Do I Need An Encoder Or Resolver?

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Choosing the correct encoder or resolver for your application may seem tedious, but is an important decision that needs to be carefully examined before these devices are going to be used in your plant. Encoders and resolvers often are used to sense motor shaft speed in machines and robots. Resolvers have been around longer, but encoders are more widely used in modern designs because of higher accuracy and superior digital communication interfaces.

Incremental rotary encoders work on either of three technologies: optical, magnetic or capacitive. Each technology has its drawbacks and advantages, and the right choice typically is determined by the application.

“Optical encoders can be found in office applications such as copiers, and in industrial applications such as automated guided vehicles,” says Cory Mahn, senior specials engineer at Dynapar “Magnetic encoders typically are needed in harsh conditions where optical encoders could show significant performance decrease. These applications can be overhead cranes, paper mills and steel mills.”

The vulnerable component in optical encoders is the glass disk, and various designs are available to provide protection. “Our Safety-Lock bearing design incorporates two mechanically interlocked bearings that have the maximum possible distance between them,” says Tony Udelhoven, sensors division director at Turck “This design helps protect the internal optical disk system from shock and vibration that would damage traditionally designed encoder bearings.”

Some applications are too rugged for optical encoders, and others have inherent strong magnetic fields that preclude use of magnetic encoders. “Our capacitive encoders are designed and built to meet the challenges of difficult applications as they dont have bearings or optics, and are well-suited for direct-drive applications,” notes Joanna Suresh, product manager for motor feedback and absolute encoders at Sick.

Bearing design is critical for optical encoders because the bearings are subject to contact and wear. Magnetic encoders eliminate bearings from their design, and can also offer higher performance.No matter the type of encoder selected for a particular application, it requires an interface to other components in the automation system. As with many automation components, digital interfaces provide high-speed two-way communications, enabling high-resolution outputs and diagnostics.Although resolvers are not as widely used as encoders, they can be a good fit in certain applications.

If you are not certain of which product you should use, contact Precision Electric. You can reach us by email or telephone. Send the specifications for your application to me at the email address shown below. If you have a resolver or encoder that you would like quoted for either repair or replacement, let me know.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Sources:
http://www.sickusa.com
www.turck.us
www.dynapar.com
http://www.controldesign.com/articles/2011/EncoderResolver1101.html

2004-2011 Industrial Manufacturing Growth In America

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Manufacturing in the U.S. unexpectedly accelerated in January at the fastest pace in more than six years, reinforcing forecasts the economic recovery will strengthen in 2011.

Businesses have figured out the economic recovery has legs so theyre growing more confident about expanding production and new orders and increasing hiring, said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. Manufacturing is making a very decent contribution to growth.

General Electric Co. last month posted its third straight quarter of profit growth, beating analysts estimates, driven by a rebound in its finance unit, health-care and transportation divisions. The environment continues to improve, Jeffrey Immelt, GEs chief executive officer, said on a Jan. 21 conference call. The economy can get a little bit stronger every day.

Caterpillar, the worlds largest maker of construction equipment, posted fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts estimates as sales advanced in China, Australia and Latin America. The Peoria, Illinois-based company last week said sales climbed 62 percent to $12.8 billion from the year-ago quarter. The company said 2011 sales will exceed $50 billion, compared with $42.59 billion in 2010. Auto dealers are also seeing improved demand. Car sales in December rose to a 12.53 million unit pace, the highest since the governments cash-for-clunkers program in August 2009, according to industry data.

Precision Electric has also seen a major increase in both sales and service within the last several months. We have been prospecting new customers, and also experiencing increases of repair and service work with our existing customers.

Precision Electricrecommends that all manufacturers keep spare equipment in case of an emergency breakdown. We also encourage you to schedule routine predictive maintenance on both your equipment in production as well as your spare equipment.Over the past several months many customers of ours have decided to have Precision Electric rebuild their spare equipment in case of an emergency breakdown.If you have equipment that needs to be repaired or replaced, let us know.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-01/u-s-economy-manufacturing-grows-by-most-since-2004.html

Allen Bradley Alternative

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Customers of Precision Electric who use Allen Bradley products typically get frustrated when they don’t get support or more frequently, have to sign an expensive contract to get support. Eventually these customers seek alternative products for their applications. Precision Electric recommends Parker/SSD drive solutions for customers looking for an alternative to Allen Bradley. We have been a systems integrator as well as certified repair facility for Parker/SSD products since 1996.

