Troubleshooting an electrical fault can be time consuming, especially when it involves new or unfamiliar equipment. Warren Rhude, president of Simutech Multimedia, details four basic steps to improving your electrical troubleshooting skills, starting with the electrical circuit itself and ending with the tools and skills needed to stay productive. He emphasizes understanding how the circuit works, using a logical, systematic approach to analyze the circuit's behavior, understanding how to use tools such as prints, diagrams, and test instruments to identify defective components, and practice! Improving any one of these skills, along with a good dose of practice, will improve your troubleshooting skills.

The Euchner inductive cylinder proximity switches are solid state switching devices that require no physcial contact to actuate them.

Used for control and positioning signals, they can be connected directly into conventional or electronic control systems.

The Power Services division of Reliance Electric Company provides on site repairs, field services, and consulting solutions to optimize plant production performance, assets, and business management. From motor testing and rewinding, to supporting your organization in attaining Six Sigma, we can help you increase process reliability/uptime, lower operating costs, and increase value.

Bearing setting and adjustment are among the most common mistakes MRO professionals make when installing new bearings in equipment, leading to misalignment, spalling, and nicking — all of which lead to premature failure. Brush up on your bearing installation procedures to keep the 'bear' out of a bearing replacement.

Warehouse management systems (WMS) help MRO professionals locate replacement parts, assets, and raw materials, while giving visibility into inventory and providing important planning tools. Unlike companies in advanced industrial societies that avoid the upgrading and automation required for computerized tracking systems, a Czech Republic maker of agricultural equipment is using WMS to catch up.

Asking a maintenance department that's already spending overtime fixing broken equipment to change its policies and procedures and adopt a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a fine idea — but unrealistic.

A transition plan is needed to help the organization develop the right policies to go along with the technology.

CMMS systems can save your maintenance operation money, but they do require periodic checks to make sure that everyone's following the rules. In part one of a two-part series, Peter Phillips looks at five audit areas for your CMMS system and discusses ways to improve maintenance operations as a result.

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Techno Inc. is excited to announce their CNC accessory: the TechProbe Digitizer. The new digitizing probe mounts easily to any of Techno's Servo CNC systems via a ¼ in. collet.

The user-friendly TechProbe software will digitize 2D objects with complex curves, or 3D objects with geometric parts.

Create, edit, print, and analyze value stream maps using drag and drop techniques, and the ease of use of the windows interface with Stand-alone Value Stream Mapping Software. With this mapping software, one can standardize their value streams by creating and applying custom templates to the value stream maps.
More about CreateASoft, Inc.

Visual dashboards that let you see the status and health of your production equipment in real-time have been criticized as too technical and not very informative. For instance, they tell you how equipment is performing, but not necessarily how it's operating within the context of your production line or key performance indicators. New technology is changing that, bringing the future of equipment visibility into today's plant operations.

Moving to a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to automated maintenance work orders takes additional planning to get the most out of your investment.

This checklist, which includes suggested benchmarks and metrics, can help you get ready for computerized maintenance systems.

Palletizing and unitizing product into shipping groups can be done manually, semi-automatically, automatically, or by your friendly neighborhood robot. This Modern Materials Handling article explores the gamut of products available for unitizing and palletizing, and discusses new trends, such as low-volume, low-cost systems for the small to medium manufacturing facility.

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Electric actuators have threatened to usurp common air and hydraulic actuators because they can save money on system design and provide valuable process information — but they've lacked the force of pneumatics and hydraulics.

As a result, pneumatic and hydraulic companies are redesigning these systems to be more efficient.

Fosbel specializes in conducting ceramic welding repairs, which extend the life of glass furnaces. With experienced technicians familiar with almost any furnace condition, repairs are conducted in an effective and efficient manner, reducing production downtime to an absolute minimum. Fosbel, Inc. has conducted over 1000 glass furnace repairs of virtually every type around the world.

You can't have a real-time enterprise solution if you don't know what's happening at the most basic level of your organization. iSeries sensors and SuppliLink software from Visible Inventory, dropped in place, easily connected, and integrated to your supply chain, are essential for a real RTE.

Learn more about PENCOM.

DiceEngineering.com offers thousands of quality engineering jobs at top technology and engineering companies. Find jobs in your area of expertise. Search now.

You are what you know, and the ISA wants to increase your value. This nonprofit organization for industrial automation offers several instructor-led courses and courses on CD for MRO professionals including how to install, calibrate, and maintain electronic instruments, tuning control loops, and AC induction motors. Learn more in the MRO section of educational offerings.

In today's outsourcing environment, U.S. workers need to realize that government regulations and actions can directly affect their future in the manufacturing industry. The National Association of Manufacturers has tracked the voting records of both houses of the U.S. Congress for the past three years, and lays it all out for you here.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) tracks business confidence around the globe through its own "business confidence index." After coming off of a stellar year, the U.S. electric industry posted its second consecutive drop in confidence signaling a contracting industry, while Asia was the one global region to show an increase.

Have you ever done something stupid, knowing it was stupid? Columnist Jim White talks about how his boss listened to a hospital administrator and tried to swap a high-voltage switch without powering down because the systems it supported were "life critical." The boss ended up in the emergency room and the hospital was without power for weeks.

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