TJ McDermott; Yes, too many alarm messages can also be a problem. The ABB IRB 6400 S4c controller had several message lists, and a general list. And some alarms would generate a secondary message, or even a tertiary message; e.g. on a servo fault, each of the 6 axes would reply with a shutdown message. It took some time to sort through the alarms to get to the primary error.
Alarm history is vital when there is more than a handful of alarms to track. On the other hand, having a hundred alarms to sort through can be just as difficult as the intermittent one.
GlennA, I was working for a company that made simulators at one time. I was involved in a R&D project to track errors and predict faults. It was very interesting and an early application of AI in a real-time system. We acutally logged every fault, even intermittent ones. I learned about this working on satellites, actually. Having an indicator that just blinked is not really useful, you need to keep that information.
Intermittent or momentary faults can be very hard to find. On some machines, where possible, I added a latch to the alarm. Other times, you just had to watch for the error. One of the machines that I worked on had an air blow for spindle cleaning during tool change. If the air pressure dropped below the switch setting the machine Emergency-Stopped on low air. As soon as it stopped and shut off the air blow, the pressure built back up above the switch setting, and the error automatically reset . Machine operators were notorious for not paying attention, so the complaint was usually "the machine just stopped". Often the fix was just replacing the air supply hose with a shorter, larger diameter hose.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
2 
