Wednesday, 5 August 2026

Analysis in fuels, petrochemical, flavours and fragrances.

The Grabner Vision Pro Series, from Ametek, is the next evolution of its analytical instrumentation platform, combining a refreshed product design and intuitive user experience with a broad set of performance, reliability, and usability enhancements.

The platform represents a significant evolution of the Grabner portfolio, combining a modernised brand and user experience with the proven Vision platform. Building on more than 35 years as an industry trusted partner in fuel analysis, Grabner integrates established analytical technology with a redesigned interface and enhanced system architecture to deliver a meaningfully improved platform. The cumulative impact of these advancements, driven by sustained, customer-focused innovation, results in higher levels of accuracy, repeatability, uptime, and overall laboratory efficiency, enabling laboratories to confidently rely on precision analysis and consistent, reliable results.

A central element of the Vision Pro Series is its modernised interface and workflow design. The platform introduces a more intuitive, standardised user experience, featuring streamlined navigation, configurable templates, and improved data visualisation.

The platform also benefits from continuous refinements in measurement performance. Enhanced calculation models, improved system diagnostics, and optimised operating conditions contribute to greater precision, repeatability, and long-term reliability.

“Vision Pro represents the culmination of years of continuous improvement,” said Spencer Allemang, Grabner Instruments’ Global Product Manager “By combining a refreshed user experience with ongoing advancements in performance, automation, and reliability, we are delivering a platform that is meaningfully stronger than its original foundation, enabling our customers to operate more efficiently and with greater confidence in their results.”

The Vision Pro Series includes the VPV Pro, FPV Pro, and IRV Pro, and is designed to meet the evolving requirements of laboratories across fuels, petrochemical, flavours and fragrances and related markets.


@grabnerametek @AMETEKInc @codacomms #Laboratory #TandM

Intelligent, unified automation architecture for data centres.

Monitoring and control layer integrates data centre critical infrastructure, coordinating across the thermal, mechanical and electrical subsystems for real-time response to power and cooling load changes.

As artificial intelligence (Ai) accelerates data centre demand and compresses project timelines, infrastructure complexity is at an all-time high. Emerson’s DeltaV™ Automation Platform for Data Centers meets this challenge with an automation portfolio designed for AI-scale data centres – where speed, reliability and operational excellence are non-negotiable. This delivers a unified automation system for the monitoring and control of data centre critical infrastructure, bringing together the thermal, mechanical and electrical sub-systems under a highly scalable, flexible architecture.

In the Ai era, faster time to market directly impacts revenue, customer commitments and competitive advantage. These compressed project timelines put tremendous pressure on supply chains, engineering and design teams, electricians, engineers and other project personnel who must rapidly complete the project while simultaneously meeting the reliability, flexibility and dynamic operational needs of modern data centres.

To bring gigawatt-scale facilities online faster while maximising operational reliability, the DeltaV Automation Platform for Data Centers replaces point solutions and complex mappings with an integrated automation architecture from the inception of project design. Rather than separate, manual coordination of sub-systems, the DeltaV platform unifies them under a single unified control solution, reducing engineering effort, simplifying integration and creating consistency across commissioning, operations and maintenance.

“Data centre performance is no longer defined by individual components alone, but by how effectively critical systems work together,” said Nathan Pettus, president of Emerson’s process systems and solutions business. “The DeltaV Automation Platform for Data Centers gives operators the unified visibility and coordinated control they need to commission projects predictably, operate reliably at scale and meet aggressive timelines. It’s the foundation that turns speed into sustainable competitive advantage.”

The DeltaV Automation Platform for Data Centers delivers:

  • Precision Control: Real-time monitoring and management of highly variable loads and cooling optimisation – providing equipment-level and facility-wide control that dynamically adjusts to changing thermal loads.
  • Industrial-Grade Reliability at Scale: Integrated control and operational visibility in the DeltaV Automation Platform helps data centre teams detect abnormal conditions earlier, respond faster and maintain consistent, reliable operations 24/7.
  • Project Expertise: Repeatable, standardised designs and decades of mega-project expertise helps engineering teams reduce execution risk, compress timelines and deliver projects that perform reliably from day one.
  • Lifecycle Partner for Continuous Improvement: Beyond project delivery, Emerson provides repeatable operating models and continuous intelligence that help data centres scale across their expansions and optimise lifecycle operations across multiple facilities and geographies.

The DeltaV Automation Platform for Data Centers provides a comprehensive automation portfolio including its industry-leading DeltaV Distributed Control System (DCS) and DeltaV Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) that connect to the DCS for system-wide process control. Both the DeltaV DCS and DeltaV PLCs incorporate context-specific AI solutions to accelerate engineering workflows, provide advanced process control and enable data centres to integrate AI optimisation models. The DeltaV DCS and PLCs natively work together to deliver continuous intelligence – enabling faster builds, lower costs, predictable performance, and eventually, autonomous operations.

