SME automation is a game-changer for the manufacturing sector, and we are entering an exciting period of innovation and adoption. Companies with under 250 employees and less than €50 million in annual turnover make up the vast majority of businesses in the manufacturing sector – and the era of SME-friendly robotics and automation solutions provides huge potential for these businesses.
Known as National Manufacturing Month, there’s no better time than October to reflect on the importance of building a sustainable workforce for a more resilient future. As manufacturers across the country host student tours, Yaskawa Motoman continues to take part in STEM-centric events that fuel optimism for careers in robotic automation, as well as offer comprehensive robot training through Yaskawa Academy.
Omron’s partnership with AVEVA Edge makes machine visualization easier than ever. Although this solution is designed to work well across all industries regardless of platform, some platforms work even better – particularly the Omron NY Series Industrial PC or NY ICP for short.
Labour and skills shortages are among the most pressing challenges that manufacturers face today. Access to a large, high-quality workforce is critical for manufacturing to be successful. In this article, Greg James, Regional Sales Manager – Festo Didactic Ltd. shines some light onto what is being done in Canada to help ensure there are enough skilled workers available to keep the factory of the future running.
Many businesses of all sizes turn to robots for the purpose of enhancing precision, speed, and consistency while minimizing expenses and downtime. However, many of them – particularly the smaller enterprises – are initially unsure of whether the payoff will be worth it.
By overcoming global supply chain issues through its approach to component sourcing and manufacturing, Universal Robots is currently able to ship orders in just two weeks. One of the shortest lead times in the market. But why is delivery time important for customers and partners? We asked some UR country managers for their perspectives.
Palletizing and depalletizing machines tend to be large and have several zones of control. They must also accommodate products of numerous different shapes and sizes. These factors create challenges when safeguarding these machines.
Manufacturers’ data sheets often only give blanket information on efficiency and power losses of their power supplies at different mains voltages or loads. Therefore, it is advisable for users to measure the efficiency of a power supply themselves. In this blog article you will learn what you should pay attention to.
Hygiene or environmental protection? Preferably both! Companies in the consumer goods industry are increasingly asking themselves what alternatives they have to plastic packaging and how they can act greener, more efficiently, and yet still safely. Innovative packaging lines, robotics, and artificial intelligence offer support.
As a system engineer, it is important to have a reliable and long-lasting power supply on which you can rely. Failure of the unit after a short time is annoying, costly and time consuming. The minimum lifetime of power supplies is determined by the lifetime of the electrolytic capacitors. The warmer it is, the faster the electrolytic capacitors dry out. Even a temperature rise of +10°C in the power supply cuts in half their service lifetime.
Every day, sensors in production plants collect huge amounts of data. However, companies seldom realize how valuable the correct evaluation of large amounts of data is. This creates data graves whose potential remains undiscovered. The Heubach Group had a similar experience. However, with Festo AX artificial intelligence, it was proven that benefits for maintenance, engineering and productivity can be achieved from central PID data.
As technological advancements become common-place and affordable, more industries look to implement motion control and machine vision systems to automate tasks that may be menial and time consuming. Many industries can benefit from automated systems but, the question is, how do they get started? Often, they know what they want to mechanize, but do not have automation experts on staff to make it happen. Mechatronics Canada had the opportunity to talk with Eric Rice, Product Market Manager – Electric Automation at Festo, to discuss a case study where a customer recently chose Festo to help them implement machine vision with a motion control system to automate their industrial application.
Building and maintaining the factory of the future requires capable individuals who enjoy solving problems and thrive on novelty. While the humdrum jobs of the past may be in short supply as they get transferred to robots, the installing, troubleshooting, and innovating tasks — essentially, the exciting ones — will be desperately in need of takers.
Nadine Oliynyk is an Applications Engineering co-op student at Electromate Inc and second year Mechatronics Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. In this article, she describes her experience programming the Meca500 industrial robot arm and setting up the dedicated EtherCAT Master Controller Kit and EtherNet IP/Profinet Kit available at Electromate.
Considerable investments are made with respect to industrial gear units so one expects excellent system availability and productivity. It is not always possible to predict downtime and be able to prevent unscheduled maintenance. What if there was a way to get a clear view ahead, achieve proactive maintenance, and avoid costly breakdowns and even preventative maintenance? What if this solution was possible for not only new industrial gear units, but existing ones as well? DriveRadar® from SEW-EURODRIVE is that solution and more.
Augmenta made headlines recently with an announcement that they have raised US $4.1 million in seed funding to automate building design for the construction industry. Their platform, the Augmenta Construction Platform (ACP), enables contractors and engineers to design fully detailed, code-complaint and constructible designs in hours rather than weeks or months. Mechatronics Canada had an opportunity to speak with Francesco Iorio, CEO and co-founder of Augmenta.