A new white paper, "Five Critical Factors For Selecting Fieldbus Valve Manifolds," from Numatics, Inc., guides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end users in the selection of the best solutions for their given applications.

The paper is available for download from http://www.numatics.com.

"Fieldbus valve manifolds find wide utility in packaging, automotive/tire, and material handling applications, as well as in the pharmaceutical, chemical, water, and wastewater industries," said white paper author Enrico De Carolis, director of technology development at Numatics, Inc.

In the white paper, De Carolis presents the five crucial factors that controls engineers, specifiers, and buyers must consider before selecting pneumatic fieldbus valve manifolds - commissioning, distribution, modularity, diagnostics, and recovery - while outlining the shortcomings of conventional approaches.

In addition, De Carolis also discusses new designs that offer substantial improvements in the application, performance, and maintenance of these valve manifolds from the end users' and OEMs' points of view.

"Fieldbus valve manifolds more easily perform vital functions by integrating communication interfaces to pneumatic valve manifolds with input/output (I/O) capabilities. This allows programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to more efficiently turn valves on and off and to channel I/O data from sensors, lights, relays, individual valves, or other I/O devices via various industrial networks. The resulting integrated control packages can also be optimized to allow diagnostic benefits not previously available," he said.

Download the new white paper, "Five Critical Factors For Selecting Fieldbus Valve Manifolds," at http://www.numatics.com.

www.emersonindustrialautomation.com