Front runner in industrial Ai.

TwinThread has been named a Front Runner in LNS Research’s inaugural 2026 Industrial AI Platforms Solution Selection Matrix (SSM). TwinThread’s positioning in the Front Runners upper right and most favored quadrant recognises the company’s comprehensive product innovation, scalable architecture, and distinct and pragmatic approach to deploying agentic Ai for manufacturing operations.

LNS Research, a premier research and advisory firm for the industrial sector, conducted this evaluation using its rigorous "3P Evaluation Model" to assess candidates’ ability to serve the rapidly evolving industrial Ai market. The evaluation scores suppliers across three critical dimensions:

• Product: Compares candidate capabilities against the LNS Research Industrial AI Functionalities Stack, consisting of key characteristics for industrial advanced analytics, data platforms, and dataOps functionalities.
• Potential: Measures capacity for long-term growth and viability, factoring in scale, market positioning, financial resources, and management strategy.
• Presence: Assesses global market prominence, proven customer success, and the vendor's capability to serve diverse industries and customer sizes.

As a Front Runner, TwinThread was commended for invoking an execution-focused approach that prioritises tangible operational value over generic Ai hype, empowering business users, process engineers, and subject matter experts to collaborate and solve high-impact problems at scale.

TwinThread’s strong positioning in the matrix is driven by its robust and purpose-built industrial Ai capabilities. The company provides a comprehensive edge-to-cloud platform, with prebuilt ISA-88 batch system integration and Model Factories for rapid and repeatable deployment. It maintains a core suite of ready-to-deploy applications for delivering advanced predictive and prescriptive analytics, including the ability to make closed-loop setpoint adjustments.

Furthermore, TwinThread stood out in the selection for its distinct, disciplined approach to agentic Ai. Rather than rushing generic Ai offerings to market, the company employs a three-pronged strategy that combines ML-driven analytics, autonomous orchestrating agents, and an intuitive user interface.

Beyond its core technology, TwinThread is recognised for its exceptional flexibility and scalability. The platform is engineered to accommodate diverse manufacturing environments and varying levels of digital maturity, operating seamlessly at scale across multiple sites, all without requiring heavy customisation. This helps users secure quick wins and progressively expand into full-stack integrations. Additionally, TwinThread's strategic presence within the global industrial ecosystem further underscores its industry expertise and ability to deliver widespread value.

“Being recognized as a Front Runner by LNS Research validates our core mission to amplify human expertise through purpose-built Industrial AI,” says Erik Udstuen, co-founder and CEO at TwinThread. “In a crowded market, our execution-focused strategy stands out because we don't just deliver data models, but instead provide actionable, closed-loop solutions. This positioning reflects the real-world value our platform brings to operations teams striving to maximize uptime, perfect their batch quality, and uncover hidden capacity across their enterprises.”

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@twin_thread @LNSResearch #Ai #PAuto 

Front runner in industrial artificial Intelligence (Ai).

Seeq has been named a Front Runner within the inaugural Industrial AI: Advanced Analytics Solution Selection Matrix (SSM) by LNS Research. The company was recognised as a market leader for its category-leading product innovation, human-centered approach, partner-friendly architecture, and exceptional customer focus.

LNS Research, a leading research and advisory firm for the world's largest industrial companies, evaluated seven key vendors within the rapidly evolving Advanced Analytics providers category of the Industrial AI: Advanced Analytics market. This category includes software applications that offer decision intelligence capabilities, primarily through pre-built out-of-the-box applications. These vendors provide data collection, analysis, machine learning modeling, and visualisation functionalities as part of their application(s), and they support several industrial use case categories.

Seeq received high marks for its comprehensive data connectivity, quality, cleansing, conditioning, and contextualisation tools; support of different analytics levels; enablement of robust machine learning modeling; diversity of use cases supported; and more. The report also highlights Seeq’s focus on championing subject matter experts within end-user organisations, keeping humans central to all decision-making and amplifying their domain expertise with industrial analytics and AI capabilities.*

Seeq’s deep customer understanding and responsiveness was also emphasised. According to LNS Research, “a defining strength of Seeq is its customer-centric product roadmap strategy. In addition to actively listening and collaborating with its user base, many Seeq employees across departments come from industry, enabling Seeq to align its roadmap with identified gaps and industry needs. A key example is the introduction of its AI Assistant and extensive training resources, aimed at addressing the relatively steep learning curve highlighted by customers. Another recent example is the release of the GxP-ready Seeq for Pharma Analytics & AI Suite, developed specifically in response to customer requirements for validated environments.”

LNS Research underscored Seeq’s customer-driven roadmap further, stating: “Seeq’s dedicated focus on meeting the specific needs of process experts has earned it a loyal user base and following—a rarity in industrial software. Engineers incorporating Seeq into their day-to-day work report improved productivity and find it less incentivised to revert to traditional spreadsheet-based analysis. This stickiness has been a strategic asset for the company, with power users effectively serving as its champions and playing a key role in Seeq’s sustained leadership in this category.”

“We are honoured to be recognised by LNS Research for our leadership in the industrial analytics and AI market,” said Dr. Lisa Graham, CEO of Seeq. “This recognition validates the progress we’re making alongside key partners to generate measurable value from industrial analytics and AI for manufacturing organisations around the globe.”

LNS Research used the "3P Evaluation Model" covering vendors' Product, Potential, and Presence to assess their ability to serve the Industrial AI: Advanced Analytics market.

"This accomplishment represents another significant milestone in Seeq’s ongoing leadership in the industrial analytics and AI market. It builds on a series of prestigious honours, including being named a Leader in the 2025 Verdantix Green Quadrant for Industrial AI Analytics, the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Leader for the Global Advanced Industrial Analytics Market, and earning the 2025 IoT Analytics Innovation Award from the IoT Breakthrough Awards. These achievements continue to reinforce Seeq’s reputation for innovation, value, and industry excellence."

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*Download the full report here.

@SeeqCorporation @LNSResearch #IIoT #PAuto  #Ai

Tailored Ai solutions for energy- and resource-intensive industries recognised.

Highlighted for unifying data to accelerate industrial AI at scale, driving measurable performance and sustainability gains

ABB has been named a Leader in the Verdantix Green Quadrant: Industrial AI Analytics Software 2025, a benchmark report that evaluates the capabilities and momentum of the most prominent industrial AI analytics software solutions on the market. The report ranked ABB among the top leaders in the Quadrant.

The Verdantix report, based on rigorous analysis of 19 vendors, highlights ABB’s Genix Industrial IoT and AI Suite for its comprehensive data integration, advanced model development and industry-leading energy management capabilities.

