WASHINGTON, Sept. 27—With cities responsible for the lion’s share of maintaining quality water and wastewater services, The U.S. Conference of Mayors released today a national survey that examines the status of asset management programs in water and sewer services in major cities. The report was released at the Mayor’s Annual Water Summit in San Francisco and shows how cities use asset management programs, which offer cost-efficient ways to acquire, operate, maintain and rehabilitate water and sewer systems.

Process industries can make great savings by preventing equipment failure and production interruptions. This was the experience of ISP Chemicals Inc. After installing Emotron M20 shaft power monitors, the annual maintenance and downtime costs for three of its pumps were reduced considerably – from $90,000 to zero. The return on investment was immediate.

AUSTIN, TEXAS (September 17, 2007) – Emerson Process Management announces the release of an API 670-compliant protection capability as part of its online machinery monitoring solution for turbomachinery.  API 670 is the American Petroleum Institute’s globally accepted definition of industry best practices for turbomachinery protection. The CSI 6000 Machinery Health Monitor provides the protection capability and complements Emerson’s existing predictive diagnostics and performance monitoring technologies.  Online machinery monitoring delivers actionable information on mechanical equipment health so plant personnel can maximize plant availability and production.

CHARLESTON, SC—September 18, 2007—The Life Cycle Institute, the learning source for optimizing asset reliability and performance, is now accepting registrations for the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Course. This five-day course is designed for people who are responsible for managing material costs, overtime and maintenance repair costs. Participants will learn how to coordinate the roles and responsibilities of maintenance supervisors and planners, and how to sustain management’s commitment and support. Life Cycle Engineering’s planning and scheduling experts will help class participants master scheduling and coordinating work effectively and learn the best ways to handle common maintenance problems, delays and inefficiencies.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Sept. 18, 2007) - Cantronic Systems Inc. ("Cantronic") (TSX VENTURE:CTS) is pleased to announce the creation of Thermography division with the appointment of Jon Chynoweth as Executive Vice President of the division. Mr. Chynoweth will be based in the United States and will report directly to the President/CEO of Cantronic.

Mr. Chynoweth’s last position was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Mikron Infrared for the Thermal Imaging Division. While at Mikron Infrared, growth in thermography-related products sales over a period of nine years increased annually at a rate of approximately 20% per year, with 2006 gross sales over $12m US dollars.

Invensys’ InFusion Condition Manager is a real-time asset condition management component for the company’s InFusion enterprise control system (ECS) and other platforms. It collects real-time condition data from a broad range of plant data sources, analyzes and contextualizes the data, and then triggers and manages the appropriate operations, engineering, or maintenance actions.

Other vendors’ condition monitoring solutions tend to focus on basic monitoring of field devices and/or rotating equipment. In contrast, InFusion Condition Manager collects, aggregates, and analyzes real-time data from the full array of plant production assets, including (but not limited to) sensors and actuators, pumps, motors, compressors, turbines, dryers, and heat exchangers; and even entire process units. 

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SmartSignal Corporation, the premiere provider of applications that predict, diagnose, and prioritize impending equipment failures, today announced the appointment of Stacey Kacek to the position of Vice-President of Product Development. Ms. Kacek is an accomplished business executive with 17 years of experience in development engineering and product management.

Ms. Kacek comes to SmartSignal from Motorola, where, most recently, she was the Director of Product Management for Motorola’s Public Safety Application Portfolio. At SmartSignal, she will be responsible for all product development activities, including product architecture, product management, software development, quality assurance, and customer service.

By Paul Seidenman and David J. Spanovich
AviationWeek

E-enabled tools are relegating crystal balls and guesswork to the dust bin, but there still is work to do.

Knowing in advance when a system or component is going to fail, removing the offending part from an aircraft, and having a replacement positioned where and when it needs to be ready for installation, test and sign off—all with little or no human intervention—is the Holy Grail in terms of aircraft support. In such a world, there would be dramatically fewer maintenance-related flight delays and cancellations. The aviation industry has made significant progress in advancing toward this operational nirvana, particularly as it applies to powerplants, but still has a long way to go. To realize the dream of truly predictive maintenance, the MRO industry is pursuing e-enabled power tools or e-enabled maintenance.

Cedip, based in Croissy-Beaubourg, France, manufactures cooled mid- and long-wave infrared cameras for the science and security markets and high-performance, stabilized gimbals—a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object around an axis—for airborne commercial and government applications.

For the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2006, Cedip reported revenue of $25.1 million and operating income of $4.3 million.