A seagoing story about how a premier yacht builder has progressively incorporated reliable AutomationDirect devices for monitoring and controlling ship systems. Westport Yachts, based in Washington State, constructs luxury 112- to 172-foot-long models and has launched hundreds of seagoing vessels since 1964. As the leading yacht builder in North America, and one of the largest…
See how a water utility standardized around AutomationDirect products to improve operations while saving time and money. A team of operations, maintenance, and engineering personnel at Helix Water District in San Diego, CA has retrofitted and constructed many sites using automation hardware and best practices based on AutomationDirect products. David Reagan wrote an article with…
Generators efficiently convert low-grade waste heat from diesel generators into power. Joe Thibedeau, a control systems engineer with ElectraTherm, wrote an article for the November 2019 issue of Power titled Innovative Technology Captures Energy from Waste Heat. Here’s a summary, click on the link above for the full text. Dutch Harbor power plant in the…
There are several ways to perform IIoT remote monitoring of PLCs and HMIs, with VPN connections providing the highest level of security. Bill Dehner, Technical Marketing Engineer at AutomationDirect, wrote an article for the Jan/Feb 2019 issue of InTech magazine titled IIoT Remote Monitoring. A summary is below, please click here for the full text….
Gary H. Lucas, Director of Innovation at Innovative Treatment Products, wrote an article that ran in the July 2018 issue of Control Design magazine titled Wastewater Treatment Plants Can Be Built for Small-Scale Applications. Any facility too isolated to connect to a larger sewer system—such as a school, office or retailer—will have to supply its…
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Improving Pivot Irrigation Systems with AutomationDirect
If you’ve ever taken a long road trip, you’ve probably passed large fields of crops, which every now and then contained odd looking metal pipe structures on wheels stretching across the fields. These metal monsters, known as pivot irrigation systems, are used extensively in agriculture and have greatly improved the efficiency of the crop irrigation…
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The Halloween Box
In every haunted house, you’ll find automated props: chairs that rock on their own, slamming doors, rattling chains, drawers opening and closing as if by some supernatural force. These “tricks” enhance the “treat” of getting the life scared out of you. The process behind making a Halloween prop can be quite simple. Here is just…
Power generation facilities typically operate for decades, so it is not uncommon for the automation systems to become obsolete and difficult to support. This was the case at the Maggotty Hydroelectric Plant operated by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company Limited in Jamaica. As the largest hydroelectric plant on the island, Maggotty is critical to…