News archive 2008

AUMA provides technical data sheets in the .docx and .xslx format

Muellheim, 1 August 2008

Already some time ago, AUMA changed the format of the technical data sheets to the new Office formats. Some customers were rather angry and could not understand this step, as they still work with former versions of Microsoft Office and cannot handle these formats.

After almost ten years, Microsoft introduced new file formats for nearly all Office applications with its new Office 2007. The letter X was added to all new formats, such as .docx for Word documents or .xlsx for Excel spreadsheets. The X in the new filename extension stands for XML.

XML has become an established standard, also in non-Microsoft products, and facilitates the data exchange between different programs.

And what about the old Office applications?

A new data format always has its problems:
Users of old office applications cannot handle the new format at first.

But Microsoft has also thought of the users of Office 2000, XP and 2003.
Using the free Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack even older Office programs can read or write the new Office 2007 file formats.

Download  Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

The technical data sheets are still also available in PDF format or as a web page.

Internet/website survey

Muellheim, 25 June 2008

We do not design our website for ourselves, but for you, our users.

It is high time to ask for your opinion!

Please take five minutes to answer the 17 questions of our questionnaire. You help us and eventually yourselves.

If you have some useful comments, we can further improve our website. For you.

And if there is something you really like about our website, please let us know where we have followed the right road.

Talking about useful things and help:  Every month, you can win 3 useful Swiss pocket knives. 
The winners will be drawn by lot among all participants.

Click here to get to the  survey.

Federal Cross of Merit awarded to Rudolf Dinse and Werner Riester

Muellheim, 29 May 2008

For their achievements as entrepreneurs, the company founders Werner Riester and Rudolf Dinse were awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

What started as a two-person garage company in the 1960s has now become an organisation with 1,700 employees worldwide.

During the ceremony in the Martinskirche in Muellheim, special emphasis was put on their committed work in the new German Federal States as well as their support for academic, cultural and social institutions.

Richard Drautz, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics of Baden-Württemberg, on behalf of the Federal President, Horst Köhler, presented the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany to the two AUMA company founders.

"The Federal State Government [of Baden-Württemberg] is very proud of a company that was founded by the two gentlemen in this federal state and that has been expanded into a company which is known worldwide," said Drautz. "Despite all economic success, you have stuck to your native state ," the Federal State Secretary pointed out and praised the company's decision not only do research and development, but also to have their production located in Germany.

For many years, Werner Riester and Rudolf Dinse having been sponsoring social institutions such as the support groups for children with cancer in Freiburg and Magdeburg.

Mayor René Lohs commented that it was the first time in the 1250-year history of Müllheim that two Federal Crosses of Merit were awarded on the same day. The awarding of the Federal Cross of Merit was something special, even for a city with citizens like these in their own ranks. Lohs emphasised the social commitment of the two entrepreneurs. With their 25 apprentices, AUMA is the company with the highest number of apprentices in Müllheim. Lohs also reminded of the good working atmosphere and the abolition of the assembly line work at AUMA in 1996.

The managing director of the Wirtschaftsverbands Industrieller Unternehmen Baden [Trade association of industrial companies in Baden] (WVIB), Christoph Münzer, congratulated on behalf of the association and its more than 900 medium-sized member companies with approx. 140,000 workplaces.

Both Mr Dinse and Mr Riester emphasised that they received the award als on behalf of the many employees of the company. AUMA's growth had only been possible because of the diligence and the committed work of the company's employees.

Test labels for AUMA products

Cologne, 14 May 2008

A new test label was created to mark AUMA products on which inspection and maintenance work was performed.

• The labels are attached to the actuators or gearboxes once the maintenance work has been performed.
• The labels are suitable for indoor and outdoor use and have excellent adhesive qualities on nearly all surfaces 
• The labels are time-effective and practice-oriented test marks for actuators and gearboxes
• The test labels are ideally suited for internal and regular schedule review and recording of dates for maintenance work 
• The labels also ensure the observance of the stipulated quality standards (of major importance for explosion-proof actuators)

Valve gearbox in new dimensions

Muelheim, 29 April 2008

The growing world population requires increasingly effective energy and water supply systems. The demands on capacity of the plants and their efficiency continue to grow, but at the same time the costs must be reduced. Pipelines with larger diameters or plants, which are operated with higher pressures, are typical of this development. Extremely high torques are required to operate butterfly and ball valves in such applications.

AUMA has met this trend with the development of the GS 630.3 part-turn gearbox. With the new size GS 630.3, the maximum torque has virtually been doubled from 360,000 Nm of the hitherto largest AUMA part-turn gearbox GS 500 to 675,000 Nm.

