When selecting a controller, current and future needs should be considered to ensure flexibility. Winn Paulk is the Automation Controls Group Product Manager at AutomationDirect, and he wrote an article appearing in the September-October 2018 issue of IMPO titled Choosing the Right Controller for Your Industrial Automation Application. Here’s a summary, please click on the…
Industrial automation cables in any lengths you choose Low price per foot – with NO cut charges All cable from Automation Direct is now available in your specified lengths, so you can eliminate waste and purchase only as much cable as you need. We offer one low price per foot for each cable type, low minimum lengths, and…
Andrew Waugh, Product Manager, Sensor and Safety Products at AutomationDirect.com, wrote an article for the September 2018 issue of Design World titled Wide and Narrow Views of Position Sensors, here’s a summary. Limit switches, photoelectric switches and laser sensors all provide position sensing, but depending on the application some shine and reflect better. Waugh points…
Jerry Reaves, PLC silo product manager at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the July 2018 issue of Control Engineering titled Comparing ladder logic and object oriented programming In the article, he discussed how many young automation professionals are comfortable with object oriented programming (OOP), but Reaves says ladder logic remains the standard for industrial automation applications:…
Ethernet is the most widely used network in industrial plants and facilities, here’s a primer covering its foundational concepts. By: Bill Dehner, AutomationDirect Ethernet was first conceived and deployed in a research setting in the 1970s and was soon standardized in the early 1980s under IEEE 802.3. This quickly led to commercial adoption in office…
Pneumatics have been used in industrial machines and manufacturing plants and facilities for decades, so most of the basic components are tried and true, with significant innovations few and far between. But there are many innovative ways to combine these different components to create pneumatic subsystems. The explains four pneumatic subsystems, showing how combining basic…
As with any engineering decision, it’s always best to put it on paper first to see the “big picture”. The same holds true when choosing the most effective PLC for your application. This choice depends on a number of factors and the following steps serve as a checklist of things to consider when determining PLC…
If you’re searching for clear, no-hype training on industrial automation products, you’ve in the right place. InterConnecting Automation prides itself with technical instruction delivered in a clear and concise method. Founder and instructor, Doug Bell provides tutorials that cover time-saving suggestions and advanced programming techniques, as well as showing programming examples that are common on simple automation controls. He offer courses…
General purpose motors have been around for many years. They are the workhorse of almost every industry. An inverter-duty motor is a much newer concept that became necessary as motors began to be driven by VFDs (inverters or AC drives). An inverter duty motor can withstand the higher voltage spikes produced by all VFDs (amplified…
In the world of garage or basement automation and robot builders, numerous low-cost microcontrollers and related software are used for real-time control. Arduino and Raspberry Pi are perhaps two of the most popular out of dozens of options (Figure 1). These open-source controllers are available from several suppliers, but using them in a real-time industrial…