Monday, October 9, 2006

Another automation blog New automation blog from my old buddy, Dave Harrold. 4:24:32 PM    comment []

Cool use of RSS I bet this would have manufacturing implications. Put an RSS Ticker on Your Desk. Uncrate has a great find: The Mister Tipster RSS Display. The desk accessory display ($135) hooks to your computer through the USB port and displays your feeds on your desk. It also has an alerting feature for when certain words show up in your feeds. [Micro Persuasion] 4:08:56 PM    comment []

Energy savings Baldor Electric Co. and one of its distributors, Motion Industries, are teaming to produce a seminar on proper selection of electric motors for increased reliability and energy savings. It will be held in Chicago at the Downtown Courtyard by Marriott (State and Hubbard streets). The seminar will provide best practices for using premium efficient motors and adjustable speed drives for reducing energy consumption, improving productivity and reducing downtime. Also discussed will be ways to improve MRO planning and tracking of assets. Register here. Baldor has long been at the forefront of the energy savings initiatives in US industry. It's a strategy that makes sense for it competitively as it battles cheap imports, but also a strategy that makes sense for industry. Unfortunately, energy savings has been a tough sell. I know. I've been there. In the early and mid-90s, I was trying to sell variable frequencey drives for energy savings. I even proved it worked at a waste water treatment plant on one of its pumps. They didn't buy 2 more for the rest of the pumps at that station, though. The price of electricity was just too cheap compared to all the other expenses. Maybe with energy prices soaring and 15 years of cutting other costs manufacturers will wake up to an easy cost savings. 7:35:37 AM    comment []