NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA—MARCH 4, 2004—Fairmount Automation announced today that its new Chameleon® Process Automation Controller (PAC) product family has been deployed onboard the USS Essex (LHD-2). The decentralized Chameleon system provides full regulatory control for auxiliary processes and machinery supporting the ship’s five Ship Service Turbine Generators (SSTGs). The SSTGs generate all of the electrical power for the multi-purpose amphibious assault vessel.

Fairmount Automation representatives worked closely with engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Philadelphia (Code 9222) to develop the new control system. It consists of a network of three Chameleon PACs that regulate various process loops, including recirc temperature, hotwell level, and gland-seal pressure (both augment and dump modes). The Chameleon controllers are connected over an RS-485 multi-drop network for remote monitoring and process tuning. A Human-Machine Interface (HMI) developed using Fairmount Automation’s Design Pad G3 software tool provides wireless access to the control network. Using the infrared port of any local Chameleon node, personnel can monitor and adjust the operation of any other shipboard generator.

Fairmount Automation played an active role in the entire development lifecycle, from the conceptual system design to its installation and testing. Gary Cane, co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer was onsite at Sasebo, Japan for plant light-off. “I am very pleased with the performance of our equipment and thrilled with the positive feedback from the ship’s crew and NSWC personnel,” said Cane. “It is also very rewarding to walk around the ship machinery spaces and see so many of our controllers in operation.” Fairmount Automation had previously supplied equipment for the ship’s electronic boiler control system.

Following successful sea trials of the system on USS Essex, Fairmount Automation has received notification that the system will be duplicated on USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) in April 2004. Additional installations are also planned for other Wasp class and Tawara class amphibious carriers.

Chameleon is a family of industrial control, communication, data acquisition, user-interface, and power modules that integrate seamlessly to form a high-performance Programmable Automation Controller (PAC). Chameleon PACs offer multi-domain functionality—including logic, sequence, motion, and process control—on a single very flexible and highly configurable platform. Chameleon’s modular architecture and network centric design allows the selection of hardware capabilities to strictly match the specific requirements of a particular application without compromising future expansion needs.

About Fairmount Automation, Inc. 

Fairmount Automation is a leading provider of high-performance distributed control solutions for extreme environments. The Company is an original equipment manufacturer of rugged programmable automation controllers used to monitor and regulate industrial processes and machinery. It also provides advanced engineering services to investigate and develop automated damage control systems for U.S. Navy surface combatants, including the Navy’s next generation land attack destroyer. The Company is developing distributed intelligent systems that automatically detect and isolate equipment failures and reconfigure themselves to sustain the ship’s mission. The Company is based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.fairmountautomation.com.

Chameleon is a registered trademark of Fairmount Automation, Inc.