Education Center
In a joint effort, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif., Concilium Technologies, Republic of South Africa, and the department of electrical, electronic, and computer engineering at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, have developed one of the largest electrical engineering training laboratories in the world.
The Agilent-Computer Aided Education Center is an undergraduate laboratory with 144 workstations, each fitted with an Agilent DSOX2002A digital oscilloscope with a built-in function generator, a U3401A 4 1/2 digit dual-display digital multimeter, an E3630A tripleoutput dc power supply, and various RF design and analysis software programs.
Capabilities Expanded
Sil-Pro, Delano, Minn., has purchased 60 to 100-ton Sodick Plustech thermoplastic injectionmolding machines and converted a 5-ton liquid-silicone rubber machine back to thermoplastics to handle increased demands for thermoplastics molding.
Sil-Pro is a contract manufacturer specializing in molded and extruded silicone, thermoplastics, and fullservice medical-device contract manufacturing and assembly.
Acquisition
The Drives & Motion Div. of Yaskawa America Inc., Waukegan, Ill., has acquired Wermac Electric Ltd. in Calgary, AB, Canada. Wermac has been an innovator in applying variable-speed drives and electrical controls in the oil and gas industry.
The new division, Yaskawa Wermac, will reside at the former Wermac Electric facility in Calgary, AB, and is now a division of Yaskawa Motoman Canada, a subsidiary of Yaskawa America Inc. The Drives & Motion Div. manufactures industrial automation equipment, including include industrial ac drives, commercial HVAC drives, spindle drives and motors, servosystems, motion controllers, and low-voltage industrial control switches.
Pecora Corp., Harleysville, Pa., a manufacturer of weatherproofing products, has acquired the deckcoating product line of Carlisle Coatings and Waterproofing Inc., Wylie, Tex.
Personnel
Brent Ekiss, technical sales representative with Fabrico, Kennesaw, Ga., will now pursue LED market opportunities in North America. Fabrico offers design and manufacturing services for flexible materials.
Piezomotor Technologies
A 70-page brochure from PI (Physik Instrumente) Inc., Auburn, Mass., a manufacturer of piezo-positioning equipment, covers three types of piezomotors — inertial motors, often referred to as stickslip motors; ultrasonic motors; and stepping (walk) type motors. Background information on the operating principles and physics behind of each type of motor is included as well as applications and commercially available products with drawings and technical data.
The piezomotor brochure can be downloaded at: www.piezo-motor. net/pdf/PI_Brochure_Piezomotor_ Piezo_Motor_PiezoWalk_Ultrasonic_ Actuator.pdf
Employer of Year Finalist
Mouser Electronics Inc., Mansfield, Tex., an electronic-component distributor, which employs nearly 1,000 people, is a top-five finalist to be the 2012 Texas Employer of the Year. The Texas Workforce Commission will announce the winner at its annual conference Nov. 28-30.
If chosen, it would be the second award Mouser receives at the conference — the other is the Local Employer of Excellence Award for Tarrant County, nominated by the Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County.
Free Compiler
Microchip Technology Inc., Chandler, Ariz., is offering the free MPLAB XC32++ Compiler with unlimited code generation. The MPLAB XC32++ supports all of Microchip’s 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers and lets designers develop and reuse C++ projects by making all of Microchip’s C language extensions available in an environment that is compliant with the majority of C++98 and C++2003 ANSI standards. The compiler also includes Dinkumware standard C, C++, and template libraries.
The compiler can be downloaded at www.microchip.com/get/10E7.