“AI data centres are pushing at the very limits of scale, speed and complexity, exposing the limitations of piecemeal automation architectures,” concludes Pettus. “The DeltaV Automation Platform for Data Centers is built on intelligent, unified automation architectures instead of isolated systems to provide the flexibility not only to quickly reach first token, but also help data centres stay competitive, secure and relevant across the lifecycle of operation.”


@EmersonExchange @EMR_Automation @DeltaV @Emerson_News @HHC_Lewis #PAuto #DataCentre #Ai

Tuesday, 4 August 2026

Pipeline leak detection, theft detection and monitoring.

A new comprehensive solution for leak detection, theft detection and pipeline monitoring, PipePatrol NEO, has been launched by Krohne. At the core of the system is NEPM (Neural Engine Pipeline Monitoring), Krohne’s next-generation technology for continuous internal pipeline monitoring.

The system combines artificial intelligence with proven physical models, providing an effective way to manage the complex risks of modern pipelines – from corrosion and equipment failure to third-party interference, illegal tapping, and environmental impacts. It is designed for a wide range of applications, including oil and gas pipelines, chemical processes, water and wastewater networks, as well as district heating and hydrogen infrastructure.

PipePatrol NEO applies NEPM, an AI-enhanced multi-method approach which integrates advanced hydraulic modelling, statistical pattern recognition and real-time measurements of flow, pressure and temperature. By continuously comparing a “virtual pipeline” model with actual operating data, the system detects deviations and analyses them using AI-based pattern recognition. It continuously learns from operational data, adapts to changing conditions and delivers precise, reliable pipeline information in real time. This enables faster detection, highly accurate leak localisation and minimal false alarms – even under complex and transient operating conditions.

Thanks to its modular design, PipePatrol NEO can be precisely tailored to the requirements of pipeline operators – from highly sensitive leak detection and real-time theft identification to rupture detection, tightness testing, stress monitoring, and predictive modelling. The system can be retrofitted to existing pipelines and seamlessly integrated into SCADA systems.

In addition to enhancing safety and operational efficiency, PipePatrol NEO also makes a significant contribution to sustainability: early leak detection helps to prevent environmental pollution, reduce the loss of valuable resources and unlock energy saving potential.


• Krohne products are marketed in Ireland through DWN Instrumentation.

@KROHNE_USA #PAuto #DWN #EMF

Cybersecurity in Energy.

“Cybersecurity is integral across the oil and gas value chain, for securing data, safeguarding asset integrity, and preventing financial losses.”

Energy infrastructure is a high-value target for cybercriminals. Attacks on critical national infrastructure (CNI) can have an outsized impact, disrupting essential services, causing nationwide instability, and generating financial gains for hackers. As geopolitical uncertainty intensifies, so does cyber espionage, making it crucial for energy companies to invest in resilient cybersecurity programs, says GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

L GlobalData’s Strategic Intelligence report, “Cybersecurity in Energy,” highlights how cybersecurity impacts key challenges in the energy industry. These include digitalization, distributed energy resources (DERs), grid modernization, supply chains, third-party vendors, and geopolitics.

Ravindra Puranik, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Energy companies depend on extensive third-party ecosystems, making supplier vulnerabilities a major cyber risk that can spread into IT and OT environments. Attacks exploiting shared vendor software (e.g., file-transfer tools) have hit major players.”

“Mitigation requires stronger vendor governance, such as continuous monitoring, standards, segmentation, least privilege, audits, and joint incident response.”

GlobalData notes that digitization and the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) are connecting legacy assets and modern grid technologies, expanding entry points where IT compromises can disrupt operations. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) further increases attacker speed and sophistication, shrinking defenders’ response windows.

Puranik concludes: “Oil and gas firms should invest in specialized cybersecurity services that provide continuous monitoring and rapid response, expert validation, and strong operational readiness. Equipment and oilfield service providers should also add product-focused services such as secure development support and security audits/certification to reduce supply chain risk and maintain customer trust. 

 “Cybersecurity is integral across the oil and gas value chain, for securing data, safeguarding asset integrity, and preventing financial losses.”


@Technology_GD #PAuto #Energy #Cybersecurity

Monday, 3 August 2026

Motorised injection rate control.

Supports accurate, repeatable injection of offshore chemicals, reducing downtime and chemical waste.

