TechArchive

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 [...]

Original article date: January 2000 Don’t rely on your nose! There are many reasons why gas analysis should be undertaken, but it is often overlooked. Dr STEPHEN FIRTH of Servomex explains Gas analysis has a huge range of applications in industry. Gas analysers are, for example, used to ensure that combustion process emissions are within [...]

Original article date: November 1997 Bar code systems are becoming more popular in all walks of life. Easy to use, they allow you to enter data much more quickly than by manual methods and they are very accurate. Their speed and accuracy improve many operations in manufacturing, including asset tracking, shipping, receiving and packaging. Bar [...]

Original article date: November 1998 A tool failure in production can stop the production line which is very costly. Robotic tool changing provides flexibility to robot applications by allowing the robot to change end-effectors (grippers pneumatic and electric motors weld guns) automatically. There are several robotic tool changers now available on the market differing principally [...]

Original article date: July 1999 Designing safety circuits needs a methodical approach and the application of some basic principles. DEAN TERRELONGE of Erwin Sick guides us through the steps involved. To design a machine control system that performs efficiently, is cost effective and is safe, is extremely demanding. A designer will usually attend to the [...]

Original article date: May 2002 Another ‘new approach’ European directive is coming into force – the Pressure Equipment Directive. Tommy Miller has been finding out what it’s all about Remember, remember the twenty-ninth of November, to modify the old rhyme. On that day, the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) will come into force. This is the [...]

Original article date: February 2000 A new CD-Rom from Banner looked like it was worth reviewing – and it was! If you’re looking for help on safety components, this has it all. Tommy Miller has a look. Here’s a free CD-Rom that will be very useful for anybody designing machinery or equipment that needs safety [...]

Original article date: January 1999 Do you know your sensorbus from your devicebus from your fieldbus? DICK CARO of Automation Research Corporation looks at what’s heppening at the lower end of networking. There are three major driving forces at work in the industrial automation market: 1) the need for openness in the design of systems [...]

This article was originally written in the period 1995-2000 When networking devices together in a plant environment, what are the options? Echelon LONWorks is a peer-to-peer networking system which has many advantages. Intelligent control networks have until now been costly or limited in applicability. Communications protocols are difficult to design and implement and tools for [...]

Original article date: October 1998 The TwinCAT is an open universal automation system offering PC-based processing without add-on processors. It can also be used for axis position control replacing conventional positioning modules and NC controls. PC-based automation systems are currently being implemented as either a PLC process control computer or NC control system combined with [...]