Control

Adherence Pack 2.0 Now Reaching Walmart Stores

Lauren Sanz — Wed, 21 May 2014 18:09:57 +0000

That company is MWV, whose Lee Miller, Director of Engineering Machinery & Automation, talked about the machinery’s development at The Automation Conference, p

As baby boomers continue to age and adherence packaging becomes more important than ever, one clever company built a 134-axis servo-driven system to crank out lots and lots of blister-style adherence packs.

News

Prototype Internet Of Things Apps for $20?

Dave Greenfield — Thu, 15 May 2014 14:15:33 +0000

Though it’s barely on the radar for most manufacturers—at least in terms of doing anything concrete with it—the Internet of Things has been a popular concept in the industrial space for the past fe

A new microcontroller from Texas Instruments enables engineers to prototype Internet of Things connectivity ranging from sensor gateways to control networks.

News

Weidmuller: Temperature Input Modules

Peter Cleaveland — Mon, 12 May 2014 20:53:35 +0000

The modules are just 6 mm wide and provide access to hundreds of temperature range combinations per model, selection of outputs (voltage/mA), response time and wire-break failure mode, with measure

New ACT20M signal isolation and conversion models provide thermocouple and RTD signal conversions, where either auxiliary power or output-loop power is available, and where range setting by DIP-switch is required.

Product

Six-Axis Articulated Robots for Light Duty

Dave Greenfield — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:04:25 +0000

When you think of industrial robots, chances are you thinking of big, expensive robots used in industrial applications such as automotive manufacturing or warehousing.

Weighing 55 pounds or less and designed to handle payloads of up to 22 pounds, these new lightweight robots from Universal Robots expand the possibility of robot application in industry.

Case Application

GE: Operator Interfaces for the Industrial Internet

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:59:03 +0000

This general purpose operator interface can connect to a variety of industrial PLCs and PACS.

QuickPanel+ integrates process control, view and an option to run an embedded data historian with touchscreen technology.

Product

ABB Robotics: Vision System for Robots

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:19:51 +0000

Using 2D vision guidance, the system allows manufacturers to track products more accurately, improve supply chain management, improve quality, troubleshoot challenging lines and processes, and sign

Integrated Vision makes vision-guided robotics applications faster and easier to deploy.

Product

'No More Searching for Manuals' With the Latest Process CIP Systems

Lauren Sanz — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:46:16 +0000

Automated Clean-In-Place systems are widely used for fast cleaning and sanitation in food and pharmaceutical applications.

The latest Clean-In-Place systems mate training and workforce productivity tools with electromechanical bells and whistles for speed and compliance.

News

Who's On Your Alarm Management Team?

George Shurtleff — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 21:05:44 +0000

At one time, alarm management programs were developed and handed down to operators. At the Husky PG Oil Refinery in Prince George, B.C., for example, alarm management came from the engineering side

To ensure success with your alarm management upgrade, make sure operators are at least on, if not leading, your team.

Feature Article

Red Lion: Modular HMI

Lauren Sanz — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 06:17:40 +0000

The feature-rich HMI reduces development and commissioning times over traditional systems that use an HMI paired with separate I/O, PLCs, and other controllers.

Red Lion’s Graphite is a rugged HMI solution that combines a wide range of versatile plug-in modules with protocol conversion, data logging, and web-based monitoring and control.

Product

Mitsubishi: Motion controller

Lauren Sanz — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 06:07:06 +0000

Mitsubishi created an AOI library with a set of motion instructions that improve the functionality of third-party design and configuration software.

Offering easy upgrade to its MR-J3 and MR-J4 servo platforms, Mitsubishi Electric Automation’s Q170MCPU-EIP motion controller allows end users to operate their existint third-party control systems that incorporate Add-On-Instructions (AOI).

Product

Festo: Cylinder/drive combination

Lauren Sanz — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 05:12:19 +0000

The EPCO electric cylinder, offered in 16, 25, and 40 mm sizes with multiple mounting configurations, is capable of moving to any position within its stroke limit with a repetition accuracy of 0.02

Festo’s EPCO electric cylinder and CMMO-ST closed loop servo drive combination is designed to quickly assist in machine changeover, while delivering low total lifecycle costs through minimum energy consumption, and streamlined selecting, commissioning, and installing.

Product

Wago: IP67 Incremental Encoder Input Module

Lara Krieger — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 05:01:00 +0000

Part of the company's SPEEDWAY IP67 I/O-SYSTEM, the unit works with incremental encoders and SSI absolute encoders at 24 V signal levels in harsh environments.

The machine-mountable SPEEDWAY 767-5202 provides two eight-pole M12 encoder ports.