“We are honored to be recognised as a Leader in the Verdantix Green Quadrant report for industrial AI analytics software,” said Rajesh Ramachandran, Global Chief Digital Officer, Process Automation, ABB. “We are committed to empowering our customers across energy- and resource-intensive industries with scalable, AI-driven solutions that deliver operational excellence and measurable improvements in efficiency, reliability and sustainability. Genix is helping industrial operators – from the shop floor to the top floor – unlock the value of their data, accelerate digital transformation and achieve tangible business outcomes with industrial AI.”

Genix is an enterprise grade platform that provides seamless integration and contextualisation of real-time data from operational technology (OT), information technology (IT) and engineering technology (ET) systems. Its semantic contextualisation layer – Industrial DataOps – empowers multi-system analytics, earning ABB a top score in the Verdantix report for data acquisition and integration. As part of its modular industrial AI portfolio, Genix offers Genix AI Express and Genix Copilot, enabling scalable and flexible deployment of AI across industrial operations.

The report also recognises ABB’s strengths in advanced model development capabilities. For model development and training, ABB combines low-code/no-code tools – such as automated machine learning (AutoML) flows, feature stores and reusable templates – with notebook-based workflows and machine learning operations (MLOps) for deployment and monitoring, garnering the company a top score.

ABB’s resource and energy management solutions received the highest score among all analysed vendors, with offerings such as Genix Datalyzer CEMS and Genix Digital Twin Hub delivering measurable sustainability results, such as helping a UK-based construction materials company reduce CO₂ emissions by 8–12 percent at monitored sites.

ABB’s ongoing advancements in agentic automation are also highlighted, noting active pilots and a clear roadmap for deploying autonomous agents across industrial operations. The Genix Agentic Automation framework enables real-time monitoring, contextual interpretation and autonomous action, while ABB’s human-in-the-loop, semi-autonomous approach ensures users remain in control throughout the process.

The report finds ABB’s Genix platform with its pre-build industrial applications particularly well-suited for multi-site manufacturers and heavy process industries such as chemicals, metals, cement, power, water, and oil & gas – seeking to scale predictive maintenance, optimise energy use, and unify data governance.

“ABB Ability Genix Industrial IoT and AI Suite unifies data and accelerates industrial AI at scale,” said Henry Kirkman, Industry Analyst at Verdantix. “Teams with clear data governance standards and an appetite to operationalisse AI can use ABB Ability Genix to scale from site-level to enterprise-scale models, with measurable performance and sustainability outcomes.”

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@Verdantix  @ABBgroupnews @abb_automation @admiralpr #PAuto #Ai

Leadership in Ai recognised.

Strengths recognised in data contextualization, process optimization, machine learning development, and overall innovation.

Seeq has been named a Leader within the inaugural Verdantix “Green Quadrant for Industrial AI Analytics 2025.*” The recognition highlights Seeq’s commitment to innovation and excellence in providing a comprehensive, integrated product suite that advances modern manufacturing.

“We are honored to be recognised by Verdantix for our leadership in the Industrial AI Analytics market,” said Dr. Lisa Graham, CEO of Seeq. “This recognition reflects the dedication of our team and the trust our customers place in us. By providing streamlined access to reliable enterprise data, Seeq makes it easier for subject matter experts to quickly generate measurable value from industrial AI and analytics. The impact of these solutions will continue to impact and advance the manufacturing space for years to come, transforming industries and unlocking unprecedented value.”

Verdantix, an independent research and advisory firm, evaluated nineteen key vendors within the rapidly evolving Industrial AI Analytics market. The analysis utilises Verdantix’s proprietary methodology, which includes live briefings and product demonstrations, a detailed questionnaire, insights from interviews with vendor customers, and secondary research.

Seeq earned high marks for its data processing and transformation, model development, user interface, and process and production optimisation capabilities. The report also highlights Seeq’s strong fit for life sciences manufacturers with the launch of the Seeq for Pharma Analytics & AI Suite, a dedicated version of the Seeq platform purpose-built to support GMP-compliant applications.

"Seeq provides data-first analytics that flow naturally into predictive maintenance and process gains,” said Henry Kirkman, Industry Analyst at Verdantix. “Seeq excels at turning messy operational technology and IT data into usable context without copying it. It garnered the top score of 3.0/3.0 for indirect data acquisition in this Green Quadrant. Over 50 high-performance connectors query systems of record in place, avoiding migration projects and speeding time to value.”

In addition to Seeq’s robust product portfolio capabilities, the report also emphasises Seeq’s momentum, receiving higher than average scores in the market vision and business strategy, product strategy, and customers categories, reinforcing its solid market position and focus on innovation.

This accomplishment may be said to represent another significant milestone in Seeq’s ongoing leadership in the Industrial AI Analytics market.

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* Green Quadrant: Industrial AI Analytics Software (2025).

@SeeqCorporation  @Verdantix  #PAuto #Ai

Leadership in Industrial IoT recognised.

Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow*

ABB has been recognised as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Global Industrial IoT Platforms. ABB views the recognition as a reflection of the company’s continued commitment to delivering innovative industrial AI and IoT solutions that empower industries to operate leaner and cleaner.

“Being recognised by Gartner® four consecutive times and now positioned as a Leader is a proud moment for ABB and we see it is a testament to our focus on innovation and delivering data-driven business outcomes for customers,” said Rajesh Ramachandran, Global Chief Digital Officer, Process Automation, ABB. “We believe this recognition highlights not only our robust strategy on Industrial IoT, but also our proven capability to deliver on it. We are providing scalable, AI-powered solutions that help customers address real operational challenges and outperform, while future-proofing their journey towards autonomous operations.”

The Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ provides a graphical competitive positioning of four types of technology providers, in markets where growth is high and provider differentiation is distinct: Leaders, Visionaries, Niche Players and Challengers. Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.*

ABB Genix Industrial IoT and AI Suite is an enterprise grade platform that provides seamless integration and contextualisation of real-time data from operational technology (OT), information technology (IT) and engineering technology (ET) systems. It enables advanced analytics and AI-driven decisions, empowering industrial customers to transition to intelligent operations through smart manufacturing.

Genix helps industries by offering comprehensive capabilities such as data integration, application enablement and management, applied AI, security, and implementation ease and scalability. It also supports key use cases including industrial automation, predictive maintenance, digital twins, industrial data management and sustainability.

Genix features a modular architecture, enterprise system integration, industry specific models and flexible deployment options across cloud, edge and hybrid environments. The platform’s Industrial DataOps layer enables contextual data management and self-service analytics. Its application management provides tools for developing and handling both native and third-party applications via APIs – standardised interfaces that allow different software systems to exchange data seamlessly.

