An HMI application
This is a screen shot from a job I subcontracted for in about 2002 or so. A Kraft Life Savers plant was shut down in Michigan due to the US tariffs on sugar and moved to Montreal in Canada. This …
Author: Frank
Electrical Engineer and business owner from the Nashville, Tennessee area. I also play music, Chess and Go.
Upgrading Old Equipment
When I was on my own I often got requests quote the rebuild of old and obsolete equipment. There were various factors at work to make companies want to do this: inability to obtain spare parts due to discontinued components, …
Safety Classifications
I have spent the last few days working on a fairly elaborate safety system that involves linking and unlinking safety zones. Usually I have used on machine as a “master” and the the other a “slave” or sub-zone, but this …
Panelbuilding
This picture is from about 1999 when my small company was primarily a panel shop and controls integrator. At this time about half of our work came from NAS who built a lot of custom packaging equipment (they build mostly …
The Art of Pokayoke
Poka-yoke is a Japanese term roughly translated to “mistake-proofing”. Techniques include the use of sensors to verify part location, orientation and quality, fixturing to ensure incorrect components can’t be installed, sequencing and detection of proper assembly steps by such techniques …
Non-Industrial Industrial Applications
I was browsing through some old pictures of systems trying to get some inspiration for today’s post and ran across some pictures of the cotton classing system we helped put into the USDA facility in Memphis. This was a cooperative …
Hello from Tucson
As I travel on business I realized that it is more difficult to post when on the road. All of the familiar patterns are broken as I don’t have a ready plugged-in and booted up computer to sit down and …
How does my multimeter work?
Most people who work around electricity are familiar with multimeters. They have been around since the 1920s and used to only be available in analog form with a moving needle that pointed to several scales. Originally multimeters only measured current …
Transmission Test Stand
This small test stand was built in 2005 for Kiesler Automotive, a custom transmission builder in Maryville, Tennessee. After placing the transmission into the cradle and closing a couple of DeStaCo clamps by hand, a 2 hand anti-tiedown station is …
Choosing the Right Sensor
With all of the different types of sensors available and so many manufacturers and vendors competing for your business sometimes it can be difficult or confusing to choose the correct sensor for an application. In many cases such as detecting …