Motors & Pump Repairs in Sarasota, FL

There are a few ancient principles that played roles in automation since the mechanical age. Automation did not have to wait for electronic or electrical systems. The concept of automation as a wish or fantasy dates back as early as 762 BC. In Homer's epic poem "The Iliad," the God of blacksmiths, Hephaestus, was depicted as inventing automatons, self-directed machines, to speed the manufacture of weapons, machines replacing human labor. Human beings have held the idea of automation in our collective consciousness for thousands of years. Inventors were working on mechanical forms of automation for centuries.

The VFD (variable frequency drive) has become the "go to" technology for plant engineers seeking an energy efficient solution for controlling electric motor speed and torque. As this informative article from ABB points out, a VFD can reduce energy consumption by as much as 60% by reducing the amount of energy drawn by a motor. Small reductions in speed result in significant energy savings.

Industrial electrical control panels fall under two categories:

1. Units that contain components that control major industrial production systems, such as presses, cranes, conveyors and refrigeration units

2. Units that contain components that control necessary nearby environmental systems, such as lighting, HVAC and pumps

When power or control components, such as motor controllers, wires, relays and switches, fail to work properly, production immediately slows or screeches to a halt resulting in lost revenues and high on-site emergency repair call costs. For these reasons, it’s critical that you hire a trained technical professional to perform a preventative inspection and repair work if any of the following conditions currently exist in your factory:

When selecting a micro programmable controller for your manufacturing processes, it can be difficult to sift through the wide range of PLCs that might be right for your applications. Often, process managers look to balance I/O capacity, processing power, and communications architecture - along with cost and ruggedness (or industrial hardening) to arrive at the perfect for specific plant floor control. Here, we will examine two widely used PLC's throughout the process and control industry, the IDEC MicroSmart product line and Automation Direct's DirectLOGIC 06 line of micro PLCs.

IDEC Corporation was founded in 1945 and is one of the earliest entrants into the micro PLC market. The company has always sought to supply PLC technology with specific capabilities to meet their customers demand. By eliminating unnecessary bells-and-whistles, the company offers a cost-effective line of micro PLCs to meet a wide range of automation and control needs.

The PLC, the industry anagram for Programmable Logic Controller, was first developed in the 1960s as a more efficient replacement for bulky banks of hardwired electromechanical relays and timers. Today, they're found in industrial applications for controlling conveyors, assembly lines, pumps, mixers, even wind turbines, and a host of other production machines and processes. They can also be found in other diverse applications such as controlling amusement rides and traffic signals.

A PLC, with its hardened embedded processor, can be thought of as a specialized digital computer built to withstand the demands of tough industrial environments. Any time precise sensing and logical decisions are required, PLCs can meet the demand.

The trend in industrial automation begun by the first PLCs continues to move today toward smaller, faster, and better. Ladder logic programming first used to improve and enhance automation systems based on relays and timers still endures as the most used PLC programming language, making it the reliable industry standard which is expected to continue for years to come.

Controllers play a central role in any conveyor system. There are however, different controllers for different applications. It is imperative for you to know which is the most appropriate for your system before buying. The following are factors to consider when determining the best system for your application: