…what are some key areas that you would discuss?
I have a distant friend who owns a mechanical design shop with roughly 10 designers working for him. Yesterday, I received the following email…
1. Sensor technology and selection. (NPN vs PNP vs reed switches, shielded vs unshielded proxes)
2. Safety – light curtain mounting distances, safety interlock switch selection (no proxes!)
3. Control Reliability
Feel free to share your experiences and suggestions!
I have a distant friend who owns a mechanical design shop with roughly 10 designers working for him. Yesterday, I received the following email…
Obviously, the hardest part of something like this is coming up with relevant content to supplement the suggestions he made. So I’m starting a list based on the personal experiences that I can remember. For some reason, my memory is very lacking in this area.We have had some discussion here about providing training to our mechanical designers in regards to machine controls. Most of the controls/electrical engineering we do not get involved in but realize the more we know the better mechanical designers we will be. We also are frequently involved in these types of discussions during design reviews and some of our designers get a little glazed over. We have seen this need from a management perspective and have also had requests from our designers.
You came to mind as someone knowledgeable of controls/electrical and also aware of the mechanical interface (whole machine dynamics). Therefore, I thought I would see if you would have any interest in helping us out on this training?
My initial idea would be to do a 2 hour learning lunch with this presentation and would like to cover a wide range of terminologies/technologies (wide but not real deep). Enough to broaden the vocabulary and be able to relate it to machine function. There are some specific areas I know of (communication protocols, FRL's, valves, PLC's, programming logic uses/limitations, etc.) but would also be interested in things you have come across in the past where you thought mechanical designers should be more aware.
1. Sensor technology and selection. (NPN vs PNP vs reed switches, shielded vs unshielded proxes)
2. Safety – light curtain mounting distances, safety interlock switch selection (no proxes!)
3. Control Reliability
Feel free to share your experiences and suggestions!
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