Managing Editor Randy Stott recounts a recent visit to Siemens manufacturing and assembly facilities in Elgin, IL.

When selecting an open gear lubricant for use in a particular application, the method of application used must be considered.

In looking for potential opportunities to reduce energy consumption via the drive system, a number of areas should be considered.

Motion control systems engineers work chiefly in two well-defined areas: 1) new designs and 2) redesigns or retrofits. This article examines the best approach for each option.

Next time you are strolling across a manufacturing plant, check out the hardware on the ground. Shop floors are nothing but cables plugged into machines, cables plugged into computers, cables plugged into other cables...

Managing Editor Randy Stott takes a look at what is really stopping us from pursuing energy efficiency in engineering.

It is a simple fact: better lubrication can lead to dramatic energy savings and an improved bottom line. This ought to interest any plant manager who is looking for ways to reduce operating costs, and it is especially significant at a time when stricter government regulations are in direct contradiction to reducing costs. Lubrication reliability is the solution; this article will describe how manufacturing plants can use “lubrication reliability best-practices” to reduce their energy consumption, emissions and operating costs—all at the same time.

Bearings used to support main spindles on machine tools must be capable of higher speed and greater rigidity. This is true in that any main spindle that turns together with a tool or work piece mounted onto it is one of the critical machine tool components that directly affects machining efficiency and accuracy of the machine tool; and, the bearings that support the main spindle are the most critical machine elements on the machine tool.

Norkol Converting Corporation is one of the nation’s leading independently owned converters and distributors of commercial printing papers. The company has full production capabilities and state-of-the-art machinery for winding, trimming and sheeting. The company utilizes traditional slitter re-wind equipment that unwinds, slits and then re-winds paper to new dimensions. These conventional re-winders, while typically producing new widths of paper with clean cuts, work at an inefficient, slow pace.

There are no alchemists at the California Institute of Technology, but a team of research scientists at the Pasadena-based institution is doing some pretty remarkable things "transforming something common into something special."