Monthly Archives: August 2014

Harsh Environments for Motion Control

We’re so used to automation that we can forget some of the reasons we use industrial machinery instead of having people do all the work by hand. Speed, obviously, and consistent results — those have been prime motivations for automation since the early days of the Industrial Revolution. But human safety is another of the… Read more »

Are Manufacturing Jobs Really Coming Back?

The return of manufacturing jobs in the USA has gradually been on the rise, as we’ve been reporting for the past few years, but we still see a lot of uncertainty about whether that increase is meaningful. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of manufacturing jobs in the US has increased… Read more »

Rare Earth Magnets

Rare earth magnets increased the strength of magnets by nearly 300 percent compared with old-style iron magnets. This made a big difference in servo motors, as you may already know — but what exactly are rare earth magnets? One thing they’re not: rare. Neodymium magnets and samarium-cobalt magnets are made of materials that are just… Read more »

Pointless Automation?

When the movie Her — a film in which a guy falls in love with an operating system, only to discover that he was not a beloved as much as an early adopter — came out, some engineers and computer scientists were horrified by the implied waste of good technology. The tech we see in… Read more »

What’s PLC?

PLC stands for “programmable logic controller.” PLCs are used to control machinery, light switches, and other devices that need to respond quickly to follow programmed commands. A PLC has a CPU and input and output elements. It scans the input, and then, following the logic programmed into it, starts or stops the output devices. PLCs… Read more »

New Phone Number for Indramat Support

When something goes wrong, it’s wise to look at all the possible points of failure. Some can be repaired, replaced, or reconfigured. Some leave you feeling as though you’re at the mercy of someone or something else — in our case, the phone company. Some of our clients have been getting an out of service… Read more »

Say Hello to Robot Baxter

Baxter has something that a lot of people don’t have. Something that can’t be taught. Something that is extremely important when it comes to working with people. Baxter has, “behavior-based ‘common sense,’ capable of sensing and adapting to its task and its environment.” The new robot named Baxter was designed by the Rodney Brooks, a… Read more »

Microchips Like Human Brains?

IBM has announced the development of a microchip inspired by the human brain. Of course, all computers have been inspired by the human brain. However, they have in the past been inspired by left brain processes like math and language. The new chips are looking more to right brain processes like sensing and pattern recognition…. Read more »

Taiwan Calls for People to Adapt to Robot Upsurge

The 2014 Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show presented plenty of new ideas in robotics, including two very big ideas. First, as countries like the U.S. decide to bring their manufacturing jobs home, Taiwan is looking for ways to extend their robotics industry beyond manufacturing. Robots that can be trained, they figure, will be able… Read more »

Growth Factors for Industrial Automation

A new report from IHS Technoloy lists three factors that can be expected to drive growth in the field of industrial automation. First, the trend toward technological convergence sees multiple kinds of technology working together. Specifically, IHS sees opportunities in the convergence of traditional production technologies with digital information technologies. It’s hard to predict how… Read more »