Recipe for Success: Automation Proves to Be a Key Ingredient
Application StoriesFood and BeverageHMIIndustryIssue 54 - 2025Operator InterfaceProduct

Recipe for Success: Automation Proves to Be a Key Ingredient

The right mix of automation elements is crucial for creating a consistent process yielding high-quality donuts and baked goods. By Roger Dyer, Mel-O-Cream Donuts International Mel-O-Cream, a commercial bakery in Springfield, IL, has been baking and perfecting donuts since 1932. From measuring precise ingredient amounts and maintaining a consistent mixing process, to ensuring uniform dough…
Automating a Luxury Bus
Application StoriesDistribution/LogisticsHMIIndustryOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable Control

Automating a Luxury Bus

Industrial automation products are useful for much more than traditional applications, as PLCs and HMIs can be used in all sorts of unique commercial markets. Byline: Mark McHenry, Systems & Controls Other than being large and generally rectangular-shaped, a modern custom bus—the type frequented by touring music stars, mobile multi-millionaires, and campaigning politicians—bears little resemblance…
Turning Up the Heat on a Balky Boiler
Application StoriesHMIOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable Control

Turning Up the Heat on a Balky Boiler

Applying commercial off-the-shelf automation products can provide the most capable and supportable solution for end users trapped with underperforming automation systems, as with this application. By: Aaron Stahl and Edward Stahl, Spring Valley Electric Worldwide, there are countless examples of businesses forced to work inefficiently because they are using equipment which is automated by systems…
Automating Escape Room Experiences
Application StoriesHMIOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable Control

Automating Escape Room Experiences

Industrial automation products can also be applied to unique applications, like the advanced control needed for a sophisticated escape room. Escape rooms are immersive adventure games where players solve puzzles to break out from a themed environment within a set time. While seemingly unrelated to industrial automation, a systems integrator (SI) leveraged expertise gained from…
Big Rig Custom Shop Accelerates Automation into the Passing Lane
Application StoriesIssue 52, 2024Notebook IssuePLC

Big Rig Custom Shop Accelerates Automation into the Passing Lane

Modern PLCs and HMIs have empowered a big rig customization shop to create increasingly sophisticated automated lighting effects for their customers. Byline: Dustin Dickerson, Dickerson Custom Trucks “Less is more” and “function over form” are phrases often associated with the design of objects—anything from office supplies up to buildings or larger—to promote a concept of…
Installing a Rock-Solid Automation Retrofit
Application StoriesHMIOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable Control

Installing a Rock-Solid Automation Retrofit

This electrical contractor relied on AutomationDirect PLC and HMI hardware and software to rapidly rip-and-replace the controls on a failing rock crusher. Equipment used in rock quarrying operations is subjected to extremes of dirt, vibration, heat, and more, pressing mechanical and electrical systems to the limit. When the crushing equipment legacy automation at one site…
AutomationDirect Sparks Innovation
Application StoriesContent Collections

AutomationDirect Sparks Innovation

Our low-cost products and free support have fostered many innovations over our almost 30 years of business. Below is a small sampling of what a few customers have done with our products. Check them out! Proof of Success: Crafting a Distillation Upgrade These University of Colorado—Colorado Springs students performed their capstone design project by using AutomationDirect products…
Mining Sunbeams – Solar Thermal Leverages the Sun for Producing Heat Energy
Application StoriesHMIOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable Control

Mining Sunbeams – Solar Thermal Leverages the Sun for Producing Heat Energy

Solar thermal installations need advanced control systems to optimize energy harvesting, storage, and distribution at remote mining operations. For certain applications in the right geographic areas, solar thermal can be a cost effective and low carbon way to supply large-scale heat energy. Flemming Jørgensen, of Jorgensen Thermal solutions, supplies these systems, and he needed to…
Automation Expands a Machine Shop’s Success
Application StoriesHMIOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable Control

Automation Expands a Machine Shop’s Success

By partnering with a local systems integrator and using AutomationDirect products, this machine shop enhanced its capabilities, allowing it to deliver the services required by its customers. Throughout the country, networks of small businesses—including machine shops and systems integrators (SIs)—innovate and integrate to deliver successful projects. One example is a collaboration between Stephens Machine and…