Featured Articles

Enhancing Crane Safety with Pfannenberg’s PA X 5-05 Signaling Solution

Enhancing Crane Safety with Pfannenberg’s PA X 5-05 Signaling Solution

Ensuring safety in port operations is paramount, especially when it comes to heavy equipment like Rubber-Tired Gantry (RTG) cranes. At a large east coast ocean and inland river port, the need for reliable safety signals became critical as their existing equipment frequently failed due to environmental challenges. To address this, Pfannenberg’s PA X 5-05 signaling solution was implemented, offering a more durable and effective system to enhance safety and reduce costly maintenance. This article explores how the PA X 5-05 transformed safety protocols and operational efficiency for the port’s RTG crane operations.

Bayable Outdoor Industrial Enclosures Can Be a Cost-Effective Automation Solution

Bayable Outdoor Industrial Enclosures Can Be a Cost-Effective Automation Solution

Today’s manufacturing landscape is incorporating more industrial automation in outdoor environments than ever before. Energy & power, agriculture, and oil & gas processing are just a handful of the industries that require a unique kind of industrial enclosure that is adaptable and reliable, particularly in the face of harsh environmental conditions. While the idea of a bayable outdoor industrial enclosure is appealing, the cost of these solutions has in the past proven to be a challenge for manufacturers. Highly customized configurations, long lead times, and reliability concerns have made bayable outdoor industrial enclosures a non-starter in terms of saving time and money.

Precision Accuracy in Microfluidics Instrumentation: Why the Right Enclosure Matters

Precision Accuracy in Microfluidics Instrumentation: Why the Right Enclosure Matters

Laboratory instrumentation is almost always highly sensitive – and microfluidics devices are no exception. But that’s hardly surprising given the need to control cellular microenvironments with such high spatiotemporal precision. Manipulating and controlling fluids in sample volumes sufficiently small for lab-on-a-chip applications – perhaps to one-trillionth of a litre – requires absolute pinpoint accuracy. And the exacting demands placed on the electronics also apply to the enclosures safeguarding them.

Legacy Systems, Modern Challenges: Why Early Project Planning is Key

Legacy Systems, Modern Challenges: Why Early Project Planning is Key

As industrial projects and processes grow more complex, effective planning for maintenance and upgrades requires anticipating a wide variety of issues, especially when dealing with legacy systems. These older systems often bring unique challenges—from outdated components and limited compatibility to heightened security risks. When these issues aren’t addressed from the outset, they can create roadblocks that disrupt timelines, inflate budgets, and hinder overall project success.

Implementing Functional Safety Requirements

Implementing Functional Safety Requirements

The Safety Functional Requirements Specification (SFRS; sometimes referred to as SRS or Safety Requirements Specification) is the plan for the safety controls on a machine and is the second step of the safety lifecycle. The SFRS document serves as a framework for the safety control system design, is informed by prior work done in the risk assessment, and directly impacts the design and validation of the control system.

4 Ways to Increase the Computing Efficiency of Your Colocation

4 Ways to Increase the Computing Efficiency of Your Colocation

The compound annual growth rate of the global colocation market is expected to hover around 14% per year through 2030. This is driven by a couple of key factors, including the continued development and increase of AI computing, and the increasing number of companies that are migrating to colocations to reduce operating costs and increase the ROI on their IT equipment and capabilities. To truly capitalize on renting colocation space as opposed to building and operating a private data center, network engineers need to specify the right infrastructure — servers, enclosures, power distribution units (PDUs), and cooling units — to maximize network productivity and leverage data for meaningful business growth.

3 Ways Generative AI (GenAI) is Empowering Your Manufacturing Workforce

3 Ways Generative AI (GenAI) is Empowering Your Manufacturing Workforce

Skilled labor shortages are a familiar headache for the manufacturing industry. The problem has been looming for years and there is no end in sight. By 2030, manufacturers will need to fill 4 million jobs, with 2.1 million of these jobs at risk of going unfilled. This is the primary challenge for 71% of manufacturers, which in turn is putting immense pressure on the industry to find new ways to operate efficiently and maintain productivity and growth. To compensate, manufacturers are progressively turning to automation as the top solution. However, automation alone isn’t enough to solve the complex challenges, and that is where generative AI (GenAI) comes into play.

What to Know About Industrial Enclosure Heating

What to Know About Industrial Enclosure Heating

The ability to efficiently cool industrial enclosures is key in optimizing the performance of your automation infrastructure, especially in harsh manufacturing environments. But industrial enclosure heating is just as key to increasing the productivity and durability of your manufacturing programs, particularly in deployments where colder temperatures are the norm. Many of the same considerations designers account for with enclosure cooling still apply to specifying the ideal enclosure heaters, including: targeted heating with the appropriate thermal output; energy-efficient operation; and application versatility.

