Invensys Process Systems has announced that Hartmut Wallraf, chief of technology and vice president for Europe and Middle East Africa operations, had been elected Chairman of the Board of the FDT Group. (www.fdtgroup.org). The FDT Group is a consortium of manufacturers and process instrumentation vendors who have come together to enable interoperability among diverse technology protocols.

ABB has been awarded a contract worth just over ?2 million to refurbish and upgrade a 275kV National Grid substation on the Thames Estuary. The project includes the supply and installation of five new ABB 400kV HPL SF6 insulated puffer circuit breakers, to replace the now time-expired air-blast circuit breakers installed in the 1960s, as well as associated civil and connection works and interfacing with the substation control and protection systems.

The new ABB HPL circuit breakers, capable of switching short-circuit currents up to 63kA, will be installed on five circuits three outgoing and two from the substation transformers. National Grid has specified them at 400kV to provide the substation with the future flexibility to operate at the higher voltage.

The project is due for completion at the end of 2007. In order to minimise potential disturbance to customers, ABB will carry out the installation work in a number of phases co-ordinated with National Grid?s planned outage programme.

www.abb.com

Linear motion innovator Copley Motion Systems has pioneered the use of multiple linear motors sharing the same axes to provide unparalleled performance whilst saving machine space.

AC Technology Corp, part of the Lenze group have manufactured their millionth product. The company manufactures variable frequency drives.

The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) is to supply and install the electrical equipment for core components of the new blast furnace number 8 of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG in Duisburg-Hamborn. The customer is Paul Wurth Umwelttechnik GmbH, Essen. With a project volume of 9.5 million euros, the new blast furnace is scheduled to start operating in December 2007.