by Steve Meyer, Contributing Editor Improved position sensors can reduce motion system cost and increase performance. Motion control is, first and foremost, about control. The old engineering adage applies; you cannot control what you cannot measure. Rotary and linear position sensors play the crucial role of providing the mechanism to measure motion. Understanding how feedback […]
Internet Factorynet
The Internet of Things has spawned a lot of hype in the last couple of years. Lately there have been a number of themes around specific segments and how the Internet can be applied as a solution. The Industrial Internet as coined by General Electric may be one of the biggest segments and one of […]
Patents and Patenting
Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying “The Patent system adds the fuel of interest to the fire of genius.” It was the intent of the American Patent system to provide protection for the inventor to profit from his invention. In the 200 years that the US Patent Office has been operating the basic intent has […]
Magnets and Magnequench
In a recent television broadcast a story is told about the importance of rare earths and magnets. Molycorp and Magnequench are the lead businesses in the story. Problem is, most of the facts of the story were incorrect. There are numerous articles on the web that report the facts as they took place. One in […]
How To Fix Stupid in Motion Control
Ron White has famously said “You Can’t Fix Stupid”. And he’s right, of course. We all do stuff that’s a little crazy and generally, we live long enough experience our own stupidity, and hopefully correct it and go on to do much better things. The motion control industry has demonstrated “doing stupid” at a variety […]
HuMan in the Machine
What is it that is so special about the act of creation? Mankind has the special gift to be able to create tools, and especially in the mechatronics world, machines. We create art, literature, architecture, sculpture, all sorts of things. In the machine age, and especially as we enter the intelligent machine age, we need […]
3D Printing
The press continues to cover, dare I say, saturate the media with stories about the emergence of 3D printing. While the technology is extremely important, there is also a great deal of hype surrounding the subject. 3D printing is not the end of conventional manufacturing. 3D printing will not be in everyone’s homes, at least not […]
The goal of all mechatronics, or motion control applications, is to do work. Sometimes the nature of the work is complex and the mathematical description of it can involve some exotic math, but at the end of the day, it’s about force exerted over time. Regardless of how simple or complex, it’s all about the […]
Tech
Technology is everywhere. Better get used to it. Especially in the presence of high powered processors under $1 and System-on-Chip solutions that can cost as little as $10. When tech gets this cheap and powerful, it’s going to enable some unexpected applications. ARM M-zero processors are 32 bit, 120 megahertz chips that are capable of executing […]
Processors Everywhere
In a world where compute capability continues to increase and costs continue to decrease, it’s hard to predict where the progression takes the industrial controls field. The latest offering from Intel should be cause for concern for the major suppliers of industrial control systems. After all, is there really a difference between a Beckhoff dual […]
Motors and Drives – Part 3
The difference between rating a solid state device and an electric motor can make all the difference in actual practice. Since we know that solid state electronics can only handle 200% operation for a limited period of time, proper drive or solid state starter ratings will have everything to do with reliable operation. In most […]
Motor and Drive Sizing – Part 2
Sizing a motor correctly is easy. It’s all about the load conditions. Starting and running. Those are the two operating points we have to know about in order to get it right. Most of the time the starting conditions are the most severe. When expressed as current, the starting current is generally expressed as a […]
Motor & Drive Sizing
It has been over 100 years since the invention of the AC motor by Nicola Tesla. You would think that after all this time, that getting the motor and drive size right would not be a problem. Yet it remains one of the most common difficulties in modern manufacturing. This is due, in part, to […]
Time and Turing
Alan Turing’s genius as a mathematician was recognized in his day for his ability to solve the most sophisticated encryption algorithms of the Second World War. The team at Bletchley Park known as “the Codebreakers” created fake messages so perfectly that the Axis forces did not realize that the Allies were intercepting and faking crucial […]
Energy and the Balance of Power
In modern times the backbone of the industrialized world is energy. While electricity is the dominant form of energy for manufacturing, the dominant form of energy in transportation comes from crude oil. Regardless of whether it is used in a car, truck, bus, or airplane. Oil is the basis for plastics, epoxies and synthetic […]
Energy
Energy is one of the crucial building blocks of an industrial society. We heat, we cool, we pump water and we move around our geography with relative ease. It’s hard to fully consider the subtlety of how energy costs influence our modern conveniences. We can talk about agrarian societies that are powered by animals which […]
Man and Machines
Machines are systems that convert energy and do work. Machines come in large classes that can be sorted by industry and activity. Transportation systems such as cars, trains, buses, trucks and airplanes. Construction equipment. Farm equipment. Water treatment systems, power generation equipment, oil exploration, drilling and refining. Thousands of machines are necessary in order to […]
Rise of the Machines?
Artificial Intelligence is a major software technology that has been under development for decades. As with many forms of technology, the current hype around artificial intelligence doesn’t really come with all of the history that really belongs with it. At General Electric Locomotive Engine division artificial intelligence was used to develop a diagnostic program that […]
Series hybrid electric truck pushes mechatronic boundaries
by Steve Meyer, Contributing Editor Sometimes mechatronic challenges come in unexpected places. Heavy hauling trucks are the latest transportation segment where an electric makeover provides major benefits. For the world’s largest retailer, WalMart—with more than 11,000 store locations in the U.S.—getting products to customers is a major logistics challenge. The company executes its logistics with […]
Internet of Things Hype
The Internet of Things continues to generate a lot of “buzz”. One market research firm forecasts $1.9 trillion in revenue by 2020 in global economic value created by companies supplying IoT hardware and services. That’s a big deal. Information and communication are now independent of location. As long as there is a cellphone tower or […]
Technology Applied
Technology is a term that is broadly used and highly misunderstood. It is the art of, or skill that is based on the underlying principle of a certain field of knowledge. This results in the creation of tools or machinery that are appropriate to manipulate the system in question. In electric motors, it is understanding the […]
Technology Defined
Webster’s dictionary defines technology as “the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area” and “a manner of accomplishing a task, especially using technical processes or methods”. The etymology of both words, technology and technical, is the Greek word techne meaning art or skill, maybe even craftsmanship. Steve Wozniak wrote a piece about technology […]