Safety Symposium.

The HIMA Group, a global leader in safety-related automation solutions, proudly marked a significant milestone: the 50th anniversary of Sella Controls. On October 9, 2024, a safety symposium was held in Birmingham to commemorate this achievement, honouring Sella Controls' journey from its modest beginnings in Whaley Bridge to its status as a leader in safety and control systems, now part of the HIMA Group.

Sella Controls, acquired by HIMA in February 2023 after a long-standing partnership, played a pivotal role in enhancing HIMA’s portfolio, especially in the railway sector, while also expanding the business in the process industry in Britain and Ireland. Over the past five decades, Sella Controls has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation and safety, making significant contributions to projects across multiple sectors, including rail, oil and gas, and petrochemicals.

Celebrating the Achievements, Envisioning the Future
With locations in Stockport and Ashby (GB), currently Sella Controls hosts 131 staff members across the two sites. Sella Controls acts today as the regional centre for the HIMA Group in Britain and as Global Centre of Excellence for rail activities.

LtoR: Dr. Michael Löbig (CFO at HIMA Group), Steffen Philipp (Shareholder of HIMA Group), Rachael Benson (nee Lardner), Trish Lardner, Jörg de la Motte (CEO at HIMA Group).

The family of one the founders, Terry Lardner, attended the 50th celebrations. Trish Lardner, the wife of Terry, and their daughter Rachael attended the Safety Symposium in Birmingham, together with various customers, partners and friends of Sella Controls.

The Safety Symposium reflected on Sella Controls’ rich history, including its transformation into a key player in the safety sector. Notable speakers from HIMA, Sella Controls, and key customers addressed how the collaboration had propelled both companies into new markets and technological frontiers.

• Steffen Philipp, Shareholder of HIMA Group, discussed the history and partnership between the two companies.
• Jörg de la Motte, CEO of HIMA Group, focused on the strategic growth opportunities that resulted from the acquisition.
• Dr. Michael Löbig, CFO of HIMA Group, shared insights on the investment strategy and future growth plans.
• Chris Parr, CTO of Sella Controls, spoke about the technological evolution and innovation at Sella Controls.

In addition, industry leaders such as Rob Stockham, Director from GI Systems and Mark O’Neill, Technical Director and Jorge Santos, Project Director at Amey Rail Limited, discussed key projects and the integral role Sella Controls had played in advancing safety and control solutions in both the process and rail sectors.

Steffen Philipp, Shareholder of the HIMA Group, highlighted the enduring relationship between the two companies: “HIMA and Sella Controls shared a long-standing and close partnership, built on safety excellence, shared values and vision. To become an integral part of the HIMA Group has been a logical next step for Sella Controls and it represents a key milestone in HIMA’s company history.”

Chris Parr, CTO of Sella Controls remarked “ Reaching our 50 years milestones is a huge achievement for Sella Controls. Over this period, we have significantly contributed to the safety and operability of our client’s assets through a combination of technical innovation and functional safety expertise. We look forward to the next 50 years as an integral part of HIMA group.”

The future.
For the past 50 years, Sella Controls positioned itself as a future-oriented and growing company. With new solutions, such as digital rail solutions showcased for the first time at InnoTrans 2024, they enriched HIMA’s portfolio. They strengthened the HIMA Group’s position as a technology partner for the global railway industry.

Jörg de la Motte, CEO of HIMA Group, emphasized the strategic importance of the acquisition: “Thanks to Sella Controls HIMA’s Products- and Solutions Portfolio is now much broader, especially in the Rail sector. The related R&D activities at Sella Controls in the UK will be further expanded to accelerate the time-to-market, in line with the customer requirements.”

Dr. Michael Löbig, CFO of HIMA Group, pointed at the good results and achievements of the integration process: “Major activities as e.g. the complete IT-integration have already been completed within year 1. Sella Controls’ business and team are continuing on a solid growth path. HIMA Group will make additional investments to develop the company forward, as a Top Service provider and Top Employer in business.” 

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@sellacontrols #Hima #Safety #PAuto

AI and air quality.

The Seminar programme at this year’s Air Quality & Emissions show (AQE 2024 19-10 October 2025 Birmingham GB*) will feature a presentation on the use of AI in air quality by Airly co-founder and CEO Wiktor Warchałowski. The seminar, free to attend, will begin at 10:30am on the second day.

Wiktor Warchałowski.