Parker offers a full range of drives from stepper, compact and high performance servo, AC variable speed, high current output DC to panel mounted drives. Parker industry leading drives include Sensorless, Vector and Microstepping options. Parker drives are suitable for speed, torque or position control and are available in power ranges from fractional to over 2,000 hp.

Drive product offerings from Parker:

  • Open loop V/Hz speed control for induction motors
  • Sensorless vector and closed loop flux vector control
  • Brushless AC and DC servo control
  • Programmable servo drives
  • Stepper and microstepper
  • Field bus and ethernet based motion bus
  • Packaged systems in NEMA enclosure panels

Parker power electronics are used in a wide variety of markets ranging from industrial to life sciences and are supported by a highly technical distribution network around the globe.

  • Thousands of standard drive configurations
  • Custom engineered drives designed to your OEM application
  • Global manufacturing and service with local application support

Parker drives products carry international industrial approvals, including UL, cUL and CE marking.

Parker drive/controllers support numerous industry-standard fieldbus protocols including:

  • CANOpen
  • Ethernet IP
  • Ethernet Powerlink
  • Ethercat
  • Profibus
  • Modbus and others

Products are available as standalone packages or PC-bus cards. Call or email for further information.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

 

 

Mitsubishi Will Build SUV At Illinois Plant

/in /by

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) Mitsubishi Motors North America said Friday that it will begin production of a new SUV crossover at its plant in Normal, Illinois, next year, promising to keep the facility open less than a month after its 1,100 union employees agreed to wage concessions.

The state of Illinois said it will give the company $29 million in tax incentives as it begins production of the new Outlander Sport.

The new vehicles, which Mitsubishi started making late last year, will replace four existing models now made at the Normal plant that will be phased out, Mitsubishi Motors North America President Shinichi Kurihara said Friday at the plant. “Mitsubishi Motors remains fully committed to producing vehicles in Normal,” he said. “We will build vehicles here not just for the United States, but for many nations around the world.”

The facility’s 1,100 union workers in December agreed to cut their pay by $1.67 an hour, a concession Mitsubishi said it needed to keep the plant open. The plant now makes the Galant, Eclipse and Spyder and the Endeavor sport utility vehicle. All four will be phased out over the next few years, though no timetable has been set.

The plant was built in 1988 and has 1,300 employees, about half of whom commute from surrounding communities and as far away as Peoria and Champaign, the company has said.

Like most of the auto industry, Mitsubishi North America has struggled with slow sales. The Cypress, Calif.-based subsidiary of Tokyo’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp. saw its U.S. market share slip to one half of one percent in 2009 the lowest level since 1985, according to WardsAuto.com, a website that tracks auto industry data.

A key Illinois Democrat used Friday’s announcement as an opportunity to jab at the chorus of critics who have complained that Illinois’ recent income tax increase discourages economic growth. Those critics include leaders in other states, like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who have openly encouraged businesses to leave Illinois over the higher taxes they’ll pay if they remain.

“Illinois has reformed its pension system, enacted spending limits, recruited and retained key businesses and put itself back on track for stability and prosperity,” state Senate President John Cullerton said. “Compare that to New Jersey where the governor is spending more of the people’s money promoting himself in the Illinois media than he is on his state’s underfunded pension systems.”

Mitsubishi on Friday also said it will loan the state of Illinois what it called a small number of battery-powered electric vehicles to try out as part of the state’s fleet, and will work with the state to try to promote the use of electric vehicles. The company loaned the state of California two cars last year in a similar arrangement.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-04/mitsubishi-will-build-suv-at-illinois-plant.html

Industrial Manufacturing Smart Phone Mobile App

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

When Invensys Operations Management (IOM) set out earlier this year to develop an industrial “app” for smart phones, the company had a strong idea of what it wanted to do. IOM, the Plano, Texas-based automation supplier, partnered with Sarla Analytics LLC, Barrington, R.I., a supplier of smart phone applications, to develop SmartGlance, a software-as-a-service offering designed to deliver manufacturing intelligence data to smart phones, including Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, Blackberries and Android models.

