Jake Schieffer is taking on a new role within Beckhoff USA as vice president of sales. This promotion results from Schieffer’s significant successes as regional director – Midwest. In the newly created national position, he will continue to promote business alignment throughout the sales organization and accelerate growth across the U.S. Based at the Beckhoff USA headquarters office in the Minneapolis area, Schieffer reports to President Kevin Barker. After Schieffer’s promotion, Steve Boelte was selected to fill the position of regional director – Midwest.

Visit ABB at Booth 6438 at WEFTEC 2022 in New Orleans, October 10-12 to meet experts, and view innovative and efficient solutions designed to help the water/wastewater industry keep its operations flowing.

Walk into any gear manufacturing facility and you'll find legacy equipment that has been running successfully for decades. While these machines offer insight from a historical perspective, it's the equipment moving gears through production cells hinting at the factory of the future and the role robotics and automation will play. 

Wachendorff is expanding its range of Ethernet-based encoders: Encoders with the EtherNet/IP protocol are now available, including the most compact in the world: the WDGA58F. Wachendorff's R&D team has succeeded in minimizing the sensor to an installation depth of just 46.5 mm.

Every machine builder knows that they have to meet stringent safety requirements to protect workers from the risk of injury. If they build machines for the EU market, they should know that the European regulatory landscape is more advanced than in most other regions, with newer and more rigorous requirements for safety design and testing.

EU-equivalent safety capabilities are also being adopted by many non-European manufacturers despite the lack of specific in-country regulations. Sooner or later, every machine builder will need to offer functional safety capabilities or be left behind. Let’s look at what that means.

The Orbex Group, a manufacturer of high-performance electric motors and slip rings, introduces standard slip rings with an IP65 protection rating, providing washdown tolerance in many food, beverage and pharmaceutical manufacturing applications.

Bosch Rexroth will expand its presence in North America: A new plant is being built in Queretaro, Mexico. Bosch Rexroth has been successfully operating in Mexico for 40 years. In Queretaro, local production capacities for the manufacture of products and components for mobile applications as well as for factory automation will be increased from summer 2023, and there is space for further growth. Bosch Rexroth will invest some 160 million euros in the new site. The aim is to strengthen local production for the North American market and thus be able to serve customers even better and more efficiently in the future.

Emerson announced the recipient of its 2022 ASCO Engineering Scholarship Program, which recognizes and rewards U.S. college and university students studying in the fields of engineering, instrumentation, systems, and automation, for their academic excellence, service to others, and leadership potential.

Motion Industries, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of the new Motion Ai website, https://ai.motion.com. Announced in February 2022, the Motion Ai business group unifies acquired technical companies, including Applied Machine and Motion Control (AMMC), Axis New England/Axis New York, BRAAS, F&L Industrial Solutions, Integro Technologies, Kaman Automation, Meier Transmission and Numatic Engineering.

Bonfiglioli presents the new high performant 800 series which comes in five sizes from 25,000 to 160,000 Nm in marine-resistant paint, suitable for blast cleaning. Easy and fast assembly of the 800 series gearboxes into the winch drum is a key feature of their design. Maintenance requirements are made as simple as possible, e.g., with an easy access to the brake, ready-made brake replacement kits as well as easy access to oil filling, draining plugs, and oil level pipe/indicator.