This seminar will be essential viewing for air quality professionals looking to better understand the role of automation and AI in their daily work. Wiktor will explain how a new AI tool can be exploited to dramatically improve the speed and efficiency of the initial, more mundane elements of air quality report generation. In doing so, Wiktor will demonstrate the ways in which AI and automation can be used to enable air quality experts to make better use of their skills and expertise.

The seminar will feature a real-life case study, as well as best practice for implementing AI technology, drawn from industry research, interviews with over 300 air quality consultants, and feedback from organisations that are already utilising AI and automation in air quality.

AQE visitors will be able to participate in a practical demonstration of the Airly AI tool at the company’s exhibition booth – M15. The company’s air quality sensors will also feature on the booth, as well as screens providing access to air quality data from networks of Airly sensors in the UK and overseas.

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* Registration at  is free of charge, and provides access to the AQE Seminars, Conferences and an International Exhibition. Registered attendees are also able to access the co-located WWEM 2024 event, which focuses on testing and monitoring in the water and wastewater sectors.

@airlyorg @_Enviro_News #Airquality #Environment #Britain 

Operational technology cybersecurity.

SolutionsPT and its partner Datto, a world leader in business continuity, will host an Operational Technology (OT) Cyber Security Seminar in May. The seminar will be held at the Reading (GB) the British headquarters of Datto, whose hybrid cloud technology drives SolutionPT’s Proteus disaster resilience managed service.

The event will offer pragmatic guidance on how to protect against the growing cyber security threat and embed disaster resilience in operations – the reality of which was highlighted by the recent ransomware attack suffered by Norwegian aluminium maker Norsk Hydro, which impacted 160 of its plant worldwide and has cost the company an estimated $40 million.

Detect and Recover will be key themes of the seminar, with a focus on pragmatic advice, a hands-on workshop and a real-time demonstration of technology at work.

Lee Carter

SolutionsPT’s Industrial Network and Cyber Security Product Manager, Lee Carter, says: “Protecting information control systems is a key concern for OT management and information security leaders across all industries.

“Additionally, the risk of being unable to respond instantly and effectively to potential disaster cannot be ignored, as Norsk Hydro discovered to its financial and reputational cost.

“The OT Cyber Security Seminar will bring together Datto’s best in class business continuity and disaster resilience technology with SolutionPT’s operational technology expertise, to provide managers with real insight into the steps they can take to ensure that their systems can detect and protect against potential threats and demonstrate resilience in the face of potential disaster."

SolutionsPT and Datto specialists will open the seminar with a discussion about the cyber threat in 2019 and outline the technical solutions offered by the SolutionsPT and Datto partnership.

Delegates will then be guided through the five pillars of a staged approach to OT cyber security – identify, protect, detect, respond and recover.

They will learn how to detect and respond to OT cyber threats and gain insight into two key solutions that can help their company create a ‘secure by design’ framework:

Claroty continuous threat detection software – a hands-on workshop will explore Claroty’s remote access and intrusion detection functions. These offer deep visibility into industrial control networks and provide an early warning of both malicious and accidental threats, so preventive action can be taken to protect other OT networks.

Proteus managed disaster resilience, powered by Datto hybrid cloud technology – a demonstration will show how Proteus backs up operational data and stores it securely, enabling operational systems to be restored in a matter of minutes in worst case scenarios.

The experience of leading organic food producer Yeo Valley will also be shared with delegates. Yeo Valley upgraded its legacy SCADA systems and installed the Proteus managed disaster resilience service, creating a ‘virtual factory’ on a different site and reducing its recovery time objective (RTO) from several hours to just a few minutes.

The SolutionsPT OT Cyber Security Seminar will run from 10 am to 4 pm on Thursday, May 23rd at Datto’s British HQ in Longwater Avenue, Reading, GB. Attendance is free but delegates must register here.

* See "Cybersecurity chief appointed." (4/4/2019)

#cybersecurity @SolutionsPT  #PAuto @datto

OEM Lifecycle – The Past, Present and Future.

A new keynote address entitled “OEM Lifecycle – The Past, Present and Future” will set the scene for this highly topical seminar addressing the key practical issues arising from the use of digital communications technologies in automated manufacturing and process industry applications, with particular attention to Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Draft Agenda

Covering key application areas such as mechanical handling and logistics, robotics, automotive engineering, electrical and electronics assembly, control systems and energy management, pulp & paper, chemical, utilities, pharmaceutical, packaging and printing, it focuses on the practical aspects of using PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link, from system design and safety considerations through to fault-finding and maintenance.

