WEG has completed a multimillion Euro expansion of its Centre of Excellence for Drive Development at its Watt Drive geared motor subsidiary in Austria. Watt Drive now has more than 10,000m2 of floor space, with 60% more space than before devoted to CNC production and 20% more to storage. A further six-figure investment is planned for the site’s machine pool in the period to 2023.
Rockwell Automation has announced that the temporary salary reductions that it implemented on its US employees in May in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be reversed at the end of November 2020. It will also reinstate its match for US employees participating in 401(k) retirement savings plans at the same time.
Schneider Electric is calling for a revolution in automation technologies, based on open standards, that, it says, will “unleash innovation and boost efficiency, resilience, productivity, agility and sustainability”. It has unveiled what it describes as “the world’s first software-centric automation system” and says the time is right for a bold move in industrial automation. It is urging industrial users, vendors, OEMs, systems integrators to embrace what it calls “universal automation”.
Rockwell Automation and Microsoft have announced a five-year expansion of their existing partnership, aimed at empowering manufacturers with the agility, intelligence, and scale to deliver digital transformation initiatives from the cloud to the edge.
The Italian optical and magnetic measurement specialist Lika Electronic has acquired the German encoder manufacturer, Bogen Electronic, for an undisclosed sum.
Rockwell Automation has acquired the Spanish industrial cybersecurity services provider, Oylo, saying that the acquisition will accelerate its global delivery capability in this rapidly developing market and expand the cybersecurity services that it offers to the industrial market. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
The Swedish industrial communications specialist HMS Industrial Networks has acquired a 70% stake in the Dutch business Procentec, which specialises in diagnostics and monitoring of industrial networks.
ABB has acquired the Dutch delta robot manufacturer Codian Robotics, whose products includes a hygienic line, suitable for food and beverage and pharmaceuticals applications. The deal accelerates ABB’s involvement in the expanding field of delta robots, which are used mainly for precision pick-and-place duties. Both have parties agreed not to disclose any details regarding the purchase price.
Emerson has bought the Italian industrial software developer, the Progea Group, for an undisclosed sum. Progea supplies IIoT (industrial internet of things), plant analytics, HMI (human machine interface) and Scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) software.
Atlas Copco is buying the US automated metrology supplier Perceptron for $68.9m in cash and plans to add it to its newly created machine vision division, which it formed after buying the German machine vision specialist Isra Vision for $1.19bn earlier this year.
Automatica, the German robotics and automation exhibition, originally due to take place in June this year, before being rescheduled to December, will now become “a compact in-person event” taking place in mid-2021. The next full-scale Automatica will be held in June 2022. The show’s organiser, Messe München, is also planning to expand its digital activities.
The motion controls manufacturer Elmo Motion Control has been certified to the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management systems, providing assurance that it complies with regulations and laws relating to environmental protection and emergency preparedness.
Cyber-attacks on manufacturers increased dramatically during the first half of this year, making manufacturing the second most frequently targeted sector, according to a new report from the cyber-security analyst, CrowdStrike.
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation into Eaton’s planned $3.3bn sale of its hydraulics business to Danfoss. The Commission is concerned that the proposed sale, announced earlier this year, may reduce competition in the supply of hydraulic components for mobile machinery.
A court in China has upheld an earlier ruling that a group of Chinese companies infringed Mitsubishi Electric trademarks by manufacturing and selling “a large quantity” of factory automation equipment including PLCs, AC servodrives and inverters, that carried counterfeit Mitsubishi markings.