With pre‑built applications for asset performance, sustainability, digital twins and autonomous operations, Genix helps industries from energy to manufacturing and maritime to accelerate time‑to‑value and achieve operational excellence.

Advanced capabilities such as Genix Copilot and Metrics Hub, unlock the power of GenAI with real-time actionable insights across the field and shop floor engineers, functional specialists, and industry executives, driving collaborative decision-making and boosting productivity.

The group has developed a strong partner ecosystem for Genix, including strategic collaborations with Microsoft and RedHat, which help expand market reach and deliver greater value to customers.

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*Gartner Methodologies, Gartner Magic Quadrant.

@Gartner_inc @ABBgroupnews @abb_automation @NapierPR #PAuto #IIoT #Ai

Among best in sustainable growth.

Vaisala has been recognized in the 2025 edition of TIME's "World’s Best Companies* – Sustainable Growth" study. The study, conducted by TIME Magazine in collaboration with Statista, globally identifies companies that have shown outstanding performance in sustainable growth. This high global ranking underscores Vaisala’s dedication to being both profitable and good for the planet. Vaisala has been ranked 38th   in the study.

“As the climate is in an alarming state, it is our responsibility towards our stakeholders – owners, customers, colleagues, and the planet alike – to be a growing tech leader enabling climate action. For us, caring for the climate and driving sustainable growth go hand in hand, and it is a true honor to be recognized by TIME for precisely this combination," says Vaisala’s President and CEO Kai Öistämö (right).

The analyst team at TIME and Statista commented on Vaisala’s performance:

“With solid growth and very high marks in our financial stability metrics, Vaisala was high up in our rankings even before we included environmental data. However, driven by near-total green energy use, Vaisala received among the highest scores of any company in our ranking among our three measures of Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions absolute amount, carbon intensity, and carbon intensity compared to others in the industry.”

“Overall, Vaisala not only placed first in sustainability (as well as overall score) among the Finnish companies we evaluated, but also among the top 3% of companies in its sustainability score – an impressive accomplishment, especially for a manufacturing company.” the analysts concluded.

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* The methodology for the study is based on three key dimensions: revenue growth, financial stability, and environmental impact. Companies were evaluated on their revenue growth from 2021 to 2023, financial health using metrics like long-term profitability, the Piotroski F-Score and Altman Z-Score, and key performance indicators in environmental impact, including carbon emissions (scopes 1, 2, and 3), energy and water usage, and waste management. 

@VaisalaGroup @TIME @_Enviro_News #PAuto #Sustainability

Recognition for sustainability.

OMRON Corporation has been listed within the top 97% among peer sector companies on the globally recognized Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World)¹, an SRI (socially responsible investment)² stock price index. This is the seventh consecutive year that OMRON was rated highly across Environmental, Social, and Governance & Economic dimensions. Of the 3,555 internationally renowned corporations that were evaluated in 2023, 321 (of which 38 are Japanese) were selected for the DJSI World. OMRON was also listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index (DJSI Asia Pacific) for the 14th ensuing year.

In 2023, OMRON performed equal or better than 97% of the 73 companies within the ITC Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components industry group (as of December 9.) In the Environmental Dimension, we received top scores in the categories of emissions management, resource efficiency & circularity, waste management, and water consumption. The company received top scores on transparency & reporting, and tax strategy in the Governance & Economic Dimension. This makes their scores in these categories equal or better than 100% of peer sector companies. Within the Social Dimension, Omron was recognized for the improvements on talent attraction & retention, signaling improved employee wellbeing and privacy protection.

Ensuring the integration of the long-term material sustainability issues (materiality) identified in their long-term vision, Shaping the Future 2030 (SF2030), into the business operations allowed the company to receive this honorable recognition. Practicing the OMRON Principles in every part of the organization, namely improving lives and contributing to a better society, has also contributed strongly to these ESG efforts being recognized.

Yue Liu, Senior General Manager of Sustainability Office at OMRON Corporation: “As OMRON, we have been putting people and the planet at the core of our business since 1933, our founding year. I am proud to see that our efforts to innovate for a sustainable future are recognized by one of the most renowned corporate sustainability assessment indices. The consecutive recognition encourages us to continue our progress communication about our ESG goals and initiatives, and to involve our employees, customers and business partners in the journey towards the sustainable future we envision.”

Omron was also awarded the Top 5% S&P Global ESG Score as ranked by S&P Global in the Sustainability Yearbook 2023, a top distinction in the Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components industry.

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¹The DJSI is a stock price index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It is used to assess the sustainability of the world’s major companies from environmental, social and governance & economic dimensions.
²Sustainable investment is a method by which investors consider a company's environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) information, in addition to conventional financial analysis, in order to choose companies that can attain sustainable growth to invest in.

@OmronEurope @OmronComponents @SPDJIndices @napierPR #PAuto 

Innovators' meeting.

Patent approvals reach new record

Drs Andreas Mayr and Christine Koslowski

Since 2000 Endress+Hauser has invited all employees involved in patent filings to the annual Innovators’ Meeting. No in-person events were held in the past two years because of the coronavirus pandemic. The company thus used this year as an opportunity to celebrate the event’s 20th anniversary. 360 innovators were invited to attend the two-day session at Europa-Park in Rust, Germany to be creative and celebrate with one another.

Patent figures at a high level.
“Innovation continues to be a driver of our success and our innovation rate is high. The numbers nevertheless show us that the innovation process is suffering from a lack of personal interaction,” says Dr Andreas Mayr, Chief Operating Officer at the Endress+Hauser Group. With 258 initial filings, Endress+Hauser is slightly under the prior year’s figure of 276. “Many ideas arise through coincidental encounters and the sharing of information. Together we are simply more creative and innovative.”

One reason to celebrate is the new record of 764 worldwide patent approvals. Since many innovations in multiple countries are filed as patents, this figure is regularly above the number of internal patent submissions. The intellectual property rights portfolio, which protects the Endress+Hauser products, solutions and services from imitators, now comprises a total of 8,600 patents and patent filings.

Endress+Hauser places a high value on research and development. In 2021, the Group invested more than 210 million euros in R&D, which equates to 7.4 percent of sales. “This ensures that our pipeline continues to be filled with new products. We will introduce more than 30 new products to the market this year as well,” says Andreas Mayr.

