PLCs Help the Show Go On
Application StoriesPLCProductProgrammable Control

PLCs Help the Show Go On

How industrial automation plays a leading role in show-biz scenery. In February 2020, Control Design posted a website article by Ryan Poethke of Showman Fabricators, titled Motor Control When Hanging From The Ceiling. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for the full text. Industrial automation can play a role in many situations beyond…
Pneumatic Fitting Tips
PneumaticsProduct

Pneumatic Fitting Tips

Properly identifying pneumatic fitting and component sizes, especially on older equipment, is easier with these tips. Kevin Kakascik, Technical Marketing Engineer at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the June 2020 issue of Fluid Power World titled Cracking the Code on Existing Pneumatic Fittings. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for the full text….
Safety Standards Update Summer 2020
ProductSafety

Safety Standards Update Summer 2020

Safety standards are vitally important to follow, understand, and implement to eliminate and avoid injuries to personnel from machinery. This is our biennial update as to major changes to American National Standards Institute or ANSI code, and most specifically the B11.0 dedicated to “Safety of Machinery”. Since 1922, the B11 standards for machine safety were…
VFDs Expand Process Control Options
ProductVariable Speed Drives

VFDs Expand Process Control Options

Improved performance, ease of use, and energy savings combined with IIoT capabilities make VFDs the right choice for many process industry motor applications. Bryan Sisler, Product Manager for Drives and Motors at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the May 2020 issue of Processing titled Beyond Process Control with VFDs. Here’s a summary, click on the…
Keep Industrial Electrical Safety First
ProductSafety

Keep Industrial Electrical Safety First

For industrial machinery and systems, designers must apply the right products for physical, electrical power, and automation safety. Kevin Kakascik, Technical Marketing Engineer at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the May 2020 issue of Machine Design titled Electrical Safety on the Factory Floor. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for the full text….
The Pneumatic Efficiency Big Picture
PneumaticsProduct

The Pneumatic Efficiency Big Picture

Although electrical systems can beat pneumatics for operating efficiency, pneumatics are often more cost-effective over the long haul. Kevin Kakascik, Technical Marketing Engineer at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the May 2020 issue of Hydraulics & Pneumatics titled Pneumatic Efficiency: The Big Picture. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for the full text….
Headless HMIs Offer Added Features
CommunicationsProduct

Headless HMIs Offer Added Features

New headless HMIs support mobile visualization and large-format displays, giving designers more options. Bill Dehner, technical marketing engineer for AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the May 2020 issue of Design World titled Headless HMIs: Less is More. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for the full text. Traditional all-in-one, panel-mount, human-machine interface (HMI)…
Add Remote Monitoring to Your Maintenance Toolkit
ApplicationCommunicationsData System MonitoringProduct

Add Remote Monitoring to Your Maintenance Toolkit

Remote monitoring options help maintenance personnel respond faster for the systems they manage and support, saving time and money. Bill Dehner, technical marketing engineer for AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the March-April 2020 issue of ISA InTech titled Add Remote Monitoring to Increase Maintenance Personnel Productivity. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for…
VFDs Take Control
ProductProgrammable ControlVariable Speed Drives

VFDs Take Control

Many VFDs now have on-board logic programming and I/O, enabling them to perform real-time control for localized applications. Jeff Payne, Product Manager for the Drives & Motors Group at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the April 2020 issue of Design News titled The Logic of Balancing VFDs and PLCs. Here’s a summary, click on the…
Can a Raspberry Pi Challenge a PLC?
Open source controlProductProgrammable Control

Can a Raspberry Pi Challenge a PLC?

Single-board consumer microcontrollers are popular with hobbyists, but how do they stand up to industrial PLCs for more advanced process control applications? Many readers expressed considerable interest in a previous Control Design article comparing an Arduino microcontroller with a programmable logic controller (PLC) for basic flow control. This led author Doug Reneker to consider how…