National Instruments and Siemens announce cooperative initiative
National Instruments Corporation and the Automation and Drives Group of National Instruments Corporation today announced a cooperative effort to develop measurement and automation solutions for a wide range of applications requiring precise measurement and control of manufacturing processes. The announcement was made at the annual industrial trade fair in Hanover, Germany.
The working relationship brings together Siemens strength in manufacturing automation and control with the leadership of NI in automated test and measurement. Officials from both companies said that this initiative is aimed at enabling engineers to make more sophisticated measurements on their processes and to feed that information back to their control systems. In turn, they can make more informed decisions that ultimately improve overall manufacturing quality and efficiency.
"For many years, NI has embarked on a strategy of taking measurement technology to more diverse applications and industries," said John Graff, NI Vice President of Marketing. "Now, engineers in industries ranging from semiconductor to automotive can improve their overall manufacturing efficiency using these well integrated solutions from Siemens and NI."
Siegfried Oblasser, Siemens Vice President of SIMATIC Systems added, "together, we can offer well integrated industrial measurement solutions to a broad array of industries that already benefit from Siemens control systems."
The initiative begins with integration of National Instruments PC-based industrial measurement products and Siemens leading SIMATIC WinAC PC-based manufacturing automation systems. With time, NI and Siemens plan to develop higher-level measurement and automation solutions that span the entire length of a factory floor or other production facility.
With the first step of this cooperative initiative, engineers can use WinAC with NI measurement and signal conditioning hardware to create higher-speed control applications that monitor the condition and performance of factory floor equipment.
Using WinAC control software with standard PCs, industrial computers, or PXI systems, engineers can use Siemens STEP 7 programming software to develop control applications that run on a PC with Windows NT. STEP 7 is the standard software environment used for programming all Siemens SIMATIC hardware, including PLCs, PCs, and operator panels.
NI also is developing an application for its LabVIEW graphical development environment to communicate with Siemens WinAC control software. LabVIEW is among the world's most innovative software for measurement applications. Engineers using WinAC now can integrate advanced, high-speed measurements from LabVIEW into their control applications. With WinAC for control and LabVIEW for higher-speed measurement and monitoring, such as vibration analysis, engineers can perform machine control and monitoring in a more integrated fashion.
For more information about the cooperative initiative between NI and Siemens, visit ni.com/siemens. NI and Siemens are demonstrating on Monday how their products work together at Hannover Messe, which includes a world fair for mechanical and electrical engineers working in factory automation. As many as 185,000 people from around the world were expected to attend the fair.
About NI
NI leverages commercial technologies, such as industry-standard computers and the Internet, to deliver customer-defined measurement and automation solutions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, NI has more than 2,600 employees and direct sales offices in more than 35 countries. NI is increasing the productivity of engineers and scientists worldwide by delivering easy-to-integrate software and modular hardware. In fiscal year 2000, NI recorded its 24th consecutive year of double-digit growth with net revenue totaling $410 million. For the past two consecutive years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. NI investment information may be obtained from the Company's Investor Relations Department on the Web at ni.com/nati, by sending e-mail to nati@ni.com, or by calling (512) 683-5090.
About Siemens A&D
The Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), Nuremberg/Erlangen, Germany, is the leading manufacturer in this field worldwide. Products supplied by Siemens A&D include standard products for the manufacturing and process industries and for the electrical installation industry, as well as system solutions, for example for machine tools, and solutions for whole industries such as the automation of entire automobile factories or chemical plants.
Supplementing this range of products and services, A&D also offers software tools for linking production and management (vertical IT integration). A&D employs 54,000 people worldwide and in fiscal year 2000 (to September 30) earned a pre-tax profit of €872 million on sales of €7.9 billion and orders of €8.2 billion.