Original article date: October 1999
Truck industry partnership results in unique power take-off selector valve
Working in partnership with leading European truck industry systems manufacturers, Parker Pneumatic has developed the new and unique, single unit PTO Selector Valve to control the engagement and disengagement of power take off (PTO) on commercial vehicles.
With the growth of heavy commercial [...]
Original article date: April 1999
The concept of a rigidly locking chain to create both push and pull forces is not new but it is now being taken into a much wider area as BILL GENTLES Managing Director of Drives International explains.
Users have the choice of a number of different systems that are in common use [...]
Original article date: February 2000
Gravatom Engineering Systems Ltd established their strong reputation in nuclear engineering, and have since expanded into other areas including industrial automation, original equipment manufacture and pharmaceutical. They recently received a SMART award from the Department of Trade and Industry for an engineering project of outstanding technical merit.
Festo are the world leaders [...]
Original article date: May 2002
Advertising is a proven strategy for generating sales.But advertising has to be appropriate. An ad for ice cream in an engineering magazine would be wholly inappropriate, and nothing more than a distraction. It sounds obvious, but it’s something the online community has been putting up with for a long time.
I saw [...]
Original article date: April 2000
One major factor that keeps many people from shopping on the internet is trust. Despite the fact that it is usually the banks who lose in credit card fraud, rather than the buyer, there is still the worry that the goods won’t turn up, or that the company may pass on [...]
Original article date: April 1998
The piezoelectric multi-layer bender element in Asco Joucomatic’s latest solenoid valve comes from PI in Germany. Alan Quinn takes a look at what it has to offer.
Ceramic multilayer actuator (CMA) technology is the key to Asco Joucamatic’s piezoelectric solenoid valves, which gives response times down to 100um, a service life exceeding [...]
Original article date: April 2002
I recently thought I might upgrade my laptop’s hard disk. Then I spotted a rather nice USB external drive. This one was 10GB, beautifully small, and even featured a carrying case for when it was not plugged into the PC. If the promise of plug and play is to be believed, [...]
Original article date: July 1997
Have you ever asked yourself what your communications cost? You could say for a letter, it’s 2p for the headed paper + 1p laser + 3p envelope + 26p stamp + writing time; for a fax it’s 5p for a phone unit per page + writing time; for an email it’s [...]
Original article date: September 1999
CE Marking is once again foremost this month, with the publication of an excellent guide from the Information Group at the British Standards Institution – well worth the investment, writes Tommy Miller
We’ve often used this monthly column to bemoan the lack of ‘official’ advice and guidance on CE marking, though there [...]
Original article date: July 1999
Fast efficient component inspection and delivery are vital elements in high speed automated manufacturing machinery. Bob Jackson of Festo describes how the Checkbox system contributes.
The Festo Checkbox family is designed for applications where the limits of conventional handling systems such as mechanical escapement bowl feeders have been exceeded due to speed [...]