It's high time to make the case that safety no longer is a machine design afterthought. In this month's Control Design cover story, Executive Editor Jim Montague provides evidence that machine builders include preventive safety early in the design process – to the benefit of builder and customer alike.
Also in the May issue: Learn how vertical turning/grinding machine builder KMT Precision Grinding uses encoder technology to aid high-accuracy production of wind turbine bearings;  read more »

Here's a video from the Siemens Rail Systems Business about the latest Amtrak electric locomotives rolling out of the shop for the Northeast corridor. It includes a discussion about the energy saving expected to be realized from use of regenerative braking systems to recover otherwise wasted electricity.  read more »

Industrial Ethernet steams powerfully along, but can it be more than you really need? Are there times when simpler, hard-working device-level networks are a better choice? Senior Technical Editor Dan Hebert reports his findings in this issue's cover story about how to "Go With What Works."

Also in the Q2 issue: Control systems and their networks now extend to field devices, so Ian Verhappen reminds us that today, a multimeter isn't the only troubleshooting tool you'll need; and get a better understanding of "How Wireless Gets Its Juice."  read more »

Here's a very slick video called Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme, produced by engineers at the University of Pennsylvania. At its conclusion is a link to another video in which they tell us how they did it. Thus far anyway, I don't think they do requests nor are they planning a worldwide tour...but I've seen a lot worse opening acts.  read more »

Offering customers the latest technologies is one way we try to make a name for ourselves, and improve their operations. We've normally been pretty traditional with our sensor technology, but suppliers are pushing imaging solutions more aggressively since cost is becoming less of an issue. We like the added versatility an image sensor might offer. The machines operate in an environment that varies significantly in temperature and humidity, so we're unsure how precision and accuracy will compare. Anyone have observations, experiences, to share?  read more »

There are lots of different paths you can take — energy, sustainability, reliability, performance — that can get your machine to a more efficient place. In this month's Control Design cover story, Executive Editor Jim Montague explains how not only are there many routes, there are many applications for which new tools and methods gained along the way can be tried and adjusted to best meet individual needs. Also in the April issue: See how motion simulation helped a system integrator realize a big decrease in time needed to design and install robotic systems;  read more »

We would like to set up all our PLCs and Fanuc Robots onto an Ethernet system, and get rid of the old-fashioned hardwired I/O going between all four PLCs and robots. The question came up asking if we would want managed or unmanaged switches.

I am not sure which to use and why you choose one over the other. If it helps, here is a list of what we have for the particular cell we are looking at converting over to Ethernet.  read more »

A few months ago, you printed a column ("Control Panel Build More Efficient In-House") about a material handling system builder that brought its panel building jobs back in-house. We've been thinking about that, too, for similar reasons. We're trying to either bring it all back so we get the benefits of volume, or just do the custom, one-off builds that have more complexity, but high value and high importance to be perfect.  I'm sure we're not alone.  read more »

In recognition of the 2013 Red Sox home opener at Fenway Park, even though they're not playing their arch-rival Yankees, we offer this often-told tale: A Red Sox fan liked to try to scare every Yankees fan he saw crossing the street in an NY pinstripe shirt. He would swerve his van as if to hit them, then swerve back just in time to miss them. One day while driving along,  read more »

Though not many in our machine builder audience are making big changes to their approaches in researching automation products and making purchases, one slowly accelerating change we see is how industry professionals are using the web. For this month's Control Design cover story, Associate Digital Editor Sarah Cechowski talked with machine builders and system integrators to get a better sense of what online tools they're using, not only to research and buy products, but also to solve on-the-job technical challenges.  read more »