Featured Articles

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Four Questions to Ask Yourself When Getting Started with Collaborative Robotics

Many business 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. Omron provides a variety of robots to meet the specific needs of their customers. Whether you’re trying to automate highly repetetive tasks or shift some of the heavy lifting to machinery, Omron can help you choose the right technology.

 

 

 

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Q&A With HELU: Oil & Chemical Resistance

Not all environments where you find cables and wires are the same. Factors to consider for cables in an IT cabinet or routed through an office building are not the same as the demands on cables that are located in an industrial setting. Harsh chemicals, oils, and other lubricants are just a few of the challenges that cables providing power or transmitting data must withstand in industrial environments to keep operations online.

 

 

 

How GFCIs Empower Panel Builders to Protect Against Electrical Shock and Save Lives
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How GFCIs Empower Panel Builders to Protect Against Electrical Shock and Save Lives

With power, comes great responsibility. A panel builder who can effectively integrate ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) into a system can make the difference between life and death. Ground-fault circuit protection is one of the most effective preventative measures against electrical shock because it actively reacts to irregular electrical conditions, regardless of a worker’s qualifications or use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

 

 

 

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Increased Productivity and Enhanced Personal Safety Through Digitalization in Mining

Sustained cost pressures caused by low raw material prices are forcing mining companies to seek solutions that optimize productivity and reduce costs. In order to ensure competitiveness, the tradition-steeped mining industry is relying increasingly on intelligent automation solutions. Along the entire value creation chain, from exploration and extraction of mineral resources to infrastructure and further processing to final delivery to the customer, all process steps have to be streamlined in order to ensure economically viable operation.

 

 

 

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New Generation of Signal Towers are Brighter and Simpler to Order and Maintain

Signal tower lights play a critical role in protecting the safety of people and equipment in manufacturing and process control environments, providing visual and audible indications of system status and alerts of dangerous conditions. They are relatively simple devices, but until recently, they have been notoriously difficult to configure, order and stock because of the proliferation of different sizes and options to meet the wide range of applications.

 

 

 

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Top Food & Beverage Cybersecurity Challenges

The May 2021 ransomware attack on JBS Foods that knocked out the plant operations supplying roughly a fifth of the United States’ meat supply is an all too familiar story. Since September of 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been alerting food producers, processors, and manufacturers via an industry-specific notice that criminals are carrying out focused ransomware attacks targeting companies in this sector.

 

 

 

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Closing the IT/OT Gap: Adapting to Change Through Cloud Manufacturing

While digitalization has become a crucial goal across sectors, the application of digital solutions in manufacturing comes with added complications. Given the material nature of industrial process assets and equipment, the emphasis for manufacturing investment has still been predominantly hardware based, with upgrading plant machinery essential to meet production demand.

 

 

 

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Why Manufacturing Career Opportunities Will Soon Be Booming

A common misconception surrounds manufacturing today: the idea that introducing robotics and other automation equipment into the picture will rapidly dry up the industry’s career opportunities. In fact, automation does the opposite – by creating even MORE demand for human intelligence and ingenuity. Building and maintaining the factory of the future requires capable individuals who enjoy solving problems and thrive on novelty.

 

 

 

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Staying Ahead Of The Control Panel Technology Curve

There’s a tendency in every industry to gravitate towards, and heap excessive praise on, new technology. You can see companies of every shape and size purchasing or installing the newest tech gadget and then shouting from the nearest mountaintop about how it’s going to revolutionize their entire operation. Guess what? The control panel industry is no different — and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

 

 

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What Does Derating Mean for Power Supplies? And When Is It Necessary?

Derating is a protective measure which allows the use of power supplies at high temperatures, at high altitudes or in alternative mounting orientations. In this blog article you will learn what you should consider when it comes to derating. Most power supply manufacturers specify ratings for lifetime, output current, and reliability (e.g. MTBF) for their products. However, this information only applies under certain environmental conditions.

 

 

 

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Cable Selection in Industrial Steel Mills

The steel industry has faced a whirlwind of challenges—a hiatus in construction projects, worldwide pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and market fluctuations—but increased demand for domestically produced steel is creating opportunities for U.S.-based manufacturers. The steel mills driving this growth are enhancing and developing their complex operations and processes to run more efficiently.

 

 

 

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4 Cybersecurity Risks for Automotive Manufacturers

Several high-profile cyber attacks in recent years have put a spotlight on growing levels of cybersecurity risk in the automotive sector. The industry needs to quickly increase awareness of the current attack surface, which is often through the installed base of network assets, including machines and devices on plant floors. Successful attacks create not only financial risks in terms of ransomware shutdowns, data loss and expensive recovery processes.

 

 

 

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50 Years of COMBICON

Phoenix Contact’s COMBICON product portfolio is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Since 1972, COMBICON PCB terminal blocks and PCB connectors have been providing the ideal connection technology for transmitting signals, data, or power in a wide range of applications, exemplifying “The Spirit of Connecting.”

 

 

 

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What Is An Electrical Control Enclosure And How Is It Rated?

In the industry, there are three different types of ratings for electrical control panel enclosures: NEMA, IP (ingress protection in the EU), and UL types (1, 3R, 4, 4x, and 12). For the sake of this blog, let’s talk solely about UL type ratings: 1, 3R, 4, 4X, 12 and explosion proof. When it comes to rating panels, it’s important to note that any components you add to an enclosure (such as push buttons, touch screens, A/C inside, etc.), must have the same rating as the original enclosure itself to maintain that rating.

 

 

 

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Three Strategies for Immediately Improving Order Picking With Robotics

Together, shipping, receiving and storage count for less than half of all warehouse activity costs. The lion’s share of expenses – a whopping 55% – is bound up in order picking. Breaking down the various activities associated with order picking, it is found that over 60% of time is spent walking, with writing, searching and picking tasks comprising the other 40%.