Most Recent

• SICK enabling Industry 4.0 by moving beyond sensors

  By Keith Larson

  It’s often said that data—and the sensors that capture it—are the foundation of Industry 4.0.But in between those raw, real-time inputs about industrial processes and the agile, more fully informed decisions required to fulfill the promise of digital transformation is a tremendous amount of…

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• Do machines dream?

  By Dave Perkon, technical editor

  Technology will leave you behind if you try to stop it. Will automation and robots replace personnel? What is the reality of automation's effect on jobs in the manufacturing industry, and how is machine control affecting it? A machine builder’s or system integrator’s or automation supplier’s…

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• Cyclic data and sensor integration

  “The bus system AS-Interface (ASi) and IO-Link with its point-to-point wiring are ideal partners on the field level,” says Jan Melter, head of marketing at Bihl+Wiedemann. “ASi is a simple, robust and cost-efficient way to connect sensors and actuators in the field with just a single profile…

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• Shake off your wintry blanket

  By Mike Bacidore, chief editor

  Right now, I’m only thinking about spring in a sort of daydream way, envisioning my toes dug deep into the sand of a beach with the sun’s rays enveloping me in warmth. That’s a far cry from the two feet of snow and subzero temperatures befalling our quiet Chicago suburb. How do you even begin…

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• Once in a control programmer’s lifetime

  By William Love, Kredit Automation

  The world still used typewriters and film when I was in school. But computers were in the public imagination and programming was taking off. I learned what programming actually was when I took a FORTRAN class. Then schoolmates started using HP-41C calculators to get an edge, and I jumped on that…

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• A proportional valve by any other application

  By Rick Rice

  It’s easy, in this chosen profession of control design, to lose focus on the little bits that make up our products in deference to the bigger picture. Vendors are always toting new products; the Internet is chock full of information on what the “smart” customers are using to be competitive;…

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