The TESCOM™ RC-X motorised injection rate control valve, which supports accurate, repeatable dosing of offshore chemicals to maintain flow assurance for refineries and reduce overall chemical injection costs, has just been announced.

Flow assurance is a critical component in the design and operation of offshore production facilities, especially as the industry moves to deeper water, longer tiebacks, deeper wells and higher temperature and pressure reservoirs. The transition to these new environments can introduce conditions that restrict flow, such as hydration, corrosion or the buildup of wax, asphaltene, scale and emulsion.

Refineries use chemical treatment to mitigate these blockages. However, over or under injection of chemicals has several detrimental effects. Over injection increases chemical consumption and resulting costs as well as additional field trips to replenish chemical storage tanks. It can also adversely impact downstream processing or treatment programs and result in contamination penalties. Under injection can be ineffective, risking mechanical integrity and production output.

“Proper chemical dosing in deepwater and high-pressure/high-temperature refining environments can prevent blockages and flow instability, helping to ensure optimum fluid behavior, protect asset integrity and stimulate production,” said Julia Villa, product marketing manager with Emerson’s fluid and motion control business. “Specifically designed to work with Micro Motion™ Coriolis flow meters in offshore chemical injection processes, TESCOM RC-X motorised injection rate control valves enable accurate dosing that reduces downtime and chemical waste associated with over injection.”

With a short-stroke design (less than 1/8 of an inch), TESCOM RC-X control valves are accurate up to 15,000 pounds per square inch (psi) and offer ultra-low flow rates of 0.02–500 liters per hour and repeatable function with 4–20 milliampere (mA) control for precise flow assurance. Electric actuation eliminates air requirements, preferrable when compressed air is unavailable or unreliable.

Available in medium- and high-pressure models, modular TESCOM RC-X control valves are lightweight and compact, with a smaller motor footprint than similar chemical injection rate products, allowing for smaller, lighter skid designs.

The valve itself also has fewer moving parts than comparable products, reducing risk of mechanical failure over time, performing more consistently and requiring less maintenance. They’re explosion-proof, IP67-rated and are compliant to NACE MR0175.

Designed to meet a variety of industry demands, Micro Motion Coriolis flow meters deliver accurate, repeatable mass flow measurement for liquids, gases or slurries. The Emerson TESCOM™ RC-X motorised injection rate control valve helps offshore refineries achieve accurate, repeatable chemical injection, reducing chemical waste, downtime and overall operating costs.


@EmersonExchange  @EMR_Automation @Emerson_News  @mepaxIntPR #Pauto

Generational change in ownership.

The HAIMER Group has completed the generational change in its ownership structure. The company shares has been transferred to the second generation so that siblings Andreas and Kathrin Haimer now assume responsibility as Managing Directors and Shareholders. This puts the internationally active family-owned company’s long-term, owner-managed orientation on a clear path for the future.

Within the HAIMER Group – a globally leading manufacturer of shrink fit and balancing technology, tool holders and presetting machines, as well as a complete system provider for tool management solutions around the machine tool – the generational transition will be completed as of August 1, 2026. As part of a succession plan that has been prepared over many years, the shares of the HAIMER Group will be transferred to the founders’ children, Andreas and Kathrin Haimer.

Claudia and Franz Haimer, who founded the company in 1977 and built it up over the past decades to a hidden champion and global player, will remain operationally active in the management team until December 31, 2027. During this period, they will oversee the handover process to ensure a smooth and carefully prepared transition to the second generation. In addition, they will continue to support the company in the long term with their experience and network as members of a newly established Advisory Board.

"For us, this step is a very emotional moment as we place our life’s work in the hands of our children. At the same time, the handover is an important milestone in the development of our family business," explains Claudia Haimer. "Andreas and Kathrin are closely connected to HAIMER for many years and have already successfully assumed responsibility in the management team. This ensures the continuity of our values, our technological expertise and our long-term strategy."

By transferring the shares to Andreas and Kathrin Haimer, HAIMER strengthens its position as an independent, owner-managed family business that offers its customers the “Tool Room of the Future” as a holistic tool room concept providing greater efficiency, digitisation and automation.

With this approach, HAIMER addresses the challenges faced by manufacturing companies which are increasingly under cost pressure while confronted with a shortage of skilled workers as well as the need to digitise and automate. HAIMER enables customers worldwide to machine more precisely, reliably and productively.

With HAIMER solutions, the shop floor can be digitised, and the tool assembly area can be automated. The generational change is therefore also a clear commitment to further strengthening this system expertise which is in line with the company philosophy of ‘Quality Wins’.

Despite rapidly changing and turbulent times in the metal working industry, this hidden champion remains 100% in German family ownership. This allows customers, partners and employees to continue to rely on long-term, sustainable decision-making.

