Things vs. Stuff: The World of Process Control
Next weekend I am flying out to Denver for another adventure in the automation world. This time I will be a little out of my element as I will be at a water plant, which brings up the topic of …
Author: Frank
Electrical Engineer and business owner from the Nashville, Tennessee area. I also play music, Chess and Go.
Simple Machines: The Origins of Automation
Mechanisms or machine elements make up the basic components of mechanical systems. The primary purpose of a mechanism is to transfer or transform force from one form or direction into another. The most basic elements of mechanisms were described as …
PLC Manufacturer Rankings
After spending the last couple of weeks teaching PLC programming, I decided to do a little research on the popularity of the different manufacturer’s platforms worldwide. I have been asked many times in the past who the biggest, most popular, …
Automation Training
In a previous post I mentioned that I have changed the focus of my company from contracting and integration to various other things. I am working on some software products to aid in machine and system design, contemplating writing a …
Generic Programming Rules
I have covered a lot of material on ladder logic on this site, but not all programming is for PLCs. This is an excerpt from Industrial Automation: Hands On that applies to all programs, not just ladder ( 6.1.1 – …
Ladder Logic 103: More on Program Organization
Today’s post covers a bit more on program organization and layout. A reader posted a question on a previous post “Ladder Logic 204: Auto Sequences”: “I’m still really new to the field and have yet to create my own program …
ATS Automation
When I was at Wright Industries, one of the companies that we often competed against for projects was ATS Automation. Though Doerfer and Wright are very large as far as custom machine-building companies go, ATS is a much larger organization. …
Automation Consulting
In several previous posts I have mentioned that my company is undergoing a radical shift in focus. I had hoped to have my business website completed by the beginning of September so that I could have a kind of “grand …
Munitions Disassembly Application
Munitions Disassembly As I mentioned a few weeks ago, sometimes I get to work on stuff I can’t talk about. If you click on the “Munitions Disassembly” link above, you will see a video of a project I was involved …
Databases
Before I get into today’s topic I’d like to mention a software project I am working on. For those of you who have subscribed to my blog via Mastering The Machine or otherwise, I have already sent you an e-mail. …