Control Techniques` vision expands beyond drives

Control Techniques has set up an operation to market ancillaries to its main drives business such as HMIs, and software products including SCADA packages, visualisation tools and OPC servers.

The CT Vision business is selling a mixture of products developed in-house, as well as badged items, such as the HMIs. One of the software offerings is a SCADA package for medium-to-large drives systems, based on Intellution`s FIX32 technology. The CT32 Easy SCADA package is said to cost less than standard SCADA products as well as being easier to set up with just one I/O point per drive.

Another item is the Vision portfolio is a range of intelligent operator interfaces designed for use with smaller drives installations. The CTIU range includes systems ranging from simple text readouts, to displays with full animation and graphics and up to 300 alarm, menu or drive status driven pages.

CT is also offering a free graphical, visualisation, maintenance, set-up and commissioning tool called SystemWise. The company says the program will allow machine-builders to take the uncertainty and potential for errors out of panel building by allowing them to create a mimic of their system, including drives, lamps, pushbuttons, switches and meters in software.

Finally, CT Vision has introduced an OPC (OLE for Process Control) server that allows its CTNet communications protocol to link into many standard SCADA packages .