Focus on personal encounters.
“This year’s Innovators’ Meeting is designed to offer a platform to take advantage of the potential of personal encounters,” says Dr Christine Koslowski, Director of Intellectual Property Rights at Endress+Hauser. “We expanded the program to two days and brought our innovators together from various Endress+Hauser companies to work on new ideas. Three of these concepts were awarded a financial and time budget to develop them further.”

The afternoon of the second day was reserved for a celebration ceremony and other awards presentations. The Innovators’ Meeting honoured Endress+Hauser employees for economically significant and especially creative innovations. Awards are also handed out for process improvements or the reuse of existing solutions. More than 100 employees were recognized.

@Endress_Hauser @Endress_UK @Endress_us #PAuto

2022 Fellow!

Awarded for for contributions to integrated signal-power isolation and integrated magnetics.

Analog Devices’ Technology Fellow Dr. Baoxing Chen has been named a 2022 IEEE Fellow for his contributions to integrated signal-power isolation and integrated magnetics. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of IEEE membership and is recognised by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership.

Dr. Baoxing Chen

“I am incredibly humbled and honoured to be named an IEEE Fellow,” said Dr. Chen. “This is a testament to Analog Devices’ leadership in digital isolation technology, which is only made possible through decades of dedication from our isolation team. I am extremely fortunate to work in such a collaborative environment where innovation is nurtured and valued.”

Dr. Chen, who joined Analog Devices in 1997, was named an ADI Fellow in 2010. As the chief technologist for the Isolation Group, he pioneered iCoupler® and isoPower® digital isolation technology from inception through today’s innovations, enabling over 4.4 billion isolation channels shipped. He also heads chip scale thermoelectric harvester developments at ADI. Dr. Chen has published more than 40 papers and holds 52 US patents. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor in Northeastern University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and also serves as associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Dr. Chen holds a Ph.D. in Physics and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan as well as a B. S. in Physics from Nanjing University in China.

The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 plus members in 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics.

@ADI_News @IEEEorg #Engineering 

Automation group tops in sustainability.

Endress+Hauser has achieved 76 out of 100 points in the international EcoVadis sustainability rating, four more than in the previous year. The Group achieved a ranking in the top group for the fifth year in a row in 2021 and is now among the top one percent of the companies compared.

Endress+Hauser achieved further improvements in the areas of environment and sustainable procurement. In terms of ethics, labor and human rights, the Group was able to maintain its very good position in the benchmark comparison. As a result, Endress+Hauser entered the top group in terms of results and now achieves a platinum medal after the gold standard – the highest performance level of the EcoVadis audit.

Matthias Altendorf

Sustainable corporate culture
The idea of sustainability is deeply rooted at Endress+Hauser. “Comprehensive responsibility is a core value of our corporate culture. As a family business, we want to combine economic success with ecological and social progress,” emphasized CEO Matthias Altendorf. Since 2014, therefore, Endress+Hauser has been producing a sustainability report together with its annual report, which relates ecological, social and economic factors.

Luc Schultheiss

The annual EcoVadis audit serves as a key strategic indicator for the sustainability of Endress+Hauser’s development. The goal is continuous improvement in this area as well. “We support our customers in producing sustainably. That’s why we also want to be a leader in terms of the sustainability of our business and production processes,” said CFO Dr Luc Schultheiss.

Continuous improvement
Endress+Hauser’s products, solutions and services help customers in the process industry to use resources efficiently, reduce pollutant emissions, avoid waste and protect the environment. But the company is also continuously improving its own ecological footprint. For example, Endress+Hauser increasingly supplies buildings and infrastructure with sustainably generated energy, and video conferencing reduces travel.

EcoVadis uses 21 criteria from the environmental, social and ethical fields to evaluate companies worldwide in terms of their sustainability. In addition to a sector comparison, companies receive suggestions for improvement. They can also rate their own suppliers accordingly on an internet platform. To date, around 75,000 companies worldwide have been certified by EcoVadis.

@Endress_Hauser @Endress_US @Endress_UK @Endress_CA #PAuto @ecovadis 

Accuracy in face recognition.

OMRON Electronic Components Europe has announced a new OKAO Vision face recognition package, offering highly accurate deep-learning face recognition. Developers are able to deploy OKAO Vision flexibly on their own choice of embedded hardware platform.

Gabriele Fulco, European Product Marketing Manager Sensors at OMRON Electronic Components Europe added, “In addition to boosting recognition accuracy with deep learning, we are making OKAO Vision available as a set of software libraries ready to integrate with Linux, Windows®, and iOS operating systems. This lets users leverage the extensive functionalities of OMRON’s machine-vision package in their own embedded systems running on custom hardware. Off-the-shelf libraries are already available for various platforms.”

The new deep learning libraries of OKAO Vision Face Recognition V9.0 address applications that require a high degree of confidence under various conditions including poor lighting and when the face is at various angles relative to the detector. These include security and access control, time and attendance monitoring, login/wakeup systems, and camera autofocus/auto-exposure control. An important potential application is monitoring the attendance at face-face and online meetings, facilitating contact tracing and verifying actual attendance. Automotive applications include driver recognition to manage features such as seat adjustment.

The new face-recognition libraries achieve excellent evaluation results with various skin tones and face sizes, with extremely low error rate down to image size as small as 40 pixels. Benchmark testing with Intel and Arm processors has demonstrated that OKAO Vision Face Recognition V9.0 maintains exceptionally fast recognition times despite the enhanced accuracy, ensuring that users in access control applications for example will be barely conscious of the need to wait for validation of their identity.

The complete OKAO Vision Face Recognition V9.0 package contains modular libraries that provide a variety of sensing capabilities including expression estimation, age and gender estimation, and photographic image beautification including red-eye reduction, facial shaping, eye enlargement, and blemish removal. Users can combine various modules’ functionalities to add value to their applications

OMRON’s OKAO Vision is market proven, with over 1.5 billion licenses shipped to date. The legacy OKAO Vision Face Recognition V7.0 and V8.0 packages, which leverage traditional face-recognition techniques and are embedded in the OMRON HVC camera module, remain available for applications that need even faster response times.

@OmronEurope @NeeshamPR #PAuto #Security #Embedded

Industry leader recognition.

Delta has just been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) 2019 assessment as the industry leader within the Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components sector for the fourth time.

With the global challenge of climate change and strong competition among peers, Delta has now been included in the DJSI World Index for the 9th consecutive year and in the DJSI Emerging Markets Index for the 7th consecutive year. The 2019 DJSI survey not only underscores Delta's continuous dedication towards climate change action and superior performance in economic and social dimensions, but also rewards the Company with the highest score in 8 criteria, outperforming the previous years. The DJSI assessment recognizes Delta’s efforts in the three dimensions of ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance). With its focus on climate change action, in 2018, Delta reduced its carbon intensity by 16.8% in efforts to achieve the Science Based Target (SBT) set in 2017 of reducing its carbon intensity 56.6% by 2025.

