Ambient air quality monitoring stations throughout Britain.

Air Monitors has been awarded a contract to service, calibrate and maintain the majority of the British Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) of ambient air quality monitoring stations.

The AURN has been delivering air quality data since the early 1970s, and comprises over 100 monitoring stations across Britain producing more than 5 million measurements every year. The network helps the Government there fulfil its statutory European reporting requirements, as well as supporting air quality research and policy development. The monitoring stations measure oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO) and particles (PM10, PM2.5). These sites provide high resolution hourly information which is communicated rapidly to the public, using a wide range of electronic, media and web platforms.

Expressing his pleasure on winning the contract, Air Monitors Managing Director Jim Mills said: “The AURN is the largest ambient air quality monitoring network in the UK, so this award is, in part, recognition of the quality service that Air Monitors delivers. We have a team of engineers spread across the UK, so this award strengthens our business and opens opportunities for future growth.”

The AURN is managed on behalf of DEFRA by Bureau Veritas, a global leader in Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC). Bureau Veritas supports private and public sector clients from around the world to meet the growing challenges of quality, safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. Dr Richard Maggs, Consulting Group Manager - Air Quality, Acoustics & Vibration at Bureau Veritas, said: “Effective service is crucial to the provision of reliable data, so I congratulate Air Monitors on their success and look forward to working with them.”

@airmonitors #Environment #PAuto 

Acquisition set to increase Industrial IoT leadership.

HMS Industrial Networks has signed an agreement to acquire the Belgium-based company eWON SA – a leading IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) manufacturer of intelligent Internet-based remote access routers.

eWON was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Nivelles (B). With subsidiaries in the USA and Japan, eWON offers cutting edge communication products and services for industrial applications such as for remote access to programmable logic controllers (PLCs), data collection applications and cloud-based connectivity solution. eWON works with major manufacturers of PLC and automation systems globally. In 2015, eWON was named the Industry’s Leading Remote Machine Access Provider by Control Design Readers’ Choice Awards 2015. This market recognition demonstrates eWON’s leading position and is a result of customer focus to provide the best, most reliable and secure solution in the industry.

“In the fast growing business of the Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT market, we see great opportunities to further strengthen our business and our leadership position by gaining access to HMS’s well-established development organization and sales channels” says Serge Bassem, CEO and co-founder of eWON.  “We look forward to be joining HMS and combine our unique competences within industrial Internet communication to develop great products and services for our customers” adds Pierre Crokaert, CTO and co-founder.

“eWON’s products are great complements to HMS’s product offering,” says Staffan Dahlström, CEO of HMS Networks AB. “eWON’s strong position primarily in the market for remote access to PLCs, providing a secure 'data tunnel' between a software application and a remote machine, will complement and reinforce HMS’s existing remote management offer in the form of Netbiter. eWON is world-leading when it comes to PLC remote access, and joining the two teams and operations will create a strong market position and unique value proposition to our OEM partners and worldwide customer base.”

With more than 15 years of experience, eWON is a fast-growing and leading player in the market for intelligent Internet-based remote access routers. The company employs 57 people of which 13 are product development engineers. eWON has a world-wide sales network with distributors in 45 countries.

Serge Bassem and Pierre Crokaert will continue to lead eWON in their current roles, the two company founders will become two of the top ten shareholders in HMS Networks AB.

@hmsnetworks #PAuto @ewonrouters

Strategic partnership for calibration continues.

Beamex is to continue to serve as its Strategic Partner for Calibration with the International Society of Automation (ISA).

Over the past several years, through the partnership, Beamex and ISA have collaborated to provide ISA members and customers with access to Beamex’s diverse calibration resources, including publications, case studies, webinars, expert advice and more.

“Beamex brings a unique view of calibration to the automation world, and its customers value precise, accurate measurement to improve efficiency and quality in their plants,” said Patrick Gouhin, ISA Executive Director & CEO. “These are goals that our members and customers share, so it’s a great fit for a partnership.”

This announcement signifies that Beamex will continue to work with ISA to co-develop informational and educational resources, such as custom webinars—which are offered at no charge to ISA members and customers worldwide.

