TechArchive

Original article date: May 2001 If you can save your work when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on BillIf you can trust your scripts when others doubt youAnd keep well hid your list of those to kill If you can wait and not salute (three fingered)Just ‘cos the hour glass goes on [...]

Original article date: February 1999 Built to a modular concept Mayr Transmissions’ Smartflex coupling is optimised for the requirements of servo drive lines and offers the machine designer the optimum flexibility with minimum stockholding. Servo applications for direct drive lines are very common today. The vast increase in quantity has made the drive lines more [...]

Original article date: June 2000 A new multiaxis distributed controller has adopted the FireWire comms link, bringing faster data transfer rates that traditional buses Motion controllers often have to operate in less than ideal industrial environments. The production or manufacturing floor can be tough on the controller, both physically and in terms of the demands [...]

Original article date: May 1999 Introduced recently to a UK audience at the MTEC (Measuring Technology) Conference and Exhibition Shape Tape is set to change the way shapes and surfaces are measured. Alan Quinn reports Imagine an array of fibre optic sensors embedded along a flexible ribbon of tape? The result of innovative research from [...]

Original article date: April 2000 An encoder with millions of variants from a single disc is on offer from Stegmann. Alan Quinn considers the implications for encoder users Perhaps the greatest problem with the development of encoders has been that all manufacturers have needed a large number of etched discs – one for each number [...]

Original article date: November 1999 Alan Quinn reports on a compression spring gauging system which is now available off the shelf for the first time Previously only available through Cadar’s bespoke gauging service, the company’s spring compression gauge is now available as a standard product for the first time. Although primarily designed to measure car [...]

Original article date: September 1997 The relative merits of 4-wire and 2-wire signal/power transmission configurations in industrial sensors are the subject of some debate among controls and plant maintenance engineers. In the 4-wire scheme, a pair of twisted wires is dedicated to the precise transmission of a 4-20mA current signal linearly proportional to the variable [...]

Original article date: March 2000 A new design of web tension transducer can determine the true web force as well as the resultant angle Available in ranges from 0-5,000lb to 0-20,000lb, the HTU web tension transducer from Nobel Systems utilises a two dimensional approach to web tension force measurement. The subject of a patent application, [...]

Original article date: September 1999 The testing and development is up and Renold’s remarkable strain gauge for drive chains is now looking to perform in anger. Alan Quinn explains what it’s all about. An intelligent chain link capable of collecting load data and predicting chain life on actual applications has been jointly developed by Renold [...]

Original article date: May 1999 The sensors and systems exhibition that comes to you… Erwin Sick’s innovative sensors and systems are heading your way! The company has fitted out an impressive roadshow vehicle which toured Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland in April, and returns from a tour around the continent at the end of May. [...]