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Media Contact:
Advantech Corporation, Industrial Automation Group
Chuck Harrell
Phone: (513) 742-8895 x333
Toll free: 1-800-800-6889 x333
Fax: (513) 742-0554
Email: chuck.harrell@Advantech.com
Capstone
Turbine
SUMMARY: Capstone Turbine Corporation is the world's
leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and was the first
to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine
has shipped more than 4,000 Capstone MicroTurbine systems to customers
worldwide. These award-winning systems have logged millions of documented
runtime operating hours.
Control
Systems for Dye House's
SUMMARY: The owners of Adaptive, Mike Lynch and David
Tindale, worked for many years automating plants in the textile dyeing
industry. In the early days, mechanical and pneumatic control was the
order of the day, eventually to be superseded by custom electronics based
on the first available microprocessors in the 1980s.
Car
Wash Automation Systems
SUMMARY: Jan van Kessel wants to wash your car, but don't
expect him to sling suds from a bucket. Instead, he runs Kesseltronics
Systems (A Division of Dover Corporation Canada Limited), a dynamic company
specializing in high quality automation systems for car wash installations
in over 400 car washes in Canada and hundreds more in the U.S., China,
and Europe.
ChronoTrack
Sports System
SUMMARY: The objective is to provide the participatory
sports community with the best disposable Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) system in the world, a system that is not only extremely accurate
but also cost effective and user friendly as well.
Seismology
Research
SUMMARY: D.V. Rogers, a conceptual artist undertaking
a Masters of Fine Art by Research, is exploring seismology theories both
on and off-site at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Automated
Fee Collection
SUMMARY: Miti Manufacturing produces portable decontamination
equipment, the Rino Boot (vehicle immobilizers), and automated fee collection
systems.
Legacy
Building Automation Integration
SUMMARY: S4 Group is a software development and system
integration compnay focused on providing open interfaces to legacy building
automation systems.
Turnkey
Time and Attendance Data Collection Solution
SUMMARY: Keyology is an IT company focused on providing
the Gaming and Hospitality industry with a turnkey Time and Attendance
solution that eases workforce management through the deliver of accurate,
timely information and intuitive, customizable end user features.
In-Store
Listening Stations
SUMMARY: Hot Topic is an American chain store with over
690 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, the majority of which
are located in shopping malls. The store specializes in music and pop-culture
related fashion and merchandise including clothing, books, comics, jewelry,
CDs, records, posters, and other items. They also back major concert events
like Ozzfest, etc.
KEEPING
ROBOTS IN-LINE - SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT
SUMMARY: Robots are becoming more evolved and part of
the daily workplace in many industries. What happens when they get out
of line or need repairs. This story discusses how ABB, a leading supplier
of industrial robots, handles this situation.
SMART
SENSOR AND PROGNOSTICS FOR SELF-MAINTENANCE MACHINES
SUMMARY: Maintenance has never been regarded as the most
appealing aspect of manufacturing, either by industry or academia as it
is often considered a dirty and boring job which interferes with meeting
production demands. Having a machine that monitors the health of the equipment
may be the solution.
MACSEA
- IMPROVING NAVY SHIP REALIABILITY
SUMMARY: Military Sealift Command (MSC), as part of the
U.S. Navy, provides strategic sealift and ocean transportation for U.S.
military forces. Its mission is to provide ocean transportation of equipment,
fuel, supplies, and ammunition to sustain U.S. forces worldwide during
peacetime and in war. MSC operates more than 120 ships worldwide on a
day-to-day basis, all crewed by civilian mariners.
WAREHOUSE
INVENTORY TRACKING SYSTEM FOR SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
SUMMARY: The Social Security Adminstration ships more
than 240,000 line items a year from five different Baltimore warehouses.
The scanning/barcode process needed grave improvements.
AIRPORT
TERMINAL OPERATIONS
SUMMARY: It's important to keep airport terminal operations
up-to-date and running properly. At the George Bush International Airport
in Houston, TX, three areas needed a lot of work. Getting them up and
running properly was a challenge.
PLASTIC
PART INSPECTION
SUMMARY: Today's competitive manufacturing market has
little tolerance for defective parts. Nowhere is this truer than in the
automotive sector where small defective defects can result in expensive
downstream consequences.
KEEP
THEM HOPPING
SUMMARY: Minnesota native Gordon “Gordy”
Vadis has a passion for bugs. His interest dates from his youth when his
father taught him the family minnow business. Knowing how to trap, maintain
and sell a wide variety of live goods became as natural to Gordy as video
games are to kids today.
METAL
INJECTION MOLDING PROCESS - ELIMINATING METAL PARTICLES TO SPEED-UP PRODUCTION
AND DELIVERY
SUMMARY: Metal injection molding is a relatively new
process in part forming technology where several key technologies in material
science, injection molding, and heated ovens all work together in the
same location to produce molded metal parts of various metal properties.
Finished parts are sintered to near full density; do not require machining,
and meet surface finish and dimensional accuracy requirements not easily
obtained with other part forming technologies.
HOW
DO WE KEEP OUR CONTROL SYSTEMS AHEAD OF COMPETITION AND PROVIDE ENOUGH
FLEXIBILITY
SUMMARY: Traditional control systems used by competition
are either proprietary embedded controllers or a “closed”
HMI married with a PLC. Most HMI products force integrators to use their
HMI software, thus limiting their capability. Enhancements and updates
are usually slow to come, making it difficult to keep up with technology.
On the control side, PLC’s have evolved very little over the years.
Support for scripting and larger function libraries help, but developing
advanced & adaptive control algorithms are difficult to impossible
on most PLC platforms.
ENO
RIVER LABS
SUMMARY: Eno River Labs, a small women-owned company
specializing in analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry, was faced
with the task of keeping their Drug Discovery customer’s samples
in a monitored cold environment. Reed Hokanson, Facilities Engineer with
Eno River Labs, discussed their issue with multiple “turn key”
engineering companies. Quotes to install a system to meet their unique
needs were averaging $30,000 to $40,000 dollars. Since Eno River Labs
is a very small company, a less expansive option had to be explored.