ISA and Beamex plan to co-host two in-person events to provide guidance and insight into the most vital topics for process instrumentation maintenance and plant sustainability. As a thought leader in calibration process improvement, Beamex is uniquely positioned to communicate to ISA and its stakeholders through integrated campaigns, and to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of ISA’s members and customers in this important field.

Beamex specializes in calibration for pressure measurement, electrical measurement, frequency measurement and temperature measurement. The company’s team of experts also focuses on intrinsically safe calibrations, calibration software and pressure generation.

“Our mission at Beamex remains to be the benchmark in providing the most innovative calibration solutions that improve efficiency and quality. This can only be done with the right partners and ISA is for us, a perfect match. We are still very excited about this strategic partnership and look forward to working together to pioneer the industry, teach new concepts as well as positively impact the people working in the field,” states Jan-Henrik Svensson, CEO of Beamex.

• More information about ISA’s Corporate Partnerships Program.

@BeamexGlobal #PAuto #ISAuto #TandM

Communicating the sun!

Here's a bit of sunny news as we in Northern Europe suffer interminable and seemingly never-ending storms (8 since November).

Highly reliable data communications networks created by Westermo are helping to maximise the availability of two thermal solar power plants in south-western Spain. The Ethernet-based networks have been installed to support the control of 225,000 mirrors at the twin La Florida and La Dehesa concentrating solar power plants. The two plants, owned by Renovables SAMCA, each have a capacity of 49.9 MWe, enough to support more than 45,000 homes.

Reliable data communications are essential for the production of electricity. Should connection be lost between the mirrors and control rooms, the collectors are automatically set to safe mode and do not transfer energy. Westermo was therefore tasked with providing a resilient and easy to install solution that would maximise plant availability.

“Any interruptions to the communications affect our ability to generate power,” said César Labarga, Electrical Engineer and Project Manager for solar field control systems at Renovables SAMCA, who was responsible for implementing the network at both sites. “We needed a very reliable solution and this is what we have been provided by Westermo. We are very happy with how the networks are performing. It is a really stable and reliable solution.”

Because the La Florida and La Dehesa plants are identical, the same solution was installed at each plant. The networks were designed around a central dual gigabit fibre optic ring using 25 Westermo RedFox managed industrial Ethernet switches. Nine sub rings consisting of 120 Westermo Lynx switches were added to reach out to the different parts of each plant. All individual rings in the network run the Westermo FRNT ring protocol, which enables 20 ms reconfiguration of the network in the event of link (cable or switch) failure.

To ensure the installation process was quick and simple, Westermo built, configured and tested both networks in advance in its laboratory in Sweden. An entire network, including all 290 switches, was mounted on a huge ‘network wall’, enabling it to be fully configured and tested prior to installation.
“We also needed a solution that was quick and simple to install,” said Labarga. “Having Westermo configure all devices and thoroughly test both networks beforehand was essential to this project.”

The installation process was extremely efficient, with all switches installed and both networks up and running in less than three hours. Since then the networks have proved to be extremely reliable, with no reported problems or serious incidents.

Oil and gas operators maximise production and efficiency.

Emerson Process Management and OVS Group are helping oil and gas producers accelerate decision-making to more effectively operate their oilfield assets. Emerson has expanded its Integrated Operations (iOps) solutions to include workflow software modules from OVS Group.

Gas-Lift performance curve with table of 

optimisation opportunities.

Integration of Emerson’s technologies and OVS software means users across the oilfield can automate the analysis of their data and reports to capture opportunities more efficiently. The joint solution works with Emerson’s DeltaV™ distributed control system via OPC connections and database integration to provide information for OVS’s comprehensive group of oilfield software solutions. OVS’s industry-proven software solutions assist oil and gas operators with oilfield applications such as gas lift optimisation, cyclical steam generation, and decline curve analysis.

Combining sensing, control, and workflow automation, oil and gas producers can automatically capture actionable events and drive insights that produce improved execution. Less time will be spent looking for data, performing data loading, and generating the manual reports that currently consume the bulk of the industry’s time.

