By Richard Vaughn, Product Engineer Bosch Rexroth Corporation–Project Management Dept. In a short time, mechatronics has evolved into a universally accepted engineering concept. It integrates mechanics with electronics – and with engineering itself. The result is expanded technological capabilities and assembly-line successes like the Cartesian multi-axis robot. Because it enables more flexible automated production, users […]

By Ralph Raiola, Editor Electronic Products When it comes to mechatronics design, getting everyone on the same page is apparently more difficult than one might think. A recent Webcast sponsored by IBM titled “System Design: New Product Development for Mechatronics,” presented research about the challenges and pressures faced when designing in a mechatronics environment.

Think-tank for mechatronics and miniaturization How do machinery and equipment manufacturers keep up with worldwide competition? With (energy) efficient solutions! “Mechatronics, miniaturization, piezo technology and systems technology are catchwords which aren’t just pointing the way towards more efficiency in emerging business areas like photovoltaic”, says Dr. Eberhard Veit, chairman of the board of directors at […]

TOKYO, JAPAN — Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. announced it has applied its advanced robotic technologies to a seating application. Together with Okamura Corp., a leading manufacturer of office furniture, the two companies became first in the world to develop a concept model for seating using muscular mechanism. The concept model fits the body, in […]

An Electronic Dive Buddy built by University of Auckland engineering students could make scuba diving a much safer sport. Anatoly Kudryashov and Jenny Xu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Mechatronics Engineering specialization have designed a computerized system to automatically adjust a diver’s buoyancy if they get into trouble. The project was supervised by Associate […]

Robust investments in manufacturing industries pushed General Motion Control (GMC) market growth worldwide in 2007.  While economic expansion is expected to continue, future growth will be at a slower pace.  The worldwide market for GMCs is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.7% over the next five years.  The GMC […]

SKF has a wide range of technology that can be applied in the Agriculture Industry to increase productivity, lower operational costs and deliver sustainability benefits. Solutions are typically aimed at extending machine component service life and reducing maintenance, both of which contribute to less stoppages, more reliability, and more machine availability. All of this results […]

Yamaha’s Disklavier Mark IV piano is more than just ebony and ivory, integrating complex electronic systems and components to take sound where it’s never been before. By Ralph Raiola, Electronic Products The task of building a piano capable of producing the sound quality expected and sought after by the world’s best musicians is a difficult […]

WABCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE: WBC) has extended its long-term agreement to supply ZF with transmission automation systems for their AS Tronic and AS Tronic lite automatic transmissions. According to Wabco, the contract will be worth several hundred million dollars in cumulative sales into the next decade. Wabco’s transmission automation systems enable a manual transmission to […]

Everything you need to know about mechatronics is encompassed in the load.  This perspective came to me recently while doing research for an upcoming article in Design World.  The idea isn’t original, and its probably been suggested before, but it certainly bears repeating. The word Mechatronics is a construct of mecha- for mechanical and -tronics […]

Why should you care? Because whatever the term “mechatronics” might mean to you, it affects so many aspects of our daily life. We’ve all seen commercials with a production floor full of welding robots making automobiles. Certainly automotive manufacturing would not be possible without numerically controlled machine tools, robots and much more. And the automotive […]