Automation & Controls

Active Industrial Solutions, Tecumseh, Ontario, and Radix Inc., Tecumseh, named Doug LoFranco president and CEO.

In response to the growth of its Edgecam and Surfcam solutions, Vero Software Ltd., Cheltenham, England, added Applications Engineer Randal Warkentien to its team of support professionals.

Sick Inc., Minneapolis, a manufacturer of sensors, safety systems, machine vision, encoders and automatic identification solutions for factory, logistics and process automation, promoted Elise Furlan to general counsel for Sick.

To support rapid expansion at its Mexico facility, the team at KUKA Automotive appointed Dormer Pramet its primary cutting tools supplier over the next three years.

Mitsubishi Laser has added the new M800 control technology to its Advanced 800 Series eX-F fiber laser machine. The company says it has been working hard to perfect and offer the new technology for its popular fiber laser machine.

Mazak's HCN-5000 horizontal machining center is now available with the company's Multi-Pallet Pool (MPP) system, a basic automation system in a compact footprint. Thanks to the MPP system, shops that lack the floor space necessary to accommodate a conventional linear horizontal pallet stocker have the ability to automate for continuous unmanned, lights-out operations.

HEIDENHAIN's ACU-RITE brand of digital readout (DRO) products for the machine tool marketplace has introduced a line of three innovative DROs with new software features and robust hardware, which is reportedly making a difference for milling, turning, grinding and boring applications.

FANUC America announced that its Robot LINKi Zero Down Time (ZDT) service is now available to all automotive and non-automotive manufacturers that purchase FANUC robots.

Machine maintenance goes soft(ware).The stakes are much higher today for machine maintenance. Shops must be more proactive, and aim to optimize every operational aspect of their CNC equipment.

Beckhoff Automation announced the release of new CP6x00 control panels and panel PCs with 10.1-inch widescreen displays. The expanded line of entry-level panels from Beckhoff, first launched with 7-inch displays, has been expanded by three new cabinet-mounted devices, each with a 10.1-inch widescreen display.

Marposs Corp. has announced the availability of its new Brankamp CMS-02 stand-alone system for collision monitoring and crash damage mitigation in machine tools. The system employs a ceramic strain sensor to detect irregularities in the production process by measuring elastic deformation in the range of 0.1 microns, and both slow and dynamically increasing forces which have damage potential. It then reacts extremely fast--in the range of 1 millisecond--by sending a stop signal to E-STOP helping to alleviate or even eliminate machine crashes that can result in high repair costs and long downtimes.

Not only is automation continuing to displace workers at manufacturing companies, the thought of being ousted by a robot is making some workers at those plants feel sick. That's according to a study by three Ball State University researchers and a Villanova University professor.