Andreas and Kathrin Haimer have been working in various management positions in the company for many years and today form the management team of the HAIMER Group together with the founding couple. In their new role as Managing Partners, they will continue the established growth course while setting new innovations in the areas of digitisation, automation and sustainability – for example, through the further expansion of digital products, networked tool room solutions and automated cells for shrinking, presetting and balancing.

In view of the many challenges in global markets, Kathrin Haimer particularly emphasizes the company’s responsibility towards people and employees: “As a family-owned company, we bear responsibility – for the future of our business, for our employees, for the education of young people as apprentices, and for our local communities. Our task is to combine the values that HAIMER has stood for over decades with innovative strength and cutting-edge technology. In this way, we aim to actively shape the future of our company – as a reliable partner for our customers and an attractive employer.”

Andreas Haimer adds that from a technological and strategic perspective: "We are a manufacturing company ourselves, with more than 200 machine tools and an annual metal-cutting volume of around 5,000 tons – so we know from our own experience just how crucial stable, productive processes and well-thought-out tool management are. That is precisely why we are consistently investing in digitization and automation: from AI-capable shrink fit, balancing and presetting machines through our ‘Tool Room of the Future’ concept to global cooperation with machine tool builders where our networked solutions are deployed in their plants worldwide. The generational change gives us the entrepreneurial freedom to further expand this long-term strategy and to strengthen our role as a technology leader in the periphery around the machine tool and in the networking of the shop floor."

Looking back on the joint achievements of the past decades, Franz Haimer states: “The success of HAIMER is inseparably linked to the commitment of our team around the world. The fact that we can now place our Group in the hands of our children and at the same time see a strong team carrying the company is, for us, the best foundation for a successful future for HAIMER. As a family-owned company that can act independently of corporate groups and in a sustainable manner for the benefit of our customers, we are currently seeing very strong demand from the semi-conductor, aerospace, space, defense and energy industries for our integrated tool room solutions. With these solutions, companies that want – and need – to prepare for the future can turn a previously unorganized tool assembly as a black box into a transparent, data-driven tool setup and presetting process, enabling production to run 24/7 at the highest levels of automation.”


@HAIMERUSA @mepaxIntPR #PAuto #Manufacturing

Saturday, 1 August 2026

Automation blogger par excellance.

Recognition for an instrumentation on-line pioneer.

In the early days of on-line communication, in the days of dial-up in the early nineties Read-out ventured hesitingly to explore the new frontier! Suddenly a new world, well actually an old world, became more available on our desktop.

Gradually we began to be able to communicate frequently with Instrumentation People with whom we only had an occasional contact at conferences, exhibitions and through publications. People like the late Dick Morley (Father of the PLC), Journalists like Walt Boyes and Gary Mintchell, Automation entrepenaurs like Jim Pinto, and so many others throughout the world.

Companies involved in automation were slow (in virtual terms) to harness this resource. Ours is a fairly timid and conservative group of engineers. Smaller companies were first to use it. But it was a fairly difficult job to persuade the larger entities to allow never mind embrace it! 

Among the pioneers among the "Big Boys" was Emerson and they were fortunate to have on their staff a champion for this resource. Jim Cahill was and still is "Emerson Automation's Chief Blogger & SocialMedia Leader." He not only talks about the range of instrumentation and philosophy of his own company but also is a useful source for information on theory, technology and development in the automation sector as a whole.

In those early days the "internet champions" made contact with each other and established friendships across the globe. Occasionally at conferences they met up. 

I was at an ISA Exhibition & Conference in Mobile (AL USA) when I got a message. "Are you here?" It was Jim Cahill. I responded and asked where he was. He said he was in one of the lecture halls at the back to the left hand corner of the room. And so he was. In those days battery life expectancy in laptops was short so it was important to be close to a power point which explained the left hand corner! And that was how I met Jim. 

I have met him a few times since them at various parts of the world. Of course we keep track of each other on the various on-line platforms. Links to two of those are given below both in Duesseldorf (D) 12 years apart*. 

This has been the case with other automation professionals as well.

Jim still mantains his place as one of the pioneers in using this medium through "Emerson Automation Experts" and recently it came as no surprise to find this in the top US automation podcasts recently.

Well done Jim, may your efforts continue to virtually flourish to the benefit of automation and instrumentation.

2012
2024


* See also: #EMrex: Automation returns to Düsseldorf! (2012) and  #EMRex Boundless exploration, engaging and evolution on the Rhine!  (2024)

@EmersonExchange @Emerson_News @EMR_Automation @JimCahill @MillionPodcasts #PAuto #EmrEx #EMEA #USA