Machine Automation 2010: What’s Hot and What’s Not
+Tech TopicsApplicationAutomation NotebookCover StoriesIssue 16 – 2010Learning ResourcesMachine ControlNotebook IssueProductProgrammable Control

Machine Automation 2010: What’s Hot and What’s Not

Machine and Robot Builders Look Ahead to the New Decade As a new decade dawns, machine and robot builder OEMs are looking to embrace new trends and put the past behind them. Recent economic travails seem to be lessening, especially in the developing world. The hope is for continued improvement in the world economy, spurring…
Maintaining Machine Quality While Reducing Time to Market
ApplicationAutomation NotebookFeature StoryIssue 18 – 2010Learning ResourcesMachine ControlManufacturingNotebook Issue

Maintaining Machine Quality While Reducing Time to Market

Machine and robot builder OEMs and their end user customers face similar challenges. For OEMs in a highly competitive market, quick machine delivery can make the difference between getting the order and losing it to a competitor. In a challenging economy, end users tend to take more time making machine upgrade or purchasing decisions. However,…
Powerful PAC Upgrades Tortilla Machine
Application StoriesCover StoriesFood and BeverageFood Beverage AutomationIndustryIssue 18 – 2010Notebook Issue

Powerful PAC Upgrades Tortilla Machine

Advanced automation helps Casa Herrera produce tortillas reliably, quickly and precisely. Casa Herrera builds tortilla preparation equipment for the corn and flour tortilla industry, provides equipment for the bakery and snack food industries, and is the preferred supplier to several national brands. We build several varieties of our machines to meet customer specifications, and we…
Why the WinPLC?
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookIssue 17 – 2010Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable Control

Why the WinPLC?

When a “do-it-yourself user” makes the decision to automate, integrate or just simplify applications and machinery, the world is his/her oyster. In today’s world of industrial automation controllers there are many options. Depending on your specific needs, you could select a very extravagant or very basic automated system. The automation application could range from simple…
Productivity3000
Automation NotebookIssue 15 – 2009Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable Control

Productivity3000

In past articles we have discussed the definitions of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Programmable Automation Controller (PAC), and PC-based control and how each plays a role in today’s industrial marketplace. Today we will discuss the Productivity3000, a new control platform recently released by AutomationDirect. Some say this resembles a PLC; others say it’s a…
AutomationDirect Introduces Programmable Automation Controller
Automation NotebookIssue 15 – 2009Learning ResourcesNotebook Issue

AutomationDirect Introduces Programmable Automation Controller

The Productivity3000 Controller is Automation Direct’s newest generation of industrial controllers that combines features and capabilities of a PC-based control system with that of a typical programmable logic controller (PLC). Productivity3000 is a modular, rack-based system of up to 116,000 I/O points with local, expansion and remote I/O bases and a full lineup of discrete,…
Welcome PAC: Moving On To The Next Generation Controller
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookIssue 9 – 2007Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable ControlTech Thread

Welcome PAC: Moving On To The Next Generation Controller

Log on to any industrial control discussion forum, and you will read passionate debates about the advantages and disadvantages of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) compared to PC-based control. Amongst the PLC/PC debates, there most likely were some threads discussing PACs, which begs the question, “What the heck is a PAC?” PAC, a new acronym, stands…