In all countries there is either a zone of significant seismic activity or installations which require high security in order to operate (e.g. nuclear power stations, which generally have low seismic activity). In both cases the electrical and control and monitoring equipment must assure their safety functions correctly.
This technical paper aims to facilitate dialogue between operators and specialists. After briefly summarizing the earthquake phenomena and the way in which they are specified, the author presents the theoretic approach required for seismic withstand capabilities to be taken into account at the design stage.
Both design and qualification are, today, increasingly requiring numerical analysis and, as a result, powerful scientific and technical data processing methods.

For all electrotechnical equipment, EMC must be considered right from the initial design phase and the variousprinciples and rules carried on through to manufacture and installation.
This means that all those involved, from the engineers and architects that design a building to the technicians that wire the electrical cabinets, including the specialists that design the various building networks and the crews that install them, must be concerned with EMC - a discipline aimed at achieving the "peaceful" coexistence of equipment sensitive to electromagnetic disturbances alongside equipment emitting such disturbances.
This publication is a compilation of many years of acquired experience at Merlin Gerin and presents various disturbances encountered and provides some practical remedies.

The protection of persons against direct contacts is required by certain regulations (in France the Decret of the 14th of November 1988), and specified by electrical installation standards, such as IEC 364. On the other hand, types of external stresses likely to influence the behaviour of equipment are described in IEC 721-2. The protection against some of these influences is often specified in product standards.
Therefore, to explain the degrees of protection that enclosures can provide, and how standards codify them, constitutes an essential information for all, prescribers, installers, operators and inspecting organizations, the purpose of this "Cahier Technique". It replaces "Cahier Technique"
No 6 written in 1982, made obsolete by the revision of IEC 529. 

The most common way of starting asynchronous motors is directly on the
line supply. This technique is often suitable for a wide variety of machines.
However, it sometimes brings with it restrictions that can be inconvenient
for some applications, and even incompatible with the functions required
from the machine:
- The inrush current on start-up can interfere with the operation of other
devices connected on the same line supply
- Mechanical shocks during starting that cannot be tolerated by the
machine or may endanger the comfort and safety ofusers
- Acceleration and deceleration cannot be controlled
- Speed cannot be controlled
Starters and variable speed drives are able to counter these problems.
Electronic technology has made them more flexible and has extended their
field of application. However, it is still important to make the right choice.
The purpose of this "Cahier Technique" is to provide more extensive
information about these devices in order to make it easier to define them
when designing equipment or when improving or even replacing a motor
switchgear assembly for control and protection.

In an automated installation, all the information needed to control it must be detected in order to be managed by the control systems.
The "detection" function is therefore essential in all industrial processes, and a knowledge of the various techniques is vital to choose the right detectors: they have to be able to operate in sometimes difficult environments and supply information that is compatible with the acquisition and processing systems.
This document is aimed at those wanting to familiarize themselves with the field of Detection in Industrial Automation.
After setting out the broad technical background to this field, each technology is analyzed in detail to provide a basic selection guide. This is complemented by an overview of related technologies, including Vision and RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification).
Detection may seem complicated at first, but you will soon learn that it is simply "varied"!
Happy reading!