In President Obama’s State of the Union address last month, he laid out a blueprint for the U.S. economy that is built on manufacturing. Within his pledge to improve incentives for manufacturers to stay in the country, he said, “American manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s.”  read more »

Answer our April's "Real Answers" question.
We integrate multiple machines into a complete manufacturing process line. The operator has to physically attend to all of the machines. Rather than have an HMI at each machine, we're thinking about handheld HMIs, maybe wireless, that the operators would carry with them. We would like to hear about experiences with this approach.

Help!

Mersen, that company formerly known as Ferraz Shawmut, published a new Protection Intelligence Quotient (PIQ) Quiz on thermal protection. This is the latest quiz in their program that challenges participants to see if they're up to speed on the best practices in electrical safety. The quiz is online at http://ep-us.mersen.com/PIQ.
They tell us that participants can take the quiz and enter a drawing to win a $100
gift card. Three winners are selected every month.  read more »

Modular machines and production lines enable quick disconnects and speedy changeovers. In this month's Control Design cover story, Executive Editor Jim Montague talks to machine builders about how they're taking advantage of flexible design approaches to simply system construction and improve operations. Also in the February issue: Discover how an aluminum extruder used smart cameras to prevent machine damage; see how one machine builder simplified its robotics controls to handle chocolates quickly and delicately; and make sure you're caught up on what you need to know about safety standards.

Read our issue now. You can also access it in PDF format.

Did you know that Control Design is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year? We've got several tidbits in store throughout the year, taking glances here and there back at the technology that has shaped control and automation for machine builders over the years. Our big celebration will come in June, with an in-depth exploration of how the times have changed.  read more »

In December I talked about my New Year resolutions for 2012 (see "A New Resolution") The new year just started, but I can say that I'm off to a great start. I said I wanted to improve my cybersecurity, sustainability and efficiency knowledge, and during the past 30 days I've been able to stick to my plan. You can read my Feb. 2012 column "Resolutions So Far" to learn more about my accomplished resolutions, but now I wonder if you set up similar resolutions for this year, and if you are succeeding as well. Chime in and let me know if you plan to improve your efficiency plans this year. Do you have green goals to accomplish?

In upcoming issues of Control Design, we'll explore subjects that include:  read more »

• How to design machine safety into your automation system.
• What an integrated controls architecture means to design, commissioning and overall time-to-market.
• What you need to know to compete globally.
• What the real differences are among the various Ethernet flavors of fast motion buses.
• The threat of electronics to pneumatics and hydraulics as power sources.
• Where relays fit in today's programmable machine control.

The machine builders and other sources in the February 2012 cover article on modular machine building, "Modular Mosaic," report that there are many benefits to modular machine building and operations, but there are some obstacles and possible drawbacks, too. As a result, it's important to consider the pros and cons as they relate to your machine and its end users, and then answer some serious questions before undertaking a modular machine redesign or installation.  read more »

If you're a subscriber to Control Design or registered visitor to ControlDesign.com, and you're a machine builder or system integrator, you should have received my email invitation to participate in our study about how you do automation product research these days.  read more »

Although I'm probably jinxing it just by mentioning it, winter in the Midwestern U.S. should be ending in April, and few green shoots and buds should be just about to emerge. For the past couple of years, one of these has been our "green/sustainable machine" cover article, which is set to appear in the April 2012 issue of Control Design. So, if you or anyone you know might have some expert commentary or end user examples, I would love to hear about them. The main questions I'm trying to cover are below.  read more »