Supported by an exhibition with demonstrations of actual tools used in configuration and maintenance, the seminar will be of great value to Designers, Production/System Engineers, Instrument Technicians/Engineers, and C&I Engineers involved in the design, operation and maintenance of modern automated factories and process plant.

With nearly 80 million nodes installed worldwide, PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link are truly market leaders, providing state of the art digital communications addressing all the needs of manufacturing and process industries, significantly lowering capital expenditure on installation, commissioning and maintenance. They offer unprecedented integration of automation, control, monitoring and safety systems using standardised and widely supported communications and networking solutions.

This seminar is ably presented by specialists from PI UK member companies. Attendance is free of charge to pre-registered delegates from the User community, i.e. companies that own, operate, design, build or maintain automated plant. The event will provide delegates with an excellent networking opportunity and the ability to speak to experts.

PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link Glasgow seminar

AFRC, Catapult Centre, Inchinnan, April 17th, 2018

@ProfibusUK #PAuto #Britain

The Threat Within - OT Cybersecurity.

SolutionsPT, together with Schneider Electric, is hosting an OT cyber security event in Cork (IRL), aimed at helping manufacturers protect their industrial control systems and critical infrastructure.

Taking place on Thursday 15th March 2018, the event will address why industrial environments are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattack, while also providing guidance on securing OT architectures and defence in depth solutions.

Keynote speaker Jay Abdallah, Global Security Director at Schneider Electric, will discuss ‘The Threat Within’, covering how the move to open standards such as Ethernet, TCP/IP and web technologies has allowed hackers to take advantage of industrial control systems and critical infrastructure, before moving on to ‘Defence in Depth’. Other sessions to note include guidance on building secure OT architectures, disaster resilience, managed services and a panel discussion.

The afternoon session will then give attendees the opportunity to take part in a series of workshops. The first will focus on Wonderware System Platform 2017, SolutionsPT’s responsive control platform for SCADA, MES and IIoT solutions, before concluding with optional Citect SCADA and ThinManager hands-on workshops.

Susan Roche, General Manager of SolutionsPT, said: “Following the success of last year’s roadshow, which was well received by Irish manufacturers, it was an easy decision to bring our OT Cyber Security event back to Fota Island. This event will help manufacturers secure their operations and ensure their systems are more secure than ever.”

The event runs from 8:30am until 5:15pm and is free to attend. Delegates must register in advance.

 #Cybersecurity @SolutionsPT #PAuto @SchneiderElec

Disinfection technology for food & drink examined.

The latest technological innovations supporting water disinfection in the food and beverage industry will be the focus of the Water Academy seminar, jointly organised by Hanovia and Domnick Hunter RL, taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, in September. The one-day seminar will focus on best practice in process water technologies, and is aimed at process engineers and those responsible for technology procurement.

“This will be an informative and educational seminar, looking at the key water technologies that can benefit the beverage production process,” said Gunvinder Bhogal, Hanovia’s Global Marketing Manager. “The day’s presentations will focus not only on current best practice but also the innovations that will shape future development. It is a fantastic opportunity for attendees to network with leading industry experts and gain important knowledge about the latest technological advancements.”

The seminar is the first in a series to be held across the Asia Pacific region, where the beverage industry is growing rapidly due to increased demand in sectors such as bottled water, carbonated soft drinks, dairy and brewing. Water disinfection and treatment is a key element in the beverage production process globally, and the use of ultraviolet (UV) technology within the industry is predicted to increase by 12.5% over the 2015-2020 period.

Hanovia, the world’s leading provider of UV disinfection technology and water treatment solutions for industrial applications, will be making a series of presentations during the seminar’s morning session. These will include an introduction to UV light technology; a look at how UV dechlorination can reduce water treatment maintenance and lifecycle costs and provide enhanced protection against bio-contamination; details of how UV technology can be used in applications such as sugar syrup disinfection and process water deozonation; and an explanation of the validation process for UV systems. The afternoon session will include a presentation by Domnick Hunter RL - Thailand’s leading provider of liquid filters, water treatment and gas generation products - about cartridge filtration in beverage applications.

@Hanovia_UV  #PAuto

Seminar on noise & vibration.

The AcSoft Group, comprising AcSoft, Svantek and G.R.A.S UK, is hosting a free one-day seminar covering Environmental Noise & Vibration Monitoring on 28th March 2017 at the Sharnbrook Hotel in Bedfordshire (GB).

