Controls & Machine Components

Beckhoff Automation: Industrial PC

The CX1000 Automation Control from Beckhoff USA (Minneapolis, MN) is a modular, DIN rail-mounted industrial PC with power and economy. Combines Microsoft® embedded operating systems (Windows CE.NET and Windows XP), and Beckhoff’s TwinCAT®CE PLC and motion control software in a low-cost, rugged hardware platform suitable for use in a wide range of machine tool and industrial control applications, handling up to 6 axes with the PLC program.

February 28, 2003

Controls & machine components: Page 259

Controls & Machine Components

Delta Tau Data Systems, Inc: Cost-effective motion control

New PMAC2A-PC/104 small-format motion controller from Delta Tau (Chatsworth, CA) delivers motion control for mid- to high-volume, multi-axis motion control applications.

February 28, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

SURVEY IDENTIFIES TOP MACHINE ATTRIBUTES

A recent survey of PMMI member companies identified quick-changeover capabilities, flexibility, and fast speeds as the top three machine attributes most often requested by companies purchasing new packaging equipment.

February 28, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

Q&A: Reducing controls headaches

We recently interviewed Bob Martell, an automation engineer based in Pharmacia Corp.’s main Kalamazoo, MI, facility, to find out how Plug-and-Pack™ guidelines from the OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls) Packaging Workgroup are saving Pharmacia and its machinery suppliers time and money.

February 28, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

A servo-driven partnership

A donation of servo technology to a technical college yields students with motion control experience that the packaging field so desperately seeks.

February 28, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

Temperature controller improves heat seals

A total of 12 temperature zones are consistently maintained to within ± 5°F thanks to a microprocessor-controlled module fully integrated into a DeviceNet fieldbus.

February 28, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

No more changeover (sidebar)

Software and servos make it possible

February 28, 2003

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

ARC issues pharma report

Just in time for the Interphex show, ARC Advisory Group has released a new Insight report analyzing the business drivers for Gen3 packaging automation in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

February 28, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

Bosch Rexroth Corp., Electric Drives and Controls: Bosch Rexroth Corp., Electric Drives and Controls: Bosch Rexroth Corp., Electric Drives and Controls: Bosch Rexroth Corp., Electric Drives and Controls: Ball rail system

The Generation 2 Ball Rail® System from Bosch Rexroth (Hoffman Estates, IL) has a new runner block that can help machine bu
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January 31, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

SICK, Inc: SICK, Inc: SICK, Inc: Open safety network

Sick (Minneapolis, MN), Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee, WI), and Omron Corp. (Schaumburg, IL) are collaborating on the development of an open protocol for safety communications.

January 31, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

Plug-and-Pack guidelines now include PackTags

At a recent meeting of the group behind the Plug-and-Pack™ guidelines, building blocks were created to pave the way for a standardized way of getting production and performance data to and from machines on a packaging line.

January 31, 2003

Controls & Machine Components

Gen3's genesis

Have you noticed packaging automation suppliers making the claim that they are ‘third generation?’ What’s it mean? And if it is good, how can you tell that a machine really is ‘Gen3?’

January 31, 2003

Conveying & accumulation

ProMat 2003 attracts 37,900 visitors

Attendance at ProMat 2003, held in Chicago the week of February 10th, seems to signal an improving business environment, according to show sponsor The Material Handling Industry of America.

January 31, 2003