First-off, lets discuss the old school designers. These guys have a solid understanding of mechanics. They have probably read nearly the entire machinist’s handbooks and memorized everything in the 517 mechanical movements book. They understand how to translate any simple application of force into a complex motion. They understand how to fixture a part so […]
Modern machine design – Part 1
In today’s high tech world, you often see a clash between not only the mechanical and electrical designers, but the younger generation CAD jockeys and the old school 2d toolies. They all have prejudices against the other two. Understanding these, where the other is coming from, and how to balance them is key to producing […]
3d Printing in Industrial Automation
As 3d Printing has been getting more attention, it has gotten difficult to separate reality from the hype. There has been a flood of consumer and commercial grade systems, with the differences in many cases hard to spot. I have spent a great deal of time working with varying materials and printing technologies and have […]
Always physically validate the safety circuit
A couple years back, I was working on the logic for a collection of about a dozen small machines. Most of these were tooling with Amphenol connectors to the cell, with no local safety circuit. The Toolbar PLC just used a set of discrete IO to handshake with the weld cell PLC. The issue here […]
Label as you go
This one was fairly recent. I got a call from a local customer first thing in the morning that they had a line that had been down since 3am. Talking through it over the phone, they had an SMC EX260 that was failing to come online. The exact part number was a custom, so I […]
Always double check before you power up
A couple years ago I was asked to commission the PLC logic and VFD’s for a conveyor line. The customer was a Rockwell house, but an end user forced them to change a job to Siemens. They had an S7-315PN/DP-2 and a stack of Profibus G120D VFD’s, along with a 10in MP HMI. When I […]
When managed switches actually get used
In the industrial world, it is all too common to see a customer who has standardized on managed switches, yet leaves them in the default state. More often than not, these switches go through their entire lives never once having been configured or actually utilized beyond the capability of its counter part that is 1/8th […]
Always read alarm banners!
This story takes place about 4 years ago. I was flying down to a customers plant in Georgia to go over some existing equipment to quote a retrofit. We had recently shipped another line to this facility, and recently got it signed off. When my plane landed at around 9pm the night before I was […]
Hello World!
Welcome! Seems youve stumbled upon my page and have enough curiosity to read this. Im an Industrial Automation Controls Engineer with 8 years experience in the industry. I came from the IT side prior, and have experience with PC programming, electronics repair, and server administration. Nowadays I manage the Controls and IT departments for a […]