In Brief

• The US consultancy Motion Tech Trends is developing expert system tools that will help specifiers of motion components to search for these components via a Web site. The ComponentSelector database will contain specifications and characteristics for all motor technologies including AC, DC, rotary and linear types. A demo can be found at www.motioninfo.com

• BP Chemicals is hosting a field demonstration of Foundation Fieldbus` high-speed Ethernet (HSE) and flexible function block (FFB) technologies at a plant in Ohio, US. FFBs are key application-specific component of the open FF architecture supporting control strategies such as SCADA, batch control, PLC sequencing, co-ordinated drive control, I/O interfacing and gateways to other plant networks. There will be live demonstration at the BP site in May.

• The German robot-maker Kuka has developed a palletising robot which incorporates carbon fibre composite materials, making it light and fast without sacrificing stiffness. The KR 100-2PA robot is designed to stack loads of up to 100kg at heights of up to 3m, at up to 600 cycles per hour.

• The ISA`s executive board has approved its merger with OMAC - the Open Modular Architecture users` group. OMAC will now act as a subsidiary of ISA, which says that the new arrangements should help OMAC to achieve greater success in establishing guidelines in areas such as packaging, CNC and manufacturing architecture.

• The US motor developer UQM Technologies has won a contract from the US Army`s Tank Automotive and Armaments Command to develop an advanced, wheel-mounting permanent magnet vehicle propulsion motor for use in hybrid electric combat vehicles.