Product

Acromag: Frequency/Pulse Input Transmitter

Peter Cleaveland — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 05:01:00 +0000

The transmitter converts the rate of pulsed, sinusoidal and other periodic waveform input signals to a proportional 0-20 mA, 0-10 V, or ±10 VDC output.

The TT339 frequency transmitter uses software configuration to accurately set input/output options.

Product

New Pump Profiles Enhance Wastewater Treatment Plant Controls Upgrade

George Shurtleff — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:23:03 +0000

The Glenelg Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) is one of three large wastewater plants in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia, a city ranked in the top 10 of The Economist’s “World’s Most Livabl

The challenge: replace the entire control system without shutting down some critical parts of the treatment plant for longer than four hours. The plan: Perform the commissioning process in 14 separate stages over a six-month period.

Column

Integrator View

Free Machine Safety Software

Dave Greenfield — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:26:35 +0000

As manufacturing became a global game for manufacturers of all sizes—whether they be a large, direct player or smaller concern playing a supply chain role—the regulated safety maze that manufacture

The Safety Automation Builder tool from Rockwell Automation is designed to help guide manufacturers through the safety system design process.

News

A New Approach to Mechatronics Training?

Pat Reynolds — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:44:59 +0000

And so it was that mechatronics—the synergistic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control, and system thinking in the design of packaging machinery and other systems—was b

Change intro to: A few years back, a now widely held observation emerged about the future: In 1980, 80 percent of the complexity of equipment was mechanical, but by 2020, only 20 percent of it would be mechanical, and electronics will replace the mechanics.

Perspective

Personal Passion Creates Industry Innovation

George Shurtleff — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:22:13 +0000

When you want to control a packaging machine or monitor tank levels at the far side of the plant, enjoying the convenience of a smartphone or tablet computer at home makes the long walk to a tether

When it comes to operator interfaces, mobility is top of mind and everyone wants it yesterday.

Column

Processing & Packaging

Dataforth: New Software for Data Acquisition & Control System

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 05:01:00 +0000

The software comes in seven languages, is designed specifically for industrial and R&D applications and provides synchronized data acquisition.

The MAQ20 is now available with IPEmotion data acquisition/test and measurement software.

Product

Russian Icebreaker Ship Relies on Robust HMI

Adam Madison — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:38:17 +0000

Adria Winch, a manufacturer of hydraulic, electrical and pneumatic deck equipment for vessels, has chosen the Qterm-A7 human machine interfac

Winches operated on ships traveling between the North Pole and Antarctica get new human machine interfaces that stand up against harsh elements.

Case Application

Matrox: Industrial Imaging Computers

Adam Madison — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:01:00 +0000

It allows OEMs and systems integrators to maximize compute density in a 4U chassis with up to 13 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots.

Supersight Solo lets users integrate a system host board with multiple GPUs (graphics processing units), FPGAs and frame grabbers in a single chassis.

Product

Turck: Block I/O for Industrial Ethernet

Adam Madison — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:01:00 +0000

The BL compact on-machine, flexible block I/O for Industrial Ethernet makes it possible to collect a variety of signals in a single, rugged node on a network.

Product

Matrox: Computing Platform for Industrial Imaging

Adam Madison — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:01:00 +0000

The Supersight Solo computing platform, designed for industrial imaging applications, allows users to integrate a system host board with graphics processing units, FPGAs and frame grabbers in a sin

The Supersight Solo computing platform, designed for industrial imaging applications, allows users to integrate a system host board with graphics processing units, FPGAs and frame grabbers in a single chassis.

Product

Schneider Electric: Graphic Terminals for Industrial Applications

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:01:00 +0000

The range includes 3.5, 5.7 and 7-inch screen sizes with 65K color TFT screens, dimmable LED backlighting and function keys for the 3.5 and 7-inch screens providing more display space; the 7-inch w

The Magelis GTO terminals are an expansion of the company's Magelis line of advanced HMI panels with additional features.

Product

Embedded Controllers Get Industry Specific

Dave Greenfield — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:28:02 +0000

Designed for manufacturers of devices for the solar panel and traffic management industries, a new automation controller combines an embedded computer and plug-in data acquisition (DAQ) cards in a

New automation controller combines an Intel Atom dual core processor and two data acquisition cards to handle complex embedded processing jobs.

News

Engineering Students Set to Compete at Cornell Cup USA

Dave Greenfield — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:34:16 +0000

Engineering contests seem to be increasing exponentially as schools and businesses focus on promoting engineering as a fun and interesting career choice.

U.S. college engineering students will show off their newest designs at the second annual Cornell Cup.

News