The GS 630.3 combines all typical characteristics of the smaller sizes. High end stop strength ensured by the AUMA typical end stop technology, adjustable swing angle between 80° and 100°, and a complete internal geared wheel; thus multi-turn operation is possible without the end stops. For valve attachment, the new flange size F90/AUMA was developed, basically complying with the EN ISO 5211 which, however, does not yet include flanges transmitting such large torques.

Combining the gearbox with an AUMA SA multi-turn actuator results in a part-turn actuator. However, it is also possible to use a gearbox/primary reduction gearing combination with a high reduction ratio for manual operation of the valve.

AUMA at conference on tunnel safety

Muelheim, 04 April 2008

4. International conference Tunnel Safety and Ventilation
- New developments on tunnel safety -

Messecenter Graz -Tagungszentrum on 21 - 22 April 2008

Electric actuators are gear motors which have been designed for the remote control of valves and dampers.

Safe communication

With regard to data communication, two specific tasks have to be solved in the automation of tunnel ventilation and exhaust systems:

• Long distances between the control room and the actuators and between the actuators themselves.
• High data reliability. To be able to react in the event of a fire.

Data reliability can be achieved by doubling the components involved. AUMA supports several redundancy concepts. The data cables have to be designed as redundant cables; however it is also possible to obtain AUMA actuators with two bus interfaces.

The long distances can be covered using fibre optic cables which are directly connected to the actuators. Profibus DP has become the established standard bus protocol
. However, AUMA also offers other fieldbus systems such as Modbus, Foundation Fieldbus, etc. When using the SIMA Master Station by AUMA, it is possible to install a redundant Modbus RTU loop with copper cables up to a cable length of 150 km.

A large number of references

AUMA actuators have proved their suitability on many projects. More than 2,000 actuators are installed in more than 20 tunnels, including the Tauern tunnel, the Gotthard tunnel or the Arlberg tunnel, for example.

AUMA service staff certified according to SCC

Muellheim, 18 March 2008

Safety Certifcate Contractors (SCC) is a certification procedure for safety management systems which considers relevant occupational health and environmental aspects.

By increased efforts in occupational health and safety, chemical and petrochemical companies managed to considerably reduce their workplace accident rates.

Meanwhile, these efforts are also expected from partner companies, i.e. contractors, performing technical service work on the premises of chemical and mineral oil companies.  

What are the advantages of SCC?

For the contractor

• reduced consequential costs from accidents
• increased staff motivation
• improved quality and environmental consciousness
• competitive edge for certified companies
• improved legal certainty and accountability

For the customer

• reduced consequential costs from accidents which fall within the responsibility of the customer
• aid to decision-making when selecting suppliers

6 executive managers working in service, 1 service engineer and 27 service technicians from all service centers in Germany  were trained and and passed the rather difficult exam.

The certificates have a validity of 10 years, after that both the training and the exam has to be repeated.

AUMA has some news in the field of fieldbus systems

Muelheim, 6 March 2008

The device integrations required for the use of the acyclic Profibus DP-V1 services of the AUMATIC are now available for download ( EDD or  DTM)

After installation the EDD or DTM of the AUMATIC with Profibus DP-V1 offer convenient access to parameters of the AUMATIC functions, the operating data, the electronic name plate and further helpful information on the current status of an AUMATIC actuator connected via Profibus, such as the current actuator position or the current actuator torque (optional for Non-Intrusive actuators).

Both technologies offer the user simple access to the fieldbus device data for commissioning, setting and configuration and for maintenance and diagnostic purposes.

Due to specifications of these technologies determined in international standards, it is assured that not only data on actuators but also on sensors, pumps or any other fieldbus devices are available in a uniform representation form at the same operation and monitoring stations.

This enables standardised user access from one central position in the control room to all device types of different manufacturers connected via fieldbus.

For further notes and information on the EDD or the DTM of the AUMATIC, refer to the following documents in the "Documents" section:

 Manual Device integration AUMATIC AC 01.1/ACExC 01.1, Profibus DP-V1 EDD for Simatic PDM
 Manual Device integration AUMATIC AC 01.1/ACExC 01.1, Profibus DP-V1 DTM for FDT

AUMA China launches expanded website

Muellheim, 21 February 2008

After AUMA Priwody OOO in Moscow, AUMA Actuators Tianjin Co., Ltd is the second subsidiary with a very extensive website in their national language.
With quite an effort, detailed product information, the service und the company section were added to the existig website.

Even the automatically created presentation of the documents was translated into Chinese to the extent possible.

At  www.auma-china.com, visitors and customers from China can now find the same information as on AUMA's main website.