Businessweek

Emerson Electric Co. operates as a diversified technology company. The company designs and supplies products and technology, and delivers engineering services and solutions in a range of industrial, commercial and consumer markets. Segments The company operates in the following segments: Process Management, Industrial Automation, Network Power, Climate Technologies, and Commercial & Residential Solutions. Process Management The Process Management segment offers customers products and technology, as well as engineering and project management services for precision measurement, control, monitoring and asset optimization of oil and gas reservoirs and power generating plants, or plants that process or treat such items as oil, natural gas and petrochemicals; food and beverages; pulp and paper; pharmaceuticals; and municipal water supplies. This array of products and services helps customers optimize their plant capabilities in the areas of plant safety and reliability, product quality and output efficiency. Process Management Systems and Software: Process Management systems and software control plant processes by collecting and analyzing information from measurement devices in the plant, and then using that information to adjust valves, pumps, motors, drives and other control hardware for maximum product quality and process efficiency. Software capabilities also include upstream oil and gas reservoir simulation and modeling for production optimization. The company’s process control systems can be extended wirelessly to support a mobile workforce with handheld tools/communicators, provide site-wide location tracking of people and assets, and enable video monitoring and communication with wireless field devices, thereby increasing the information available to operators. Measurement and Analytical Instrumentation: Measurement instrumentation measures the physical properties of liquids or gases in a process stream, such as pressure, temperature, level, rate and amount of flow, and communicates this information to a process control system. Measurement technologies provided by the company include Coriolis direct mass flow, magnetic flow, vortex flow, ultrasonic flow, differential pressure, ultralow-flow fluid measurement, temperature sensors, radar-based tank gauging and magnetic level gauging. The company’s measurement products are also often used in custody transfer applications, such as the transfer of gasoline from a storage tank to a tanker truck, where precise metering of the amount of fluid transferred helps ensure accurate asset management. Complementary products include onshore and subsea multi-phase meters, wetgas meters, downhole gauges and corrosion/erosion measuring instruments. Analytical instrumentation analyzes the chemical composition of process fluids and emissions to enhance quality and efficiency, as well as environmental compliance. The company’s analytical technologies include process gas chromatographs, in-situ oxygen analyzers, infrared gas and process fluid analyzers, combustion analyzers and systems, and analyzers that measure pH, conductivity and water quality. The company provides sensors to detect combustible and toxic gases, and flames. These devices support the safety of people and process plant assets. Valves, Actuators and Regulators: The company provides sliding stem valves, rotary valves and butterfly valves, and related valve actuators and controllers. It also provides a line of industrial and residential regulators, whose function is to reduce the pressure of fluids from high-pressure supply lines moving into lower pressure systems. PlantWeb Digital Plant Architecture: PlantWeb digital plant architecture combines the technologies with the uses of ‘intelligent’ plant devices (valves and measurement instruments with advanced diagnostic capabilities), open communication standards (nonproprietary wired and wireless digital protocols allowing the plant devices and the control system to ‘talk’ with one another) and integrated modular software, not only to control the process but also to collect and analyze valuable information about plant assets and processes. Industry Ser