TechArchive

Original article date: November 1999 Though launched at a print show, Springtek is also targeting industrial data acquisition with its Little Big Box. Alan Quinn reports Version Two of the Little Big Box, from UK manufacturer Springtek, made its bow at – unusually – a print show exhibition. But the device, which was unveiled by [...]

Original article date: July 1999 Lamerholm Fleming?s Shocklog quietly sits and monitors shocks and vibrations on an object for up to a year. Then it reveals what really happened as David Norris finds out A self-contained low-cost “black box” which can can unobtrusively be attached to items in transit or storage to record the forces [...]

Original article date: May 1998 No-one wants to be caught with out-of-date technology that has to be replaced at great expense. One such example is fieldbus systems which like many emerging technologies are approaching a crossroads where a shake-up is likely to reduce the number of competing operating standards. Caught in a dilemma few businesses [...]

Original article date: November 1997 The term fatigue, when applied to a load cell or torque sensor, is one of the least understood terms in the transducer industry, says Paul Armstrong of Amber Instruments. Typically, sensors that are manufactured for general purpose applications have been “de-rated” to one-half the normal output and then called “fatigue [...]

Original article date: March 1999 While the trend towards digitalisation in automation continues there remain many applications for which analogue signals are still required – or preferred. ROY MOFFATT Managing Director of Variohm Components sets out the ground rules. Most people associate the word potentiometer with the low cost unreliable noisy units used on radio [...]

Original article date: July 2000 Allegro Microsystems has introduced a new Hall-effect switch: a low cost device that offers the added benefit of consuming minimal power. DOMINIKIS MAISL put it through its paces The key design requirements for modern consumer electronic equipment are high reliability, small size, low cost, and low power consumption. One result [...]

Original article date: July 1999 Introducing the photoelectric sensors that allow the user to tailor the sensor to suit the application With more and more demands placed on components for today’s high speed production techniques, engineers are faced with a vast array of different sensors to detect product in the latest complex packaging designs. Pepperl [...]

Original article date: January 2000 Manufacturers of rotational filling machines are increasingly moving towards using weighing as a means of improving accurate fill control. Alan Chapman, managing director of Tedea-Huntleigh, examines the design criteria and the pitfalls. Typically, rotational gravimetric filling machines use strain gauge load cells that move rotationally with the carousel. As a [...]

Original article date: May 1999 Encoders are significantly more expensive than inductive proximity switches so why use them? That’s the view of Dipl.-Ing PETER HEIMLICHER Managing Director and founder of Swiss company Contrinex. Inductive proximity switches are enormously popular with end-users. They are robust good value for money insensitive to dirt standardised and as a [...]

Original article date: March 1998 Monitoring the load on a motor that is driving a machine or process can give valuable information. On a mixer or agitator for example as the viscosity increases it will take more power to stir the mixture. When cutting metal as a tool gets dull it takes more power to [...]