Schneider Electric, the globally renowned company in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, together with SkillPointe Foundation, have established a new scholarship program that will fund training in the Boston area for skills related to the rapidly-expanding building automation field, with aim to develop America’s skilled workforce and provide new opportunities for aspiring individuals of all backgrounds. Schneider Electric SkillPointe Scholarship The Schneider...

Plug Power Inc. (Plug/PLUG), a globally renowned provider of turnkey hydrogen solutions for the global green hydrogen economy, announced that it has expanded its GenKey offering to enable fuel cell adoption for warehouses that operate fewer than 100 electric forklifts. For the first time, this segment of the forklift market, representing more than 25% of all forklifts sold in the U.S., will have access to cost-effective hydrogen fuel cells and the increased productivity they unlock. Plug expan...

Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular as more people seek out eco-friendly alternatives to traditional fuel-powered vehicles. At the heart of an EV is its battery, which powers the electric motor and propels the vehicle forward. Electric Miles explores how electric vehicle battery technology works and offers some insights into the different types of batteries used in EVs.  Battery Basics  The batteries used in electric vehicles are rechargeable lithium-ion batter...

RECOM have re-visited the designs of some of the most popular isolated and non-isolated DC/DC converters and achieved major performance improvements from the implementation of advanced circuit and manufacturing techniques. The addition of synchronous rectification improves efficiency, new planar-style transformers can be automatically placed and flexible automation keeps costs down – even reduced for some new products in volume. The new DC/DC series have the ‘K’ designation an...

In the past, a majority of switch applications were designed to wire directly to a final element (pump, compressor, motor, etc.). The switch would activate or deactivate a final element by opening or closing the circuit after reaching a designated set point. While this is still common, more and more applications have turned to the use of advanced controllers such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) to help optimize their process applications. Programma...

National codes such as the NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, National Fire Alarm Protection Association, and international standards like EN 60079-29 provide considerable prescriptive guidance and performance-based requirements on how fire and gas systems should be designed and deployed within a facility. IEC performance-based standards Process plants and facilities also look to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) which has promulgated performance-based...

The implications of failing to detect gas leaks can impact the environment and workers’ health. Facilities are turning to smart, connected technologies when it comes to the accurate detection of odorless and invisible gases. Below are three ways automation can help improve gas detection. Deploy wireless sensors to increase monitoring density Deploying wireless sensors is a quick way to increase monitoring density, achieve continuous monitoring and provide real-time analyti...

There is a growing demand for electronic switches in industrial plants. Operations, maintenance, and instrumentation personnel are attracted to how electronic switches combine the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of a mechanical switch with the comparative intelligence of a transmitter.  types of efficiencies There are 3 types of efficiencies that can be realized from this: Cost efficiency Equipment manufacturers (e.g., skid builders) that use mechanical instrumentation are often l...

Working with end-users looking to add WirelessHart gas monitoring to their facilities, one question almost universally comes up at some point during the process: Where to put gas detectors? wireless gas detector Using a wireless gas detector provides great flexibility to deploy monitoring devices exactly where users need them. Obviously, gas type and leak location will influence detector placement, but less obvious is the need to create a robust network that ensures data gets back to them uni...

Boilers are a critical asset in many commercial and industrial facilities (e.g., factories, refineries, and power generation plants) and play a vital role in many industrial and production processes.  Unexpected issues arising with boilers can cause significant disruptions to a plant’s operations, leading to unplanned downtime. Facilities that have wisely chosen to implement robust boiler upgrade and maintenance programs have witnessed improvements in their overall process uptim...

To build on innovations that advance intelligence at the edge, Texas Instruments introduced a new family of six Arm® Cortex®-based vision processors that allow designers to add more vision and artificial intelligence (AI) processing at a lower cost, and with better energy efficiency, in applications such as video doorbells, machine vision and autonomous mobile robots. Arm Cortex-based vision processors This new family, which includes the AM62A, AM68A, and AM69A processors, is supported...

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Mitsubishi Electric) announced that it will double a previously announced investment plan to approximately 260 billion Yen, in the five-year period to March 2026, mainly for constructing a new wafer plant to increase production of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors. Under the plan, Mitsubishi Electric expects to respond to rapidly increasing demand for SiC power semiconductors for electric vehicles, as well as expanding markets for new applications that...

Prysmian Group, the globally renowned company in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, increases its focus on seizing growth opportunities stemming from ever-increasing electrification processes. Shifting to renewable energy sources is a sweeping transformation that the world is undergoing, with power transmission grids playing a key role in the dispatching over longer distances and at higher voltage, and power distribution grids proving to be equally and increasingly crucial for integ...

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Mitsubishi Electric) has announced that it won the contract from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) to build the nation's newest geostationary meteorological satellite, known as the Himawari-10, which will be the fourth straight such satellite to be built by Mitsubishi Electric, going back to the Himawari-7 satellite built nearly 20 years ago. Himawari-10 The Himawari-10 is a successor to the Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 satellites The Himawari-10 is a success...

RECOM's R-78E series of three-terminal switching regulators has been a very popular high-efficiency replacement for three-terminal, TO-220 style linear regulators, saving energy, board space, and cost, by eliminating heatsinks and their assembly overheads. For 2023, they are announcing an upgrade to the series, denoted R-78Kxx, with improved specifications. Features of the R-78K series  Versions rated at 0.5A, 1A, and 2A are available, with fixed outputs now including 1.2V, 1.5V, 1.8V, 2...

