19 May 2009
Web exclusive: May Industry Newz, 2nd edition
ABB will be responsible for supplying the electrical control equipment for a new power plant being constructed in New York. The power station, fueled by a 2x2x1 combined cycle, is scheduled to begin operations in mid-2010. CH2M Hill, an engineering, procurement, construction (EPC), and operations firm, will serve as the EPC contractor for the project out of its Atlanta office. ABB’s System 800xA will help control the electrical balance of plant, heat recovery steam generators, and the cooling towers.
Apprion signed an OEM agreement with Motorola, Inc., which extends the relationship established last year when Motorola announced it had invested in Apprion through its strategic venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures. The agreement enables the two companies to jointly develop and market integrated wireless application networks for industrial enterprises.
Cabinet NG (CNG), a provider of efficient document management and workflow software, earned Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program, which recognizes CNG’s expertise and impact in the technology marketplace. As a Certified Partner, CNG has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and proven ability to meet customer needs.
Emerson Process Management received a contract from Portland General Electric Company (PGE) to apply its Ovation SCADA solution to the Biglow Canyon wind farm, PGE’s first wholly owned and operated wind farm, about 140 miles east of Portland, Ore. Biglow Canyon is being built in three phases, with a total generating capacity to be 450 MW, producing enough annual energy to power roughly 120,000 homes. Emerson is providing an enterprise-wide control solution. The company’s Ovation SCADA platform will provide supervisory management of the entire wind farm (all three phases), interfacing to SCADA subsystems supplied by Vestas and Siemens that communicate with a total of four meteorological towers—two for each turbine OEM. At Constellation Energy’s Brandon Shores station, use of Emerson’s SmartProcess selective catalytic reduction (SCR) optimization technology is translating into operational, environmental, and financial improvements—including improved SCR efficiency and extended SCR regeneration cycles, a 250-ton reduction in NOx and subsequent savings of $200,000 achieved by eliminating the need to purchase additional NOx credits.
ESE, Inc., the engineering solutions experts, is now a Rockwell Automation Qualified Process Solutions Provider Program company. As an integrator of Rockwell Automation, ESE demonstrated multiple successes at the application level across many customers; repeatability is a key factor in being awarded this designation.
GE Energy completed the delivery of 30 of its Reuter Stokes Position Sensitive Detector Electronics Systems to NOMAD at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Spallation Neutron Source located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, facilitating research into materials that are stronger, lighter, and cheaper.
Green Hills Software, Inc., a certified safe and secure real-time operating systems and device software optimization firm, is delivering comprehensive software development solutions to Meggitt Control Systems to build a cabin air temperature control system for private cabin-class jets. The Meggitt bleed air system will see use on the Embraer Legacy 500 midsize and 450 midlight business jets.
South Sioux City, Neb.-based Green Planet Farms selected a Rockwell Automation process automation system to help process the industry’s first hexane-free, soy protein isolate, a key ingredient in food products, including milk, protein shakes, and snack foods. Unlike other soybean processing plants that rely on hexane—a gasoline byproduct—to separate protein from the fat, sugar, and fiber found in soy flour, the company developed a water-based process for its new organic soybean processing plant that more naturally separates these elements.
HART Communication Foundation’s new wireless test system is a set of testing tools that play a key role in ensuring device interoperability of both wired and wireless HART-enabled devices. The new Wireless Test System supports testing of a WirelessHART device’s TDMA Data Link Layer and is now available to all Foundation Members.
Invensys Process Systems opened its new North Caspian Service Centre in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, to strengthen its commitment to clients in the region. The second office in Kazakhstan, it will support local and global project deployment, featuring an engineering excellence centre, modernized staging area, technology showcase centre, and a training and customer support service centre.
MTL Surge Technologies, a part of Cooper Crouse-Hinds, has a FP32 surge protector now certified for ENV3 environmental conditions as described in Lloyd’s Register Test Specification Number 1, 2002. The surge protector is also approved for use on-board ships and floating platforms to help companies protect critical and sensitive electronics in their offshore applications.
QComp Technologies, Inc., a robotics integrator, announced it has signed xpedx of Loveland, Ohio as its newest distributor of palletizing equipment. As QComp’s newest authorized distributor xpedx will add the QComp Compact Lean Palletizer to its packaging offerings.
Rockwell Automation will host the 12th annual RSTechED event, 21 to 26 June at the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel and convention center in Orlando, Fla., focusing on providing premium education for manufacturing and production professionals from a wide variety of industries.
Career Moves
The Board of Directors at The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) elected Douglas K. Woods as president of AMT.
Dennis Dellinger of Ametek Solidstate Controls has been appointed to the Nuclear Power Engineering Committee by the IEEE Power & Energy Society for his contributions on its subcommittee for Qualifications as well as for his service as a chairman of one of its working groups.
Robert Lowe officially took office as executive director of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) at the 16th annual CSIA Executive Conference, replacing recently retired Norm O’Leary as the new face of CSIA.
PetroAlgae, an emerging renewable energy company, appointed three executives to work closer with the Obama Administration, Congress, non-profit groups, and the business community to help reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels by creating a marketplace for clean, sustainable sources of energy. The three new appointments are Andrew Beck, vice president of public affairs; and Michael Gale and George Lyons, vice presidents of government relations.
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