for use in large-scale plants.
Sandwich Plate
Safety Instrumented System
Enquiry no. 8815
Enquiry no. 8816 Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia 59
EVENT REVIEW
ABB
Customer Day
THE ABB Customer Day, an annual event held for customers and business partners, was held at the Matrix in Biopolis, Singapore. Themed ‘Power and automation technologies that shape the world’, energy efficiency and renewable energy were the key topics at the event. Green Opportunities ABB Singapore’s president and country manager, James Foo gave the opening address. Said Mr Foo: “The world is changing rapidly in the way we think about carbon emissions, and generation, distribution and consumption of electrical power.” “The overall macroeconomic trends, climate change agenda and fiscal stimulus plans in major economies, the renewable energy focus, industrial efficiency for greater productivity gains, and 60
industrial automation asia | Dec 2009/Jan 2010
infrastructure spend both in emerging and developed economies offer significant opportunities for ABB and the industry as a whole,” he added. To add to this, market forces are converging towards a lowcarbon, high-efficient economy. As energy prices rise, efficiency will become an even more important purchase criterion, increasing the demand for both energy and process efficiency. Living Lab Goh Chee Kiong, director of clea n technolog y, Economic Development Board, talked about the S$1 billion (US$720 million) Singapore Sustainable Blueprint, underlining the government’s intention to make 80 percent of buildings green buildings by 2030. (Currently, the figure is less than one percent)
He also discussed the benefits of Singapore as a ‘living lab’, a test bed to test new technologies and applications such as electric vehicles, carbon services, and smart grid. Technology Showcase The event also provided the compa ny a n oppor tunity to showcase its latest technology and product offerings in power and automation. The company’s new technologies had a distinct focus on energy efficiency. According to Mr Foo, energy efficiency is already a driver for technology and now represents about 45 percent of the company’s revenue. October 8, 2009 The Matrix, Biopolis Singapore ENQUIRY NO. 8901
Product
Watch
The AC500 - eCp programmable logic controller (PLC) is an economic entry-level PLC for stand alone solutions and equipment control. It includes integrated digital and analogue inputs and outputs on-board the CPU which can support up to seven S500 I/O modules. A secure connection to the system bus is e stablished using sturdy, laterally integrated plugs.
The Busch-ComfortTouch represents an intelligent private Internet PC. Users can call up the weather or stock market ticker, receive e-mails, play music or watch video clips. Also, by offering the option to display the power consumption data in the form of diagrams, it can make a contribution to improving the energy transparency of a building. The Aztec 600 aluminium, i ron, a nd ma n ga ne se colorimetric analysers for water treatment applications use an LED and detector to measure the passage of light through a sample. Measurements taken are compared against calibrated values to calculate the sample being measured. The analysers can measure up to six samples per hour.
The IRB 120 weighs just 25 kg and can handle a payload of 3 kg (4 kg with vertical wrist) with a reach of 580 mm. It has a stroke of 411 mm and the ability to reach 112 mm below its own base. It can also be mounted at any angle, either in a cell on top of a machine or close to other robots in a manufacturing line.
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia  61
EVENT review
JEC Asia 2009
The Asian composites market growth is predicted to double by 2015. Asian countries have been increasing their market share in global composites production at a faster rate as compared to the past few years. The continent should represent 50 percent of the total volume of the market by 2015 amounting to 5.15 Mt on a total of 10.30 Mt. Created in 2008, the second session of JEC Asia was a success with participation in all its programmes. With conferences, forums and new services such as the business meetings and the honorary guests programme, well-established brands and new participants came together from Middle-East, India and Asia Pacific. On a total of 345 participating companies, the event attracted 46 new exhibitors. Some 7,0 02 v isitors from 55 cou nt r ie s at tende d t his professionals-only event with 86 percent from Asia Pacific. Also, 650 delegates took part in the programme of conferences, forums 62  industrial automation asia | August 2009
and technical sales presentations. In total, six forums and conferences were organised, including a new wind energy forum. An International Event With 55 countries involved in the event, it is the only international platform for the Asia-Pacific area. The show welcomed all the major delegations (China and Taiwan, Japan, India, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea), ambassadors, honorary guests, decision makers, world renowned spe a kers a nd emblematic contributors to the composite industry as well as journalists from major end-users markets.
