Awards, Affiliations, & Milestones
Carpenter Receives 2015 MRS Innovation in Materials Characterization Award
The Materials Research Society’s (MRS) Innovation in Materials Characterization Award, endowed by Toh-Ming Lu and Gwo-Ching Wang, honors an outstanding advance in materials characterization that notably increases knowledge of the structure, composition, in situ behavior under outside stimulus, electronic behavior, or other characterization feature, of materials. This year the award will honor John M. Carpenter of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) “for innovations in neutron sources that have fundamentally changed their performance and enabled opportunities for further advancement of materials that improve the quality of life.” Carpenter will be presented with the award on April 8, 2015 during the Award Ceremony of the 2015 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco.
Chemline Named Top 20 High-Performance Distributor for Graco Foam & Polyurea Equipment
Chemline has been named a 2014 Top 20 High-Performance Distributor for Graco Foam and Polyurea Equipment (FPE). Distributors are selected based on their total annual equipment purchase amount from Graco, and this is Chemline’s second consecutive year as a Top 20 Distributor. Chemline is the only Top 20 Distributor primarily in the business of supplying OEM coating applications. Chemline offers customers a wide range of Graco sprayers and other equipment, and maintains four dedicated Graco Service Engineers on staff to help customers with application issues.
Rockwell Automation Named One of ‘World’s Most Ethical Companies‘
Industrial automation and information company Rockwell Automation has been named as one of the "World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies" for the seventh time by the Ethisphere Institute, a recognition that honors companies that continuously improve ethical leadership and corporate behavior at every level of their organizations.
Black & Veatch Joins Value of Water Coalition
Reflecting the critical need for broad-based investment in U.S. water infrastructure, Black & Veatch announced it has joined the Value of Water Coalition (VoW). The mission of the Coalition is to draw attention to the nation’s aging and underfunded water infrastructure. It aims to educate key stakeholders on the fundamental importance of water to the economic, environmental and community well-being of America.
Control System Integrators Association Marks 5-Years of Sustained Growth
The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA), a nonprofit trade association for system integrators, is marking a five-year period of sustained growth where members continue to be sought as qualified, reliable experts in the automation industry. Since 2009, CSIA has experienced annual increases in overall membership and revenue. "CSIA’s total member numbers are up 50 percent and world membership has doubled as we focus the CSIA value proposition message on Latin America and Europe," says Bob Lowe, executive director of CSIA. "This shows there is optimism in the system integration industry, which helps boost the effectiveness of our members and further establishes CSIA as a global industry leader."
Instrumentation Specialist Delta Controls Celebrates 65 years of Supporting the Process Industries
Process instrumentation specialist Delta Controls Ltd has remained a world leader in the design and manufacture of high quality temperature and pressure measurement instruments since its formation in 1950. Industrial process instrumentation has seen many changes over these 65 years, exemplified by Delta Controls’ investment in R&D and its continuous evolution of the product range which now includes some of the highest performing, reliable and accurate transmitters and switches available, accordign to the company. In addition to the fundamental advances in technology which have occurred during these 65 years, Delta Controls’ engineers have contributed to significant improvements in the reliability, accuracy and repeatability of the process instrumentation industry, and also to reducing the size of the instruments which have changed from being large, heavy and unwieldy to the considerably more compact and convenient models the company offers today.
Appointments
Hydraulic Institute Announces 2015-2016 Board of Directors & Officers
The pump manufacturing trade association, the Hydraulic Institute, announced its 2015-2016 Board of Directors and Officers during its Annual meeting recently held in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Board is primarily responsible for guiding the strategic direction of HI and providing organization oversight. George Harris, President & CEO, Hydro Inc. has been elected to serve as Chairman of the Board. John White, Jr., CEO, TACO Inc. has been elected to serve as HI President and remains as HI’s Vice President, Government & Regulatory Affairs.
The other officers are Michael S. Cropper, Director, Product Development, Sulzer Pumps (U.S.) Inc. who remains as Vice President, Technical Affairs; Bob Hendricks, President, Industrial Pump Operations, Flowserve who remains as HI Vice President, Member Services; Jeff Bredeson, Senior VP, Region Americas, WILO USA as HI Vice President, Knowledge & Education. Robert K. Asdal, HI Executive Director, also continues to serve as Secretary/Treasurer for the Hydraulic Institute.
Viega LLC Announces New Director of Marketing
Viega LLC announces Kevin C. Fox as the new director of marketing. In this position, Fox is responsible for directing and managing Viega’s marketing department, including strategic marketing research, planning and implementation, marketing financial tracking, and support of corporate research, marketing and brand initiatives. Fox joins Viega from Burns and McDonnell Engineering in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was the corporate marketing strategist.
