This year, PACE marks its 60th anniversary, having begun life as a journal for the chemical sector in 1953, under the title Chemical Industry and Engineering.
Our original manifesto still rings true today. In the words of the magazine's first managing editor and publisher of E G Holt Publishing Pty Ltd, Eric Greenville Holt, more than half a century ago:
"This journal has been launched to serve as a handmaid to the Chemical and Allied Industries of Australia," he said on the editorial page of the first-published issue.
"It will chronicle their activities, progess and plans; report upon new products, processes and production methods; describe new equipment and techniques; and generally keep executives informed on technical and commercial matters of importance to their industry."
Our vision has not changed and PACE sees itself as an integral part of the process control and automation industry.
Our content channels have evolved to take full advantage of social media and digital technologies, allowing us to more effectively deliver and share content and build closer links with our growing community.
This special issue sets out to capture the exciting growth and development of the industry and record key moments in its evolution. There is a lot more content and images on www.pacetoday.com.au
PACE looks forward to informing and educating our community for years to come.
The PACE 60-year Anniversary Issue is supported by SEW-Eurodrive.
Read more: SEW-Eurodrive reinforces its position
SEW Eurodrive
www.sew-eurodrive.com.au
Here is a selection of amazing historical images sent in by our community.
The black and orange sensor in the center is an NT7 contrast scanner that used a low voltage ac lamp to detect the difference between dark and light targets. The two blue WL10 sensors on either side are reflex optical devices that detected the presence of the tub. The positioning of the two WL10 devices was done so that the NT7 was turned on only when both WL10s saw the tub. This meant the NT7 was only on when the label was in front of it. The NT7 was used as a primitive barcode reader in the late 1970s and all the $ symbols were the bar (image courtesy SICK).
The system allowed simple and low cost identification of what was in a tub, and made decisions on where the tub should be directed to next. This was before the common usage of PLCs and this large electrical box was the processor that interpreted the information and controlled the whole process. In the 1970s, sensor manufacturers also provided processors for all common applications (image courtesy SICK).
A historical control room from 1898 (image courtesy ABB).
In the 1990s, the Swagelok bus toured Australia and New Zealand displaying their range of instrumentation products. “Many customers have fond memories of the bus arriving at their sites around our two great countries,” says Graham McCormick, General Manager, Swagelok New Zealand, who provided these images.
Allen-Bradley Programmable Controllers manufactured in the 1980s (image courtesy Rockwell Automation).
This cartoon was drawn 60 years ago to celebrate 60 years (now 120 years) of the Great Boulder Gold Mine that is now the Superpit in Kalgoorlie. The Yates Universal Miner was an example of process control being applied to the mining industry. Colin Yates was a mining engineer educated in South Australia who came to Norseman in 1935, when that site was being setup. In 1938, he moved to Kalgoorlie. The graphic was provided to PACE by his son, Donald Yates.
One of ifm efector’s first inductive proximity sensors, in 1969. (Image courtesy ifm efector.)