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Posted May 09 2008

Charlottesville, VA - GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, announced that it has received a order from Macawber Beekay of New Delhi, India for a hardware and software material handling solution that provides environmental pollution control and energy conservation. The $1MM order includes a complete hardware and software solution delivering centralized digitized data and multi-platform control resulting in a cost-effective control solution.

Macawber Beekay's unique Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying systems address the region's need for environmental controls by offering solutions to the bulk material handling problems of core sectors of the Indian industry, i.e., power, cement, steel, and chemicals. In the past few years, the company has been steadily increasing its share in the material handling market.

"Macawber Beekay has been working closely with GE Fanuc for five years," said Vish Palekar, general manager GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms - India and GE Enterprise Solutions - India. "All of our work together has paid off with this substantial solution purchase."

The two companies have worked together on various projects with NTPC, BHEL, Indian state electricity boards and private power companies including Reliance, Jindals and Vedanta. GE Fanuc provides Macawber Beekay, and companies like them, a unique foundation of agile, advanced and ultra-reliable technology that companies can trust to ensure their long-term success.

This new solution automates ash handling plants for various state electricity generating boards and private companies. The applications required complete PLC-based control panels based on GE Fanuc's Series 90-30® and PACSystems® RX3i controller systems, Proficy® HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY®, with VersaMax® I/O operator and engineering workstations. Complete ash handling systems are controlled by operator workstations using CIMPLICITY in auto mode, while backup control provision is also possible from mimic-based control desk. Typically, ash collected from various hoppers is conveyed to an intermediate fly ash silo through dense pneumatic conveying systems. 

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms products in this solution include:

Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY provides a client/server architecture and the latest web technologies to realize the benefits of digitization for the collection, monitoring, supervisory control and sharing of critical process and production data throughout plant operations.
 
The Series 90-30 PLC is part of a family of controllers, I/O systems and specialty modules designed to meet the demand for versatile industrial solutions. With its single overall control architecture, the Series 90-30 has been the PLC of record in over 200,000 applications, such as material handling, complex motion control, water treatment, continuous emissions monitoring, mining, food processing, elevator control, injection molding and many more.
 
The PACSystems RX3i controller is the latest addition to the innovative PACSystems family of programmable automation controllers (PACs). It features a single control engine and universal programming environment to provide application portability across multiple hardware platforms and deliver a true convergence of control choices.
 
The VersaMax is a compact, extremely affordable control solution that can be used as a PLC, as I/O, and as distributed control. With its modular and scaleable architecture, intuitive features and unparalleled ease of use, this innovative control family can save machine builders and end users considerable time and money.
 
"GE Fanuc was very responsive to our needs," said Karan Gupta, director for Macawber Beekay. "They really helped us by designing a system that met our requirements on an accelerated schedule, and, the GE Fanuc Professional Services team tested and shipped the applications in record time."

The company was eager to get these projects in production because India's Energy sector is booming with a proposed addition of 78,000 MW in the next five years. This represents almost 60 percent of the current installed capacity in the country. The demand has been created due to huge infrastructure development in the past few years with most of the capacity being added in coal-based thermal power plants. Many of the local power plant equipment manufacturers are contributing to this growth. 

"GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms strives to keep our customers happy with excellent product offerings, fast turnaround times and good after sales service," said Palekar. "Relationships like the one with Macawber Beekay are examples of this effort."

About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric (NYSE:GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is a high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, expertise and experience in automation and embedded computing, with products employed in virtually every industry, including manufacturing automation, defense, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare and aerospace. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company headquartered in Charlottesville, VA and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions.