As Acme Electric enters into its second centennial of continuous operation, the company renews its commitment to the transformer industry by supporting new technology, providing products to support customers around the planet, and retaining its leadership position in the areas of efficiency and inventiveness. In fact, this 100+ year-old company innovates like a start-up but…
The Fruitport High School Robotics Team (FRC team # 2405), known as the Techno Trojans, were approached by the Lakes Mall in Muskegon Michigan to restore an animatronic Christmas moose display and ‘bring the moose back to life’. Originally the moose – affectionately known as Kris Moose – was a part of the Christmas display…
For thousands of years, people have turned to water to help them with numerous tasks from grinding grain into wheat and sawing lumber to producing electricity. Today, hydropower is the largest single renewable energy source for electricity generation in the United States. All hydropower requires is water flowing through a turbine to make electricity; only…
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…
+Tech TopicsApplicationAutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 41 - 2019Learning ResourcesMachine ControlNotebook IssueSystem Integrators
Mastering Machine Maintenance
Machine builders, robot builders and system integrators offer advice for maintaining industrial machines. In the May 2019 issue of Control Design magazine, the cover story focus was machine maintenance. The story, titled Machine design with maintenance in mind, discussed best practices for maintaining machines, with input from numerous sources including machine builders, robot builders and…
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomationDirect SpotlightFacilitiesIndustryIssue 41 - 2019Notebook IssuePLCProcess ControlProductProgrammable ControlSystem Integrators
Open System Provides Precise Temperature Control
System integrator Affinity Energy worked with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to design and install a new temperature control system for their research chambers. By Allan Evora, President of Affinity Energy The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill was spending too much time and money supporting an existing control system….
Automation NotebookAutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 41 - 2019Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueStudent Spotlight
Copley High School Student Project and Update
We’ve covered the engineering students at Copley High School twice in recent years here in the Student Spotlight. Copley HS is a suburban, public high school just west of Akron, Ohio. The school’s engineering program works closely with local industry and with their disabled employees to help automate various processes to achieve additional productivity for…
In 1976, there were many firsts – the Concorde flew its first commercial supersonic flight, Nadia Comãneci scored the first ever perfect score in gymnastics, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple Computers. That same year, a company called Metrol Co., Ltd. was founded in Tokyo, Japan. Metrol products may not be as familiar…
Early civilizations used an arm’s length, the width of a palm or the number of seeds in a container to build buildings and trade items in a local marketplace. In today’s world, measuring liquids, solids, and even atomic particles has become an exact science. For day-to-day operations, manufacturers need to measure and maintain materials at…
In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy worried about lions, tigers, and bears as she began her journey. While those animals certainly can be frightening, in our automated world, safety concerns are different. Doors, gates, and machines can pose hazards to people and property if they don’t work properly: garage doors should stop if something is…