Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Engineers Certified by TUV While I was in Austin last week, Emerson Process vice president Duncan Schleiss noted that the IEC has promulgated two standards relating to safety--61508 targeted at suppliers and 61511 meant for users. Emerson achieved certification for its engineers so that the company could assist its customers with appropriate installations of safety systems. The TUV organization has certified that all of the engineering work done by safety instrumented systems engineers from Austin, Texas-based Emerson Process Management consistently meets the requirements of the IEC 61511 standard for functional safety in the process industries. This certification applies to all worldwide engineering of Emerson's smart SIS that extends the company's PlantWeb digital architecture. Comprising sixteen-channel modular logic solvers, the DeltaV SIS can be deployed in distributed fashion to perform programmable electronic system functions. The Emerson European engineering group was the first in the world to meet the IEC 61511 standard according to the company. Emerson safety personnel and services organizations help customers plan and implement smart SIS solutions to comply with the new IEC 61511 safety standards. Services include assisting the customer with process hazard analysis and risk assessment, along with SIS design, implementation and commissioning. 3:54:30 PM    comment []

B&R Upgrades Development Environment B&R Industrial Automation has released an update to its Automation Studio, an integrated development environment within Microsoft Windows for control, visualization, motion and communication. Automation Studio is used to configure, program, commission, diagnose, and maintain automation solutions. The company would not tell me what was new with this version, but some of the features in the studio include XML data management, object-oriented programming, support for third-party components, allows integration with CAD and ERP systems and integrated software version management system. The software supports Ethernet PowerLink, CanOpen, Profibus DP and DeviceNet (coming soon according to the company). It also supports the IEC 61131 programming languages plus C. 9:20:58 AM    comment []