Engineers and designers frequently seek simplicity as a measure of excellence in products and machine designs. Simplicity has many virtues. Simplicity often means high reliability. Simplicity can translate to long…
Safety controllers for explosive environments
Schmersal is proud to introduce the SRB-EXi series; a generation of safety relay modules which combines the proven SRB safety relay functionality with the demands of explosion protection….
Control System Language
Programming control systems is a complex matter. Some of the complexity is the history behind it, some is hardware related and some is the interdependency of hardware and…
Consumer Electric Car
The competition to bring a mass produced electric car to the market is really heating up. There is an underlying assumption that, like flat screen TVs, this thing…
Compact uninterruptible power supply
Phoenix Contact introduces the UNO-UPS, a compact 24 V DC uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UNO-UPS provides standby power in the event of an AC mains power loss….
Molex introduces SST universal Modbus modules for CompactLogix controllers
Molex, LLC has introduced two new seamlessly integrated Modbus modules for Rockwell Automation CompactLogix controllers. The two Universal Modbus modules connect CompactLogix controllers to any Modbus/TCP or Modbus…
OSAI introduces new CNC turnkey prewired packages
OSAI has announced introduction of its new CNC turnkey prewired packaged systems for the metalworking CNC plasma, laser, and milling industries. These packages are completely digital with Ethercat…
Advantech launches TUV certified IEC-61850-3 industrial PC
IEC-61850 is the specific standard for smart substations and defines the Ethernet protocol to be used for data communication and defines how devices in the substation communicate with…
The Belt and Pulley
Sometimes the old tricks work the best. The Belt and Pulley solution for mechanical power transmission has been around for a couple of centuries, and despite all the…
Automation system PSS 4000 release 13 adds function for safety applications
The automation system, PSS 4000 from Pilz continues to deliver extra benefits designed to give you even greater value. The function “non-persistent online change” now means that individual…
McAfee’s antivirus to be integrated into Advantech’s Industrial Storage-SQFlash
Advantech’s Industrial Automation Group is pleased to announce collaboration with Intel Security to integrate McAfee antivirus into Advantech’s Industrial Storage-SQFlash Security Package. Advantech SQFlash includes industrial SSD, CF…
New compact DIN rail power supply modules
Wieland Electric Inc. has expanded its wipos series of DIN rail power supply modules with a new compact design for control cabinet applications. The new wipos PS series…
Heroes or Not
Heroes are people who takes risks. People who struggle against great forces. Sometimes they are People who have a big impact on society in their generation. Sometimes they…
Heroes of Industry
We all have our heroes. The people who epitomize an ethic, embody success, and who we look up to. Film heroes, music heroes, sports heroes, even Heroes of…
Mobility, Human and Robotic
The notion of mobility is complex. As human beings we are mobile by design. We are autonomously mobile, we move by our intent. As human beings we also…
The Next Age of Robots
If you were a teenager in 1977 and went to see Star Wars the first vision of C3PO and R2D2 would have made quite an impact. In the…
The Future of Mechatronics
Mechatronics, like every other field of human endeavor, is undergoing rapid change driven in large part by the availability of increasingly more powerful processor technology. In the September…
Human Mobility in the Age of Mechatronics
Mobility is critical to our survival. Mobility is required to perform all the basic survival tasks in a pre-industrial culture; hunting, gathering, fishing, finding water, farming, all these require…
Electric Mobility
Electric Mobility is a broad category of things that move around using electric motors. Forklifts, wheelchairs, trolling motors for small boats, golf carts are some of the types…
Electric Mobility
Electric powered transportation takes many forms. The race among auto makers to produce a high volume, cost effective consumer vehicle is one of the hottest topics in the…
PLCs, PACs and IPCs
It seems an unlikely thing that after decades of control technology advancements we are still confused about the nature of PLCs, PACs and IPCs. In one of the…
The New Product Challenge
Large industrial product suppliers sell what they make. These companies became large because they provided equipment that many customers found useful. But as manufacturers become large, they…
The “Mech” in Mechatronics
The field of mechatronics exists as a complex collection of engineering disciplines that has boundary conditions which are set by the mechanical load or work that is required. …
Innovation and Monetization
The recent trend is use “monetize” as if it were a verb. Thus, we hear catch phrases like; “monetize new technology”. It is a term that has been…
Innovation
Innovation as a verb is the action of transforming a process or product from its current state to something new and improved. Processes, methodologies, products can all be…