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| The latest information on Electrical &
Electronic Components
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December 5, 2008
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It's December and the snow is starting to fall outside our offices
in Cleveland. Time to curl up with the latest edition of MACHINE
DESIGN's Electrical & Electronic Newsletter. Wireless technology has
opened the door to many new innovations and services, but it's also
opened doors to unsavory types of characters. Bulletproof looks
at methods used to keep criminals out of your wireless network. Not much
has been heard about neural networks from their big push in the '80's,
but new methods and techniques have made neural nets more robust than
ever. See how they're applied to machine vision to give it a more
subjective approach to analysis in A New Way to Look at Machine
Vision. With controllers shrinking in size and weight, it now
becomes feasible to mount the controller directly on the axis it
controls as outlined in More Controllers, Fewer Cables. The
simplified wiring harnesses and reduced cable flexing help improve
reliability. And finally, Performance Motion Devices announces Greg
Woods has been named President of PMD. As our Christmas gift to you,
we present two video picks this month. The first looks at a 3D
interactive teleconferencing system by the Institute of Creative
Technologies at USC, while the other sets the way-back machine to the
1950's and the first electronic digital timekeeping systems that used
Nixie tubes for display. The newsletter rounds out with the usual
selection of new electrical and electronic products.
No matter how you celebrate the holidays, may you enjoy happiness
and good will throughout the coming year.
-- Robert Repas
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Bulletproof
No question that interest in wireless technology is on the rise,
even for industrial uses. Experts predict the worldwide market for
wireless devices in discrete manufacturing will grow 16% annually over
the next five years. But the security of these networks is a mounting
concern. Here’s how to keep hackers out of your industrial wireless
networks.
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A New Way to Look at Machine Vision
The process of measuring appropriate features in a scene, then
comparing those to memorized examples can be time consuming for
real-life machine-vision applications. Moreover, it can be problematic
for such systems when there are a wide variety of valid scenarios.
Neural networks were devised to overcome this kind of drawback.
Introduced in the 1980's, advances in neural network methods now let
vision systems recognize parts and handle situations that once befuddled
ordinary techniques.
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More Controllers, Fewer Cables
Miniature control modules mounted directly to each positioning axis
makes for fewer and shorter cables, making cable management easier while
boosting reliability.
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Greg Woods named PMD Company
President
Performance Motion Devices has named Greg Woods as President of the
Company. Founder Chuck Lewin will continue on as Chairman of the Board
and VP of Engineering, focusing his efforts on development of PMD’s
motion control product lines. Greg Woods has over 20 years of experience
in the industrial automation and motion control industries. His most
recent experience was as CEO of Control Technology Corporation, a
supplier of automation controllers based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Prior leadership positions have been with Danaher Corporation as
President of API Motion Controls and Vice President of Sales and
Marketing at ORMEC Systems. Woods holds an undergraduate degree in
physics from Colgate University, a graduate degrees from Dartmouth
College in computer engineering, and an MBA from the University of
Rochester’s Simon School.
Performance Motion Devices
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3D Interactive Teleconferencing
"Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope!" Of course, everyone
remembers Princess Leia's plea to the great Jedi delivered as a
three-dimensional hologram projected by the 'droid R2D2. While full 3D
projection on a tabletop or floor is still in the future, the Institute
of Creative Technologies at USC recently displayed a 3D interactive
teleconferencing system that projects a three-dimensional image of a
person's face in a special display unit. Sorry, but the video only shows
off this cool technology in glorious 2D on your computer.
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I want a clock with tubes in it
Our upcoming Dec 11 issue features toys with an engineering bent.
But here is one idea that didn't make it into print: A clock using the
old Nixie tubes to form a 1950s-era digital time piece. The tubes are
0.7-in. high and show time in 12 or 24-hr formats. The site has two
videos that show each clock in operation as well as information on how
Nixie tubes operate.
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Cable Management
Cable-management products include industrial cord grips, cable
glands, and ATEX and IECEx explosion-proof cable glands for sturdy
connections. A variety of sealing and cable-retention options provide
moistureproof strain relief at the entry of a cord, cable, or other
flexible conduit into electrical equipment. Watertight construction
makes the cord grips and cable glands suitable for both indoor and
outdoor applications.
Amphenol Industrial Operations, Amphenol Corp.
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Field-Termination Assemblies
Varioface Professional field-termination assemblies (FTAs) and
cables manage wiring from field connections to process or motion
controllers. The FTAs come in ribbon, D-sub, OEM-controller-specific,
and power-distribution versions. A metal mounting foot moves along the
length of the product, making it easy to mount and disconnect.
Phoenix Contact
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Illuminated Pushbutton Switch
The LP6 Series illuminated pushbutton switch has two separate LEDs
and come in SPST or DPST. Specifications include 200,000 life cycles;
12-mA @ 12-Vdc SPST and DPST contact rating; 150 gf ± 100 gf for SPST
and 200 gf ± 100 gf for DPST; 50-mΩ initial maximum contact
resistance; 500-Vac dielectric strength; 100 M (minimum @ 500-Vdc)
insulation resistance; and operates at –20 to 70°C.
E-Switch Inc.
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Thin, Flexible Heaters
A line of flexible heaters consists of etched-foil or wire-wound
heater elements sandwiched between layers of flexible insulation that
have uniform or profiled heat patterns. The heaters can integrate
temperature sensors, flex circuits, instruments, and other
electronics.
Minco
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Industrial Ethernet Switches
Stratix 8000 modular managed switches use Cisco Catalyst switch
architecture for integration into control networks. The switches can be
configured using Allen-Bradley RSLogix 5000 programming software,
automatically generate Logix tags for diagnostics, and include
FactoryTalk View faceplates for status monitoring and alarms.
Rockwell Automation Response Center
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