Mechanical and electrical hardware
Today’s article is a guest post by National Metal Fabricators. ******************************************** Robotic Automation for Welding It’s difficult to inspect a welded joint. Two metal pieces may appear fused together, but without destructive testing, it’s hard to be sure. That’s why …
Automation Direct has written a new post on the history of the PLC that you might find interesting. It can be found HERE and covers the early years of PLC development. It mostly discusses Dick Morley and the founding of …
Today’s post is in response to Dave Tompkins, who posted a request for help last week for an application. Since he posted it on one of my series posts on ladder logic (204: Auto Sequences) I decided to frame it …
This week’s post is presented by Acieta, a robotics integration and automation company with facilities in Wisconsin and Iowa. This article lists some of the advances that have made the use of robots common in various manufacturing areas. ******************************************************** Robots …
Ease and Efficiency of Robotic Assembly Lines (Acieta) Read more »
As many of you know from reading this blog, I spend about 40% of my time teaching software programming classes for Automation Training, a Canadian company. I started out teaching the Allen-Bradley SLC and ControlLogix platforms and Siemens Step 7 …
When designing a control system, sometimes it becomes necessary or advantageous to communicate with devices that were not made by the PLC manufacturer. If these devices need to be placed on an Ethernet, DeviceNet or Profibus network there are methods …
Today’s topic involves a project I have been working on over the last few months. The project consists of adding process equipment including tanks, pumps, valves and instrumentation to an existing system… while it is running. Because production runs 24 …
I often get asked when teaching my Siemens and Allen-Bradley classes the difference between SCADA systems and HMIs. While there can be some overlap, especially now with enhanced HMI capabilities on CE computers or thin clients, there are some fairly …
Since I started this blog in early 2011 I have written a lot of articles on PLCs. The PLC is a major part of many industrial facilities and machines, and indeed has been an important part of my career. Now …
There are many reasons you may want to replace a component in your automated system with something else. Some of the more common reasons might include: 1. The manufacturer doesn’t make it anymore. 2. I can’t get it as quickly …
