Machine Building

Beyond IoT: pervasive sensing

Jonathan Wilkins, marketing director of obsolete components supplier European Automation, discusses pervasive sensing techniques and technologies, and the impact they're having on manufacturing.

16th February 2016

Smart sensors reduce PLC processing overhead and boost uptime

Sick's engineers have been developing new 'intelligent' sensors that undertake some of the processing that would normally take place within the PLC or PAC. This article explains the advantages 'smart sensors' offer machine builders, system integrators and end users.

15th February 2016

Sensor fusion offers benefits for designers and end users

Morrie Goldman of Mouser Electronics discusses 'sensor fusion' and the benefits this offers for machine builders and product designers.

14th February 2016

Advances in industrial and embedded optical communications

Carolyn Mathas of Mouser discusses the latest developments in industrial and embedded optical communications and how these can benefit machine builders, system integrators and end users.

13th February 2016

A guide to specifying the right winch drive

The variety of winch and hoist designs is vast and the number of applications almost too numerous to count. However there are some common features and design attributes that can be applied to almost every winch design. Martin Terjesen, Winch Specialist at Brevini, offers some advice on how to specify the correct winch drive.

12th February 2016

Inspecting for contaminants: nuts about snack satisfaction

Midnight cereal snacks, energy sports bars and on-the-go breakfast replacements are shaping the snacks market with UK consumption expected to reach £3.8bn this year. Given this increasing demand for healthy convenience, snacks producers are turning to efficiency driven automation and utilising the latest machinery to deliver consumer satisfaction and maintain safe, high-quality snacks. Sarah Ketchin, managing director at Fortress Technology explores the varied challenges of inspecting for contaminants and the options available.

12th February 2016

Thermal ink jet comes of age

Thermal ink jet (TIJ) is emerging as an affordable and practical coding option for food and other FMCG manufacturers, on the back of game-changing ink technology advancements and falling machine prices. Richard Pether, Director, Rotech, presents an overview.

11th February 2016

Wireless I/O vs wireless distributed I/O

One of the biggest challenges to connecting legacy or remote equipment to a network is the cost of running wires. If you have an indoor application, you have to run conduit and wires to the devices you want to monitor or measure. In most cases it is just too painful and expensive. Outdoors, there are trenches to dig, cables to bury underground and the permits (do not underestimate the time it takes for permitting). What if the equipment you need to connect to is across a major street or parking lot? That would mean more costs and permits to tear up city streets. Often it just is not feasible to run conduit between items like water pumps, generators or chillers and your control room. But, how are you supposed to get to the data in this equipment?

11th February 2016

BS EN ISO 14123-1:2015, guarding against hazardous emissions

Machine guards are normally designed to prevent workers from accessing hazardous parts of machinery and to protect against ejected parts. However, there is another risk that is not always given adequate consideration, namely hazardous substances emitted by machinery, which is covered in BS EN ISO 14123-1:2015.

9th February 2016

Automated palletising systems avoid injury from manual handling

Stack "˜em high, sell "˜em cheap was once a palletising tactic confined to wholesale outlets. Yet nowadays, it's not uncommon to see pallet loads, especially around busy seasonal periods, carefully positioned on supermarket floors. More complex patterns, combined with revisions by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to the L23 manual handling guidance (Manual Handling Operations; Regulations 1992), is proving to be catalyst for automating palletising operations.

4th February 2016