What You Need to Know…
What do you need to know to make a career in industrial automation? Do you need an advanced degree, or even a Bachelors? What kind of options are there? A large part of my career has involved teaching technicians and …
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CIP Tetra Integration
Most of the people who follow this blog know me as an instructor or trainer, and that is certainly what I have focused most of my efforts on lately. I do however still do some programming and systems integration work, …
The Complexities of Systems Integration
Have you ever wondered why some seemingly simple systems integration jobs take so much time and money to complete? The picture above shows a section of a film wrapper build by a French company, Cermex. I would estimate that this …
The Automation Academy
As part of an effort to bring more students to my training facility in Lebanon, Tennessee (near Nashville), I have started a new training course that I believe is one of a kind. I have been teaching PLC and HMI/SCADA …
Build Your Own PLC Trainer
Along with the Simulation Trainers I described in previous posts I have been working on a do-it-yourself kit. I have built a couple of these and have documented all the assembly instructions in a wiring manual that comes with the …
Advice on a Panel Fabrication Manual
As some of you may or may not know, I have been creating a suite of PLC training products. I have made simulator trainers that control Fischertechnik factory simulations, written an Advanced PLC book to accompany the simulators, and created …
How To Design And Build A Small Controls Project
Today’s post is a response to frustration. Some times when dealing with potential customers you waste a lot of time trying to save them money. They may want you to cut corners, spend a lot of your time (for free) …
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Application: Sensor Choices 103
Today’s post concerns how sensor choices are made in real applications. I have written various posts on sensors in the past, and even participated in a Control Engineering webcast and forum last year on the topic. While I have covered …
Automation NTH
Over the past six years I’ve written posts about a lot of different companies; machine builders (Nalle Automation/NAS, Wright Industries/Doerfer, even my old company ACS), training companies (Automation Training and Udemy), and a whole bunch of controls manufacturers (check out …
Fabricate – Panel Preparation
Today’s topic is on exactly what happens before you start wiring a control panel. It will also serve as an update on my progress on “My Little Factory”, which has drawn a lot of questions from my readers. As I …