SmartGlance was introduced in October. But before Invensys brought the SmartGlance offering to market, it turned to its customer council, a group of both large and small users of its products, for input on the app’s features and functions. “We started working with them very early on, asking what kinds of information would be most useful, and how they would want to see it,” says Rob McGreevy, IOM vice president, platforms and applications. One customer, in particularGeneral Millsstepped up to provide significant guidance and feedback, McGreevy notes, driving “some very important changes” in the app’s design.

General Mills got its first look at the SmartGlance app early last summer, says Chris Damsgard, senior engineer at the company’s Controls and Information Systems Engineering Group, in Golden Valley, Minn. “Their first pass was on the iPhone. They could show some tabular data and they could do some charting, but that was about it,” recalls Damsgard who does much of General Mills usability work. “So we started thinking about the problems that we have in the manufacturing space and how a mobile app could help us solve those, and we started explaining some of those challenges and problems to Invensys.” The vendor responded positively, making appropriate changes to the app, he says.

One thing that was missing in the early SmartGlance implementation was an alerting function, Damsgard says. While Invensys had started with a “great idea” of delivering real-time manufacturing data via smart phones, “they weren’t really totally catching the use case”that busy manufacturing users don’t have time to be constantly checking or staring at their smart phones, he explains.

Sometimes, the optimal display approaches weren’t immediately obvious. When General Mills suggested use of color, for example, the SmartGlance developers quickly thought of using red, yellow and green to indicate varying levels of equipment health. But General Mills instead pushed for just a single color to be usedand only when an anomaly occurs.

The red-yellow-green approach would have produced too much visual noise, requiring users to interpret all of the different colors, Damsgard explains. “Why not assume that things are good and shade just the one thing that I need to pay attention to?” he says. “When I open my report, I’ve got this grid of numbers, and I need to be able to go straight to the one that’s messed up, because at that moment, that’s all I care about, so that’s what the single color accomplishes.”

Damsgard anticipates significant payoffs for the project. Even a minute of downtime can amount to large costs for General Mills, he notes, “so the sooner you can get the information into somebody’s hands, the sooner they can react to prevent losses,” he says. At press time, Damsgard was hoping to begin piloting the SmartGlance app with General Mills users by around the end of November.

source: http://www.automationworld.com/feature-7976

Improving pharmaceutical energy efficiency

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.


Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Electric motors and variable speed drives are used throughout the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry to operate HVAC systems, laboratory or bulk manufacturing equipment, such as mixers, pumps, centrifuges and dryers, and to move and operate filling and finishing equipment.

Maintenance can save from 2% to 30% of total motor system energy use in pharmaceutical production. Electric motors and variable speed drives are often sized incorrectly in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.Ensuring that motors are properly sized, and that oversized motors are replaced, can save 1.2% of total electric motor electricity consumption within one system. Typically whenever peak loads can be reduced, so can motor size.

Replacing an old electric motor with a high-efficiency motor is usually a better choice than rewinding a motor. Currently, there are no quality or efficiency standards for rewinding, this can create motor efficiency to decrease from 2% to 25% after rewinding. If you are thinking aboutwhether to rewind a motor or to replace it with a higher-efficiency model, consider the following prior to making a decision:

  • Never rewind a motor damaged by excessive heat
  • Replace motors that are less than 100 hp and more than 15 years old
  • Replace any motors that have previously been rewound

High-efficiency motors, meeting or exceeding performance criteria published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), reduce energy losses through improved design, better materials, tighter tolerances and improved manufacturing techniques.

Precision Electric offers several different types of equipment and services to Pharmaceutical manufacturers across the United States. Click here to learn more about the products and services we offer. If you need price and delivery quoted for any of your equipment, let me know.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

 

 

Industrial electrical equipment repair services

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Precision Electric technicians and engineers are trained to use the latest technology in testing and repairing your electronic equipment. We have the capability to repair your circuit boards and other related equipment down to component level.

Precision Electric provides 24 hour on-call field services, including Holidays. Our electronic technicians arrive at your facility to trouble-shoot problems, whether they are in your start-up, existing system, or in an individual unit. If your equipment is down our technicians and engineers will trouble shoot the system and get you back up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. Precision Electric also helps their customers develop and maintain a preventive maintenance program, and show you where and how you can upgrade existing equipment.

