IMS Forecasts Rise In Use Of Domestic PLC In China

Most Chinese users of PLCs tend to favour foreign brands; however, the proportion of domestic PLC is forecast to rise slightly, according to the results of a China-focused market report from IMS. Alex Hong, market analyst, said: ‘For historical reasons, Chinese domestic PLC suppliers entered the market much later than foreign brands. ‘The well-established distribution channel and brand awareness of foreign PLCs hindered the entry of domestic suppliers.

‘Technology is no longer a problem,’ Hong added. ‘Local PLC suppliers are now capable of producing their own high-end PLC products. However, accessing a suitable customer base has often been shown to be a limiting factor, as high-end PLCs are usually sold as a part of a more complete control system with other automation components, such as operator terminals, motor drives, industrial PCs and motion controllers. Local PLC suppliers cannot offer a complete production line like their large foreign competitors. As a result, local suppliers are tending to put more effort in serving machine builders, who are willing and able to purchase simpler PLC products as commodities.

With limited finance and research ability, local suppliers are trying to find their own path to avoid conflict with powerful foreign suppliers. Usually targeting a niche market, a number of domestic companies are taking advantage of their cheap labour force to offer a solution to their clients. The solution is usually combined with several different automation components as a small system, in line with the users’ requirements, at an affordable price. Domestic PLC brands are estimated to account for less than five per cent of the total China market. However, its share is forecast to grow in the near future.

TLV Compressor Systems Increase Plant Efficiency

TLV Euro Engineering has launched a range of steam compressor systems that increase the energy efficiency of steam plant by recovering low-grade steam and converting it to higher pressures. The SC range, which incorporates a high-efficiency ejector and either a COS or CV-COS control valve with built-in cyclone separator, converts excess low-pressure or ‘flash’ steam (typically 2 barg) to medium pressure steam (up to 5 barg) by adding high-grade motive steam.

Instead of venting steam to atmosphere, the SC range can be integrated into any steam plant to reuse energy from post-process flash steam, as well as excess low-pressure steam produced by power generation. Depending on the control valve specified, the three models in the range – SC1, SC2 and SC4 – offer maximum intake flow rates between 250kg/h and 1,000kg/h at 2 barg, and PMOs between 10 barg and 16 barg.

With a range of body materials – including carbon steel/stainless steel for the ejector; cast stainless steel for the check valve; and ductile cast iron, cast steel or cast stainless steel for the valve – and with various options for control valves and ancillaries, the system can be tailored to fit most environments and applications, including petrochemical, food processing and commercial laundries, or where excessive flash steam is available.

Profiled product ranges include Reelfast surface-mount fasteners (threaded or unthreaded nuts and standoffs, captive panel screws and R’Angle right-angle fasteners); broaching fasteners (internally threaded nuts, threaded or unthreaded standoffs, threaded studs, panel fastener assemblies and spring-action Snop-Top standoffs), broach-/flare-mounted standoffs (offering greater pullout performance); and Spotfast clinch-/broach-mount fasteners (for joining metal to printed-circuit-board/plastic panels).

Reelfast fasteners mount on PC boards in the same manner and at the same time as other surface-mount components prior to the automated reflow solder process and simply become another board component. Broaching fasteners install into all types of PC boards and aluminium, acrylic, casting or polycarbonate components and create a firm, interference-type fit resistant to rotation. All types of these RoHS-compliant fasteners eliminate the problems associated with loose hardware.

The company offers PLAs in business administration, children’s care learning and development, health and social care, ITQ, mechanical and electrical and fabrication and welding. Training is carried out at one of Alliance Learning’s three fully equipped training centres, where the company will help students to find a work placement right for them and their desired career path.

The company aims to help all its PLA learners find a full-time role after the completion of their course that will help them continue onto their advanced apprenticeship. To assist funding throughout the duration of the course, Alliance Learning will pay EMA (if eligible) and for any travel expenses incurred.

However, compared to most competing models, the robot’s working envelope is substantially larger with axis one and two combining to provide a near-360deg working area, according to TM Robotics. An internal wiring harness reduces wear and tear as well as the height requirement of the cell. The robot’s TS2100 controller uses the SCOL programming language, which is similar to Basic. This language is used across the Toshiba Machine SCARA range, facilitating integration with older models.

