Siemens Division Industry Automation and Bentley Systems today announced a strategic collaboration to advance the integration of digital product design and manufacturing processes design with information modeling for facilities lifecycle design. According to the Memorandum of Understanding the collaboration will enable the two companies to deliver intelligent and sustainable digital factory infrastructure. Initially the companies will focus on the digital factory for automotive and discrete manufacturing.

The Siemens Division Industry Automation and Bentley Systems will initially, based on their longstanding commitment to openness in information technology, collaborate on common file formats and content, integrated workflows for factory layout, and the convergence of process and layout. This work is an extension of earlier collaborations between the two organizations that resulted in each deploying technology offerings developed by the other. In the longer term, the companies will explore opportunities for jointly developed technology to expand industry-centric solutions and further collaboration interoperability between Siemens' Teamcenter and Bentley's ProjectWise software.

Teamcenter product lifecycle management software helps companies deliver increasingly complex products while maximizing productivity and streamlining global operations. It provides the right information for people to make the right product decisions – from planning and development through manufacturing and support. The ProjectWise system of collaboration servers and services empowers work sharing, facilitating the use of virtual talent, dynamic review for improved project quality, and content reuse for extended value.

Siemens Industry Automation Division CEO Anton S. Huber said, "Together we will drive the paradigm shift that will establish unified and fully collaborative product and production lifecycles for our customers. This will facilitate workflow efficiencies moving our users to the next level of productivity. Today, it is more important than ever to make full use of all optimization opportunities over the entire lifecycle of a machine or plant. This starts with planning and engineering, and continues into operation and maintenance right through to expansion and modernization. Now, as we seek to extend this to include facilities lifecycles, we have determined that Bentley Systems is the right partner to help us bring this new value proposition to realization."

Rotork is supplying an all-electric valve actuation package encompassing isolating, regulating and modulating actuators with two-wire digital control for the DanTysk offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

Almost one hundred Rotork quarter-turn electric actuators will control butterfly valves on the DanTysk transformer platform, situated 70 kilometres west of the German island of Sylt. The contract includes fitting the actuators to the valves, which has been performed prior to delivery at the specialist actuation workshop facilities attached to Rotork Holland, where the order was won.

Approximately half the actuators are IQTPro intelligent isolating and regulating duty units, the balance comprising CVA fully modulating control valve actuators. Both designs share advanced and user friendly non-intrusive programming and commissioning technologies, combined with comprehensive integral data logging, diagnostic and asset management capabilities. Rugged, double-sealed IP68 watertight and explosionproof enclosures enhance long-term reliability in the harshest of environments, as can often be encountered in offshore applications.

Rotork CVA electric actuators deliver continuous, repeatable modulating control with a programmable fail to position option. Resolution, repeatability and hysteresis performance is quoted at less than 0.1% of full scale, offering suitability for the most demanding control valve applications.

Digital two-wire control is provided by Rotork’s proprietary Pakscan P3 system, the third generation of a market-leading product, capable of monitoring and controlling up to 240 field units without repeaters on a single highway with a length of up to 20 kilometres. Designed specifically for the valve actuation environment, Pakscan incorporates secure field communications with inbuilt network redundancy to maintain control even in the event of equipment or cable failure. On the DanTysk project the Pakscan network master station will link the actuators to a distributed control system and to a remote, centralised monitoring centre situated at Esbjerg in Denmark.

Technip was awarded by Shell Global Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd a framework agreement for offshore facilities in a region covering Asia, Australia, and New Zealand (“East region”). The contract is for a period of five years, with an additional five-year extension option.

The contract concerns engineering and project management services to support Shell’s offshore project facilities engineering scope in the East region. The scope of work includes pre-front-end engineering design, front-end engineering design, detailed design engineering, procurement services and construction management.

Technip's operating center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will execute the contract with the support of other operating centers in Asia Pacific.

Siemens expands its portfolio of industry software by acquiring LMS International NV (Leuven, Belgium), a leading provider of test and mechatronic simulation for complex products. "The mechatronic simulation will become more and more important for intelligent and competitive product development and production processes. With the acquisition of LMS, we are entering a leading position in this software segment as well and can significantly boost the pace and power of our clients' innovation," said Siegfried Russwurm, member of the Siemens AG Managing Board and CEO of the Industry Sector. The purchase price for LMS amounts to approximately 680 million euro. The transaction is subject to approval by regulatory authorities.

With more than 1,200 employees and revenues of around 140 million euro for the first nine months of 2012 (January 1 to September 30), LMS is a global partner to some 5,000 companies in the automotive, aerospace, and other industries. The privately held company is supporting all of the Fortune 500 automotive and aerospace manufacturers and their tier-one-suppliers with a combination of mechatronic simulation software, testing systems and engineering services. LMS offers a complete software platform to model, simulate and test vehicles, aircraft, and other complex products optimizing their acoustics, vibrations, oscillations, fatigue strength, and dynamics.

The business activities of LMS are to be integrated into the product lifecycle management (PLM) software portfolio within the Siemens Industry Automation Division. "With the acquisition of LMS, we are expanding our portfolio of industry software in an area that is critical for many customers. They will now be able to simulate, test, optimize, and produce their products in a unified, consistent data environment. This will make them faster, more efficient, more flexible and more cost-effective," explains Anton S. Huber, CEO of the Industry Automation Division.

"This acquisition is the best possible strategic option to maximize our future growth and continue the long-term success for LMS in a consolidating industry," said Urbain Vandeurzen, Chairman and CEO of LMS. "Since LMS' foundation in 1980, we have reported over 30 years of continued profit and revenue growth. Our customers can continue to count on our portfolio of solutions and now also on a strong partner that offers complementary technical software, deep industry expertise and long-term stability."

PLM software, part of the Siemens industry software portfolio, is used by over 70,000 companies worldwide in automotive production, electronics manufacturing, aerospace, mechanical engineering, and other industries. Since its acquisition of UGS Corp. in 2007, Siemens has been the only provider worldwide covering the entire value-added process for product development and production with its software products. Siemens' acquisitions since the end of 2011 include Active Tecnologia em Sistemas de Automação Ltda. (pharmaceutical and biotech production), Vistagy Inc. (construction of composites), IBS AG (quality and production management), Innotec do Brasil Ltda. (integrated system management), Perfect Costing Solutions GmbH (cost management), VRcontext International S.A. (3D system visualization) and Kineo CAM (computer-aided motion software).