Automation

Embracing automation

As the cover indicates, the February issue will include a focus on automation. In addition to Contributing Editor Kip Hanson’s cover story about automating CNC lathes, I wrote about the productivity gains Camcraft Inc. is realizing after installing a Makino Machining Complex (MMC2) flexible manufacturing system.

Industrial internet of things: It all starts with a signal

The advantages and benefits of the industrial internet of things all start with communication. In industrial applications a simple event increases the advantages as it goes wireless.

What NY Times column gets wrong on robots

Robots don’t take away jobs.
When companies lose to their competition, that’s when workers lose jobs.
There seems to be this idea: If the robots hadn’t shown up, the jobs would have stayed. But nothing could be further from reality.
Here’s the truth: We aren’t using enough robots.

The robots have descended on Trump Country

The growing use of work robots and the deployment of artificial intelligence have been most disruptive in just those areas of the country that provided President Trump with crucial margins of support in 2016.

Universal Robots A/S marks sales anniversary

Odense, Denmark, December 5, 2018: When Linatex, a Danish supplier of technical plastics and rubber for industrial applications, bought a UR5 robot arm from Universal Robots (UR) to automate CNC machine tending in December 2008, they did something unthinkable.

Zoller's Collaborative Robotic Assistant - cora

The ZOLLER »cora« collaborative robotic assistant supports you in all standard tasks for tool preparation, fully automatically. Your tools can be picked, assembled, clamped, cleaned and labelled, fully automatically.

Industry 4.0: Advantages of edge computing

01/16/2019

Author:

William Leventon

The industrial internet of things would work better if computing tasks came down from the cloud.

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5 stages of automation collaboration

01/15/2019

Author:

Alan Richter

Shop Operations: Safety the key to humans and robots working together.

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Getting flexible and growing with automation

In connection with my article about flexible manufacturing systems for the February issue, I visited Camcraft Inc., which has a Makino Machining Complex (MMC2) automated pallet-handling system. Four Makino 4-axis a51nx horizontal machining centers are integrated into the system.

CX7000 Embedded PC

The new CX7000 Embedded PC from Beckhoff opens up the convenience and efficiency of the TwinCAT 3 software environment to highly compact, DIN rail-mounted controllers. This further enhances the scalability of PC-based control technology from Beckhoff, ranging from mini-PLCs to many-core Industrial PCs. An advanced 400 MHz processor and built-in configurable I/Os mean this Embedded PC delivers an ideal price/performance ratio.