Mr. Jesse Chou, Delta's chief sustainability officer, highlighted, "Our long-term commitment is to realize Delta's corporate mission, 'To provide innovative, clean and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow', by leveraging our core competence in high-efficiency power electronics, developing comprehensive energy-saving solutions capable of lowering mankind's carbon footprint, implementing carbon reduction, and fully disclosing our goals and progress in ESG. Delta achieved its scheduled milestone of 16.8% science-based carbon reduction in the first year. In 2019 our cooperation with the Delta Electronics Foundation in the promotion of environmental education and green buildings and transportation concepts helped us achieve full credits in “Innovation Management”, “Environmental Reporting”, and "Social Reporting”. Delta also led the electronics industry in 5 major criteria for the 2019 DJSI corporate sustainability assessment: “Materiality”, “Risk and Crisis Management”, “Codes of Business Conduct”, “Product Stewardship”, and “Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy”. Delta’s dedication to innovative development, enhancing eco-efficiency, increasing its percentage of renewable energy, and balancing the development on ESG, have supported us in achieving this year's industry leadership position."

Delta has focused on climate change issues and passed the review by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2017, while proposing the goal of reducing the carbon intensity by 56.6% by 2025 with 2014 as the base year. Delta became the first enterprise in Taiwan and the 87th in the world to pass the SBTi review. Through internal efforts to implement 1,846 energy-saving solutions at its plants in 2018, Delta increased its global use of renewable energy ratio to 22%. With the purchase of International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs), Delta’s carbon intensity was decreased by 16.8% in 2018, surpassing the original SBT of carbon reduction by 16.5% for 2018.

To accelerate the transformation to low-carbon transportation in response to the UN's goal of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C, in 2018 Delta took the lead in joining the EV100 initiative for international electric vehicles, and is the first member globally that provides energy infrastructure for electric vehicles. Delta has also introduced the climate-related financial disclosure protocol as a supporter of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and continues to be proactive in implementing mitigation and adaptation work in response to climate change.

Delta has recently issued its 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Delta's high energy-efficient products have helped its clients save 28.1 billion kWh of electricity from 2010 to 2018, reducing 15.06 million tons of carbon emissions. From 2011 to 2018, a total of 1,846 energy-saving solutions were implemented at its major plants, saving 230 million kWh of electricity and reducing about 186,000 tons of carbon emissions. As for energy conservation through green buildings, the 15 certified factories and 5 academic buildings that Delta has sponsored to build have saved 17.83 million kWh of electricity and reduced about 11,200 tons of carbon emissions. Delta is dedicated to fulfilling it corporate mission "To provide innovative, clean and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow" and is committed to making greater achievements in energy conservation and carbon reduction.

#PAuto @DeltaEMEA @SPDJIndices 

Control & Automation Hall of Fame induction.

Earlier this month (May 2019) during the Measurement, Control and Automation Association’s Industry Forum in Tucson, (AZ US), the distinguished achievement award of membership of the MCA Hall of Fame was presented to Ken Hoffer, Chief Executive Officer of Hoffer Flow Controls, Inc.

Ken Hoffer, is the 8th inductee into
the MCCA Hall of Fame. He joins
Gordon Arnold (Sierra Monitor),
Wade Mattar (Schneider Electric),
Richard Morley (Father of the PLC, RIP),
Robert Deane (Fluid Components Int)
Malcolm McQueen (Fluid Components Int),
Judy Stevenson (Magnetrol Int, RIP),
Dr. Peter G. Martin (Schneider Electric).

Founded in 1969, Mr. Hoffer’s  flow meter company, Hoffer Flow Controls, is an innovative leader in solving critical and demanding flow applications. In the early years, Hoffer Flow Controls specialized in cryogenic flow measurement systems and pioneered the use of the turbine flowmeter in cryogenics. Today the company manufactures high precision turbine flowmeters, not only for the cryogenic industry but is a world leader in turbine flowmeter technology for the measurement of clean liquids and gases throughout the processing industries.

Mr. Hoffer’s technical achievements include the pioneered use of self-lubricated ball bearings in turbine flowmeters. He developed the first HART-enabled device to receive official certification by the HART Foundation and also created the first portable field calibration system for cryogenic flowmeters. Mr. Hoffer also developed the first and only turbine flowmeter to receive certification by the United States Navy for use in nuclear propulsion service as well as to pass shock and vibration certification for unrestricted naval shipboard applications.

Mr. Hoffer has received many honors and awards over the years including North Carolina’s Small Business Exporter of the Year, Schlumberger GOLD Level Supplier, and was awarded the Distinguished Supplier Award by the United States Navy for maintained ballast flow control/flow measurement onboard the USS Cole following its bombing in October, 2000 which was critical to the ship's survival.

@THEMCAAorg  #PAuto #HofferFlow

Influential data economy leader!

Angelo Corsaro, Ph.D., AdLink Technology’s chief technology officer, has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential data economy leaders in the data center, cloud and data sector. Dr. Corsaro was named to Data Economy’s Power 200 for attributes including innovative thinking, business acumen and entrepreneurial skill set.

Angelo Corsaro

The Power 200 is a biannual global list showcasing the top 200 personalities around the world who have proven to be the most influential leaders in today’s data economy.

“I’m very honored to be recognized for my work in fog, edge and IoT areas and to be named among the global leaders of the new data economy,” said Dr. Corsaro. “Fog and Edge Computing will be at the foundation of the next wave of IoT and 5G, bringing better performance, scalability, and allowing data to be processed there were it is produced, greatly improving security and confidentiality. I am extremely glad to be part of some of the key people making this wave of innovation.”

As AdLink CTO, Dr. Corsaro leads the company’s Advanced Technology Office and serves a leading role in the corporate technology and digital transformation strategy. He is a world’s leading expert in Edge/Fog Computing and a well-known researcher in the area of high performance and large-scale distributed systems. Among his many recognitions, Dr. Corsaro was previously named by Data Economy as one of the Top 50 Edge Computing leaders on the publication’s list.

@ADLINK_Tech  @dataeconomy #PAuto 

Leader in IC for digital imaging recognised.

Dr. Katsu Nakamura of Analog Devices has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognized as a leader in the development of integrated circuits for digital imaging.

Katsu Nakamura

IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of IEEE membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership.

