谁是第二名？

Schneider Electric展示了许多新产品，欢迎大约2003年12月1日至5日在布鲁塞尔举行的2003年会议和贸易展上的大约2000名客户。几年前，该公司一直忙于将产品从Telemecanique，Square D和Modicon收购所获得的产品集成。在此次活动中，劳动力的成果被揭开了来自世界各地的客户，编辑和分析师。

Alain Marbach, senior vice president, Industrial Automation, explained that the company believes it is in a hotly contested race for number two in worldwide automation market share with Rockwell Automation and Mitsubishi. Siemens is acknowledged to be the global market share leader. Acquisition of Japan’s Digital, a manufacturer of industrial computers and displays, and partnership with Toshiba for variable frequency drives has advanced Schneider’s position in Asia.

The anticipated new program development studio and collaboration tool, Unity, was demonstrated for the first time. In addition to supporting programming in the IEC 61131-3 languages, Unity’s developer module also supports Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, Visual Basic and Visual C++ languages for those more familiar with computers than programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Studio allows engineers to manage and collaborate on multiple application projects. The Application Generator module generates code from a model developed by the designer based upon the ISA 88 batch code state model.

New PLC models with more memory and faster processors than their predecessors supplement the new programming software. The Advantys product line of “slice I/O” products--that is, input/output modules in a small form factor—contains a feature called “reflex,” by which a module is capable of local control through an input and output, bypassing the PLC scan time to yield very fast response of field devices.