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>>Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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  • A 'butter' way to palletize
• Vision validates pharmaceutical labels
• A business system for the shop floor
• Servo system application tips
• Newsbytes
• New products
• White papers
• Industry events

Applications in action
A 'butter' way to palletize

California Dairies installs two robotic palletizers to handle 275,000 lb of butter a day. The plant's vast range of butter products includes more than 170 skus in case sizes ranging from eight to 55 lb. California Dairies, Inc. is the number-one dairy cooperative in California and the second largest in the U.S. The robots stack product onto four-way wooden pallets in a multitude of different patterns. The robots also handle tier sheets and top sheets.
Read more...

Vision validates pharmaceutical labels
SPS Phin manufactures process-line labeling equipment for clients in a variety of industries, including the pharmaceutical industry. Phin's clients prefer to purchase a complete labeling solution, including print verification and label printing, in one package from one vendor. That puts Phin in the position of needing to supply an optical-character-recognition/optical-character-verification (OCR/ OCV) system integrated with its label-printing equipment.
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Intelligent Motion Systems
Automation theory
A business system for the shop floor
Effective automation is at the core of successful manufacturing enterprises because it provides tools to manage information and processes. Yet automation is more than making individual machines, groups of machines or even entire enterprises work effectively. That definition has now expanded to tying together all the islands of information within the enterprise—from the plant floor to the business office and back again.
Read more...

Tutorial tech tips
Servo system application tips
One characteristic of a maturing technology like servo motion is the body of preferred design approaches and application guidance it builds, which can offer end-users valuable tips for implementing their specific projects. These "tips" range from rules-of-thumb (for inertia loads, proper grounding/shielding and motor cooling) to sophisticated servo tuning algorithms. Several tips focus on the latter area because servo motion systems must be well-tuned to realize their full precision and dynamic performance.
Read more...

Newsbytes

Automation system integrators earn national recognition
Control Engineering announced winners of the magazine's first-ever System Integrator of the Year competition in its Automation Integrator Guide, distributed with the December 2006 North American print edition. Industrial automation system integration firms were invited to submit essays describing their achievements in the areas of technical expertise, business skills, and customer satisfaction. A panel of nine industry experts chose three winners and 13 runners-up from the 47 entries.
Read more...

Combined forces: Schneider business unit joins sensor/
control brands
Schneider Electric has assembled, over the past few months, a number of separate, well-established brands in the motion-control market to form a global enterprise under the name Custom Sensors & Controls, or CST for short. Control engineers will continue to see the affected brands, including Kavlico, BEI, Crydom, Newall, Crouzet and Systron Donner, and benefit from the combined companies' marketing, manufacturing, distribution and field service capabilities, Schneider Electric suggests.
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A smarter way to keep danger at bay
Machine operators often need access inside the guarding when setting up work pieces or clearing jams and other malfunctions. Instead of a complete machine shutdown, safety considerations can now be made where motion is controlled at safe limits when guards are open to prevent injury and damage to
equipment. Given the speed of industrial equipment, safety devices must react quickly to safety sensors, either bringing equipment to a stop or to safe operating speeds. High axis acceleration on the order of 1 m/s2 means that full speed will be realized in a fraction of a second. Therefore, emergency devices must react in milliseconds.
Read more...

New products

Bus coupler
Any of 200+ distributed I/Os from the co.'s KL family can now integrate into ultra-high-speed EtherCAT systems via its new BK1120 bus coupler, the co. says.
Read more...
Beckhoff Automation LLC, 952/890-0000.
www.beckhoffautomation.com

Palletizing software
Version 5.60 of TOPS Pro package design and palletizing software is now available. New features on the release include the MixPro Auto Load Generator, advanced container loading, support of unit-load labels, blister-packs, inverted nesting, slave pallets, shipcase costing, enhanced reports and more.
Read more...
TOPS® Eng. Corp., 972/739-8677.
www.topseng.com

Robotic feed placer
The new Delfi robotic feed placer is a vision-guided system using Delta robots capable of speeds to 400 parts/min with delicate handling that places product directly into the lug chain of a wrapper with no product guiding required.
Read more...
Doboy, Inc., 715/246-6511. www.doboy.com
  

White Papers
Packaging Intelligence Brief: Automation Trends
Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI)
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Isolation Technologies for Reliable Industrial Measurements
National Instruments
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Practical Performance Expectations for Smart Packaging
Texas Instruments
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More>>
Industry Events
Feb. 7-8
Motor & Drive Systems Conference
Fairmont Hotel Dallas
Dallas, TX
Feb. 12-15
ARC's 11th Annual Forum
Rosen Centre Hotel
Orlando, FL

Feb. 13-15
WestPack 2007
Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA

Mar. 7-8
Sustainability in
Packaging Conference
The Doubletree Castle Hotel, Orlando, FL
More>>
The Packaging Bookstore
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Automation & Controls Contacts
Editorial –
Mary Ann Falkman

PD Advertising –
Steve Reiss
CE Advertising -
Michelle Palmer

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