Dr. Nakamura’s career at Analog Devices spans nearly 25 years. In 1994, he joined Analog Devices as a senior staff design engineer in the High-Speed Converter Group developing ADI’s early technologies in CMOS data converters for embedded applications. Dr. Nakamura subsequently led ADI’s technology development for digital imaging until 2011 when he assumed the role of product line director for ADI’s Consumer Product Group. Since 2018, Dr. Nakamura has been leading the technology strategy for ADI’s Healthcare and Consumer Business Unit. In 2005, he was named an ADI Fellow for his contributions that drove ADI’s technical and commercial breakthroughs in the consumer imaging market.

Dr. Nakamura was a co-recipient of the SRC Inventor’s Recognition Award in 1992 and holds more than 20 US patents with several patents pending. He was selected as a finalist of the 2006 EE Times ACE Innovator of the Year Award. Dr. Nakamura holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

@ADI_News #Recognition @IEEEorg

Recognised as global sustainability benchmark.

Delta has been recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI)* 2018 assessment as the industry leader within the Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components sector for a third time, following previous successes in 2015 and 2012. Delta has now been included in the DJSI World Index for the 8th consecutive year and in the DJSI Emerging Markets Index for the 6th consecutive year. The 2018 DJSI survey, not only underscores Delta's continuous dedication towards climate change action and superior performance in economic and social dimensions, but also rewards the Company with the highest score in 6 criteria.

Mr. Ping Cheng, Delta's chief executive officer, highlighted, "Our long-term commitment is to realize Delta's corporate mission, 'To provide innovative, clean and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow', by leveraging our core competence in high-efficiency power electronics and by developing comprehensive energy-saving solutions capable of lowering mankind's carbon footprint. These aforementioned endeavors have helped us lead the electronics industry in 5 major criteria of the 2018 DJSI corporate sustainability assessment: “Codes of Business Conduct”, “Innovation Management”, “Product Stewardship”, “Social Reporting’, “Labor Practice Indicators”. And our cooperation with the Delta Electronics Foundation for the promotion of environmental education and green buildings has supported us lead in the “Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy” criteria. Furthermore, our proactive effort on climate policy and industrial automation talent cultivation was the main catalyst for improving the “Policy Influence” score and to achieve this year's industry leadership position.

Delta's 2017 CSR Report, which has been published this past week, elaborates on its unparalleled sustainability performance. Over the past 8 years, Delta's high-efficiency products and solutions have enabled electricity savings of up to 24.3 billion kWh for our customers, which translate into a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 12.96 million tons approximately. Moreover, our 18 certified green buildings saved more than 14.9 million kWh of electricity in 2017 alone.  

* The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices were launched in 1999 as the first global sustainability benchmarks. The indices are offered cooperatively by RobecoSAM and S&P Dow Jones Indices. Each year, they invite the world's 2,500 largest companies, classified as 60 RobecoSAM industries to report on their sustainability performance. The results of the Corporate Sustainability Assessment provide an in-depth analysis of economic, environmental and social criteria. The indexes serve as benchmarks for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios, and provide an effective engagement platform for companies that want to adopt sustainable best practices.

 #Deltawww, #Pauto #DJSI

Top edge computing influencer named.

Angelo Corsaro, Ph.D., ADLINK Technology’s chief technology officer, has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential leaders in Edge Computing by Data Economy Magazine. The magazine described Dr. Corsaro as “an expert in high-performance and large-scale distributed systems crucial to the edge.”

Dr Angelo Corsaro

Dr. Corsaro earned recognition as one of the Top 5 Edge Computing leaders on the publication’s list, “EDGE 50: The World’s First Top 50 Edge Computing Influencers.” The EDGE 50 designation names “the personalities who are leading edge computing through charting new innovations or technological breakthroughs, sheer investment or business acumen, or exceptional entrepreneurial skillsets.”

“It is an honor to be recognized for my efforts in Edge Computing and to be considered among the leaders and influencers in this important area,” said Dr. Corsaro. “Edge Computing is continuing to gain acceptance and grow in momentum; we are working with passion and dedication to make it happen!”

Well-known and respected in the industry, Dr. Corsaro has close to one hundred referred journal, conference and magazine publications and is consistently cited in top academic and technology publications. He also regularly provides keynote addresses and presentations at conferences and workshops worldwide in areas relating to Fog Computing, Edge Computing, IoT and extremely large-scale distributed systems. As the company’s CTO, Dr. Corsaro leads the Advanced Technology Office and plays a pivotal role in the corporate technology strategy and innovation activities.

@ADLINK_Tech  #PAuto @dataeconomy

Wireless standard speeds along!

The 2017 ON World Report on Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) found ISA100 Wireless to be the fastest growing Industrial Wireless mesh standard, with adoption increasing at 2.5X the pace of its leading competitor.

ISA100 Wireless adoption increased 67% over the past two years. Key factors driving ISA100 Wireless over its competition include flexible time scheduling, software tunneling and support for star and mesh topologies; features which are especially important for growing wireless applications such as gas detection, steam trap monitoring as well as oil and gas wellsite remote monitoring.

This ON World report is the result of a survey of 183 industrial automation professionals. The majority of the responses were completed in November 2016.

Supplementing this survey, ON World conducted dozens of phone interviews with individuals representing leading industrial automation vendors, suppliers, industry groups and end users.

The survey consisted of 36 questions that had up to 11 multiple choice items as well as several open ended questions.

Respondents are voluntary and received a free report for their participation as well as the survey results for their participation.

“The On World report confirms the vigorous adoption rate that we have been experiencing over the last few years,” said Andre Ristaino, Managing Director, ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute(WCI). “We’ve been aware of the growth anecdotally, but we haven’t had objective data to prove it until the On World report was published. The ISA100 Wireless product portfolio has expanded rapidly in the last two years, helping drive end user adoption. New products include the industry’s first-ever full loop SIL-2 certified gas sensing application (there are now three SIL-2 rated ISA100 Wireless products)."

WCI is also seeing new applications of ISA100 Wireless technology outside of traditional process industries. Extreme examples include remote wireless crane operator controls for ship loading and onboard controls for communication satellites. The newest ISA100 Wireless product trend is headed towards miniaturized and low-cost devices (originally dubbed ‘lick and stick’ in 2007 during the ISA100.11a committee process).

 #OnWorld @ISA100WCI #PAuto

Recognising Irish automation expertise and service!

The 34th annual Honours and Awards Ceremony of the Ireland Section of the International Society of Instrumentation (ISA) was held last month (Dec 2015). This event is held to acknowledge recognise and encourage excellence for those training or working in the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation sector.