John Shelton

Paul Rubens, General Manager at AcSoft Group comments: “We have run a number of seminars near our office in Bedfordshire and they’re always very popular. We recognise that environmental sound and vibration monitoring can be a minefield at the best of times but when you add all the variables for monitoring outside then ensuring everything is set up correctly is even more critical.

“The one-day seminar in March is designed to help that process by covering a variety of key topics including industry standards, accessing data via a web portal, transducer selection and calibration. We are confident delegates will find it extremely interesting and highly relevant to their specialist applications.”

AcSoft Group’s seminars always attract an interesting and diverse selection of speakers and delegates, offering networking opportunities, debates and insightful exploration around industry relevant topics.

Speaking at the event will be John Shelton BSc (Hons) MSc MIOA who chairs the instrumentation working group for the Institute of Acoustics (IOA), Krzysztof Koltys from Svantek in Poland and Mirjam Stevens from Munisense in the Netherlands.

 #Noise #vibration. @Acsoft_Sound @ioauk @elhcomms

Production monitoring seminar/workshop.

Kistler Instruments will be holding a free production monitoring seminar/workshop at the Holiday Inn, Solihull (GB) on the 1st March 2017.

Hands on workstation sessions will provide practical insight into the application of force, pressure, torque and surface strain sensors using the Kistler maXYmos production monitoring systems for zero defect manufacturing.

In addition, there will be an Introduction to the Kistler electro-mechanical joining systems using the maXYmos NC production monitoring system.

Places on the free seminar/workshop, including refreshments and lunch, are limited and must be booked by the 17th February 2017. 

To reserve a place, email Shaun Egglestone at shaun.egglestone@kistler.com.

#Kistler #PAuto #Britain

Process networking seminar.

A highly practical seminar from Profibus International (GB)  will address the key issues arising from the use of digital communications technologies in process and hybrid industries. Scheduled for Manchester (GB) on 29th June 2016, 50% of the seminar time will be dedicated to live demonstrations and most of the remainder taken up with practical advice based on actual experience.

The programme will be of great value to Instrument Technicians/Engineers, C&I Engineers and System Engineers involved in design, operation and maintenance of modern process plant.

Subjects include:
• Introduction to the basics of PROFIBUS and PROFINET
• PROFINET in Process
• System design for the Process Industry
• Functional Safety in PROFIbus and PROFINET
• PROFIBUS DP & PA – Commisioning/Maintenance/Calibration/Monitoring
• Device configuration – EDDL & FDT/DTM
• IIoT, Security & Ethernet Design

Covering the use of PROFINET, PROFIBUS and IIoT in key application areas such as Pulp & Paper, Chemical, Utilities, Pharmaceutical, Oil & Gas today, it focuses on the practical aspects of using PROFIBUS in process industry applications from system design and hazardous area considerations through to maintenance and fault-finding.

The seminar is to be presented by specialists from the British PI member organisations. Attendance is free of charge to pre-registered delegates from the User community, i.e. companies that own, operate, design, build or maintain process plant. The event will provide delegates with an excellent networking opportunity and the ability to speak to our experts whom, we promise, will not force you to buy anything.

@AllThingsPROFI #PAuto

Vision seminars now available to download.

The UKIVA has expressed its satisfaction with the outcomes of two recent exhibitions: Photonex and the PPMA Show. At Photonex, overall attendance at the UKIVA “Vision in Action” conference was more than double that of previous years, while 19 UKIVA members who exhibited at the PPMA Show reaped the benefit of a steady stream of high quality visitors.

At this year’s Photonex exhibition, the association ran its most ambitious seminar programme to date and was rewarded with significantly increased attendance figures. Copies of all of the presentations are available for download here at the UKIVA website. Highly popular were the Keynote speech delivered by Dr. Will Maddern a senior researcher from the mobile robotics group at the University of Oxford, a talk on 3D vision techniques & applications and a discussion on the rise of the CMOS sensor.

Atacama Desert - Mars on Earth!

Dr. Maddern’s talk focused on the challenges and opportunities of using vision in autonomous driving applications. This provided an overview of methods developed at the Oxford Mobile Robotics Group to perform calibration, localisation, mapping, navigation and obstacle detection in road scenes using cameras towards the goal of low-cost autonomy for road vehicles. The technology even has potential beyond its use for autonomous driving here on earth since the research team has also trialled the system on a prototype Mars Rover in tests in the Atacama Desert in South America!

