PLANTVILLE--An Innovative Online Game Simulates a Plant Manager's Experience Challenging Players to Increase Productivity, Sustainability and the Overall Health of an Industrial Plant  read more »

We recently received an e-mail commenting on the Feb 08 "How to Build an Automation Professional" cover story. Here's a summary:

"I think it was a very good idea to point out the need for training and education in the field of automation. You know how much new stuff is being developed requiring training at some level. As an employee of Pepperl+Fuchs and a Board Member of AS-Interface USA I would like to make the following comments/suggestion.

For many year we have offered our customers application specific training for our products. This means that once the customer has determined to purchase certain hardware components and systems from P+F, we are offering training that focuses on the exact application. We do that since we recognized that most professionals have very limited time and are much more open to a short and to the point classes.

From an AS-Interface USA point of view, you should know the following. In 2008 (for the third time) we have scheduled six all day ASi training seminars. These are highly technical hands-on seminars. It is very typical that application problems are discussed; sometimes off-line, sometimes with the entire group.

We had many participants telling us that initially they were afraid that this would be just another sales pitch with very little substance. After the seminars they told us that they learned a lot and liked the vendor neutral approach. Throughout the day, we have 4 speakers from competing companies and participants sometimes do not even know which company an individual works for. We take neutrality very serious.

Thanks again for pointing out the importance of education! I feel very passionately about education in general and it is my firm belief that knowledge will be our only chance to retain our standard of living in the long run. We will never be the cheapest but we can be the best."

Helge Hornis, Ph.D.
Manager Intelligent Systems Group
Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc.
www.am.pepperl-fuchs.com

What do you think about Hornis' statement that "We will never be the cheapest but we can be the best". Is this the path to success, and is training an integral part of it?

Joe Morrissey, the product manager for Germantown, Wis.-based machine builder Conflex, tells quite a story in his recent article, "A Machine Renaissance," about how his company decided it was time to move away from a PLC and motion controller-based control scheme and embrace PC-based controls for its shrink-wrap packaging machines.

Until a last-minute opportunity arose, Conflex felt it was stuck with an iteration of its existing scheme. “It was an acceptable motion controller with PLC functionality, but didn’t have all the programming and design flexibility we hoped for,” recalled Mark Lorenz, Conflex's electrical applications engineer. “We just accepted that we had to put more time and effort into the design than was ideal."

"Some machine builders are concerned about whether using PC-based controls ties you to companies such as Microsoft, and whether additional overheads in new operating systems could even overwhelm the processors," wrote Morrissey. "Those machine builders wonder if a migration could be forced when the OS no longer is supported, and that could happen much earlier they want. "

More than that, what do you do to make sure your customers are ready for a change that some of them might view as earth-shaking and fraught with those potential operating system problems?

Morrissey makes it clear that the change produced a machine that's much easier for operators to learn how to operate and troubleshoot.

Is that the winning argument? How do you resolve the capability of clear user benefits in the face of resistance to change? We've all been there. What's your plan?

How helpful do you find refreshers and primers on engineering topics? Do back-to-basics articles provide you with the kind of information that helps you to perform better as a controls engineer? Periodically, we publish articles that revisit the fundamentals on topics that span the controls spectrum. Which topics have you found helpful in the past? And which ones would you find helpful in future issues?

A recent case history we published about machine builder Weiler Engineering....they build form/fill/seal machines.....points out how it dealt with compatibility issues of new control components when its original controls supplier changed its product line. PLCs and drives stopped speaking to each other.

How far in advance are you looking to try to anticipate when your controls supplier might pull the rug out from under you?

Do you know when its time to retire older technology and move forward without that impending threat pushing you?

Do you firmly believe they won't leave you hanging? Is your relationship that solid?

What responsibility does a large automation supplier have regarding smaller automation product users? Are you better off with Tier 2 companies in that regard?

Do you think a PLC-based platform provides more legacy protection than a PC-based system?

Control Design gets carpet-bombed with information about the latest, greatest automation technology now available to machine builders. We need to remind ourselves from time to time not to fall into a line of thinking that says "every machine builder knows about this stuff and every machine builder wants this stuff." I hear you yelling "Not so, bud. There's a very large installed base of legacy machines out there performing just fine, thank you."
You don't have the option of dynamiting your control system and starting over. You have to adapt, of course, and find ways to bring improved performance to your machines. But you want to migrate to newer technologies on your terms, not a supplier's. That's what we remind ourselves is our primary goal.
We'll tell you about the new stuff, so you can check it out for yourselves. More often than not, we'll give you case histories with similiar themes to the Weiler story [here's the article] that provide evidence of those successful migrations.
If you have that story to tell.....start here.

There's an insistent drum beat in motion control nation that says the demise of electromechanical components, including the family of ball screws and lead screws is on a fast track. The well-touted advantages of direct-drive motors for all but a few high-torque applications seem compelling.

As with many technology predictions, the talk of the demise of ball screws and lead screws for linear motion translation often neglects to factor-in those applications for which the approach is highly beneficial.  read more »

The cover story for the March issue of Control Design looks at how Machine Builder Nation trains automation professionals. The premise is simple. Automation is but a narrow niche in the wide world of commerce, so there will always be a shortage of young job candidates with formal automation training. The best that our industry can hope for is a sufficient number of two-year technical and four-year engineering graduates.

What must machine builders, system integrators and vendors do to turn these graduates into productive employees?

Newsflash: The Beatles have broken up!

Yes, it’s true. The ’60s are over. Lady Bird Johnson is no longer first lady. Free love isn't groovy any more. And the heyday of engineering in the United States has come and gone.

And while Lyndon Johnson won't be running for president again and making love can be almost as deadly as making war, an engineering renaissance is taking place. Programs across the globe are cultivating and encouraging future engineers.

The FIRST Lego League is in the midst of its Power Puzzle Challenge, which will culminate, along with the Robotics Competition and Tech Challenge, in April at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. This year’s Power Puzzle calls for teams of 9-to-14-year-old children to research and present creative solutions to an energy management and sustainability challenge.

Meanwhile, the Junior Engineering Technical Society’s National Engineering Design Challenge is about to move on to Round II, in which teams of individuals in grades 9-12 will build a prototype of the assistive-technology device they researched and designed in the competition’s first round.

What else is going on out there to build the next generations of engineers? Are you involved as a mentor or coach? Is your company donating equipment or involved as a sponsor? Does your children’s school system have special programs in place?

Let’s hear about it.

Here's the reader question we published in the October issue. "We need to measure motor speed in our dry food packaging machines to close the loop for more precise control.

We've narrowed our choices to either an encoder or a resolver, but we're having trouble deciding which is best. What are the advantages and drawbacks of each technology?"  read more »

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" For those of us old enough to remember watching Neil Armstrong take one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind, the answer was easy. "I want to be an astronaut." Who wouldn't?  read more »