Building the Electrical Control Panel There are many things to consider when building an automation control system. Some control systems are extremely simple, like a pump control system that consists of a pump, level controller, and a contactor, or they can be complicated and control a full production line with a series of sub control…
NEMA rating is one of those standards that is at times misunderstood or even ignored. However, it is an important specification that must be considered when buying a NEMA rated product to ensure the safety of personnel and equipment. For this post, let’s use enclosures as an example of a NEMA rated product. NEMA rated…
Electrical control systems are used on everything from simple pump controls to car washes, to complex chemical processing plants. Automation of industrial machinery, tools and more has increased productivity and reliability in all areas of manufacturing, utilities and material processing. When an operation or process used to produce an end product is very laborious, time…
In a Control Design September 2018 Automation Basics column titled “Terminate the Rat’s Nest”, author Dave Perkon gets right to the point when he writes, “For those who think it’s okay to open a control enclosure and see a monochromatic rat’s nest of wires without any wire labels, you should be aware, that’s worst-case practice.”…
Housing electrical components inside an enclosure in industrial applications facilitates the protection of controllers, power distribution components, power supplies and other electronics from harsh factory floor environments. Factories, plants and facilities often experience considerably warm ambient temperatures, and many of the electrical components housed in the control enclosure generate heat, so many enclosures require cooling….
Those of us who have worked with, or around, electrical equipment have witnessed electrical arcs. At the very least, we’ve seen the sparks produced when a relay or contactor switches off. This is easily observed by watching a motor starter with open contacts. When the motor turns on, the contacts close in a fairly uneventful…
1.) Loopy Lapel To setup this puzzle: drill a hole in a pencil and tie a loop of string through the hole (as shown in the picture). Make sure that the loop of string is short enough that it will NOT pass over the long end of the pencil (the pointy end). Now, the trick:…
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View Results Here: <link> This award sponsored by AutomationDirect celebrates the art of digital animation and its close relationship to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics). The 2019 Digital Animation Award is offered to help encourage students to cultivate skills in design and creation of animation including, but not limited to, storytelling, creativity, use…
Ethernet is the most widely used network in industrial plants and facilities. Here’s a primer covering its foundational concepts. Bill Dehner, technical marketing engineer at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the October 2018 issue of IMPO titled Ethernet Basics for Facilities. Here’s a summary, please click on the link above for the full text. Industrial…