Many customers of Precision Electric who are using outdated DC drive and DC motor equipment have chosen to retrofit their existing DC Drive and DC motor system to an AC Vector Drive and AC motor. The AC Vector Drive and Inverter Duty AC motor are much more reliable and readily available for your automation needs. To inquire about these services call or email me direct for more information.

The Precision Electric in-service warranty is a big advantage we have over our competitors. Our in-service warranty begins the same day our customers install equipment rebuilt by Precision Electric, and ends 12 months later.We encourage customers to have all spares rebuilt and ready for immediate replacement; this is to ensure maximum production with little to no downtime.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Variable speed drive energy savings

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

The use of variable frequency drives on variable torque loads for the purpose of gaining energy savings is a common application. Variable frequency drives operate as load controls within applications that may accomplish up to 50% reduction in energy costs. In general, an electric motor will turn at a rate proportional to the frequency of the alternating current (AC) applied to it. The majority of Variable Frequency Drives in the market today contain electronic circuitry that converts a 60Hz Line power into direct current. The VFD converts this line power into a pulsed output voltage that duplicates varying alternating current to a desired frequency.

In our ever growing world of technology variable frequency drives have over the past decade allowed to become a cost efficient way to reduce energy costs and increase system efficiencies. Today manufacturers around the globe within a wide range of industries are finding more ways to apply variable frequency drives to their manufacturing equipment.

From past experience, smaller HP drives typically fail in eight years and are more often replaced rather than repaired. Larger HP drives last longer by virtue of repairs that often require replacement circuit boards and other components. After bearing the cost of two or three replacement boards in any one drive, the user often realizes that the drive should have been junked sooner.

For an even more in depth explanation of Variable Frequency Drives go to Wikipedia.

RyanChamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]

Paper and pulp industry

/in /by

We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Processing pulp and paper is a demanding industry. Crushing loads, high humidity, dirt, dust and grime can all take a toll on the best precision equipment in your manufacturing facility. Keep your equipment in prime operating condition by calling us. Or when a breakdown occurs, you can depend on Precision Electric to provide a wide selection of services, products and/or technical support. Our Automation Controls Group was designed to integrate industrial equipment and industrial electronics for paper and pulp manufacturers around the globe, among other industries. Click here to learn more about the Precision Electric Automation Controls Group.

Nearly all servo motors in the paper and pulp manufacturing world can be repaired for a fraction of what it will cost to buy a new one. We provide expert repairs for all AC servo motorsas well as brushless servo motors, and DC servo motorproducts, and all other related equipment. Click here to learn more about these products and services.

We are a single, reliable source for a wide selection of field and in-shop services. Our objective is toto reduce your operating costs by minimizing downtime, improving efficiency and extending your machinery and equipment life. Precision Electric will work around the clock 24/7 for emergency breakdowns all year round.

All of our repair services are covered by a One-Year comprehensive warranty unless otherwise stated on your quote.Precision Electric has been providing comprehensive AC & DC Servo Motor Repair and CNC & Spindle motor repair services for over 25 years. We routinely repair domestic and foreignmotors. To learn more click here.

If you have paper and pulp electrical manufacturing equipment that you want quoted for repair, or if you want a quote to replace something specific, let me know. I am available via email or telephone. When you call Precision Electric a human being will always answer, because we do not believe voicemail is logical in our industry.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

How do I use three phase equipment with single phase power

/in /by

This is popular subject here at Precision Electric. We receive emails and calls all the time for customers who have three phase equipment and need to operate this equipment from single phase power. Since most higher horsepower drives only accept three phase input power, many customers are left with little options or alternatives. However, we have a solution for these applications.

Before you derate your drive it is most important to ensure the drive you are using is properly suited for your application. The following are some basic guidlines to help you in determining whether or not your Variable Frequency Drive is suitable for your application:

  1. Gather motor nameplate data including horsepower (HP), current (Amps), motor voltage, input line voltage and power source phase.
  2. Determine which type of drive your application will require. The type will fall under the category of either Volts per Hertz (V/Hz), closed-loop vector, or open-loop vector (Sensorless Vector).

Heres how to derate a three phase drive for single phase power:

  1. Determine the motor horsepower and motor current
  2. Choose drive with a Horsepower higher than the Horsepower of the motor to compensate for the additional input current from the single phase power source.

The simplest formula used for these types of applications is:
The drive max current needs to be greater than that of the motor current. Take your motor current and multiply by 1.73. Then choose a drive that is rated at or higher than the revised current.