UKIVA Chairman, Ian Alderton, said: “We have received very positive feedback both from those who attended the talks and from the speakers themselves, many of whom were engaged in further discussions following their presentations."

The PPMA Show also proved to be a great success for UKIVA members exhibiting there. Over 17% of visitors to the show registered vision as being at least one of their interests. Many UKIVA members were delighted with the depth of technical discussions they were able to have with their visitors about their practical application needs.

Cork event to explore the drivers of actionable intelligence within manufacturing operations.

Industrial IT software solutions provider, Wonderware Ireland, is hosting a special event for manufacturers and system integrators at Fota Island Resort, Cork.

Click on logo to register!

Taking place on Tuesday 26th January, the free event will explore how the latest SCADA and operational intelligence technologies are driving continuous improvement within manufacturing operations, leading to increased productivity and savings.

Aidan Finnegan, Wonderware Regional Manager for Ireland, said: “This is the first new-concept Wonderware event we have held in Ireland for some time and would urge manufacturing organisations and system integrators looking to future-proof their systems to attend. The event has been carefully planned to take delegates through a step-by-step approach to driving continuous improvement on the plant floor through adopting the latest data insight technologies for more informed decision making."

The day will begin with an in-depth look into best practice SCADA management through object-based design. It will then move onto examining the various data collection and analysis solutions that can be incorporated into a platform-based architecture, enabling more accurate data driven decision-making.

Delegates will have the opportunity to listen to presentations from a host of Wonderware experts on topics including recipe management, advanced workflow management, cloud-based versus Historian architectures and the advantages of real-time data analysis and reporting.

An optional afternoon session will see system architects take attendees through a practical workshop, allowing them to get their hands on System Platform and Recipe Manager software, with working examples and exercises. The day will finish with an opportunity to discuss issues one-on-one with Wonderware’s team of experienced technical experts.

The event runs from 8:45am until 5:00pm and is free to attend, but delegates must register in advance.

Brisk pre-registration for water & wastewater sympsium!

The International Society of Automation (ISA) tells us that pre-registration activity for the 2015 ISA Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls (WWAC) Symposium has been brisk.

Taking place at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort in Orlando (FL USA) the 2015 ISA WWAC Symposium is a three-day event that focuses on the challenges associated with automation and instrumentation in the water and wastewater sectors. The symposium features more than 30 technical speakers, two full days of technical presentations, a tour of a local plant, a general reception and a supplier showcase. This symposium is unique as it focuses entirely on the needs of automation professionals in the municipal water and wastewater sectors.

The full programme may be viewed here and registration for the 2015 WWAC Symposium is still open.

“Our secret is our focus,” says Patrick Gouhin, CEO and Executive Director at ISA. “Our annual ISA Water/Wastewater Symposium specifically caters to the needs of professionals involved with automation, instrumentation and SCADA in the municipal water and wastewater sectors. It is a unique niche event and we are proud of its increasing popularity. There is no other event like it in North America.”

A strong technical program

Helping to kick off the conference will be John S. Young, Jr. P.E., who will deliver a presentation to attendees on how the water/wastewater industry presents numerous challenges that must be addressed for utilities to be sustainable and provide safe, reliable service.

Young has worked in the water utility industry his entire career. In 2010, he retired from American Water, the largest water/wastewater utility in North America, after a 33-year career. At American Water, he served in numerous technical and management positions, including Vice President of Engineering; President of the American Water Works Service Company; Chief Water Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Recently, as a utility consultant, he supported or assessed numerous water utilities, including the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (during the Detroit bankruptcy) and the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA).

• Read our report on the 2014 event (also held in Florida).

Virtual summit for condition monitoring & predictive maintenance for Europe!

National Instruments (NI) is to host its first European Condition Monitoring & Predictive Maintenance Summit from 6th to 10th July 2015.

This virtual summit explores how the risk and cost of failure is increasing, and why more companies are turning to 24/7 on-line predictive maintenance to improve the effectiveness of their workforce, while reducing downtime. It will feature industry experts highlighting best practices from AREVA, Laborelec, London Underground, Politecnico di Milano, Schaeffler Group and University of West Bohemia.

Each session will be streamed twice and attendees will be able to interact online with NI experts, in real time, to ask questions and discuss topics. Sessions will then be available to watch on demand after the series is complete.

