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Integrated Fire Protection for Computer Rooms and Data Centres

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Fire safety systems are essential components of any building, but computer rooms and data centres present particular hazards that require special precautions when protecting against potential fire damage.

Integrated fire systems connect various fire safety components into one cohesive system, providing faster responses to alarms and decreasing false detection rates. Testing and commissioning must take place simultaneously to ensure these integrated systems operate seamlessly together. [Read more…] about Integrated Fire Protection for Computer Rooms and Data Centres

Inside Yoke Industrial’s smart factory: 108 robotic arms and 71 automation systems working to enhance quality and efficiency

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What’s described as a “bifocal modernisation strategy”, implemented in 2011, is ongoing at Yoke Industrial’s pioneering industrial lifting equipment manufacturing facility

Production at Taiwanese company Yoke Industrial Corp started in 1997.

A lot has changed since, as we’ll explore in this article. What hasn’t changed, however, is that there are long-term career opportunities in an ever-evolving manufacturing environment.

Yoke’s approximately 56,000 square-metre facility produces a staggering 20 million pieces per year. The smart factory is built on 71 automation systems with 108 robotic arms; it is an automated fleet of state-of-the-art Fanuc equipment, that represents around $30 million worth of investment. In October 2024, for example, the total time of robotics operation topped 5,176 hours. [Read more…] about Inside Yoke Industrial’s smart factory: 108 robotic arms and 71 automation systems working to enhance quality and efficiency

How to Choose the Right Size CIP Unit for Your Brewery’s Needs?

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Selecting the right Clean-In-Place (CIP) unit is crucial for maintaining hygiene and efficiency in your brewery. The size of your CIP system directly impacts cleaning effectiveness, operational costs, and production capacity.

A properly sized CIP unit ensures thorough cleaning of tanks and pipelines while optimizing water and chemical usage.

Brewery size, tank volumes, and production schedules are key factors in determining the appropriate CIP unit size. Smaller craft breweries may benefit from portable compact CIP systems that offer flexibility and cost-effectiveness. [Read more…] about How to Choose the Right Size CIP Unit for Your Brewery’s Needs?

Opinion: The fundamental automation systems driving our universe

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It was Nikola Tesla who said that if you want to understand the universe, “think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”.

That statement, in itself, doesn’t really explain anything at all to the average person like me. Maybe a scientist can make something of it, but even for scientists, such answers are incomplete. In fact, I would argue that the biggest questions all remain unanswered.

I mean questions such as, for example, What happened before the Big Bang? [Read more…] about Opinion: The fundamental automation systems driving our universe

Automating the Fleet Management Sector: Cameras, Tachograph Downloads, and More

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Companies with road vehicle fleets are prime targets for automation. Fleet managers often have to control many processes, from dispatching drivers to overseeing fuel consumption patterns.

To take care of it all, they’re utilising fleet management software, which has evolved to do more than just store data or track vehicle locations.

Fleet camera systems, remote tachograph downloads, and driver behaviour analysis are just some of the automation innovations that are transforming different vehicle-related industries. Let’s discover how!

Cameras that filter footage

These days, many companies install cameras on their vehicles for a variety of reasons, such as to get accident footage, help drivers check blindspots or for live monitoring in general.

As you can imagine, if a camera records the full journey of a long-haul truck, there’s going to be a whole lot of material to go through to find that one relevant moment.

That’s where automation kicks in – modern fleet cameras have sensors that can detect noteworthy events, such as collisions. With proper fleet management software, you can remotely view that specific moment, complete with metadata, like who was the driver, when it happened, and where.

To save even more time, fleet managers can set up and receive notifications when cameras detect relevant events. Humans are left with the most important part of the process – deciding what to do about it.

In some cases, that would mean quickly jumping to the camera’s livestream to find out more, while in other situations the material would be stored for future reference.

Automated tachograph downloads

The tachograph is an essential part of the long-haul transportation industry. It records the duration of drivers’ work and rest periods, among other things.

Where things get complicated, however, is that the data generated by a tachograph needs to be downloaded to an external storage every once in a while. Imagine having to visit hundreds of trucks and manually connect to every tachograph, then keeping the data on a specific computer in an office!

Here automation can provide a huge benefit to trucking companies. If a vehicle is equipped with a compatible telematics device, it can receive the data from the tachograph and then upload it to fleet management software.

