Lady Liberty’s New Fire and Safety Technology

Tower Elevator Systems’ newly installed rescue elevator, part of a $27-million Statue of Liberty renovation, makes the most of Safety PLC hardware, PROFIBUS Ethernet and the SIMATIC Comfort Panel HMI. One of the most-recognized structures on earth, the Statue of Liberty, recently underwent a $27 million renovation that brought the 19th century icon into the 21st century. Fire and safety features on the statue, inaugurated by President Grover Cleveland in 1886, were revamped... Read More

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How PLCs and Smart HMI Design Keep Drugs Safe

STERIS Corp. helps keeps drugs safe and compliant with electronic data security rules with simplified PLC configuration and user-friendly interface via WinCC and touch panels. In pharmaceutical manufacturing, minimizing contamination is of maximum importance. In some drugs, even extremely minor contamination can ruin an entire production run or cause even greater problems if contaminants cause patient reactions in the field. At STERIS Corp.’s Life Sciences division, employees... Read More

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PC-based Control Improves Tire Test Control

ASM and CTI improve tire testing and optimization system in rubber capital of the world with Siemens’ integrated PC-based real-time controls, networking, drives, interfaces and more. Most people don’t think about car tires until there’s a problem, but tires are a critical contributor for both safety and comfort. Forming rubber into products that can support more than a ton and absorb shock while rolling down rough highways at high speeds is a very challenging manufacturing... Read More

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Comfort Panel HMI Wins Design Award

SIMATIC Comfort Panels address the growing use of video in industrial environments, letting users display an Ethernet camera feed live on application screens during runtime. An add-on for WinCC Engineering Software (in TIA Portal) installs the new video display object in the HMI Toolbox, giving operators additional functionality. Cameras are often used for displaying inaccessible areas of a machine or process, for vision systems, or security.  The ability to stream video on the... Read More

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PLCs help U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deepen Critical Shipping Channels

The hopper dredge McFarland The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has a fleet of dredging boats that keeps 12,000 miles of waterways in the United States clean and navigable for recreation and commercial use. One of these boats, the hopper dredge McFarland, played a role in emergency dredging projects during the Gulf Oil spill crisis, and also participated in rescue efforts following the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack in New York City. An antiquated relay system... Read More

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Safeguards for the World’s Most Powerful Laser

Designing the world’s most powerful lasers is no mean feat. But researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are equally proud of a complementary system they’ve created, one that protects humans from the powerful beams. The Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) system set the record when it delivered a petawatt of power in a pulse just 40 femtoseconds long at a pulse rate of one hertz in July. If delivering 1015th watts of power in a quadrillionth of a second isn’t... Read More

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U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan Fueled by Automation

Pendant Engineering’s use of Siemens HMI, PLC, TIA Portal helps Bagram Air Force Base manage fuel transfer For military operations around the globe, one of the biggest logistics challenges is to manage critical fuel resources. Building a fuel transfer system for the Bagram Air Force Base (AFB), a U.S. military operation about 40 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan, posed a greater than normal number of challenges. The equipment must withstand unforgiving surroundings, from... Read More

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Widescreen HMI Devices up to 22 Inches Combine Robustness with Prize-winning Design

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has expanded its Simatic HMI Comfort Panels for local machine operator control and monitoring to include devices with 15, 19 and 22 inch color displays. The panels are operated by means of touch screens. There is also a version with key operation for the 15-inch format. The new 15 to 22-inch devices have a third Profinet interface for integration into an additional network. The product portfolio of widescreen format Comfort Panels now includes... Read More

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Siemens Introduces High-Resolution, 4-Inch Widescreen Color Panels with PROFINET Interface

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has expanded its SIMATIC HMI Basic Panels range with two new pixel-graphic, high-resolution, 4-inch widescreen color displays, complete with PROFINET interface. The SIMATIC HMI KTP400 Basic color PN comes equipped with a touch screen and four tactile function keys. It offers eight tactile function keys as well as an alphanumeric keypad, enabling data entry like a cell phone. The tactile function keys and membrane keyboard ensure maximum... Read More

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Siemens WinCC/Web Monitor Provides Operator Control and Monitoring Via the Web

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has introduced the WinCC/Web Navigator. It provides users the capability of operating and monitoring plants via the Internet, company-internal intranet, or LAN, without requiring changes to a WinCC project. This means that the Web Navigator offers the same archive display, operator input, and access options as the local operator stations. Also the displayed process pictures can contain Visual Basic scripts for dynamic sequences and WinCC... Read More

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