Why Product Testing and Certification Really Matters
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Why Product Testing and Certification Really Matters

Do you ever think about all those marks and logos on electronic equipment? You should, they’re your assurance of product quality. Bill Dehner, technical marketing engineer at AutomationDirect and Tim Dunn, design engineer at Host Engineering, wrote an article for the November 2018 issue of Design News titled Why Product Testing and Certification Really Matters,…
Beam Testing at Portland State
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomation NotebookAutomationDirect SpotlightDiscrete SensingEducation/DIYIndustryIssue 37 - 2017Learning ResourcesMotion ControlNotebook IssuePLCProductProgrammable ControlStudent SpotlightTest and MeasurementVariable Speed Drives

Beam Testing at Portland State

For their undergraduate senior capstone project, a team of Mechanical Engineering students at Portland State University (PSU) recently designed an electronic system upgrade for the control system of a 100-year-old beam testing machine. Using a range of AutomationDirect parts, the purpose of the project was to make the operator experience comparable to modern machines.
Automation Improves Alternator Test System
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomation NotebookEducation/DIYHMIIndustryIssue 31 - 2015Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable ControlTest and MeasurementVariable Speed Drives

Automation Improves Alternator Test System

Opening the hood of your car will reveal a mass of cables and hoses running around the engine block. Somewhere in there is an alternator, which helps keep your car supplied with electric power when it’s running. When an alternator goes bad, most mechanics will replace it with a used unit that has been remanufactured,…
Students help Manufacturing Center See AND Do More
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomation NotebookData System MonitoringEducation/DIYFacilitiesIndustryIssue 27 – 2013Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable ControlStudent SpotlightTest and Measurement

Students help Manufacturing Center See AND Do More

When the mechatronics students at Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) in Hickory, North Carolina, went looking for a suitable project to challenge their recently acquired PLC and HMI skills, they didn’t have to go far. The Problem The college’s Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC) in nearby Conover needed a way to monitor the status of a…
DL06 PLC Puts Heaters To The Test
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomation NotebookEducation/DIYHMIIndustryIssue 13 – 2009Learning ResourcesMachine ToolNotebook IssueOperator InterfacePLCProductProgrammable ControlTest and MeasurementUser Solutions

DL06 PLC Puts Heaters To The Test

Pyromatics Automation Systems of Crystal Lake, IL, was contracted by Durex Industries of Cary, IL, to develop a Life Cycle Test Station for its electric heating elements. After extensive research, Pyromatics chose AutomationDirect as the primary supplier of hardware and software for the project. This test station needed a user-friendly graphical interface to give operators…
New Spherical Optics Technology for Sensing in Small Areas
ApplicationAutomation NotebookDiscrete SensingFYIIssue 3 – 2005Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductTest and Measurement

New Spherical Optics Technology for Sensing in Small Areas

The Challenge Diffuse sensors enjoy great popularity with users. With diffuse sensors, pulsed light from an emitting diode falls on an object of any shape or color and is reflected in a diffuse manner to a light-receiver, which is located in the same device (fig.1). If the intensity of the received light is sufficient, the…