Featured Articles

The Space-Performance Paradox Is Cracked

The Space-Performance Paradox Is Cracked

With the APC Smart-UPS Ultra series, Schneider Electric has now introduced an advanced 1-phase double-conversion UPS system with lithium-ion technology that is designed to deliver professional performance in the smallest possible space while maintaining flexibility. According to IDC (International Data Corporation), the global edge computing market is facing a massive growth spurt. As a result, more and more compute, network and storage resources are required locally and in close proximity to realize business-critical processes and IT applications that rely on network connectivity to the cloud.

RS Partners With Hammond Manufacturing to Provide Custom Electrical and Electronic Enclosures

RS Partners With Hammond Manufacturing to Provide Custom Electrical and Electronic Enclosures

RS Group plc offers more than 4,900 fully customizable electrical and electronic enclosures from Hammond Manufacturing, in addition more than 2,900 supporting products. Enclosures are used to connect and protect two or more electrical and electronic components and devices. They are employed in virtually every commercial and industrial application, and every enclosure gets modified in some way. The simplest enclosures, junction boxes, have just a couple of holes cut for input and output wires, while more complex enclosures can have holes cut for connectors, displays, and other components and can even be silkscreened, molded in a special color, and fabricated to a special size.

Overcoming 6 Challenges in Panel Building and Control Manufacturing

Overcoming 6 Challenges in Panel Building and Control Manufacturing

The manufacturing challenges of today can be overwhelming – from supply chain disruptions to increased customer demand, meeting production needs continues to get harder. Luckily, there is a better way to simplify the process. By combining value-enhancing process steps in engineering, design, work preparation, production, and maintenance, it is possible to create a solid foundation for efficiency improvements. It’s time to optimize your company’s performance to deliver the most value for the least cost and enhance your competitive advantage.

Omron Exhibits Collaborative Robot at Meadow Glens STEM Night to Give Students Valuable Hands-On Automation Experience

Omron Exhibits Collaborative Robot at Meadow Glens STEM Night to Give Students Valuable Hands-On Automation Experience

Recently, Omron Automation Americas attended the STEM Night event at Meadow Glens Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois. STEM Night is a highly acclaimed event that features exciting, immersive exhibits and activities that get elementary students inspired to learn more about science, technology, engineering, and math. The event features more than 30 local public services, technology businesses, and organizations, and Naperville School District 203’s students and families are encouraged to gather for hands-on experience with STEM concepts.

Panel Mounting Electromechanical Switches
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Panel Mounting Electromechanical Switches

By Troy Dixon, Global Product Manager at Littelfuse March 20, 2023 As technology and machinery evolve, the way we interface and interact with electronic equipment also advances. Many traditional human-machine interfaces (HMI) are updating to sophisticated touchscreen technologies. Even in a world where touchscreens are growing in popularity, they are not the right choice for…

ArcBlok

Schneider Electric: New ArcBlok Arc Flash Mitigation Tool

Last Fall Schneider Electric held it’s North America Innovation Summit. The event brought together Schneider employees and a broad range of electrical and automation clients from numerous countries. The Innovation Summit truly lived up to its name, with a consistent focus on digitization, electrification and sustainability. It is these three core drivers that Schneider is designing into all its products, solutions and plans as it focuses on developing an electrified and sustainable future. A core focus of the event was showcasing new products that are being developed around this concept. One such product was ArcBlok, a new arc flash mitigation tool.

PBUS Schneider Electric Logo 400

Enhanced Integration in Ecostruxure Solutions From Schneider Electric Responds to Rising Energy Costs and Escalating Urgency for Sustainable, Net-Zero Buildings

Schneider Electric recently announced its enhanced solutions to increase building sustainability. Included are new integration capabilities in EcoStruxure Building Operation 2023, EcoStruxure Connected Room Solutions, and EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert, which will help simplify and speed-up access to data that is essential to manage energy use, help reduce carbon emissions, and enhance building value.

