Overstock.com is an online retailer/liquidation outlet offering discount, brand-name merchandise—everything from bedding to musical instruments. It now offers more than 700,000 products. The company recently installed a new, automated packaging machine to package jewelry, as well as DVDs and CDs. Read more...
Specializing in pallet and plastic container-pooling services, CHEP Equipment Pooling Systems wants to be the world's leading provider of innovative business solutions in its field. CHEP's Innovation Center is a state-of-the-art packaging and unit-load configuration testing and validation facility that utilizes leading-edge design, processes and tools to address supply-chain issues. Read more...
Automation theory
Investment decisions are not automatic in tough market Despite evidence that automation can lower their labor costs and help them gain a competitive edge, most packagers are delaying decisions to purchase automated equipment during the current recession. Read more...
The power of real time intelligence Real time control is not just for the factory floor. It has begun to appeal to enterprise management wanting to gain competitive advantage. While very few organizations are there yet, the ones who are have the capacity to do things that have never been done before. Read more...
Tutorial tech tips
Vision and motion: Better together, part I Machine vision has been a part of manufacturing and motion control for decades. As applications have become more demanding and the sophistication of hardware and software rises, implementations have gone from completely uncoupled systems in which motion serves vision, to tightly coupled combinations in which vision serves motion. Ultimately, the application drives the choice of hardware, software, and architecture. To achieve best results from the technology, users need to be aware of its limitations as well as its capabilities. Read more...
Newsbytes
Balancing energy use, production capabilities Optimizing seemingly conflicting goals like energy use and production output requires a focus on the total machine and its components, especially motors. Packaging machinery OEMs need to find a way to set themselves apart to succeed, and one way may be with attention to energy efficiency. Read more...
2009 forecast: 'Gut check' time, not 'give up' time Many machine vision suppliers saw this recession coming, positioned themselves to weather the downturn, and continue to form strategies that will help their companies to emerge stronger as the market turns later this year and gains upward momentum in 2010. Read more...
New robotics industry directory examines green manufacturing
Green manufacturing is still a young trend that requires new thinking, and robots are coming into their prime just in time to solve issues related to environmental responsibility – a topic explored in the new, 2009 Robotics Industry Directory. It has 214 listings and is filled with unique information about top makers of robots and accessories. Included is a one-of-a-kind "User’s Guide to Robot Systems Integrators." Read more...
Top ten reasons to buy an industrial robot today The economy may be off to a slow start in 2009, but that doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead for better times. These are the “Top Ten” reasons why you should purchase an industrial robot today. Read more...
The epicenter of automation control In the development of new automation controllers, the clear trends are lower costs, smaller controllers and the convergence of motion, logic, HMI and vision on single hardware and software platforms. Separate motion and logic controllers each have an application niche, but suppliers are positioning their offerings to provide more tightly integrated control. Read more...
New products
Vision system
The KEYENCE CV-5000 vision system offers ultra high-speed image processing for any production line. The high-speed 5 megapixel camera transfers ultra high-definition images (2432 x 2050 pixels) in 61.2 msec. Read more...
Keyence Corp. of America, 888/539-3623. www.keyence.com
Robotic tube filler/loader
The TaskMate™ robotic loading system incorporates a Fanuc robot and ESS-designed end-of-arm tooling to load the infeed of Model TF 100, which automatically fills and closes up to 100 metal, plastic or PE/foil tubes/min. Read more...
ESS Technologies Inc., 540/961-5716. www.esstechnologies.com
Software
PiCPro programming software is capable of supporting up to 64 axes of high-performance motion control. Read more...
Danaher Motion, 540/633-3400. www.danahermotion.com
Resource Center
Product: SUREHEAT® MAX HT 900°C AIR HEATERS Osram Sylvania Download now - FREE
Whte Paper: RFID Technology Simplifies Asset Management SATO American Inc. Download now - FREE
White Paper: End-of-Line Automation for Flexible Packaging BluePrint Automation Download now - FREE
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