Machine Building

The mysterious case of the haunted gimbal

Zettlex were contacted recently by a distressed technical manager (a competitor's customer) who had encountered a problem that he simply could not understand. Voice shaking, the technical manager explained how a prototype gimbal was acting in an unexpected and unpredictable manner at seemingly random times. Despite performing well during the 6 months of laboratory and factory trials, embarrassingly the gimbals seemed to temporarily go berserk for short periods during field trials. The results appeared completely random to the users and inexplicable to the system designers.

11th March 2016

HBM supports Germany's first complete nacelle test stand

HBM has supplied its Genesis DAQ system with Perception software to the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES), to create Germany's first full scale nacelle test stand. Designed to test complete nacelles, the new stand will be used at the Dynamic Nacelle Testing Laboratory in Bremerhaven, which provides a realistic testing environment in the multi-megawatt field for all manufacturers of wind energy turbines.

11th March 2016

Miniature motors replace pneumatics in robotic hand

Shadow is using miniature electric motors from maxon in its next-generation robotic hand, replacing the air muscles that were previously used.

11th March 2016

Eddy current sensors measure thermal growth of engine bed frames

A manufacturer of diesel generating sets is using non-contact, eddy current displacement sensors from Micro-Epsilon to measure the thermal expansion of its engine bed frames. The previous laser displacement sensors were proving to be unreliable due to the ambient temperature fluctuations and the presence of oil and dirt. Micro-Epsilon's eddy current sensors were evaluated for this task and provided much superior performance.

10th March 2016

Fast and easy implementation of bottling machinery

Elmo 's smart design tools, advanced motion control, servo axes and efficient EtherCAT networking allow rapid design of high-speed, high-precision, labelling and cupping machines.

2nd March 2016

Save energy by switching from pneumatic to electric actuation

Thomson Industries, Inc., has helped Danish fabrics plasticator, Raaco International, achieve lower annual energy costs of 89 per cent by switching to Thomson's new generation electric linear actuators, the PC Series, at its plastic welding and injection moulding factory in Denmark.

2nd March 2016

TRUMPF customers enjoy guaranteed communication availability

Belden Inc. has demonstrated how a customised Hirschmann OpenBAT wireless system enables the remote communication capability for TRUMPF.

1st March 2016

Renishaw neuromate robot and neuroinspire software installation

Renishaw is announcing that a neuromate stereotactic robot system and neuroinspire surgical planning software have been installed at one of the world's leading children's hospitals, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London, UK.

1st March 2016

Henkel's hotmelt restores the boy king's mask

Henkel doesn't just manufacture and supply adhesives, it also uses its knowledge to create the very best bonding product for the job. Many manufacturers benefit from this service that calls on both standard and bespoke formulations to optimise the process. Recently, however, Henkel's expertise was put to test by a very different application.

1st March 2016

bigHead bonding fasteners in composite panel production

The application of lightweighting composite materials for high-powered supercars and competition-class cars with their inherent benefits in performance and form is well established. More recently the need to reduce CO2 emissions, improve fuel efficiency and counter the increased weight potential of comfort and added safety features has led many high-end luxury car manufacturers to utilise thinner and lighter composite materials - replacing traditional metals and plastics for body panels, exterior mouldings and structural fabrications.

25th February 2016