Get Unwired to Unleash More Possibilities for Your Industrial Networks

Get Unwired to Unleash More Possibilities for Your Industrial Networks

Wire pulling is not always possible or ideal in every industrial application. In situations where it’s hard to wire or reconfigure industrial operations to ensure time to market, industrial wireless LANs (WLANs) provide an ideal alternative to traditional wired Ethernet LANs. Indeed, recent advances in wireless technology have contributed to industrial WLANs becoming commonplace solutions in various applications, such as automotive, logistics, and transportation systems.

Power System Balance
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Achieving Power System Balance

For the power generation industry, maintaining power system balance as closely as possible to the ideal power factor (PF) of 1.000 using correction capacitors and other technology is critical. Power factor is a measure of how effectively electricity is used, with an equal 1.000 PF benefiting both the customer and utility, and a low or high PF indicating poor electrical power utilization. A low power factor can overload generation units making them work harder for the same amount of power.

Guard AS/RS

What’s the Best Way to Guard AS/RS with Safety Light Curtains?

Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are a popular way to make storage space usage more efficient and cut down on manual labor. Although these systems also improve safety by eliminating the need for people to manually access shelving, safeguarding is still required to keep people out of hazardous areas. Safety light curtains are a key element in any AS/RS safety solution. The main challenge in AS/RS safeguarding is that the safety system needs to allow totes to enter the danger zone while keeping people out.

How Can the Availability of a System Be Increased?
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How Can the Availability of a System Be Increased?

For plant operators, the primary goal is to ensure maximum availability of machines and systems. This requires a reliable power supply throughout the entire lifetime of the system. Therefore, it is important that the applied power supplies are reliable, safe and durable. Within a power supply system, however, the power supply unit is often just one component among many. DC UPS, fuses and redundancy or buffer modules are also included. Such a holistic power supply system must be planned conscientiously.

San Bernardino

County of San Bernardino in California

The county of covers more than 20,000 square miles and comprises 24 cities encompassing more than 2 million residents. In fact, San Bernardino is the largest county in the United States. For the county’s facilities management staff, responding to a service call for one of the county’s many buildings meant spending several hours on the road and using many gallons of fuel. By taking a proactive approach with Siemens, the county has become more sustainable and energy efficient.

Top Six Trends Shaping the Packaging Industry Today

Top Six Trends Shaping the Packaging Industry Today

Six trends shape the packaging industry as it is. Automation has been a game-changer in the packaging industry thanks to its significant impact on the efficiency, speed, and accuracy of the packaging process. As packaging companies adopt these new solutions, they’ll be increasingly capable of adapting quickly to meet changing customer demand and withstand the impact of stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s explore a few of the biggest automation trends in packaging.

Wireless Data Acquisition System Case Studies

Wireless Data Acquisition System Case Studies

Wireless data acquisition systems are vital elements of connected factories. When deployed as part of an IIoT network, these smart solutions collect equipment data, visualize processes, and improve productivity, allowing manufacturers to remotely monitor the condition and performance of every connected machine on the factory floor. As such, they also enable predictive maintenance, which can help extend asset lifetimes, boost productivity, prevent equipment damage, reduce downtime, and maximize profits.

Q&A With HELU: Cable Assemblies

Q&A With HELU: Cable Assemblies

Not all cables are hard-wired when they are terminated in their intended application. Some are terminated with something as simple as a ferrule or lug, while others are more complex and use a combination of male or female pins that are inserted into standard or custom connector housings. Cable assemblies can be built either by third-party assembly houses or directly by the cable manufacturer to streamline the supply chain and provide better value to the end user.

Plant Efficiency with the Right Control Hardware

Plant Efficiency with the Right Control Hardware

Process customers today are striving to reduce total cost of ownership, project execution time, and optimizing production through expanding throughput, decreasing downtime and empowering plant operators with smart manufacturing. Smart manufacturing demands more smart information. Luckily, today information and big data are everywhere. Sensors and instrumentation provide much more information today than previously.