Industrial Technology

Customised assembly lines for smart factories

The evolution of smart factories has seen a growing trend in the demand for customised workstations and assembly lines. Modular aluminium profiles hold the key, as Gary Livingstone of Minitec UK explains.

23rd November 2018

The benefits of bespoke motor control centres

Pat McLaughlin of Boulting Technology discusses how a made to measure motor control centre (MCC) can benefit both commercial and industrial operations.

23rd November 2018

Universal cable entry system for maximum packing density

In recent years, cost pressures combined with the need to prevent miswiring have seen the rise of cable entry systems for panels and enclosures. These allow the feeding of non-assembled cables, lines and pneumatic hoses into the panel quickly and simply. Now, for applications where the installations might be carried out in confined spaces and/or high packing densities are required, CONTA-CLIP has taken the concept of the cable entry system to the next level, with the introduction of the KES series of gland plates.

23rd November 2018

Specifying enclosures to meet fire regulations

Specifying the correct electrical equipment for lighting and emergency systems can help improve the fire resistance of building. Unfortunately there are currently no universal standards available to help contractors ensure they pick suitable housings. Therefore it is important to work with an enclosure supplier that can prove the fire resistance of their product. Chris Lloyd of Spelsberg looks at current safety regulations and how to safely house critical electrical systems to protect from fire.

23rd November 2018

Your opportunity to test drive Rittal"s Perforex solution

Rittal is offering UK customers the chance to ‘test drive’ its Perforex machining and automation systems before they buy. Rittal Perforex machining centres are a major advance for switchgear manufacturing. They are designed to automate the creation of bore holes, cut-outs and threads in mounting plates, enclosure doors and side panels. It means that the time-consuming and mechanical processing steps required for the preparation of enclosure panels can now be accomplished in a single work step to an extremely high degree of accuracy. The work can be simply programmed into the Perforex to be repeated multiple times for fast, effective batch processing.

23rd November 2018

Stainless hinges for specialist enclosures

Stainless steel is of course known for its robust strength under arduous corrosive conditions and that is exactly why EMKA chose it for its program of specialist cabinet/enclosure hinges. The range of internal/external screw-on/weld-on designs are specifically developed to complement stainless steel or non-metallic enclosures in frequent wash-down areas or in marine environments.

23rd November 2018

Interlocked hinge wraps it up

The team at Trakrap produce low waste transit wrapping systems for food and related products. As long-term customers of Elesa for a wide variety of equipment components, they use standard hinges and handles in their machine protection enclosures. So it was fortuitous that visiting an Elesa exhibition stand, one of the Trakrap engineers came across their ingenious CFSW combined hinge and electrical cut-off switch for just this situation.

23rd November 2018

DesignSpark Mechanical gets an upgrade

RS Components has unveiled a new version of DesignSpark Mechanical, the leading free-for-download 3D CAD modelling tool. Version 4.0, the first update of the tool for three years, offers new functionality and a more intelligent design engine, as well as delivering faster overall performance. This latest version offers a range of enhancements to the user interface and introduces a blend (or loft) tool that enables creation of rotational, periodic or sheet metal blends. As well as these improvements, RS is introducing a new auto-save function and various enhancements to existing tools within the software, plus the ability to analyse solid body geometry for errors, including tips to fix them.

23rd November 2018

Enclosures ensures lift passengers can make emergency calls

The UK’s premier supplier of passenger lift controls has adopted Spelsberg TK enclosures as the housing for one of its latest products, thus ensuring it is well protected against environmental conditions and physical damage.

8th November 2018

Quick and safe entry of cables

The new KES series of gland plates from Conta-Clip enables the quick and safe entry of cables and pipes without connectors into cabinets and machine housings.

31st October 2018