WEG builds transformer plant
WEG Electric Motors Corp., Atlanta, a global supplier of motors, drives, and transformers, has broken ground on an advanced transformer plant dedicated to serving U.S. customers in the utility, municipality, wind, and industrial markets. Located just north of Mexico City, the 75,000 sq. ft. facility will provide transformers of up to 300 million V-A and 230 kV. WEG is accepting orders for the new plant, with deliveries to begin in early summer 2009. For more information, visit www.wegtransformers.com.
Download openPOWERLINK free
At this year's Hanover Fair in Germany, the Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group (EPSG) announced that the openPOWERLINK solution for the master and slave side may be downloaded from SourceForge.net/projects/openpowerlink free of charge. Because the real-time protocol operates with standard on-board Ethernet controllers, the download provides the only free-of-charge complete real-time Ethernet system worldwide. SYS TEC electronic has released its POWERLINK solution under the BSD Open Source license; Open Source implementation reaches cycle times up to 0.5 msec while ensuring high synchronicity. The BSD license allows anyone to use, distribute, and modify the software and to add development enhancements free of charge. For more information, visit www.ethernet-powerlink.org.
austriamicrosystems to sell SQUIGGLE motors
New Scale Technologies Inc., Victor, N.Y., has named its strategic partner austriamicrosystems, Unterpremstaetten, Austria, as a global agent for its Squiggle motors, micro motion systems, and other products. New Scale develops and manufactures miniature motion systems including the piezoelectric Squiggle motor, a tiny linear motor. austriamicrosystems manufactures high performance analog ICs for communications, industry, medical, and automotive applications. New Scale and austriamicrosystems formed a partnership in early 2008 to create tiny closed-loop motion systems integrating Squiggle motors with single-chip motor controllers and position sensor ASICs. For more information, visit www.newscaletech.com.
Robert Willett to lead Cognex division
Cognex Corp., Natick, Mass., recently appointed Robert Willett as president of its Modular Vision Systems Division (MVSD). As President of MVSD, he now oversees the largest operating division at Cognex, which generates nearly 90% of the company's revenue. The division designs, develops, and manufactures vision systems, sensors, and ID readers used to automate discrete products manufacturing and for quality assurance. Willett comes to Cognex from Danaher Corp., where he served as group vice president of business development and innovation for the product identification business group. Prior to that, he was president of Videojet Technologies, a subsidiary of Danaher. For more information, visit www.cognex.com.
BSA sets new date for fall meeting
The Bearing Specialists Association (BSA), Glen Ellyn, Ill., has announced that its 2008 fall meeting will be held Sept. 22 to 23 at the Hilton Suites Chicago Magnificent Mile, reflecting a change from previously announced dates. In addition to the regular schedule of committee meetings, BSA's information technology and supply chain committee will host a presentation from a representative of Google on the company's suite of applications, followed by a “user experience” presentation from Applied Industrial Technologies regarding the company's experience with Google. BSA is an international service and educational organization of distributors representing almost 100 companies distributing factory-warranted ball, roller, and anti-friction bearings, as well as invited manufacturers of bearings and related products. For more information, visit www.bsahome.org.
Siemens and ROY-G-BIV form partnership
Siemens Energy & Automation Inc., Alpharetta, Ga., and ROY-G-BIV Corp., Bingen, Wash., have announced a partnership that combines the Siemens Motion Control Information System (MCIS) software solution with ROY-G-BIV's XMC universal machine connectivity software. The partnership creates factory-wide productivity solutions that can operate across various brands of machine tools and motion-controlled equipment. XMC is the universal interface enabling end users to utilize the MCIS software solution on their existing production network. MCIS integrates machines into production networks to eliminate problems and ensure that planning, scheduling, and execution are based on the latest data. For more information, visit www.roygbiv.com or www.sea.siemens.com.