The winners of the 2023 LEAP (Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program) Awards were announced earlier this week in a digital ceremony, with products across 11 categories, including Industrial Automation.
Critical to LEAP’s success is the involvement of the engineering community. The Design World editorial team assembled a top-notch independent judging panel, comprised of a cross-section of 10 OEM design engineering and academic professionals.
In the Industrial Automation category, the winning submissions for this year are:
Gold
HP Inc.
HP Jet Fusion 3D Powder Handling Automation Solution and Automation Accessory
The HP Jet Fusion 3D Powder Handling Automation Solution is a pneumatically connected, closed-loop material processing system that minimizes labor and provides cleaner, more efficient material flow while enabling quality control and operational traceability. It’s also compatible with the HP Multi Jet Fusion 5200 Series 3D Printers using PA12.
The HP Jet Fusion 3D Automation Accessory provides automatic build unit exchange for two consecutive prints without requiring manual support and can be easily and completely integrated into existing factory configurations with Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs).
Together, the solutions automate and streamline production steps with modularity and flexibility at the core, improving productivity, reliability, and quality to meet the demand for high-volume 3D print production.
The judges’ commented: “Looks to be an interesting solution for moving powder for 3D printing. This will make existing processes more efficient.” Congratulations!
Silver
Bishop-Wisecarver
LoPro RTU
The LoPro RTU is a 7th axis system designed from the ground up for durability, ease of installation, and low total cost of ownership, and is compatible with many common brands of robot and cobot.
The LoPro RTU is designed around the LoPro Linear Actuator product line to provide accurate and durable motion. The RTU is based upon the size 4 belt-driven actuator with a single wiper wheel plate and includes the steel support beam, cable carrier, non-contact travel limit sensors, a robot baseplate to adapt to select light and moderate capacity robots, and the gearbox with actuator mount so the RTU is ready for rapid and simple deployment into any automation project.
Two sizes are available; the RTU-M (moderate capacity) and RTU-L (light capacity). It has the option to be mounted inverted with certain robots, allowing for overhead operation or a smaller footprint on the factory floor.
Bronze
Banner Engineering
Asset Monitoring Gateway with Snap ID
Banner Engineering’s new Asset Monitoring Gateway with Snap ID, along with compatible wired sensors, combines hardware and software as part of a comprehensive condition-monitoring solution. No programming is needed for setup so more people across an organization can deploy the Asset Monitoring Gateway with less reliance on technical personnel. Using the gateway locally or via cloud technology online, operators can actively track machine performance, conduct predictive maintenance, and improve operational efficiency.
By collecting and analyzing data from up to 20 connected sensors, the Asset Monitoring Gateway helps users make informed decisions about an asset; decisions that can increase productivity, save energy, and prevent unexpected maintenance issues. The gateway features a user-friendly, no- code setup and the ability to automatically recognize an array of compatible wired sensors that can measure vibration, differential pressure, temperature and humidity, tank level, and more.
Honorable Mention
AutomationDirect
CM5 HMI Series
The CM5 HMI series from AutomationDirect offers lower cost, high-performance HMIs in sizes from 4 in. up to 22 in. These HMIs feature a 1.6 GHz processor in the larger units (10 in. and above), 43 Mbytes of memory, and provide much better trending, extra data storage, faster communication, and improved file types including jpegs.
The CM5 panels come with a host of communication ports for plug-and-play connections with industrial networks. All CM5 panels have serial and Ethernet ports and several supported protocols including Modbus, EtherNet/IP, and the lightweight MQTT(S) protocol used in many machine- to-machine (M2M) and IIoT applications. USB ports provide in-an-instant connections for programming and peripherals like keyboards, USB-to-audio converters, barcode scanners, additional memory storage, etc. The embedded SD-card slot provides easy project transfers or up to an additional 32GB of data storage for important log files.
CM5 HMIs utilize powerful FREE configuration software that features C- more’s legendary ease of use. The software has a built-in time-saving project simulator, a convenient Event Manager, flexible recipes, a huge array of screen objects, trend graphs, PID faceplates, true historical data logging, and much, much more.
Hearty congratulations to all of this year’s winners!
Filed Under: LEAP Awards, NEWS • PROFILES • EDITORIALS, Industrial automation
