Product Development
Last week I had the privilege of sitting in a doctor’s exam room for about 45 minutes with nothing to do. Next to me was an exam table (not the one shown above…) that brought back some old memories. Back …
Category: Techniques
Safety PLCs
As safety systems become more and more complex (primarily because of the influence of European safety standards), the cost-effectiveness of safety PLCs has improved. I first noticed Safety PLCs being used only about five or six years ago, though according …
Misuse of Tools
There has never been a better time to be an engineer when it comes to the tools available to help us in our jobs. Computers operate at amazing speeds, new software comes out every year with more and more capability …
Motivation
Last week I discussed a little bit about a project I was working on. It involved evaluating a system that had a lot of problems, mostly due to human error and lack of attention to detail. The follow-up involved having …
Details
Not long after starting the original Automation Consulting in 1996 I met a machine builder in Knoxville who taught me a great deal about machine building. When we started working together there were only a few of us and sometimes …
Debug and Startup
After spending the last four or five months finishing the book and working on my new company website I have taken a short job doing debug and startup on some machinery. The picture above is from a machine I worked …
Operator Assisted Automation
Automated production lines and cells often have stations that require operator interfacing with the equipment. Typically this is due to the extreme costs that are associated with manual loading of parts into a machine. Parts may be too large or …
Process Types
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 …
Troubleshooting and Debug
The first thing a lot of engineers and technicians do when trying to isolate a problem on an automated machine is go get their laptop and use programming software to see where the issue might lie. In some cases this …
Magnetostrictive Sensors
Several of my topics in the past have dealt with gauging and measurement. Most of the systems I have worked on in the past used LVDTs, encoders, optical sensors or machine vision when it came to accurately measuring the physical …