Hi, and welcome to Germaine Systems, the company was formed in 1991 to solve automation problems using the most appropriate technology in an imaginative way - remembering that machines and people must work together. If we are new to you - this is what we do. Please read our Ethical Policy and our standard Terms and Conditions

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We are passionate about our work and look forward to hearing about your latest project, contact us now for an informal chat .

- Marc Sinclair -

Eek, Germaine Towers under Snow!!  although very pretty outside, there is a lot of work going on inside.   We are manufactuiring the first of a series of control systems for a world famous Chocolate manufacturer.

The control systems consist of Elau positioners, (Servo Drives),  Allen Bradley Micrologix PLCs and PowerFlex Drives, and just to make things interesting, Proface HMIs - All I have to do is make them talk to each other :)

2010-01-15 >> Great, many of the manufacturers are having delivery problems because they cut back production last year !!  Proface are quoting 3 months delivery!  Not so easy to ramp up production, is it ?

   New 2010 Rate Card,  prices adjusted for Euro exchange rate difference, otherwise, still the same great value :)

Just spent two weeks onsite (living in a hotel in Luton) developing a novel can sealing system.

Starting to get cold, central heating on now at Germaine towers :)

Just finishing build of control system using S7-200 and micromaster drives. Using really neat Omrom PSU with built in elapsed timer

Just spent a fantastic time in Italy at a major chocolate manufacturer, the meeting lasted all day but there were unlimited sweets :)

three control panels in the works, two using Siemens S7-200, Siemens Micromaster (via USS) and TP177micro touch screens, the third will use the new Siemens S7-1200 which is now available.

Just landed contracts for New Effluent Treatment control system and Conveyor control system upgrade from Siemens S5 to Siemens S7.

Hehe! I'm fifty-one, and still a whizz kid. Still enjoying machinery and control systems. Still out there repairing and servicing too.

Work begins this month on effluent treatment plant control system for poultry processing plant.

Design work with Bosch-Rexroth-Indramat servo controllers

Commissioning of reed bed control systems, using SMS fault and status reporting.

Control systems design and build for a series of sealing machines to seal jars of one of my favourite chocolate / nut spreads Systems use Siemens S7-200 PLC and Micromaster inverters.

SMS alarm units built and delivered ready to be commissioned. These will interface with PlantSMS, a web based service to co-ordinate infomation from the remote devices.

Still cold, and lots of doom and gloom about, but still lots of projects going on, interesting projects in the pipeline include a prototype desalination plant, a BioGas generator and a pH correction system.

In build are dosing control units , using Siemens LOGO and GSM connectivity, and a prototype energy from waste system.

Left is a photo of the Air diffusers in a NERV reactor, taken during an annual service of an effluent treatment plant I designed using S7-200 (CPU 216) with Micromaster drives and external monitoring and control using the CP243-IT

Lovely blue sky start to the beginning of March, but freezing cold! Things are starting to move now, I have two large panels to build this month, Both using Siemens Micromaster Drives and Siemens S7-216 PLCs. I am also installing some of the new PlantSMS devices, more later...

At last Siemens are ready to release the s7-1200 - see photographs and the press release.

Happy Year of the Ox and all that :) Traditionally quiet at this time of year, a great time to catch up on all the more speculative projects. I'm having fun developing a telemetry system using GSM, there are plenty of them out there but no-one's actually doing it right. Two design projects on the go as well including Gas Flaring and portable reed beds hehe!

Happy New Year to all our customers, have a great new year, right up until 2009-12-31:)

Arrrgh! it's freezing, sub zero for most of the weekend, it can't help that everything is so energy efficient nowadays, I can't even warm my hands on the monitor!

Beside all the web based work, I've been working on safety compliance of large presses and control systems for blow-moulding machinery.

We replaced a pair of Omron timers on a FORDS unigluer, as well as replacing a pair of 25-core control cables which had some dodgy cores. Billy (one of my sons) had prepared and numbered them and it took us nearly a day to remove the old cables, thread in the replacements and test the machine, but it all worked well and we have another happy customer.

I was awarded a wristwatch today by Siemens for services to their technical forum I've never actually owned or worn a wristwatch before, cooo.

Went out to see a Bizzozero Stitcher, it turned out to be a mechanical fault :)

I should be prepared for this, as soon as the weather turns, we get breakdowns. I've just been out to see a Gluing machine, that I first programmed twenty years ago.

Had a call from Dave Glassman of ACS to go and look at an old KA9 filler. I love going out and seeing these machines, milk in glass is all but gone in this country, a pity really, because supplying milk in 100% reusable and recyclable containers and delivering it using electric vehicles sounds really sensible.

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