Happy New Year!
Hard to believe, but its been almost two years since I started this blog! I really wasn’t sure what this was going to be when I started. I had begun writing my book in about September of 2010 as a …
Author: Frank
Electrical Engineer and business owner from the Nashville, Tennessee area. I also play music, Chess and Go.
Emergency Stops and Guard Circuits
Before the implementation of safety standards as defined in the machinery directive and OSHA the single channel circuit on the left was often used for most machines regardless of the hazard level. In the 1990s several events led to the …
Pneumatics Chart
Well, I finally finished all of the pictures and tables for my book and I thought I’d share one of them here. I must make a confession: I use pneumatics a lot, specify components for systems, troubleshoot machines with air …
McGraw-Hill, Reviewers and the Final Manuscript
In last weeks post, I mentioned that I had made a trip to New York to meet with McGraw-Hill. I had already planned a trip to Philadelphia for the A-B Automation Fair, so I made a grand tour of the …
Panel Layout and Electrical Design
I had planned on writing a bit about my meeting with the publisher last week, but I received a comment on a post from about a year and a half ago on Controls Specifications. Doug asked me to cover a …
Automation Fair
As part of my picture-collecting for the book I decided to attend the Allen-Bradley Automation Fair again this year. I have attended the last few years in Orlando, Chicago and Nashville; this year it was in Philadelphia. There are always …
The Future of Automation
As I mentioned in my post last week, I recently read a few articles on the future of automation and manufacturing. One of the most prolific writers on the future of industry and manufacturing automation trends is Jim Pinto, who …
Kaizen
A major element of Lean methodology is Kaizen, or “improvement”. The term can refer to a continuous process or to a planned improvement event concentrating on a specific target. From the Industrial Automation: Hands On manuscript: Continuous improvement, or Kaizen, …
Ladder Logic 102: Organization
*Note: This post was written in October of 2012. Since that time I have written a number of other posts on ladder logic you may find useful. These are listed below for your convenience: Ladder Logic 201: Inputs (March 2013) …
Finally…
It took about three months from when I was told my manuscript was accepted, but I finally got my contract Friday. As you can see from one of the proposed covers, the title will now be “Industrial Automation: Hands On”…. …