The process is completely automatic, the download intervals can be customised, and data can be easily presented to authorities. This process is called remote tachograph download and is a no-brainer for larger fleets.

Targeted performance analysis

For the time being, most fleets still employ drivers behind the wheel. To improve their performance in terms of efficiency and safety, managers need information on what exactly to improve.

How to get it? You can, of course, sit next to them during daily routes and make notes, but what if there are hundreds of drivers? Time for automation!

Like tachograph downloads, driver behaviour analysis utilises an advanced telematics device installed on a vehicle, and a fleet management platform. The device can detect various driving actions and events, such as the usage of cruise control, sudden braking, aggressive manoeuvring, and more.

This data gets sent to the fleet management platform where it’s analysed and presented in an easy-to-understand way. Depending on the configuration, the system will assign a better or worse score for each driver. Then it’s up to the fleet manager to act on this data – provide coaching, award a bonus, and so on.

What’s more, driving behaviour analysis can be supplemented with data from other systems. Commonly, companies track fuel consumption of a vehicle and check how it fluctuates depending on who’s behind the wheel.

Another option is to use the previously mentioned fleet cameras in conjunction with a telematics device, giving fleet managers a full picture – video events plus practical driving parameters.

Automation is here to stay

These three areas – cameras, tachograph downloads, and driving performance analysis – are not the only ones when it comes to automation in the fleet management sector.

There’s an automated alert for just about any situation that’s worth alerting about; there’s automated working time tracking so drivers don’t need to worry about clocking in and out; there are even systems that can automatically assign drivers and plan the best routes for them based on a variety of factors.

All that is to say – to stay competitive, you need to start automating your fleet management!

Dürr unveils new painting technology for vehicles

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Industrial robotics company Dürr has unveiled new painting technology for vehicles.

Dürr’s latest development enables mixed 2-component paint systems to be fed directly in the return system within the atomiser for the first time.

This eliminates volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions in the paint booth during flushing processes and colour changes. The new solution has been successfully deployed in two top coat lines for over a year.

[Read more…] about Dürr unveils new painting technology for vehicles

Panasonic and Arm partner to ‘standardize’ software-defined vehicles

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Panasonic Automotive Systems (PAS) and chip designer Arm have agreed a strategic partnership aimed at standardizing automotive architecture for Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs).

The two organizations share a common vision for creating a software stack with the flexibility to meet the current and future needs for automotive and have aligned on this through their active participation in SOAFEE, an industry-wide initiative that is driving greater collaboration in standardized software development across the automotive market.

This new partnership will see PAS and Arm adopt and extend the device virtualization framework VirtIO to decouple automotive software development from hardware and accelerate automotive industry development cycles. [Read more…] about Panasonic and Arm partner to ‘standardize’ software-defined vehicles

Arvato Systems partners with Locus Robotics to drive innovation in warehouse management

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Arvato Systems, an IT provider specializing in the logistics industry, is partnering with Locus Robotics, a leading provider of warehouse automation solutions.

The collaboration aims to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs and provide faster and more accurate service to Arvato Systems customers.

Through this cooperation, the company seeks to reinforce its position as a leading company in innovation, committed to the adoption of advanced technologies as an essential element to stay at the forefront of a competitive and constantly evolving sector, such as logistics. [Read more…] about Arvato Systems partners with Locus Robotics to drive innovation in warehouse management

The Ultimate Guide to Access Control Systems

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Security is a paramount concern for businesses and residential properties alike. Access control systems provide a reliable solution for securing premises and managing the flow of people. Understanding the intricacies of these systems is crucial for anyone looking to enhance their security infrastructure.

In this article, we will delve into the various aspects of access control, including definitions, components, technologies, and maintenance strategies to ensure optimal performance.

[Read more…] about The Ultimate Guide to Access Control Systems

Drone market forecast to grow to $123 billion by 2030

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The drone economy is set to soar, with unprecedented growth on the horizon. According to global intelligence firm ABI Research, civil and commercial applications of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), aka drones, will expand dramatically, rising from just 8 percent to an impressive 32 percent of the total market by 2030.

In this timeframe, annual drone shipments will more than double from 1.5 million units in 2024 to 3.32 million, fueling an ecosystem poised to quadruple in value.

By the decade’s end, the sector will generate $123 billion in annual revenue, marking a transformative shift in the commercial and civil drone landscape. [Read more…] about Drone market forecast to grow to $123 billion by 2030