Topics include:

• How to increase ROI and efficiency via smart maintenance investments
• Lessons learned in power generation condition monitoring
• Applying predictive maintenance to large scale asset monitoring deployments

Production monitoring seminar/workshop!

Kistler Instruments will be holding a free production monitoring seminar/workshop in Bromsgrove (GB) on the 16th June 2015. The application of force, pressure, torque and surface strain sensors will be covered in the seminar with hands on workshop experience of X-Y process monitoring using the Kistler maXYmos TL system. Finally, there will be an introduction to monitoring and control of servo press systems using the latest maXYmos NC system.

Places on the free seminar/workshop, including refreshments and lunch, are limited and must be booked by the end of April 2015.

• To reserve a place, email eddie.jackson@kistler.com

Learn about the real-time analytics revolution!

Wonderware seminar to explore the increasing role real-time analytics is playing in today’s manufacturing industry.

The free event, ‘Operational Intelligence: Real-time Analytics in UK Manufacturing’ will take place on Thursday April 23^rd 2015, from 9:30 to 16:00, at Williams Conference Centre (GB), home of the nine-time Constructors Championship-winning F1 team.

Designed to allow attendees to explore the benefits of Operational Intelligence (OI) technologies, the event is hosted in partnership with Callisto Integration and features a keynote speech by Marc Van Herreweghe, Vice President of Manufacturing Insights at the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Before joining IDC, Marc amassed over 20 years' experience at British American Tobacco (BAT), with responsibility for 45 factories in 40 different countries. His expertise includes global supply chain, lean manufacturing, new factory build and organisational change. The Belgian national has advised a wide range of organisations extensively on manufacturing strategies, in addition to holding academic advisory roles at a number of universities.

He will look at how manufacturers can protect tomorrow’s profits by adopting advanced manufacturing technologies and integrated working systems. His talk will be followed by a Q&A session for attendees.

The event follows a recent whitepaper commissioned by Wonderware UK and delivered by IDC, looking into what the new sources of competitive differentiation will be for the factory-of-the-future and how intelligent use of data will be a key tool for manufacturing businesses in the next five years. The whitepaper will be made available to all delegates attending the event.

Those wanting to attend the event can register here: Click here

Other core topic areas that will be focused on at the event, include:

·         How to drive continuous improvement with real-time KPIs and holistic root-cause analytics

·         The latest alarm management practices

·         The latest technologies available to boost price efficiency in all areas, such as quality and Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE)

·         Manufacturers that have achieved greater efficiency and reduced costs with OI technology

·         Energy Management technologies and approaches

Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from leading brands such as Callisto Integration, Schneider Electric, Wonderware and UReason, whilst hearing case studies from other companies that have already adopted an OI framework.

Wonderware UK OI product manager, Mike Charles, said: “Since we first introduced the term Operational Intelligence two years ago it has been adopted by several key players in our industry. But it’s important to remember that OI is far more than just a technology stack. It’s a best-practice approach to working with operational data and as such its applications vary business-to-business. At our event, which is squarely aimed at decision makers, delegates will hear an unbiased view of this approach and the wider analytics market from the leading manufacturing industry analyst, IDC. This will be balanced with real-world stories from manufacturers who are at various stages of their OI journey.”

Seminar on measurements on electroacoustics!

Reinforcing its position at the forefront of high performance measurement microphones and related acoustic equipment, GRAS Sound and Vibration UK Ltd  recently held a free one-day seminar on ‘Measurements in Electroacoustics’, with keynote speakers from USA-based Listen Inc.

John Shelton

The seminar looked at some of the key measurement issues in electroacoustics including loudspeakers, microphones (condenser and MEMS), hearing aids, MP3 players, headphones, headsets, Bluetooth and telephones.

Listen Inc is a world leader in audio test and measurement systems. The company’s flagship product, SoundCheck®, is a software and sound card based electroacoustic test and measurement package, running under Windows or MacOS, that can be customised with a selection of software options and audio input devices (dual or multichannel) to build a system to customers’ exact specifications and budget.

Speakers included Steve Temme, founder and President of Listen Inc and John Shelton, Technical Director at GRAS UK.

The highly successful event, which was held at the Regus facility at Atterbury Lakes in Milton Keynes, was attended by participants from a wide range of businesses including BAE Systems, Hosiden Besson, Cirrus Logic and Hoare Lea.

