Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the development of the SMARTDAC+® GM data acquisition system, and will be releasing it to the market on November 17.  The SMARTDAC+ GM data acquisition system improves operational efficiency due to its modular design, which facilitates the mounting and removal of modules. In addition, the SMARTDAC+ GM system supports Bluetooth wireless communications for use with handheld mobile devices.

Data acquisition systems are widely used in many industrial and test & measurement applications in a large variety of industries to acquire and record process data such as temperature, voltage, current, flow rate, and pressure. In 1951 Yokogawa became the first company in Japan to bring an electronic self-balancing recorder to market, and in 1986 introduced a multipoint data acquisition and recording system. Yokogawa currently offers a wide variety of data acquisition systems.

Depending on the application, most data acquisition systems utilize a variety of modules to acquire a wide range of data. Historically, many of these systems were equipped with a base plate for the mounting of modules. Base plates are now less common, as users prefer designs that allow the easy mounting and removal of modules. The data acquisition systems in use today can be classified into two types: those that are equipped with a monitor, and those that are not. In the latter case, the systems must be hooked up to a PC and operated using its screen and keyboard. To better accommodate the needs of its customers, Yokogawa developed the SMARTDAC+ GM modular data acquisition system. With modular I/O users can scale their data acquisition system based on their process requirement, with the ability to upgrade as their needs evolve. Additionally, wireless Bluetooth connection allows wireless communication with mobile devices.

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National Instruments, the provider of solutions that enable engineers and scientists to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges, today announced a compact solution for high-speed vision applications. The NI CVS-1459RT is a small, rugged vision system with a quad-core Intel Atom processor and two dedicated USB 3.0 ports for USB3 Vision cameras.

“The NI Compact Vision System is my go-to solution for vision applications where reliability and uptime are key,” said Robert Eastlund, vice president of sales for Graftek Imaging Inc. “Now I can leverage the easy connectivity and high throughput of USB3 while taking advantage of new features for high-performance processing and HMI integration. The NI CVS-1459RT enables high-resolution, high-speed industrial vision solutions.”

The NI CVS-1459RT is programmed with either LabVIEW system design software or Vision Builder for Automated Inspection (AI). Engineers have the option of using LabVIEW FPGA to further customize the FPGA-enabled I/O and tightly synchronize vision inspection results with other parts of industrial systems, such as encoders and proximity sensors.

The NI CVS-1459RT is based on the LabVIEW reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture, an integral part of the NI graphical system design platform. A modern approach to designing, prototyping and deploying embedded monitoring and control systems, graphical system design combines the open LabVIEW programming environment with commercial off-the-shelf hardware to dramatically simplify development so engineers can combine powerful vision tools, I/O, industrial communication, data logging and human machine interfaces (HMIs) into a single environment.

Key Benefits:

• The rugged form factor is ideal for industrial applications up to 55 ºC

• Synchronization with automation devices for camera and lighting triggering via onboard industrial I/O

• High-bandwidth camera interface with dual USB 3.0 ports for compatibility with the latest low-cost USB3 Vision cameras; ability to use ports with peripherals such as external storage for logging data

• Processing power with quad-core Intel Atom processor and 64-bit NI Linux Real-Time OS

• Board-level versions available for OEM applications

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Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it has developed a new low-power version of the DPharp EJA-E series differential pressure/pressure transmitter and will release this product in all markets other than Japan and Europe on December 15. The European release will follow in 2015. This new low-power product outputs both 1 to 5 V DC and HART signals and has been developed to meet the specific requirements of oil and gas exploration and production (upstream) applications.

Yokogawa's differential pressure/pressure transmitters are playing a key role in achieving the objectives of the Evolution 2015 mid-term business plan, which calls for the company to focus on the booming upstream oil and gas industries, and in the implementation of a control business strategy that commits the company to capturing the No.1 position in the global sensor market. With this new low-power DPharp transmitter, Yokogawa aims to expand its control business and achieve the targets set out in its Evolution 2015 plan.

Differential pressure/pressure transmitters are widely used in the oil, petrochemical, and chemical industries to measure the pressure, flow rate, and level of liquid, gas, and steam. They can be found both in plants and in the field, at locations such as oil and gas wells.  Thanks to the global rise in demand for energy, oil and gas resources are being actively developed. As technological progress in recent years has made it possible to develop and produce oil and gas in places with poor infrastructure (such as electricity and communications), instruments and devices in such areas must be able to function on a limited power supply from solar power or batteries.

Yokogawa Meters & Instruments Corporation announces that it has developed the AQ7280 series of optical time domain reflectometers (OTDRs) for the installation and maintenance of fiber-optic cables, and will release a total of nine models for this product series on September 29.

The AQ7280 is a high-performance instrument that is used to measure fiber-optic cable distances and losses and to identify failure locations. The AQ7280 succeeds the high-end AQ7275 OTDR, which has been used for the installation and maintenance of a wide range of network systems, including core, metro, and access networks. For improved efficiency and measurement quality, the AQ7280 has a capacitive touchscreen with the same easy-to-use multi-touch functionality that can be found in smartphones and other handheld devices.

Driven by factors such as the widespread use of smartphones and the increase in video-related Internet traffic, there is a rising need around the world for the installation of fiber-optic cable that is capable of the high-speed transmission of large volumes of data. An ever increasing amount of fiber-optic cable is being installed for core network systems between cities, metro network systems within cities, and access network systems that connect central offices to subscribers. As OTDRs are used to evaluate installation and maintenance work, it is important to make these devices easy and intuitive to operate so that even operators who are less familiar with fiber optic cable measurement techniques can produce high quality measurements in less time. In addition, there is an increasing need particularly in emerging countries for the ability to measure the very long cable lengths that are typical with core network systems. Also, due to the variety of fiber-optic cables that are in use and the existence of multiple network communications standards, there is a need for OTDR units that are capable of measuring different wavelengths. To meet such needs, Yokogawa has developed the AQ7280.