What Are the Benefits of Busbar Power Distribution?
|

What Are the Benefits of Busbar Power Distribution?

The adoption of busbar power distribution systems on a global scale has accelerated in the last few years. In fact, research estimates that the market for copper busbar power panels in North America alone will grow by nearly 7.5% annually through 2032. There are several factors that account for this growth and why manufacturers are moving fast to harness the benefits of busbar power, but safety and efficiency are two of the biggest drivers.

MPS and NOARK: Transforming the Renewable Energy Industry with Timely, Efficient Service

MPS and NOARK: Transforming the Renewable Energy Industry with Timely, Efficient Service

Meta Power Solutions is revolutionizing the electrical sector with their innovative products designed in an expedient and productive manner. Meta Power Solutions are providers in manufacturing oil-filled power and distribution transformers in North America. MPS designs and builds a variety of standard and custom transformers that serve utilities, oil and gas, mining, commercial construction, solar systems, and bitcoin mining industries. Through their technical design expertise, diverse product offerings and manufacturing capabilities, MPS provides for the industry in these markets, making them a fundamentally strong and financially stable company.

Transform Your Safety Strategy: Introducing Logix SIS for Enhanced Protection and Efficiency

Transform Your Safety Strategy: Introducing Logix SIS for Enhanced Protection and Efficiency

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” This quintessential quote by Arthur C. Clarke appropriately foreshadows and encapsulates the spirit of innovation and progress that has driven humanity to push past conceivable boundaries. More than ever, people look to their resources, neighbors and leaders for intuitive and adaptable solutions to their persisting problems. Now, in the realm of safety, Rockwell Automation answers the call, standing at the precipice of a new era, where the limitations of the past are giving way to future possibilities.

What Food & Beverage Manufacturers Need to Know About Energy-Efficient Enclosure Cooling
|

What Food & Beverage Manufacturers Need to Know About Energy-Efficient Enclosure Cooling

The importance of energy-efficient enclosure cooling cannot be overstated in today’s manufacturing environment, both in terms of enhancing sustainability efforts and reducing energy costs. According to a recent report, one of the biggest challenges manufacturers face is leveraging new technologies and processes to power their product programs more efficiently. This challenge is particularly pertinent for food & beverage manufacturers given the amount of energy required to facilitate 24/7 production to keep pace with consumer demand.

Considerations for Selecting an Electrical Enclosure Cooling Solution

Considerations for Selecting an Electrical Enclosure Cooling Solution

Electrical enclosures house critical components that generate heat during operation. Proper air circulation can make or break an electrical enclosure. Inadequate air circulation can lead to isolated temperature accumulation, running the risk of system malfunctions, reduced component lifespan, and compromised reliability. To select the best cooling solution for an electrical enclosure, consider such factors as the unit’s proximity to operators, whether it will be installed in a temperature-controlled facility, and the type of airflow inside the enclosure.

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. Helps to Improve OEM’s Production Output by 300% with Implementation of Servo Motors and Amplifiers
|

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. Helps to Improve OEM’s Production Output by 300% with Implementation of Servo Motors and Amplifiers

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. prides itself on its servo motors and amplifiers portfolio, known for its high-performance capabilities, flexibility, and versatility for various applications. With Mitsubishi Electric’s assistance, Genesis Packaging Technologies moved from a customized to a standardized automation platform, which reduced lead and build times while increasing output by 300%.

Trip Curves Explained: How NOARK Electric Ensures Your Safety

Trip Curves Explained: How NOARK Electric Ensures Your Safety

Trip curves in circuit breakers represent the relationship between the magnitude of the fault current and the time it takes for the circuit breaker to trip. These curves help determine the response of the circuit breaker to different levels of fault currents. The trip curves are typically categorized into different classes, such as B, C, D, K, and Z, each representing a specific tripping characteristic. For example, a Class B curve indicates a fast-tripping time for high fault currents, while a Class D curve offers a slower response for lower fault currents.

Signal Marshalling: Primary Requirements & Critical Success Factors

Signal Marshalling: Primary Requirements & Critical Success Factors

Signal marshalling plays a critical role in connecting instrumentation devices throughout large-scale industrial process plants via distributed control systems (DCS). It enables the reliable transmission of signals from thousands of distributed field devices like sensors, valves, and actuators back to the control room. The long distances and sheer volume of signals in expansive process facilities make it impractical to connect field signals directly to control units or I/O modules. Signal marshalling provides an interface to group and bundle signals, routing them over common transmission paths.