Devices with wireless communication using proprietary radios have been installed in tough industrial applications for several decades. With the modernization of industrial networks and the rapid adoption of technologies related to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), there has been an increasing demand for non-proprietary (i.e. open) wireless communication technologies. Proprietary protocols Proprietary protocols are those designed and created by a single manufacturer. One of the advanta...

Iskra are pleased to announce that they have signed a cooperation agreement with JIS Electrical Trading LLC in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This partnership will enable Iskra to expand their reach and offer their services to a wider range of customers in the United Arab Emirates. Iskra and JIS Electrical Trading LLC sign cooperation agreement Iskra are confident that together they can offer their customers unparalleled service and support JIS Electrical Trading LLC is a well-established c...

Iskra are thrilled to share some more information from the recent signing of a technical agreement for the localization and distribution of power capacitors in Saudi Arabia with their esteemed partner - MEMF Electrical Industries Co. This collaboration between Iskra and MEMF Electrical Industries Co. is a significant milestone and Iskra are excited about the endless possibilities it presents. Iskra and MEMF Electrical Industries Co. partnership Iskra aims to provide high-quality power capacit...

Gas detection has traditionally been a wired operation because of its high device power requirements. With technological advances in sensor and battery technology, there is an emergence of battery-operated, fixed-point wireless gas detection solutions. While there are proprietary and non-proprietary (i.e. open) wireless protocols in the market today, in this post we will be focusing only on open protocols. In particular, we will compare two prevalent open protocols, namely ISA100 and WirelessHA...

Gas detection is a key part of a modern plant’s safety and asset monitoring system. Most plants likely have a permanent gas detection setup to alert operators, when there are critical issues. Temporary systems can help, when a permanent solution isn’t needed. What isn’t thought about as often is areas that may not need gas detection all the time, or that may need additional gas detection at certain critical junctures for extended periods and potentially at a moment’s not...

In the latest expansion of its battery storage capacity, Axpo will build a 20MW/20MWh facility in Sweden to deliver services to the grid in 2024, it was announced. Axpo acquired the project from developers - RES, a global renewable energy company, and Scandinavian Capacity Reserve (SCR). The lithium-ion based facility will be built in Landskrona, Sweden and connected to the grid by local energy company - Landskrona Energi. New lithium-ion based battery storage facility Axpo will build a 20MW/...

Volta Trucks, the pioneering and disruptive all-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has appointed Dr. Martin Hofmann as its Chief Technology and Information Officer, effective from May 1. Martin Hofmann brings a wealth of experience to Volta Trucks, most recently as Senior Vice President at Salesforce, with previous roles at the Volkswagen Group as its Group Chief Information Officer. Under Martin’s leadership, the Volkswagen Group started its digital transform...

Ingeteam and Magnon Green Energy have consolidated their relationship with the award of the operation and maintenance services contract for a plant owned by Ence’s renewable energy subsidiary - Magnon in Puertollano (Ciudad Real). The new contract for the maintenance of the Puertollano biomass renewable energy generation plant, known as Biollano, will run for 6 years and involves the hiring of around thirty people. Decarbonization of the Spanish energy system The agreement has also stre...

As users get bombarded with daily reminders to wear sunscreen by the pool and posters with cliché sayings, keep in mind the meaning behind them is vitally important. As an active participant on the company’s safety committee, it can be easy to turn a safety project into a long term, high investment project that will be as safe as possible. But it can often come at the expense of a simpler solution that can start making the front line worker safer NOW rather than tomorrow. Optimi...

Using wireless communication for tough industrial applications is not a new concept. The technology has been around for more than 30 years, with the use of proprietary radios. modernization of industrial networks However, with the modernization of industrial networks and the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), there has been an increasing demand for secure standardized industrial wireless technologies, or open wireless technologies, such as...

Instrumentation currently is far more capable and advanced than just a decade ago. Microprocessors continue to get more powerful and continue to reduce the power needed to perform tasks.  However, smart detectors and sensors now can operate reliably for years on a battery without any loss of performance. wireless technology With wireless technology able to carry more information quickly, why would someone choose to install anything tethered to DCS anymore?  Why aren’t battery...

Electrical test and measurement company Seaward has donated one of its advanced testers to a Yorkshire hospice to help improve the safe checking and testing of dozens of electrical appliances. The kind-hearted move has seen Barnsley Hospice receive a portable Seaward PrimeTest 100, which is now being used to check the in-service safety of dozens of items as part of the organization’s ongoing asset management and maintenance program. Providing specialist outreach These include electrical...

Emtelle, the pioneering global technology group, has signed an agreement to build and establish one of the world’s largest factories for the manufacture of fiber optic ducting and pre-connectors solutions in Abu Dhabi. Emtelle will invest around $50m (£42m) in the United Arab Emirates facility under a build-to-suit (BTS) agreement with Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi – KEZAD Group. new facility The massive new facility is a huge statement of intent from Emtelle as it looks...

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announces that it ranks fourth globally and first among Japanese companies in terms of international patent applications filed in 2022 according to the Switzerland-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). A high level of both ranking and the number of patent applications reflect Mitsubishi Electric's strategy to actively promote international patent applicants along with the globalization of its business. In 2022, the company has ranked within the...

C&S Electric has successfully exhibited at the Oil Gas and Power World Expo 2023, in Mumbai, India, from March 1st to March 3rd, 2023. The expo aimed to bring together stakeholders from the energy industry ecosystem across the Up, Mid & Downstream hydrocarbon sectors and the Power Generation, Transmission & Distribution industry to explore business opportunities and engage in real-time discussions across different time zones.  Improving operational efficiency The C&S boo...