Motion-control commands include single-axis motion, synchronous motion, linear interpolation, circular interpolation and arch motion. There are 31 +7 external inputs and 22 +10 external outputs. System inputs can be used for start, stop, reset and servo-on functions, while system outputs are for alarm, emergency-stop and status functions. Options include Toshiba Machine’s TSPC programming software for 3D simulation of the robot movement and additional input/output.

Ethernet and fieldbus (Devicenet, Profibus and CC-Link) communications are intended to provide advanced programming flexibility. Further options include linear or circular conveyor synchronisation, which, together with an easily integrated vision system, provides advanced pick-and-place functionality. The Toshiba Machine robot range will now extend from the TH-180, which has an arm length of 180mm, through to general-purpose SCARAs with arm lengths between 250mm and 1,050mm.

C4NGen mousepads are manufactured in several versions and sizes. CS Hyde also offers a variety of accessories to improve the gaming and computing experience.

Moss Express Catalogue Includes 1,400 New Products

The new 2010 Moss Express product catalogue features more than 12,500 components suitable for thousands of applications and markets. The catalogue is comprised of 368 pages and includes more than 1,400 new products, featuring hundreds of new hydraulic and pneumatic protection parts, an expansion of hardware products and a section dedicated to adhesive tapes and pads.

New products include more than 160 metal castors with nylon, rubber or polyurethane wheels, braked or unbraked and with swivel or fixed plates. The increased hardware range includes new locks, latches, catches and hinges. The range of handles and knobs has also been expanded in the 2010 catalogue. New plastic and metal parts contribute to an increase in the volume of hydraulic and pneumatic protection products, according to the company. Plastic caps and plugs, hose wrap and sleeves, steel hose clamps and a line of o-rings are also available.

A new catalogue section – called Adhesive Tapes and Pads – has been added in response to the growing demand for these Moss Express products. The offering has been quadrupled to more than 220 lines, with existing ranges extended and new ranges added for adhesive foam pads, removable and high-bond adhesive tapes and hook-and-loop products. The catalogue contains technical product information and is indexed and colour coded by product type. The coloured sections detail solutions for a range of industries, with all products featured delivered from stock within 24 hours. The full Moss Express product offering is available online.

Veolia Urges Factories To Treat And Reuse Effluent

Martin Brockmann, managing director of Aquantis, part of Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, considers the reuse of industrial wastewater. As global climate change reduces available water resources and the cost of mains-water supplies rises steadily, the manufacturing industry is beginning to focus on water management. However, many factories are failing to make use of a potential low-cost and environmentally friendly source of water: effluent. Treating and reusing effluent reduces the volume of water imported to a factory as well as lowering the volume of effluent discharge, effectively doubling the cost saving.

Cleaning up industrial wastewaters, especially those with high COD, used to be an expensive and messy procedure, but with current membrane technology it is possible to treat most effluents to at least process-water standard simply and economically. Membrane bioreactors are a key process in treating effluent to a standard for recycling. Aquantis, the membrane competence centre of Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, has experience with the Biosep membrane bioreactor, treating both industrial and municipal wastewaters. Membrane bioreactor technology is well proven. In concept, it is simply an activated sludge plant with the final clarification stage replaced by a membrane filtration system.

Depending on the individual project, those membranes may be hollow-fibre, tubular or plate type. The result is not only a smaller-footprint plant but one that produces a final effluent of such high clarity and low-bacteria count that it can be fed directly to a reverse-osmosis plant – the equally important second stage of treatment. The solids-removal efficiency of the membrane means that the sludge can be contained in the system at mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations up to five times higher than is possible in conventional activated sludge plants. This results in the more efficient removal of COD because a higher MLSS concentration results in a lower COD loading; this is particularly important in the case of high-strength effluents, which would otherwise need an aeration tank with three or four times the volume.

The membrane installation could be submerged in the aeration tank or a small separated filtration tank. The treated effluent is extracted by pumping from the clean side of the membrane at a trans-membrane pressure of less than 0.5bar, so operating costs are relatively low. Membrane fouling is minimised by directing the air scour flow across the membrane surface and by occasional back-flushing with filtrate. Over the last five years, the increased use of membrane bioreactors has resulted in the price of membranes falling sharply and membrane bioreactors have now become economically competitive with traditional processes. The Cooperl effluent treatment plant, whose pork slaughterhouse in Lamballe is one of the largest in France, processes around 60,000 pigs each week and produces about 16,500m3 per week of wastewater with a COD of 16,500mg per litre.

