Jonathan Wilkins, Marketing Director at obsolete equipment supplier EU Automation discusses how factory design can impact operational efficiency. One of the most famous buildings in the New York skyline, The Empire State Building, underwent a $550m environmental upgrade in 2011. Improving insulation, implementing energy saving technologies and refurbishing 6,500 windows cut the building’s annual energy usage by a substantial $4.4m. Whe...

Imagine looking for a needle in a haystack by examining each piece of hay. What if you could analyse the entire haystack at once, cutting down the location time of the needle drastically?

Cobots have now been developed to a point where the only thing differentiating them from their human co-workers is soft-skills. Developing adaptive capabilities like decision-making or problem-solving in cobots is challenging for engineers, but progress is inevitable. With state-of-the-art sensors, actuators and software, cobots are now capable of experiencing physical sensations that allow them to feel and identify the object being touched. Here...

In the era of rapid developments in technologies, newer components or technologies are launched every day. On one hand, technological innovation boosts productivity and efficiency in many sectors, on the other hand it causes more hardware and software becoming obsolete faster than in the past. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA at industrial parts supplier EU Automation, discusses the pros and cons of fast technological advances.

Companies are always looking to optimise their automation processes by making them smarter and more efficient. While one size does not fit all, enterprises need to look at customisable and scalable solutions for their automation journey. End-to-end automation can automate almost every part of the production, reducing human errors and speeding up the processes. Here, Neil Bellinger, Head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation ...

An increasing number of consumers are being impacted by the global chip shortage that currently plagues the electronics manufacturing sector. The semiconductor supply chain is unique, but there are lessons that all manufacturers can learn from its shortcomings. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation, has discussed how the global chip shortage can teach us a valuable lesson in resource management.

On 5th February, 2021, a hacker initiated a cyber attack on a small water plant in Florida. If successful, the attack would have caused multiple health complications for the 15,000 residents that the plant provides water for. This is just an example of the disastrous consequences of cyber attacks on smaller companies. But how to avoid them? Here Neil Bellinger, Head of EMEA at EU Automation, discusses how Small and Medium Enterprises (S...

Until now, typically the worst threat that manufacturers faced from ransomware was the inconvenience of downtime and lost production while the company worked to get its systems back online using backups. Cyber-attackers played a numbers game, relying on a small number of victims to pay the ransom. However, a new trend sees attackers leak the sensitive data if victims don’t pay. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA sales at EU Automation, has e...

Big data has revolutionised production processes in all industrial sectors, but some have been slower than others to understand the potential of what is now considered the most precious resource in the world. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation, has delved deeper into how big data is revolutionising three historically low-tech sectors.

Having contact with someone who has a cold increases the chances that you might pick up the bug yourself. In much the same way, businesses adding more connectivity into their system increases the opportunities for cyber criminals to introduce viruses into the system. Here, Sophie Hand, UK Country Manager at EU Automation, explains the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in combatting cyber crime.

There is one car for every five people on Earth, but the clock is ticking on petrol and diesel vehicles as the Electric Vehicle (EV) makes headway into the market. This means an estimated 1.4 billion cars will soon be obsolete, causing disruption to many of the accompanying industries. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA Sales at EU Automation, discusses the looming challenges that face automotive and adjacent industries.

The open source Robot Operating System (ROS) has been around for over ten years and has thousands of developers building packages for it. In fact, according to a 2019 report by ABI Research, nearly 55% of the world's robots will include a ROS package by 2024. With this language growing in popularity, Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA at EU Automation, discusses whether ROS is becoming the common automation language for robotic...

As it evolved into the multifaceted enterprise it is today, Uber realised that to help its designers stay in sync, it had to provide common, open-source design libraries for all its services. The approach proved successful. So, what can automation professionals learn from it? Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA at EU Automation, considers the case of Fieldbus and whether or not it will ever develop into an open-source architecture.

In response to the industry’s hunger for information on technology that can pull them out of the post-pandemic productivity lull, automation equipment supplier EU Automation, has pooled all its resources into a new, free, online Knowledge Hub for modern manufacturing.

For all the benefits they offer, smart materials are not always a viable option for manufacturers. This is because they often rely on technologies that are still in their infancy or suffer from issues such as poor reliability and longevity. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation, looks at some of the barriers to commercialising these materials.

For all the benefits they offer, smart materials are not always a viable option for manufacturers. This is because they often rely on technologies that are still in their infancy or suffer from issues such as poor reliability and longevity. Here Neil Ballinger, head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation, looks at some of the barriers to smart material commercialisation.

Bridging the gap between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) is an essential step in realising a truly smart factory. When IT and OT converge, data collected from IoT devices can be efficiently analysed and quickly turned into valuable information. Edge computing sits right in the space between IT and OT and can therefore facilitate the converge of these seemingly distant worlds.

Data centres are expected to use 20% of the word’s energy by 2025. While companies across the world depend on them to store data, there are new technologies that can improve their energy efficiency and operational effectiveness, if we take advantage of them.

According to the 2019 Official Annual Cybercrime Report, a business falls victim to a ransomware attack every 14 seconds. As manufacturers connect more equipment to the Internet of Things (IoT), ransomware and other security breaches pose a more serious threat to productivity. Here Neil Ballinger, Head of EMEA sales at automation parts supplier EU Automation, shares how the IoT poses a risk for manufacturers and how to reduce it.

In 1969, Victor Scheinman invented the Stanford arm, the first all-electric, six-axis articulated robot - the predecessor of the robot arms that we use today. Here Jonathan Wilkins, Director at automation equipment supplier EU Automation, has discussed how robots are diversifying manufacturing in weird and wonderful ways, since 1969.