Roy Drake, Senior Flight Test Instrumentation Engineer at BAE Systems said: “The presenters at the seminar were genuinely at the forefront of their respective fields. I was also impressed with the specifications of the range of products on offer and the flexibility of the software.”

David Morris, Trainee Production Engineer, Hosiden Besson added: “As someone relatively new to acoustics I found the seminar easy to understand, broad and fascinatingly in depth. A rare trick to pull off but the team managed it with ease, or at least that's how they made it look. Glad I was invited.”

"Technology Modernisation of Plant Automation Systems" ISAIreland Seminar filling up!

Spaces are limited, early booking is advised.

ISA Members are eligible for a 50% discount on registering. 

Please use discount code ISAMAR15 when prompted on Eventbrite.

A seminar on SPICE!

A free half-day seminar (Click on the EMEA link!) is designed to educate and inform both advanced and new users of LTspice.

Mike Englehardt

What is LT Spice?

Linear Technology’s LTspiceIV is the number one high performance SPICE simulator, schematic capture and waveform viewer that has enhancements and models for easing the simulation of switching regulators. Linear Technology’s enhance-ments to SPICE have made simulating switching regulators extremely fast compared to normal SPICE simulators, allowing the user to view waveforms for most switching regulators in just a few minutes. Included in the download are SPICE, Macro Models for 80% of Linear Technology's switching regulators, over 200 op amp models, as well as resistors, transistors and MOSFET models.

Dates & Venue

• October 1 Dortmund, Germany
• October 2 Hannover, Germany
• October 6 Reading, England
• October 7 Cambridge, England
• October 8 Edinburgh, Scotland
• October 9 Dublin, Ireland

This is an excellent opportunity to gain the knowledge to successfully simulate circuit designs and predict circuit behaviour for faster more efficient designs.

At this seminar attendees will learn the ins and outs of LTspice, as presented by Mike Engelhardt, the author/creator of LTspice. Included will be informative tutorials on how to simulate switch mode power supplies, compute efficiencies and observe power supply start-up behaviour and transient response. Attendees will also be able to utilise LTspice as a general purpose SPICE simulator for AC analysis, DC sweeps, noise analysis and circuit simulations.

Attendees are invited to bring along their unique questions on LTspice and get answers direct from the creator of the software himself.

Continental breakfast and lunch will be served.

Seminar & workshop on safety requirements for hazardous pipelines!

Together with ILF, ROSEN, TÜV Nord and the Dutch metrological institute NMi/NMi Euroloop, Krohne is holding a two-day seminar & workshop event entitled “Safety requirements for hazardous liquid and gas pipelines”. Supported by media partner Automatie, it takes place from June 3rd to June 4th in Dordrecht (NL).

The event is aimed at an international audience of operators, planners and engineers involved with pipelines transporting oil or natural gas as well as chemicals, refined products or any other hazardous liquids or gases.

The seminar will provide attendees with an overview of safety concepts and practical methods for performing risk assessment on pipelines. The lecture topics on day 1 address key issues such as pipeline design, risk assessment, leak detection and also protection of SCADA systems against cyber attacks. Relevant guidelines as well as protective mechanisms will be discussed to pinpoint solutions which can be implemented. Participants will also learn about a variety of methods currently being used for pipeline leak detection, how they complement each other and what options are available.

The seminar on day 2 will give an overview of pipeline design, available inspection technologies for the detection of leaks, risks and consequences of pipeline operation, and corrosion and erosion protection of pipelines. Day 2 also presents workshops on leak detection and custody transfer metering solutions and also practical trainings on this topic.

All lectures will be held in English. It is possible to attend one or both days

Free seminar on portable GC/MS!

The Open University in Milton Keynes (GB) has been chosen as the venue for a free seminar on Friday 28th March featuring an introduction to the latest onsite monitoring equipment, including a portable GC/MS from Torion Technologies (USA).

The seminar will feature presentations from Tiffany Brande, U.S. based Director of Torion, and Dr Andrew Hobson from Quantitech, the company which is organising the event.

The speakers will conduct practical demonstrations of gas, liquids and solids analysis, and will provide delegates with an insight into the ways in which onsite testing can lower costs and help improve the quality and speed of results. Portable GC/MS can be employed in a wide variety of applications, but there will be specific references to environmental surveys, occupational safety, contaminated land, hazardous chemicals, incident response, food/beverage analysis and research in a wide variety of sectors.

The seminar will commence at 11am and finish at around 3pm, with complimentary lunch provided. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come/first-served basis to those that register here!