End of year is coming. I’m sure you’ve noticed. Christmas shopping is in full swing. I enjoy the end of year pause. Its a great time to reflect. Sometimes a great opportunity to reflect on the big issues of life that take a back seat during the rush of the urgent daily events that occupy […]
What is Mechatronics?
It seems as if one of the “new” buzzwords in the industrial controls arena is mechatronics. What was for years, motion control, was reinvented as mechatronics for a variety of reasons. In part, the motion control term didn’t communicate the mechanical nature of the problem. And that is a very important distinction to consider. Good […]
Energy and Politics
Yeah, we’re going to get into the “Green” technology issue. But I want to consider the public policy side of energy conservation. This is at least as big a topic and will require several installments, but for today, we’ll talk in terms of motors and controls. My clothes washer quite recently. The centrifugal switch on […]
Profits and Progress
Consolidation in the motion control industry has been very significant in the last few years. Many smaller suppliers have been bought by larger companies. Thomson Industries, once the largest supplier in the actuator market, was purchased by Danaher, now the dominant supplier in the overall motion control market. After an intense period of mergers and […]
Thanksgiving stories
Anybody have any really bizarre holiday stories from the workplace? If so, drop me a line, I would like to read them. Years ago I got a phone call on the Monday of Thanksgiving week from a guy that was looking for an obscure gear reducer for a stepping motor. It seems they were planning […]
Ratings and Performance
I tend to rant a lot about manufacturer’s ratings. In future articles and posts I will address some of the analytical things that can help you make your applications successful. Manufacturers want to present their products in the best possible light. But sometimes the real meaning of the ratings is obscured or manipulated. So understanding […]
Mechatronics
Why should you care? Because whatever the term “mechatronics” might mean to you, it affects so many aspects of our daily life. We’ve all seen commercials with a production floor full of welding robots making automobiles. Certainly automotive manufacturing would not be possible without numerically controlled machine tools, robots and much more. And the automotive […]
Project Mechatronics Round-Up
Tools to help you with your designs – Oct 2007 Software: Motion Control System Design with Multi-Language Simulation Tools. From Mentor Graphics: http://mentor.com While various analysis options for motion control systems have been available for many years, only multi-language simulation can completely handle the diverse modeling requirements of motion control systems in a “holistic” manner. […]
Different Drive Concepts for Different Machine Tool Motions
Here’s a quick look at your options when selecting drives for use in machine tools. In machine tools, typically the details of the installed drive technology are concealed. In principle, however, there are several possibilities for main, feed and auxiliary drives to carry out the needed machine movements. Main Drives Main drives are predominantly closed-loop […]
Integrate Test with Design and Analysis
The common definition of mechatronics does not include testing. Perhaps it should. By Sugato Deb, Ph.D., MBA & Director Emerging Markets / Partnerships National Instruments In the traditional design process of parts and assemblies, engineers produce models, analyze their behaviors under operating conditions, and pass physical prototypes “over the wall” for test engineers to evaluate […]
The Continuing Evolution of Mechatronics
It began as the integration of mechanisms with electronics. Since then, mechatronics has evolved, and for all practical purposes, includes nearly every engineering discipline. By Andy Urda, Director Channel & Industry Marketing Yaskawa Electric In 1953, Yaskawa Electric began its active role in advancing technology in the field of motion control when the company introduced […]
Behind Mechatronics’ Overnight Success
Many electrical engineers may have just caught the buzz about a discipline called mechatronics, and have heard that it’s going to change their lives. There are good reasons why that’s likely to be the case, and I’ll go into them. But first, I’d like to make clear that many years of hard work have gone […]
About Mechatronics
Among the thousands of definitions of Mechatronics, we find the terms synergistic, interdisciplinary, flexible, and robust repeated frequently. Thus, the synergistic application of interdisciplinary engineering fields for the creation and development of robust, flexible products and processes is as good a definition as any. One of the better definitions, however, is that mechatronics stands simply […]