I had a niceΒ chat about safety and automation with with Jeff Hawkins of Festo Corp. at the MD&M West show in Anaheim, California, today. Hawkins is the manager of electronics and light assembly, North and South America, for Festo. Hawkins explained that, especially in a complex mechanical device, you have pneumatic, you can have hydraulic, […]
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PIAB raises the bar with rectangular suction cup
Following a six-month period of exclusive use by one of the market’s machine builders, the the rectangular Duraflex RB20x40P suction cup is now available to the rest of the flow pack industry. “Our RB20x40P cup was developed specifically for handling flow-packed bars of sweets, but it can of course be used for any small, rectangular […]
ROSS Controls expands with Canadian location
ROSS Controls, Troy, Mich., is pleased to announce the opening of ROSS Canada. Located in Barrie, Ontario, ROSS Canada will support the growing customer base from coast to coast and will bring a stronger presence to the Canadian market. According to Scott Hilt, Marketing Manager, North America, “To start, ROSS Canada will have inventory and […]
Obama, Merkel to open Hannover Fair in April
The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will join German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover, Germany at Hannover Messe to participate in the worldβs largest trade show for industrial technology. President Obama will appear at the fairβs official opening ceremony on Sunday, April 24, 2016, and the traditional opening tour with Chancellor Merkel […]
Hump Day Hydraulics: What about vacuum?
In this Hump Day Hydraulics (err, we mean Hump Day ΊΪΑΟ³ΤΉΟs!) video, Josh Cosford and Paul Heney discuss vacuumsβthe perceived effect in which air seems to pull towards the object creating the vacuum. As Cosford says, pressure likes to equalize, so ambient air pressure tries to move in to fill the space created by the […]
NFPA Conference coming to Texas’ Hill Country
The NFPA Annual Conference, perhaps the best networking event in the fluid power industry, is coming to San Antonio’s La Cantera resort in March, with a great lineup.
ASCO opens its annual Industrial Automation Engineering Scholarship program
Now in its ninth year, ASCO has begun accepting applications for its 2016 Industrial Automation Engineering Scholarship program. The deadline for application is April 3. ASCO will award two $5,000 scholarships to U.S. engineering students, provide $1,000 grants to their collegeβs engineering departments, and host the students at βThe Amazing Packaging Raceβ at PACK EXPO […]
Compressed air fail: Expensive exercise
By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge A PVC window components manufacturer upgraded their compressed air system a few years ago by adding a VSD controlled compressor. To provide backup capability, they kept their old fixed speed compressor. Measurement and verification of the new installation showed that the company initially gained energy savings of […]
CCEFP, industry players brainstorm on human scale fluid power
Last week, 45 representatives from fluid power manufacturers, researchers, universities and industry associations met in Nashville at Vanderbilt Universityβs LASIR Laboratory to discuss the future of Human Scale Fluid Power. Human Scale Fluid Power is, quite simply, about scale, and generally refers to applications under 10 kW. While industrial automation falls under this definition, this […]
Compressed air fail: Automatic savings?
By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge A fabricator of copper tubing products had a large and expanding plant with three separate compressed air stations located in three different areas. One area was constantly complaining of chronic low pressure events, so the maintenance staff decided to install an extra compressor in a fourth location, […]