LtoR-Front; Lord Mayor Cork  Chris O’Leary, John Power, Alan Bateman, President ISA Ireland
Back: Colin Levis, Aoife Monahan, Grzegorz Perka, Niall Cahalane,(H&A Chair), 
Rodger Condon & Liam O'Brien.

There were seven awards presented, four of which were submitted by Third Level institutions and three industry awards.

The event was held in the elegant and historic Common Room of University College Cork by kind permission.

The Awards
• Craft Person Award
The Craft Person Award is awarded, on the nomination of Cork Training Centers and/or Carlow Institute of Technology, to the best final year instrumentation Apprentice for notable academic and practical achievements in instrumentation.

Rodger Condon

This year Mr. Rodger Condon of Cork Training Centre was the recipient and was nominated by Mr. Pat Mc Carthy & Jim Doyle, Cork Educational and Training Board.
"Rodger is completing his apprenticeship as an Electrical Instrumentation craftsperson and took his studies very seriously. He has achieved practically all credits in every subject for phase 2,4, and 6. He took advise easily and is attending college by night to complete a degree in Applied Physics and Instrumentation.
Rodger has also completed other in-house and external courses. He is currently serving his apprenticeship with Dornan Engineering on several of their projects around Cork while studying by night."

• Degree Award
Ms. Aoife Monahan was the recipient of the Degree Award which is awarded, on any nomination, to the best final year Degree student specialising in any area of Automation Instrumentation or Control. She was Nominated by: Mr. Gareth Roe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT).

Aoife Monahan

"Aoife Monahan has been an outstanding student on the degree course in Physics & Instrumentation at GMIT. This is evidenced by her results from 1st year and 2nd year where she achieved overall results of 85.5% (GPA) and 90.2% (GPA) respectively and is further supported by her 3rd year degree results. In 3rd year Aoife’s overall average was 80% with all her individual module results, bar one at 69%!, being at distinction level or well above and this in subjects ranging from Computerized Instrument Systems (79%) to Robotics & Automation(80%) to Physics (77%). She displays a natural aptitude and enthusiasm combined with a determined persistence in her studies of both the theoretical and practical aspects of instrumentation and applied physics. Through her coursework and experience to date Aoife has a proven impressive ability in both the theory and then the practical implementation of instrument systems .
Aoife has also demonstrated a distinct ability for both individual project work and collaborative work as part of a team.
In her 2nd year individual project she took on the challenging task of building a working transmittance heart rate monitoring system. This involved constructing the sensor system and associated signal conditioning, interfacing the processed signal to a PC and then developing and using a LabViewTM program to interpret and display the incoming signal in terms of heart rate. The end result was a system that was not only fully functioning but was also delivered with significant attention to detail."

• Honour’s Degree Award
The Honour’s Degree Award was achieved by Mr Colin Levis on the nomination of Mr. Gerard Geaney of the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at Cork Institute of Technology.

Colin Levis

"Colin displayed the ability to analyse and develop a process. The process consisted of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator simulating a wind turbine. The model emulated modern wind turbines used to reduce losses and provide a more efficient system. This model incorporated automation consisting of hardware such as Siemens S7-1200 PLC, Analog Input module, Analog output signal board, Siemens Sentron PAC 4200 energy meter, Allen Bradley Power flex 4M VFD, LEM current transducers, Kubler incremental encoder, Voltage rectifiers, 1 kW PMSG and a 2 kW induction motor. In order to obtain data and determine the capabilities of the PMSG the following software is used Simatic Step 7 V12, Kepware, Simulink/Matlab, Wonderware ArchestrA, MS Excel and MS Access.
To control the speed of the motor a PI controller was designed using the Root Locus method. The controller designed has a conservative response to eliminate any system overshoot and have a stable response. This entailed deriving a transfer function for the motor within Simulink and Matlab from real time data. The designed controller and actual response were verified to show an accurate model was created. To visually display the results and effects of operating conditions by the use of SCADA software developed by Wonderware."

• Innovation Project Award
Recognising a project which has made a significant contribution to the advancement of industry in Ireland through the use of Automation Technology is the purpose of the Innovation Project Award.
The recipients were Mr Grzegorz Perka and Mr Adam Sikorzynski of Vistakon in Limerick on the nomination of  Mr. Declan Fagan also of Vistakon.

Grzegorz Perka

"Their contribution recognised that extracting data from a complex process with no measurement systems built in was very difficult until they developed their replica pallet.
Using a very clever solution Grzegorz and Adam designed a process monitoring system built into a replica process pallet that could be used to navigate through the production line collecting information throughout its movement path. The replica process pallet used the same physical dimensions as a typical pallet however it had a purpose built PC board designed into the pallet to monitor and store process critical data.
Grzegorz then developed custom software to upload the data from the process pallet which could then be analysed offline to make critical process improvement changes.
The outcome from the project was a self-contained intelligent module which had the ability to Collect 10 measures per second (temperature and 3 axis acceleration)
Measure acceleration 50 times per 100ms and store max value
Time stamp for each record.
Can show real-time data on the PC screen
This was truly a revolutionary step in that it was now possible the monitor and measure data in real time throughout the entire process which was previously impossible. Information such as forces applied to the product as well as temperature monitoring is extremely useful in processes."

• Automation Champion Award
Mr. Liam O’Brien was awarded the Automation Champion Award "in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of instrumentation, automation, IT or industrial system and / or technology in Ireland." He was nominated by Mr. Dermot O’Callaghan of Enterprise System Partners (ESP).

Liam O'Brien

"Liam has more than 25 years experience managing IT/Automation companies supplying solutions to the life science sector. Over his career, the automation industry has benefited from his technical insights and execution & management of solutions, coupled with an unrivalled entrepreneurial flair to grow two world-class service companies in this field.
In 1994, Liam co-founded and managed ProsCon (now a Rockwell owned company), as the original automation integration company supporting life sciences in Ireland. Under his leadership, the company grew from zero to over 200 resources within a 5 year timeframe with an annual turnover greater than 15M euro per annum. He oversaw the development of a management team, project management team, quality system, infrastructure and premises including system build facility to provide full turnkey solutions for PLC/SCADA and DCS systems. The customer base included all the major pharmaceutical manufacturers primarily in Ireland, but also had begun development in the UK and Singapore. Today, the business has a global reach as a Rockwell automation company.
In 2003, Liam co-founded ESP and continues to act as Managing Director today. Liam identified the trend towards MES in the early 2000s and was involved in managing the first EBR implementation for Pfizer worldwide. During this project, ESP was born. Under his guidance, the company has grown to be one of largest system integrator of MES in the life science industry worldwide, headquartered in Cork Ireland, with active projects throughout Europe, North America and Asia.

