Events

Motion Control in Automation

1. Techniques for boosting machine efficiency
   A look at motor/drive efficiency, gears and drive trains, lubricants, etc.
2. Security in industrial automation
   A hot topic, considering Stuxnet and Duqu. Advice on how to protect your
   equipment, and a look at evolving standards and competing networks, field
   buses, and wireless protocols.
3. Making machinery safer
   Steps to ensuring worker safety, minimizing downtime, and evolving standards.
4. Promoting "healthy" equipment
   A look at condition monitoring, remote monitoring and predictive
   maintenance.
5. Trends in high-speed bearings
   High-speed spindle design: bearings, vibration, chatter, and dynamic
   characteristics, and effects on cutting speed, depth, and material.
6. Eliminating unwanted effects from machine structures
   Causes of vibration, thermal deformation and other factors that lead to a loss of
   precision; and how to compensate for or totally eliminate.
7. Think like a machinist
   How engineers and CAD/CAM users can make easier-to-manufacture designs
   that cost less.
8. Next generation CNCs
   A look at "Intelligent" machine controls, artificial intelligence, adaptive control,
   and low-cost controllers with advanced functions.

Hydraulics and Pneumatics in Automation

1. Closed-loop position and force control
   Considerations and techniques for successfully closing the control loop of electrohydraulic systems, including the valve, actuator, and controller.
2. Energy-efficient hydraulic drives
   Simple, yet effective hydraulic components and circuits can be incorporated into a hydraulic system to total cost of ownership, especially energy consumption.
3. Controlling hydraulic contamination to improve reliability
   Contamination of hydraulic fluid is the top cause of equipment malfunctions, so this session explores techniques to achieve and maintain fluid cleanliness within a tight budget.
4. Save energy with variable-speed pump drives
   Applying variable-speed electric motor technology to a hydraulic power unit can yield impressive energy savings with no sacrifice in performance.
5. Performance and comparison of hydraulic fluids
   You can improve the efficiency of a hydraulic system simply by switching to a different type of fluid that's more suited to the application.
6. Reducing noise in hydraulic systems
   Noise generated by hydraulic systems can be significantly reduced by following simple design and component selection techniques.
7. Electronic control options for pneumatic systems
   Today's pneumatic systems can operate directly from fieldbus systems, all the way down to switches, relays, and even manual operators. This session summarizes control options and how to determine which is best suited to an application.
8. Reducing the electrical costs of pneumatic systems
   Virtually every manufacturing plant has multiple compressed air systems, which hold potential for huge reductions in electrical consumption.