Instrument family enjoys expanded protocol options
Alicat Scientific
This company has expanded the communications-protocol offerings on its pressure, flow and liquid instrumentation products (photo), adding EtherNet/IP and DeviceNet as options. The recently added industrial automation protocols enable integration of instruments from this manufacturer with programmable logic controllers (PLCs) running EtherNet/IP or DeviceNet. Realtime data — including mass flow, volumetric flow, pressure, temperature, selected gas calibration, setpoint and totalized flow of gases — can be read centrally by the PLC and used to manage controllers and meters. With response times as low as 100 ms, controllers rapidly and precisely monitor and control parameters in many CPI applications. — Alicat Scientific, Tucson, Ariz.