The wastewater is dosed with acid or caustic soda as required to adjust the pH to seven; then, a coagulant – ferric chloride – is added to coagulate colloidal material and precipitates some of the non-soluble COD. This is followed by a flocculation stage with slow speed stirrers that generate consistent-sized floc particles, assisted by the addition of polyelectrolyte. The flocculated wastewater is then clarified using dissolved air flotation, giving an overall reduction in COD of about 80 per cent. Following clarification and flow buffering, the wastewater is fed to a Biosep membrane bioreactor with an upstream anoxic tank to provide the denitrification of nitrate. The aerated section provides the biological degradation and oxidation of ammonia to nitrate.

The submerged ultra-filtration is followed by a reverse-osmosis plant to remove residual non-biodegradable COD and reduce the salinity of the effluent. Permeate from the reverse-osmosis plant is chlorinated prior to reuse for washing pigs and trucks and for cooling water and boiler make-up. The plant at Cooperl is just one example of the many industries, including food processing, pharmaceutical production, semiconductor manufacturing, textile dyeing and chemical production, that are benefiting from the use of Biosep technology to recycle effluent, reduce costs and help to preserve fast-diminishing water resources.

Hi-Line Offers HPS Dryers For Compressed-Air Units

Hi-Line Industries is offering a full range of heatless pressure swing (HPS) adsorption dryers for compressed-air systems. The dryers have been designed with simplified plug-and-play installation combining high efficiency with minimum running costs, while also providing reliability based on the latest technological advancements, according to the company. Hi-Line claims that these products operate at a pressure range of 7-10barg (minimum 4barg) and are different from budget versions that use low-cost shuttle valves, which invariably fail within a relatively short time.

The new HPS dryers are suitable for any commercial/industrial application where high-quality dry air is required. This includes food-and-beverage processing, aerospace and electronics production, automotive painting and instrument air supplies. With the Hi-Line HPS range, positively driven ball valves are fitted. They also incorporate stainless-steel pipework and high-quality check valves to ensure continuity of flow without dew-point spiking or pressure drop. A digital logic controller is fitted, with an optional automatic energy management system (AEMS) also available for dew-point control.

The dryers do not use any external heat energy source. The desiccant used is a standard activated alumina for a -40C dew-point operation (molecular sieve for -70C dew-point operation), which is regenerated using a very dry purging air supply. This is expanded over an orifice plate, which further reduces the dew point due to the pressure reduction. This very dry air supply desorbs water from the desiccant, passing through silencers back to the atmosphere. This purge air supply typically uses 12.5 per cent of the dryer capacity.

The dryers operate as standard on a timer, with a normal 10-minute cycle time between vessel changeovers. According to the company, this is sufficient to ensure that extracted water does not enter the core of the desiccant material (2.5mm- to 4mm-diameter spherical material). The optional AEMS control system extends the cycle time to 30 minutes per vessel in low water-loading situations. There are 19 models available in the range, with most sizes available as ex-stock versions. They provide air throughput capacities from 20scfm (34Nm/h) up to 5,500scfm (9,350Nm/h), with all models being skid mounted. Product footprints range from 675 x 380mm up to 2,900 x 1,900mm and heights from 1,625mm to 3,000mm. All units can be supplied in a choice of colours or can be privately labelled for original equipment manufacturers.

Trend Seminars Teach Energy Management Techniques

Trend Control Systems holds energy management seminars to show participants how to better manage the energy consumed within a building using reduction and monitoring techniques. By applying this know-how in an organisation, it is possible to reduce energy waste and, if applicable, minimise the potentially sizeable financial burden associated with the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), according to the company. There are variables that affect the energy usage of a building, many of which are fixed, with little or no scope for energy savings.

However, the effective control of building services, such as heating, air conditioning, hot water and lighting, provides opportunities for energy reductions and cost savings. In the majority of buildings, the management of these energy-consuming services is controlled by a building energy-management system (BEMS). For a building to operate efficiently, the BEMS must provide these services reliably. Trend claims that the reality, however, is often very different. During a building’s lifecycle, many things change that can have a serious effect on energy consumption. The deterioration can happen rapidly, often within just a few weeks of a building being occupied.

By optimising a BEMS – getting it to perform consistently with the way a building is used – significant energy savings can be achieved quickly. These savings can be measured, monitored, sustained and applied within the CRC scheme. The company’s ‘Conformance to Performance’ events help attendees learn about the energy management of their buildings, the CRC and how Trend can help. Participants will also hear for themselves about the energy savings others have achieved using a BEMS.