The Big Toys
Hello from Atlanta, Georgia where I am about to teach a 4 day class on Siemens’ TIA Portal. I have been away from home for two weeks trying to finish up my project down at American Beverage Depot in Miami …
Category: Applications
Special machines and custom projects
Finding Project Resources
When mapping out a new machinery or system project it is critical that the correct decisions are made before beginning design. The choices of products, vendors and service providers can make or break a project before it even gets off …
Applications and Inventions
This week’s post is intended to explain a little bit about the applications process machine builders use when quoting custom machinery. Just because a machine is customized to produce a specific product doesn’t mean it is unique or necessarily qualifies …
A Service Application – Bottle Blower
Usually my work involves designing and building new equipment, or occasionally completely rebuilding and upgrading old machines. Last week I got an emergency call from an existing customer that their production line was down and they couldn’t get help quickly …
Miami Adventures
Last March I wrote a post on working in New England on a consulting project. Much of the post was about the travels during my days off from the project, describing what the area was like in the Winter. I …
Fun Facts About Conveyors
Today’s post is a guest article from Fastrax Conveyor Rollers, a manufacturer from the UK. I hope you find this as interesting and informative as I do! ******************************************************************* It was in the time of the industrial revolution, when manufacturers decreed …
Device Labeling Poll Results
A couple of weeks ago I started a poll on device numbering methods, here are the results. Responses came from comments on this site and five different Linked In forums. Method 1: Labeling the device based on the I/O point …
Device Numbering Methods: A Poll
Recently I was involved in a discussion on the best method of numbering and labeling devices for systems and machinery. I have used several different methods in the past, depending on customer preference and the type of application; these methods …
Web and Converting Terms
The picture above is from a project I worked on back in 2007. I haven’t worked on a web project since then, but I thought I’d share a section of my book that discusses some of the terms used in …
More Startup and Debug
After spending the last several months working on some of my entrepreneurial ideas and teaching PLC programming classes, I just spent the last couple of weeks contracting on a machine and system startup/debug job. I feel very fortunate to have …