8 Tips for Buying the Right Automation Equipment

Making a big investment in new automation equipment may cause you to become paralyzed with fear of making a mistake.  Buyer’s remorse is a gut-twisting feeling no one wants to have whether the item is as small as a new cell phone or a much larger purchase like a new […]

Being a Keeper

There are all kinds of keepers.  Goal keepers, lion keepers, game keepers, scorekeepers, book keepers and, of course, the big fish that was “a keeper”.   This morning, while having some intensely delicious coffee at The Filling Station, I met a new kind of keeper – the Gunpowder River Keeper.  Yes, […]

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and…Power Supplies?

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and…power supplies?  Oh yeah…power supplies are everywhere and in everything.  Ubiquitous and almost as necessary as oxygen, the underappreciated yeoman power supply runs the motors of your life, from the microscopic to the 40,000 volt monster variety.

Never Forget

Americans enjoy freedom like no other country in the world.  We embrace freedom in every way possible and guard it with our very lives. Whether your ancestors sacrificed their blood to create a free country in 1776 or they arrived on America’s shores in later centuries to follow their dream […]

Keeping It Short & Simple – ACS Has New and Simpler Online RMA Forms

Yep, we agree.  Filling out forms is a pain in the rump.  Either online or on paper, every time you turn around, it seems like someone wants you to fill out a form oftentimes repeating information you know darn well they already have.  Feel the blood pressure rising yet?   Reaching […]

Do Not Leave Your Fingers Behind at Work

And I mean that literally…if you have a manufacturing job such as power press operator, you really do not need or want to donate any fingers or limbs to the plant.  But this does happen…and often! According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 49% of the injuries from […]

Encoders Gone Wild

Not sure what’s going on out there, but we got practically a wagon-load of encoders in for repair today.  That’s great for us because there’s nothing we love better than solving your electronic repair problems, but what the heck?  Is there an evil encoder wizard out there casting electronic mayhem […]

Survey Shows Manufacturing Prices Are Headed Up

A spring 2011 survey of 318 U.S. CFOs and senior controllers, 50 of whom were manufacturers, shows there are serious concerns about inflation with 66% saying their company intends to raise the sales price for their goods over the next six months, up from 35% six months earlier. 96% of the […]

Plant Maintenance….Let the Battle Begin!

The last of the grayish snow heaps are melting away, the grass is already mocking me, the hedge is winking at me with it’s now tiny green leaves promising a massive trim job in only a few weeks and the truckload of mulch will be delivered this weekend.  Ahhhh….spring is […]

Five Easy Steps to Installing an Industrial Network

“Where the heck  do I start?” you might ask.  Installing an industrial network can be a big fat headache, but there is help out there.  I just read this really great article in Automation World (a useful website, by the way) that breaks this process down into five steps. 

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