My Little Factory – April 2017
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 …
Tag: systems integration
Fieldservers and Protocol Converters
Today’s topic derives from a project I have become involved in in my “spare” time. Lately I have been spending a lot more time teaching classes. My project in Miami is mostly complete, so I have been able to get …
More on Life…
As I get older I often spend time thinking about the way my life has gone. I started with many advantages; I was born in one of the richest countries in the world during the most interesting… or at least …
The Importance of Machine Documentation
Automated machinery can be very complex and cost millions of dollars. When it breaks down seconds can count… lost production affects the bottom line and can lead to lost customers when deadlines aren’t met. So why is machine documentation considered …
More On Custom Machine Building
Over the past several years I’ve had the privilege of working with quite a few machine building companies. I’ve seen how they operate from the inside; some more successfully than others. In a series of guest posts while I was …
Serial Device Communications
Today’s post is in response to Amit’s question on a previous topic about leak testers. He asks “What is the process to send or receive data from a Cosmo leak unit tester?” Rather than address Cosmo specifically, I decided to …
ATS Automation
When I was at Wright Industries, one of the companies that we often competed against for projects was ATS Automation. Though Doerfer and Wright are very large as far as custom machine-building companies go, ATS is a much larger organization. …
Raytheon Missile Material Handling Application
In my previous life as a project engineer at Wright Industries (a Doerfer company), I worked on some projects that I couldn’t talk much about, being either government-related or potentially breaching confidentiality agreements. The project discussed in this post was …
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 …
Machine Builders and Integrators
This morning I decided to update the list of machine builders and integrators under the resources tab of this site. There is a definite bias in this list that leans towards companies in Tennessee, and an additional bias towards companies …