Motors and Drives, Pneumatics, Hydraulics, etc.
Today’s post doubles as a Ladder Logic series post and an introduction to the last videos in the Siemens Step 7 Odyssey series on my YouTube channel. Last week I covered a bit about how a Variable Frequency Drive interfaces …
Over the past few days I have received a lot of questions about drive or VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) control using a PLC, especially in my Facebook group. It can be very difficult to answer complex questions on Facebook, especially …
This post is the first in a series I am writing about a project I am working on, hence the “April 2017” designation. As most of my regular readers know, I have spent much of the past several years teaching …
Today’s article is a guest post by TiMotion, an electric linear actuator manufacturer. ********************** Get The Essential Facts About Actuators Don’t make the mistake of buying a robot when a simple actuator will do. Robots have become the “go-to” tool …
Today’s topic is in response to Saravanan who posted a request last week on my “Panel Layout and Electrical Design” post of about a year ago. He asked “Thanks for the post. I want to learn about designing control circuits …
Processes may take various forms in automated production. They may be continuous as with the mixing of chemicals, synchronous where operations are performed in unison or asynchronous where operations are performed independently. Manual and automated tasks may be mixed to …
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 …
From the Primer: A variable-frequency drive (VFD) is a device for controlling the rotational speed of an alternating current (AC) electric motor by controlling the frequency of the electrical power supplied to the motor. Variable frequency drive controllers are solid …
From The Primer: 4.2 Indexers and Synchronous Machines 4.2.1 Rotary Cam Indexers Rotary indexers are used to move actuators to fixed points in a circular path. They are built to move to discrete points and are typically available in 2-12 …
This was a contact lens inspection station built in 2005 for Vistakon, a Florida company. It has 2 cameras mounted to X-Y-Z axes with similarly mounted backlighting below the moving pallet. Samples would be taken from the production lines and …
