Controls & Machine Components

Pneumatically rendered Stairway to Heaven

Demonstrating the company's expertise in pneumatic control applications, the Clippard Automated Air Guitar at Clippard Instrument Laboratory's booth uses 62 cylinders, 58 valves, and 50 psi to strum out 16 acoustic songs for the enjoyment of show visitors.

October 31, 2012

Controls & Machine Components: Page 131

Controls & Machine Components

Mitsubishi Electric Automation: Software suite increases robot performance

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. has integrated RT Toolbox2 into its popular MELSOFT iQ Works software platform and has added robots to the MELSOFT Navigator environment.

October 25, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Balluff: RFID processors combine low and high frequency in one device

Using a new generation of RFID processors, the Balluff BIS V RFID system maximizes flexibility by providing a single device for both low frequency 125 KHz and high frequency 13.56 MHz read/write heads with an IO-Link master port.

October 8, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

FasTest Inc: Connectors for compressed gas filling applications

Designed to connect to CGA 540, 580 and 580 RPV gas valves, the FasTest G-Series connectors for compressed gas filling applications deliver rapid, repeatable connections to pressure vessels, making them suitable for bulk filling facilities.

October 8, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Logic Supply: Fanless computer

With its small footprint, dustproof design, and operating temperature range of -25~55 Celsius, the LGX Extended Temperature Atom D2550 AU145 fanless computer from Logic Supply can power displays outside of temperature controlled environments.

October 8, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Nestlé makes its OMAC demo public for first time

At its headquarters in Switzerland, Nestlé engineers worked with preferred packaging suppliers B&R Industrial Automation, Rockwell, Schneider and Siemens to demonstrate that the different controls platforms can communicate with each other using international standards such as PackML.

October 1, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Time for the big show – PACK EXPO Chicago

Get the big picture – whether in your home theater or your packaging lines

October 1, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Phoenix Contact Inc: Compact controllers

Phoenix Contact’s ILC 1x1 compact controllers make advanced control options available for small- to medium-sized systems, including expandable memory and Modbus TCP protocol.

October 1, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

GE Intelligent Platforms: Distributed safety system with high availability and scalability

GE Intelligent Platforms’ PACSystems VersaSafe machine safety solution combines secure network connectivity, certified safety function blocks, and an easy to use graphical programming environment so that users can efficiently integrate standards-compliant safety capabilities--including SIL3 safety capabilities--to equipment while meeting increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.

October 1, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Improving multiple label production control

Job tracking software saves 20 hours per week in labor and $15,000 per year in operating costs.

September 25, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Lenze Americas: Panel controller

See it at PACK EXPO Both #N-4141! Lenze’s new compact panel controller p500 is a powerful hardware platform for machine-oriented visualization and control applications, comes in 7-, 10.4-, and 15-in. screen sizes, and is equipped with a touch-sensitive thin-film transistor (TFT) display.

September 21, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Does PackML Hinder the OEM’s Ability to Differentiate?

In a recent discussion on PMMI’s LinkedIn Group, James Laverdiere of KleenLine Corp. opined that it was time for broad industry adoption of PackML, describing it as “a standardized language that delivers great improvements for packaging operations.” Here are the two comments that were posted:

September 16, 2012

Controls & Machine Components

Atlantic Zeiser GmbH: Software for track and trace/anti-counterfeiting

The new scalable Personalization Management Platform (PMP) Software Architecture from Atlantic Zeiser controls all levels of production and logistics processes in the pharmaceutical industry, addressing the issues of track and trace and anti-counterfeiting.

September 13, 2012