Emerson’s iOps initiative addresses key areas including workflow automation to reduce errors in tasks, and information visualisation to improve decision making. Combined with sophisticated analytics from OVS, the integrated solution enables users to accurately and easily assess key information and identify opportunities for operations and business improvements.

“In today’s market, efficient production is crucial. We are pleased to be working with OVS to provide our clients with scalable solutions that can be applied today and drive greater operational efficiency,” says Jerry Brown, senior vice president of Emerson’s industry solutions.

“OVS Group has worked with operators over the past decade to develop a library of discipline-focused best practices that can leverage a very broad suite of the asset data and industry applications including the real-time and historical data from field automation,” said Sebastiano Barbarino, OVS Group CEO. “With this Emerson alliance, operational data will become a standard component of the best practices across disciplines to fully automate asset management and reduce the time and resources required to produce and optimise oil and gas.”

 @EmersonProcess #PAuto @ovsgroup

It's an ill wind...!

2015 was the best year ever for OTT Hydrometry in Britain. “Product sales were very good across all ranges,” Managing Director Nigel Grimsley tell us. “Our water quality, level and flow monitors all performed very well; as did out meteorological, datalogging and telemetry instrumentation.”

Nigel believes that the effects of Climate Change will increase the need for hydrometeorological equipment. “The potentially devastating effects of severe weather can only be prevented or limited by accurate monitoring with telemetry so that appropriate action can be taken in a timely manner,” he says. “However, it is also vital to be able to model the likely effects of high water and heavy rain before it takes place, so that flood prevention and mitigation schemes can be implemented. Monitoring plays a key role; not just in the creation of these models, but also by supplying near real-time data during adverse weather to improve and optimise warning systems for communities and infrastructure.”

The increased frequency of severe weather events is clearly having a positive effect on OTT’s sales figures, with the OTT Pluvio2 and ecoLog products selling particularly well. The Pluvio2 is an advanced raingauge operating on the weighing principle, which means that it is able to measure all types of precipitation extremely accurately, whilst also providing intensity data. The OTT ecoLog is a complete system for logging and transmitting water level data in boreholes and surface water.

“Bad weather obviously stimulates our business, but continual investment in product development also increases the popularity of our technologies, and the complete monitoring systems that we build make it easier for customers to start collecting and disseminating data.”

@OTTHydrometry #PAuto

Last ray of light in the dark!

Lightweight, compact, robust emergency light fittings for hazardous areas!

When the lights suddenly go out, they remain to light the way: linear luminaires of the R. STAHL 6009 series, which now provides new emergency lighting solutions for fluorescent lamps with 2 x 18 W or 2 x 36 W power. The new EXLUX 6009 products provide 10% higher luminaire efficiency than the preceding models, which were already among the most successful emergency lights on the market. Moreover, they are lighter as well as more compact while featuring enhanced torsion resistance.

The standardised enclosure design with a sealing system based on silicone foam meets the increased service life requirements stipulated by IEC 60079. In addition to the gaskets, which are insensitive to chemicals and UV radiation, the luminaires are equipped with a robust hinge and innovative, user-friendly central lock. The enclosure ensures IP66/67 ingress protection. EXLUX 6009 luminaires are approved for use in hazardous zones 1, 21 and 2, 22. They withstand even outdoor conditions with icy weather and temperatures as low as -30 °C.

To check their operational readiness, the devices automatically perform a weekly self-test and an annual emergency light duration test. Very safe maintenance access to the luminaires is ensured with a full-phase safety shutdown via N/C switches. The battery and battery cover can only be replaced together, which means the gasket cannot be accidentally compromised.

Components that are swapped out (electronic ballast, lamp holder) are directly installed on the easy-to-remove reflector plate, making servicing the light fitting even easier. R. STAHL offers EXLUX 6009 luminaires in a standard version with 4 mm2 spring-cage terminals and 5-wire through wiring. Versions with screw terminals for cable cross-sections of 6 mm2 and without through-wiring or other custom modifications are available on request. The luminaires can be mounted on walls, ceilings or masts or installed as pendant lights.

• Stahl products are marketed in Ireland by Douglas Controls & Automation. 

@MKTG_RSTAHL_NET  #PAuto