MAVERICK Technologies Appoints Blankenship to Lead Power, Pulp and Paper Industries
MAVERICK Technologies has hired Bud Blankenship to fill the role of Industry Manager for Power, Pulp and Paper. In this capacity, he will oversee the company’s efforts to develop and fulfill client relationships and projects in these critical industries. Blankenship brings more than 40 years of experience in operations management, business development and project management related to automation in the U.S. and internationally. Prior to joining MAVERICK, Blankenship served as manager of business development for Mustang Automation and Control. That stint followed more than 20 years as the manager of refinery process operations for Ashland Oil, the director of refining at Litwin Engineering, and the global refinery management for ABB.
Coastal Flow Names Rhodes As Permian Basin Operations Manager
The Coastal Flow Measurement family of companies has hired Earnie Rhodes as Permian Basin Operations Manager. Rhodes comes to Coastal Flow with well over 20 years of field experience working for major and independent companies throughout the oil and gas industry, with a focus on all aspects of wellhead automation. In his new role as Permian Basin Operations Manager, Rhodes will be responsible for advanced hydrocarbon measurement and field services with a focus on communications and telemetry. His activities will range from initial site surveys and path studies through to systems deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
SOR Increases Staff in Dubia, UAE Regional Office
SOR Controls Group announced the addition of Arthi Gopalan as Inside Sales Engineer to the growing SOR Middle East Regional Office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Arthi is responsible for quotations, order entry and basic technical support for the SOR, Smart Sensors (SSi) and SETEX Thermowell Products lines.? Arthi is a graduate of Anna University in Chennai, India, where she completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation & Control and a Master of Communication Systems. She worked as an Instrumentation & Control lecturer for five years before moving into her previous role of Sales Coordination Engineer.
MPG Pipeline Selects Mark Denton As Project Superintendent
MPG Pipeline Contractors has selected Mark Denton as project superintendent. Denton has more than 30 years’ experience in the pipeline industry and has spent the last 14 years serving as a project superintendent. Denton has managed projects throughout the United States, spanning from Wyoming to Florida. His proficiency in the execution of pipeline projects ranges from coordination, fabrication, installation, maintenance, repair and remediation of pipelines and meter stations.
Acquisitions, Expansions & Partnerships
exida Establishes exida Japan
exida, which provides functional safety certification for the process industries, has announced the establishment of exida Japan. “Functional safety and cybersecurity are becoming an important concern in the Japanese industry automation market," said Kaoru Sonoda, exida Japan managing director, in a press release. "With the new office, exida can provide the necessary services for this increase in market demands."
Rotork Acquires Masso
Rotork has increased its range of flow control products and services for the worldwide marine and offshore industries with the acquisition of Masso Ind s.p.a., a manufacturer of shipboard valve remote control systems (VRCS). Designed for critical safety applications, Masso VRCS solutions encompass hydraulic and electro-hydraulic systems that are compatible with most integrated automation systems (IAS). Based in Valduggia in northern Italy, Masso will join the Rotork Fluid Systems division, where its products dovetail into existing ranges of fluid power flow control equipment serving the oil & gas, power generation, marine and manufacturing industries.
OMEGA Engineering Inaugurates New Office in Mexico
OMEGA Engineering is celebrating its new office in Mexico. This is in line with OMEGA’s strategy to expand its business and leadership globally. Headquartered in the USA, the company has been a provider of process measurement and control solutions in the country for over 50 years, and is part of Spectris plc, a supplier of productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls listed on the London Stock Exchange. The OMEGA Engineering Mexico office will be located in the San Pedro Garza García (Monterrey metropolitan area), in the state of Nuevo León.
Vector to Provide Exclusive Representation for Endress+Hauser Greater Houston
Effective April 1, 2015, Vector Controls and Automation Group and Endress+Hauser will be teaming up to provide their customers with a single-source supplier for all sales, service and solutions in all markets and industries across the greater Houston area. This is in addition to Vector CAG’s coverage throughout Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, and portions of Illinois, Arkansas and Texas.
GE & Kemira Create Global Alliance to Bring Water Technology to the Pulp and Paper Industry
GE and Kemira announced a formal distribution agreement, which combines GE’s advanced water technology with Kemira’s on-site services to deliver a combined offering to the global pulp and paper industry. For the first time, GE’s newest and most advanced boiler and utility area cooling product technologies as well as membrane cleaning chemistry and the entire chemistry water portfolio is now available to the pulp and paper industry. Also included are the remote monitoring and diagnostics products—including the InSight Knowledge Management Solution and TruSense—and Novus polymers for wastewater treatment. Pulp and paper manufacturers also will have access to experts at GE’s Service Reliability Center for 24-hour monitoring and support, all backed by both GE and Kemira on-site expertise.
