Control & Automation Features

Routeco LIVE made a successful return!

Routeco LIVE made a successful comeback with three one-day events that took place across the country. Read the highlights and catch up on what you might have missed as the DPA & Connectivity Editor takes you through the event!

Smart solutions for Industry 4.0

Most manufacturing companies are constantly balancing the desire to improve production against the return on the investment required to achieve that improvement. Industry 4.0 has the promise of facilitating great improvements. However, as with many emerging technologies, there is a shortage of expertise and experience.

Ready Engineer One

The computer games generation was always a refence to teenagers…well it was in the ‘80s and '90s (to save you looking it up, the ZX Spectrum was first launched in the UK in 1982). It’s no surprise then that most engineers working now are comfortable with digital interface technology and that the latest developments in Augmented Reality have quickly been applied to making improvements on the factory floor.

Keep making the tablets

This article shows how valuable manufacturing production line downtime in the pharmaceutical industry can be reduced by ensuring predictive maintenance of tablet making machinery using Harting’s MICA industrial computing platform.

More Control & Automation Features Features

Digitalisation: How prepared is UK manufacturing?(08/05/2018)

Digitalisation is changing the way in which we do business. Today’s always-connected working environment enables people to work how they want, when they want. This doesn’t just apply for office-based roles though — industrial enterprises are altering their business models to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution. However, some countries are much further ahead than others.
The next big thing in manufacturing starts not with a bang but a whirr…(08/05/2018)

Industry 4.0. We’ve seen that term so many times that you’d be forgiven for wondering when 5.0 is going to arrive. But amongst the hype and hysteria it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Industry 4.0 is very much already here and it’s not so much a revolution as an evolution – it just depends how you go about implementing it.
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing keeps its datacentre in shape with the help of thermal imaging(03/05/2018)

A lot of preparation goes into each Aston Martin Red Bull race, both on the track and behind the scenes at the factory. It’s up to the IT team to ensure that race data can be shared between the race team and the factory from anywhere in the world. That is why it is so important that the data centre at the Milton Keynes headquarters is in peak condition 24/7 year-round. To keep an eye on things, the IT team relies on the thermal imaging capabilities of the FLIR ONE Pro.
Arriving now…the factories of the future(19/04/2018)

Factories populated by autonomous vehicles and robots working alongside human operators - while this is a utopian vision of manufacturing for many and there are certain industry sectors where the journey to smart manufacturing is a long one, there are factories that operate like this now. So what should we expect from the automation companies and system integrators helping to make it happen? Barry Weller, Product Manager at Mitsubishi Electric provides his view.
Let’s talk Brexit with Universal Robots(06/04/2018)

DPA & Connectivity Editor, Paige West, spoke to Mark Gray, UK Sales Manager of Universal Robots about the impact of Brexit on UK manufacturing and what it will mean for the future of automation.