Example:

  • Drive rated current > Motor Current Rating * 1.73
  • Drive rated current > 27 Amps * 1.73
  • Drive rated current > 46.71

Now it has been determined this example application will need a 230 VAC 3 phase Volts per Hertz (V/Hz) Variable Frequency Drive with an input current rated at or above 47.0 amps. This particular application would need a 15hp 240V three phase drive to operate on single phase power.

 

Industrial vibration consultants

/in /by

If you are looking for a certified industrial vibration analysis consultant you’ve come to the right place. Precision Electric offersvibration analysis services to industrial manufacturing manufacturing industries across the Midwest. These services consist primarily of collecting data designed to trend equipment performance. Scheduled data collection of this sort exposes deteriorating conditions and allows the scheduling of maintenance prior to equipment failure and forced downtime. With timely preventative maintenance, you can prolong equipment life and prevent catastrophic failure.

Industrial Vibration Analysis Services:

  • Vibration Institute-certified Category III Vibration Analysts
  • vibration condition monitoring and diagnostics in accordance with the requirements of ISO/FDIS 18436-2
  • routine predictive maintenance programs (PMPs) – quarterly, alternate month, or monthly
  • onsite assessment of capital equipment
  • onsite balancing of rotating equipment
  • three sets of CSI vibration analysis equipment
  • programs that can be designed to support ISO and QS 9000 programs

Precision Electric has offered these services for over 25 years. To learn more about our vibration analysis services please call or email us.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Industrial Equipment Repair w/ In Service Warranty

/in /by

motor rewindPrecision Electric offers Nationwide industrial equipment repair for manufacturers, OEM’s, end users, and others since 1983. Precision Electric repairs / rebuilds any brand AC and DC Variable Frequency Drives in all horsepower ratings through 1,000 Volts AC / DC. Additional industrial equipment repair services offered by Precision Electric, Inc. include AC / DC Electric Motor Repair from Fractional Horsepower through 1,000 Horsepower. Custom control cabinet design and manufacture, PLC programming, Servo Motor and Servo Drive Repair, Servo Amplifier Repair, PBC Repair, And Repair of all other related equipment. All repair work performed by Precision Electric is completed in house or on-site for customer convenience. Precision Electric guarantees small motor repair and large motor repair are of equal quality, and all Repair work includes a 1 year In Service Warranty. The Precision Electric In Service Warranty begins when the equipment repaired goes into service to encourage the repair of spare / back up equipment that may be laying around, in non-working condition. This process is most economical for the customer because when spare equipment is needed, the customer has a repaired spare available and no matter how long the item has been sitting, there’s no need to worry about expired warranties. Once the equipment is put into service and functioning, the in service warranty begins.

Precision Electric has a unique repair process that is unlike the competition. Most motor shops function as ‘assembly line’ in their repair processes to cut costs on repair work. Repair work performed by Precision Electric is more successful than the competition by a unique process. The mechanic who starts a repair job at Precision Electric is the same mechanic that finalizes the repair job. This unique repair process holds every mechanic accountable for their performance, and it also assures a repair product that is more reliable than that of the original product from the manufacturer.

Precision Electric industrial equipment repair services include troubleshooting, repair, rebuild, and rewind. Precision Electric is capable of both form-wound coils and random-wound machined coils. Precision Electric industrial equipment repair services also includes all types of AC and DC electric motors, generators, transformers, clutches, brakes, pumps, gearboxes, blowers, fans, shafts, sleeve bearings, and hoist equipment.
General Service offered by Precision Electric:

  • rotary apparatus repair
  • electric motor repair
  • drive repair AC and DC
  • PCB repair
  • servo motor repair
  • servo drive repair
  • mechanical repairs
  • pump repair
  • gearbox repair
  • and all other related products and services.

Industrial Equipment Repair ServicesThe Precision Electric in-service warranty is another advantage we have over our competition. Our in-service warranty begins the same day our customers install equipment rebuilt by Precision Electric, and ends 12 months later.

The Precision Electric in-service warranty gives the customer incentive to keep a spare motor in all areas of production. Precision Electric encouragescustomers to have all spares rebuilt and ready for immediate replacement to ensure maximum production with little to no downtime.

Call Precision Electric today for an industrial equipment repair services quote or product replacement quote.