In addition, Liam has and continues to provide consulting support for some of the companies global clients including Pfizer, Genzyme (Sanofi) and AstraZeneca. Liam provides a unique blend of technical and commercial skills to support such clients in visualisation, planning and commercial management of global system programs for these corporations requiring roll-out of multi-site manufacturing systems and their integration with the automation layer."

• Pioneer Award
This award recognises a lifetime devoted to Instrumentation/Automation in Ireland.
This year Mr John Power, of the Power Group and fourth President of the Section (1981-1983) was nominated by Senior Members Mr Bob Shine and Mr Billy Walsh.

John Power

"John Power is founder and President of “The Power Group” and was one of the early presidents of ISA Ireland in the 1981 and 82. A native of Old Parish in County Waterford, John has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the control and automation sector going back longer than he would care to mention.
Having gained significant expertise and knowledge in Electrical Engineering and automation control with a variety of engineering and chemical companies in his early career John soon established several companies of his own to serve the sector. By 1982 he had established The Power Group of companies, comprising; Powerflow Electronics, an Electronic design and manufacturing company, and Power Engineering, an Electrical engineering/automation company.
One of the pivotal moments in John’s career was the invention and successful worldwide patenting of a range of electronic timers for switching and controlling solenoid valves. These original products proved to be highly successful, revolutionising the compressed air condensate market, and paved the way for the development of a comprehensive range of control and automation equipment. Powerflow continue to develop and manufacture at their headquarters in Waterford, supplying many of the world’s leading automation companies and exporting to more than sixty countries Worldwide.
As well as the company’s own range of branded products, designed and manufactured in house, the group also work in conjunction with global leaders in the field of instrumentation and process control, to develop and integrate cutting edge solutions for today’s modern manufacturing and process control environment.
John’s formative years involved a keen interest in electrical engineering and automation, which eventually led to him joining MF Kent Electrical contractors of Clonmel. During this time he worked on the installation and commissioning of large scale industrial plants throughout Ireland, proving valuable experience for the years ahead.
Following his time with MF Kent John was employed by Pfizer’s Quigley Magnesite division for 13 years as Electrical and Automation Engineering Manager at their facility in Dungarvan, and also covering the Tivoli plant in Cork and the mining / quarrying facility in Kilkenny. During his period with Pfizer-Quigley Magnesite, which was a unique plant in Ireland, producing synthetic magnesia, John and his team pioneered many new methods and technologies, including the measurement of mass flow density and inline rock weighing systems, using nuclear radiation sources, magnetic flow meters and speed encoders. Some of those developments revolutionised the efficiency of the plant, and subsequently went on to be used widely in the industry. John describes the plant “as a wonderful place to work. You could nearly class it as a production laboratory and test facility, with a new challenge to overcome every day, in power distribution and automation. The facility encompassed almost every aspect of measurement and control”. It proved to be a fabulous environment to develop his analytical and problem solving skills, which he would go on to use throughout his career.
Following the closure of the Pfizer-Quigley plant in Ireland, John was keen to utilise the skills and knowledge acquired so began work as a Consultant Engineer and was instrumental in the design and construction of several high-tech multinational manufacturing facilities in the Cork area, in the early eighties. It was also during this period that the Power Groups’ Electrical and Automation division Power Engineering was founded. Now with more than three decades of experience John is proud to say that his company has designed and manufactured Power Distribution systems, automation control panels and SCADA solutions for most of the larger manufacturing plants in Ireland, such as, Boston Scientific, GSK, Lake Region, The Dawn Group, Glanbia, as well as projects in the U.K. and France.
Today the Power Group remain at the forefront of technology and John continues to head up a dedicated team, developing and patenting several new products

annually, and he continues to combine his passion for instrumentation, innovation and entrepreneurship. John is immensely proud to be a long standing member of the ISA and the work the organisation carries out to promote the principals of excellence in engineering and instrumentation."

The President thanks the sponsors of the event who also sent representatives to the event.

Some of the sponsors

The Ireland Section of ISA, which is voluntary body with a membership of over 160, received its charter in 1978. Its purpose is to bring together all personnel involved in the instrumentation and related disciplines in order to enhance their capabilities in instrumentation design, manufacture and use. It one of the most successful sections world wide and a number of members have assumed leadership responsibilities both in the Europe, Middle East & African District,  and in the Global governance of the Society down the years.

@IrelandISA #PAuto #ISAuto @ISA_Interchange 

International partner three years running!

SolutionsPT has been honoured by industry giant, Automation Control Products (ACP). ACP is a global leader in the automation industry, providing full-feature centralised thin client and terminal server management software.

SolutionsPT product manager Rob Dinsmore and system architect Chris whitehead, receiving the award from Matt Crandell president and CEO of ACP and Keith Jones, international sales director.

SolutionsPT has been named as ACP’s International Partner of the Year for the third year running at ACP’s prestigious Channel Partner Awards. Rob Dinsmore, Product Manager, accepted the award on behalf of SolutionsPT at the ACP annual global conference, Thindustrial15, in Orlando, USA. SolutionsPT was recognised as the most successful distributor outside of the United States.

Keith Jones, director at ACP International, added: “ACP’s prestigious Channel Partner awards are given to those partners who have performed exceptionally - not only in sales performance, but also customer satisfaction, growth and vision. This year’s International Partner of the Year, SolutionsPT, excelled in all these areas and have justifiably earned their third such award.”

Rob Dinsmore said: “It is great to see that all our hard work over the last 12 months has paid off and to be recognised for the third year running by a major industry player such as ACP is a real honour. ACP is an industry leading company and we are proud to distribute its products and encourage the growth of thin client architecture in the industrial automation industries in the United Kingdom and Ireland.”

During the event, ACP also announced the launch of ThinManager 8. The new ThinManager includes support for Active Directory and continues to operate with the Relevance mobile platform which allows modern facilities to create location-based work environments to deliver content to the right person, in the right location and at the right time. The new release will also include support for Android-based mobile tablets, as well as continued support for Apple iPads and iPhones.

On the new launch, SolutionsPT’s Rob Dinsmore added: “The launch of ThinManager 8 is a great step in the field of mobility. Whilst it is still very much an early adopter trend, we work with a number of larger and more advanced companies implementing mobility solutions. This new release will increase compatibility and, in opening up the Android market, reduce cost. Importantly for a number of our customers, unlike Apple, Android products qualify for ATEX safety ratings meaning they can be used across a wider variety of locations.”