Mechatronics Canada had the opportunity to talk with Eric Rice, Product Market Manager – Electric Automation at Festo. In this article, he walks us through some of the latest features of the SBS vision sensors and their common applications. Features like improved resolution, more powerful software tools, easier integration, and greater flexibility, all of which are optimized to meet your machine vision requirements and your application.
As development progresses and the benefits for the process industry become clearer, interest in and demand for the Ethernet Advanced Physical Layer, or Ethernet-APL for short, are growing. The debate about this innovative technology is becoming increasingly intense, so that more and more users from all over the world are approaching our experts with questions. You will find the most important answers here–and thus seven good reasons why this technology should not be missing in your plant.
EnDat is a digital, bidirectional interface for encoders developed by Heidenhain. It can transmit position values from incremental and absolute encoders as well as transmit or update information stored in the encoder. There are several versions of EnDat and it can be confusing to tell them apart. STOBER breaks down the difference between EnDat 2.1 and 2.2.
We have never talked about industrial automation as much as we have in 2022. Yet, despite the chatter, most manufacturing plants in North America have little to no automation. There’s a simple reason why the vast majority of manufacturers cannot profitably automate their production—because automation technology was developed (and priced) for high-throughput manufacturing.
Without a doubt, digitalization is setting high standards for efficiency and throughput in production. The right tools and tech can enable advanced predictive maintenance, bottleneck prevention and optimization. Omron discusses how digitalization is bridging the gap between legacy systems and Industry 4.0.
Within the next decade approximately 2.7 million “Baby Boomers” (b. 1946-1964) will retire, thereby ensuring that tens of thousands of skilled, well-paid positions will become available without a ready supply of American workers to fill them. Statistics paint an especially gloomy picture for the manufacturing sector, a widening of the skills gap, and a possible dilution of existing training programs.
ABB recently hosted “Billions of Better Decisions – Empowering the Workforce with the Industrial Internet of Things”, a panel discussion focused on the convergence of digitalization and sustainability and the critical role of the industrial IoT. This article highlights what these experts address as the mega trends of digitalization and sustainability and how leaders can use the industrial IoT to make better decisions and tackle the threat of the climate crisis.
The industrial applications of cobots are vast, and these smart machines have capabilities that virtually every manufacturing plant or production line can make use of. A cobot arm handles dull, dirty or dangerous jobs on behalf of their human colleagues and minimizes downtime by boosting round-the clock-capacity, if that is what the business needs.
The development of user-friendly technology continues to spark greater confidence among business leaders for the implementation of robotic automation. Highly flexible and capable of optimizing production, more affordable easy-to-program collaborative robots – or “cobots” – are quickly becoming the “go to” for a variety of tasks, including arc welding.
These days, we can’t build electronics quick enough. From the way our cars can sense their surroundings and the refrigerator that can order groceries when you run out to our ability to look up anything in the palm of our hand, electronics drive it all. Consumers and businesses alike want all of it—fast. Here are five examples of how electronics manufacturers are taking advantage of automation in their facilities.
In manufacturing environments, real estate is precious. One of the best and easiest ways to save space is through the machine control cabinets used in electric and pneumatic automation. Traditionally, control components — from the cables to the programmable logic controller (PLC) to valve terminals in pneumatic systems — existed in one or more large cabinets.
With demand for robots growing as companies in multiple sectors look for new ways to enhance their productivity and competitiveness post-pandemic, ABB has compiled a set of growth predictions, looking at key trends driving demand for robots in the coming year. Based on customer conversations, market research and a global survey of 250 companies across multiple industries, ABB has identified three key trends that will shape the demand for robots in 2022.
Mechatronics Canada had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Zoe Reeve, Analytic Product Manager at Endress+Hauser Canada. In this interview she discusses her journey to Endress+Hauser Canada and sheds light on what an Analytic Product Manager does. She also touches on some of the initiatives that have been taken to help women and employees in general achieve professional heights.
The James Webb Space Telescope promises to change the way we see the cosmos by collecting breakthrough observations of galaxies, stars, and planets. But to do this, Webb must have a precise and stable eye on the universe. The telescope’s Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS), one of Canada’s contributions, plays a critical role in this epic mission.
For customers seeking an Industry 4.0 solution for PCs, industrial panels, or embedded and mobile devices, AVEVA Edge provides a powerful, affordable, and user-friendly supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that integrates seamlessly with Omron technologies, This is thanks to Omron’s partnership with AVEVA.
Heavy-duty autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) like the Omron HD-1500 are quickly becoming a gold standard for automating pallet transport in warehouses and distribution centres. Capable of moving payloads through dynamic and peopled environments using onboard mapping software, AMRs provide the ultimate in flexibility and scalability. When logistics facilities start considering an AMR solution, a common question that arises is how to get the pallets onto robots. It turns out there are three methods for doing this, and each has its own advantages relative to the constrains of a particular warehouse infrastructure. In this article, Omon looks at each of these in turn.