If you weren’t fortunate enough to attend the most important power show of the year, APEC, be sure to check out our editorial that covers the wide-bandgap highlights from the ground floor in Anaheim.
Meanwhile, we close out the first quarter of 2019 with a deep dive into the industrial side of the house. Most products in our industry have an industrial function, so I don’t have to underscore how important the April issue is.
Omron Automation Americas discusses how industrial automation technology can help boost operational efficiency and predictive maintenance (while staying flexible). Flexibility can hamper throughput, predictive maintenance, but industrial automation solves that problem.
“Using robotics is one excellent way to boost flexibility. Robots are reusable, re-deployable assets that can change their programs on the fly, and collaborative robots in particular make it easy to keep flexible lines moving,” Omron notes.
Delta-Q Technologies also covers industrial automation with “Four Drivers Automating Industrial Applications.”
“OEMs across a number of sectors are feeling increasing pressure to electrify and automate industrial applications,” they note, while “material handling, floor care and construction are but a few of the industries embracing automation by transitioning from fuel based combustion systems to electric systems.”
The Kronos Group notes how “new technologies, such as multi-core CPUs, DSPs, GPUs, and FPGAs, have provided orders of magnitude more embedded processing power,” so high-performance, heterogeneous architectures are being deployed in industrial embedded applications like industrial robots, autonomous vehicles, medical devices, and the Internet of Things revolution.
ProTek Devices covers “Circuit Protection Considerations for Industrial Applications,” in which they note how improper circuit protection costs money and lost time, and system down time can cause a negative brand image.
Bel Magnetic Solutions and TRP Connector muse over RJ45 ICM connector solutions in the demanding industrial Ethernet market in the aptly-titled “Ethernet Invades the Industrial Space.”
“Ethernet is rapidly becoming the predominant networking technology within the industrial environment, with a number of recent IEEE 802 Ethernet sub-standards covering the mechanisms required to support real-time communication,” says author John Hess.
Finally, Maxim Integrated hashes out how to “Protect Your Small Sensor from the Harsh Industrial Environment.”
They mention how to “safely deliver low-voltage power to tiny sensors in high-voltage, industrial environments, while minimizing solution size and maximizing efficiency.”
Best Regards
Jason Lomberg,
North American Editor, PSD