The main topics at the event were representative of the Asian markets. Unlike America or Europe, Asia’s main growth drivers are b u i l d i n g a n d co n s t r u c t i o n (equipment phase), automotive (increase of local demand), wind energy (driven by the combination of favourable public regulations and the possibility to exploit economically viable wind farms) and aeronautics (with a continuing penetration of composites for lightening issues). Suntec Singapore October 14 – 16, 2009 ENQUIRY NO. 8902
CalendarOOffEvents2009/2010 DECEMBER 2009 1 – 4 CIA 2009 Suntec Singapore Singapore Exhibition Services Email: car@sesallworld.com Web: www.cia-asia.com
3 – 4 Industrial Bus and Wireless Technology Conference
Suntec Singapore Singapore Exhibition Services Email: joa@sesallworld.com Web: www.cia-asia.com/conf_prog.htm
2 – 4 Semicon Japan 2009 Makuhari Messe Chiba, Japan Semi Email: jshowsinfo@semi.org Web: www.semiconjapan.org
MARCH 2010 24 – 26 Asia Pacific Maritime 2010
Singapore Expo Singapore Reed Exhibitions Email: huihiang.teo@reedexpo.com.sg Web: www.apmaritime.com
25 – 27 Industrial Expo 2010
Penang International Sports Arena Penang, Malaysia Intrenasionale Email: info@intrenasionale.com Web: www.iex.com.my
APRIL 2010 5 – 9 Power & Electricity World Asia Suntec Singapore Terrapinn Email: yaling.ng@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com
6 – 8 Asiawater 2010 Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia AMB Exhibitions Email: airin@ambexpo.com Web: www.asiawater.org
19 – 23 Hannover Messe Hannover Fair Grounds Hannover, Germany Singapore-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Email: info@hf-singapore.com Web:www.hannovermesse.de
21 – 23 RFID World Asia Suntec Singapore Terrapinn Email: yeelim.tan@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com
MAY 2010 5 – 9 Automex Putra World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Premier Exhibitions Services Email: info@tradelink.com.my Web: www.tradelink.com.my
13 – 16 Intermach 2010 BITEC Bangkok, Thailand Intermach Email: intermach@intermachshow.com Web: www.intermachshow.com
19 – 21 Semicon Singapore Suntec Singapore Semi Email: cchan@semi.org Web: www.semiconsingapore.org
25 – 28 KOFAS 2010 Changwon Exhibition Center Changwon, South Korea Koami Email: exhibit@koami.or.kr Web: kofas.org
31 – June 2 Interphex Asia 2009 SuntecSingapore Reed Exhibitions Email: jockhong.tan@reedexpo.com.sg Web: www.interphexasia.com
JUNE 2010 2 – 5 Renewable Energy Asia 2010 BITEC Bangkok, Thailand UBM Asia (Thailand) Email: entech@entechpollutec-asia.com Web: www entechpollutec-asia.com
15 – 17 Nepcon Malaysia Penang International Sports Arena Penang, Malaysia Reed Exhibitions Email: huihiang.teo@reedexpo.com.sg Web: www.nepcon.com.my
15 – 18 CommunicAsia 2010 Singapore Expo Singapore Singapore Exhibitions Services Email: vw@sesallworld.com Web: www.communicasia.com
16 – 19 Propak Asia 2010 BITEC Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok Exhibition Services Email: propak@besallworld.com Web: www.propakasia.com
24 – 27 Assembly Technology 2010 BITEC Bangkok, Thailand Reed Tradex Email: rtdx@reedtradex.co.th Web: www.assemblytechexpo.com
SEPTEMBER 2010 15 – 17 Industrial Automation Vietnam Saigon Exhibition & Convention Centre Saigon, Vietnam Hong Kong Exhibition Services Email: exhibit@hkesallworld.com Web: www.iavietnam.com
NOTES To be considered for inclusion in the Calendar of Events, send details of event (name, date, venue, organiser contact) to: The Assistant Editor IAA. Eastern Trade Media Pte Ltd. 1100 Lower Delta Road, EPL Building #04-02, Singapore 169206 Tel: (65) 6379 2888 Fax: (65) 6379 2805 Email: derekrodriguez@epl.com.sg
Dec 2009/Jan 2010 | industrial automation asia
63
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64
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IndustrialAutomationAsia
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ABB INDUSTRY PTE LTD
5
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036
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3
070
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49
069
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1
080
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IBC
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OBC
084
Ted Asoshina Echo Japan Corporation Tel: 81-3-32635065 Fax: 81-3-32342064 aso@echo-japan.co.jp
MOXA INC
51
064
KOREA:
N-TRON
21
083
ROCKWELL AUTOMATION SEA PTE LTD
IFC
077
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17
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TURCK
35
086
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41
085
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IT network
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Gigabit Network Field network
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Motion network
cc-link
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ASEAN CC-LINK PROMOTION CENTRE 307 Alexandra Road #05-01/02 Mitsubishi Electric Building Singapore 159943 Tel: (65) 6473 2308 • Fax: (65) 6476 7439 • Did: (65) 6470 2480 • E-mail: cclink@asia.meap.com
ENQUIRY NO. 007
From control to optimization of your system in each network level. A new integrated industrial Ethernet network concept with Gigabit.
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
Moving the World With Mitsubishi Electric
ROBOT INVERTER SERVO
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ENQUIRY NO. 084
FX PLC
Q PLC
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC ASIA PTE LTD
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