SBWire

No Risk Automation founder, John Hayes, authored a feature article in the current issue of AutomationMedia.com. The article, entitled, “Eliminating the automation Bias,” argues that representing an automated guided vehicle (AGV) vendor is often a conflict of interest.

Cuhaci & Peterson Architects, Engineer, Planners released a new corporate brochure containing summaries, photographs and renderings from nearly 40 different projects.

Mezzanines By Design, an AISC certified fabricator and manufacturer of structural steel mezzanines, equipment platforms, and fabricated steel products, provides cutting-edge design and engineering solutions in developing warehouse storage solutions to local and global clients.

ASME fabrication tolerance sets the bar for the highest quality in product fabrication. Pressure vessel, a container for the containment of pressure either internal or external, in particular, has mandatory requirements, specific prohibitions, and non- mandatory guidance for pressure vessel materials, design, fabrication, inspection, testing, certification, and pressure relief.

John Hayes, founder and CEO of No Risk Automation, is featured in the current issue of Business Excellence. The article, entitled, “Agnostic Automation Vendor Selection: Objectivity Required,” discusses the four steps of no risk automation. Hayes explained representing an automated guided vehicle (AGV) vendor is often a conflict of interest. The end-user customer’s interests may not align with the AGV vendor’s interests. Hayes noted, “The only way to avoid these conflicts is a vendor agnostic approach to automation. As a sales manager for several AGV companies there was an intention to sell as many AGVs as possible. Performance was measured by number of vehicles sold per month, per quarter, per year, year over year.”

A comprehensive vendor agnostic study of potential automation applications is required. Some automation projects are simply a waste of time, a poor project concept, or ignore applications that may have immediate positive return on investment. Again an AGV vendor sales pitch essentially suggests to a prospective customer that a prescribed AGV solution is best.

John Hayes, Founder of NoRiskAutomation, is a 2014 Supply and Demand Chain Executive Pros to Know. Hayes suggested that all companies considering the purchase of automation, particularly automated guided vehicles, follow a four step process.

As a sales manager for several automated guided vehicle (AGV) companies there was an intention: sell AGVs. Performance was measured by number of vehicles sold per month, per quarter, per year, year over year, and at a measured profitability. It took courage to say to the customer and to C-level AGV management, “Sorry this isn’t the right product for you.”

Earlier today, through a joint press release, Burns and Roe Group (BRG) announced that Burns and Roe Enterprises (BRE) and POWER Engineers have entered into an agreement to merge BRE engineering services business activities into POWER Engineers. To accomplish this merger, POWER will purchase the stock of BRE from Burns and Roe Group. (See joint POWER Engineers and Burns and Roe Enterprises press release at: http://www.roe.com/press-release/

Given that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is well known for its standards, still are still constantly seeking an expansion of standards on a higher standing, on a global level. But before interestingly foreseeing the paramount possibilities of ASME, there are these efforts behind genuine standards truly labored by ASME.

Although allegations haven’t been proven yet, GE Hitachi resorted to paying $2.7 million dollars on January 2014 as settlement for the lawsuit filed against them by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and US Department of Energy to resolve contentions under False Claims Act regarding the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) – GE’s newly-designed nuclear reactor. GE was under the suspicion that it made forge statements about the component of the said nuclear reactor known as the steam dryer.

Tank Engineering And Management Consultants, Inc. (TEAM Consultants), one of Florida’s most respected tank inspection companies, is proud to announce that after 30 years in business,  TEAM Consultants has opened a second office.  In October, a new office opened in Indianapolis, Indiana—the Crossroads of America—to help TEAM Consultants respond more quickly and more cost effectively to our Northern and Midwestern customers.  TEAM Consultants will now be able to handle all types of petroleum tank inspections and water tank inspections more effectively.

Clients looking to develop their homes with the addition of basement extensions are now frequently obtaining planning permission and deferring construction for several years. This has in part been motivated by moves on the part of planning authorities to restrict the amount of subterranean development they will allow.

Timothy M. Kelly, a noted telemetry engineering consultant to Fortune 500 firms and former sales executive for an international manufacturer of telemetry systems, has been named Engineering Manager of IMET Corporation, electronic product development and PCB assembly specialists.

AlvakaNet is an Advanced Network Administration that a lot more than monitoring. It's 24x7x365 upbeat network monitoring that's supplied by the best and skilled NOC engineers. AlvakaNet is all about creating one’s network hidden so that his/her IT-staff could be more strategic and dedicated on the bottom line. AlvakaNet significantly improves network accessibility and uptime.

E&S Grounding Solutions is pleased to announce the release of their new electrical grounding book by lead author and Manager of Engineering David Stockin. "McGraw-Hill's National Electrical Code 2014 Grounding and Earthing Handbook" is now available at major retailers and has already received rave reviews from industry experts and critics alike. The book is a comprehensive guide to electrical grounding and specifically Article 250 of the 2014 National Electrical Code (NEC). The book has extensive illustrations with step by step explanations of each and every article of the Code. Additional electrical grounding chapters covered in the book include the features and benefits of different types of grounding electrodes, measuring ground potential rise and the importance of soil resistivity testing as well as information on different types of lightning protection systems. The chapters are designed to give readers and those who work in the electrical industry a solid knowledge of National Electrical Code (NEC) issues and the proper methods for grounding and earthing to ensure the safety of humans and property.

Quest Tec Solutions, a Houston-based company specializing in the manufacture, development, and engineering of liquid level gauge and valve product lines, introduces the LEVEL-ARC Service Center Program that provides business owners an edge to show their customers that the company is committed to delivering quality technical service.

Canada Business News reports the demand for civil engineers in the Alberta area is increasing by an average of 25 percent annually. While the number of students pursuing a career in this field is at an all time high, the province currently lacks enough established professionals to meet their growing needs. In an effort to bridge this gap, Trent Thompson of Bolson Engineering and Environmental Services has announced the company has expanded their services into Edmonton and the surrounding communities.

With a $10,000 goal, Grabo has launched GestureR, an Arduino-compatible gesture sensing module, as a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter.

Megan Lunn, a third year mechanical engineering apprentice at Reliance Precision, has been awarded The Severn Unival Most Outstanding Achievement Award by Kirklees College, in recognition of exceptional performance.

Allied Steel Buildings, a Fort Lauderdale-based company specializing in prefabricated Steel Buildings, reported significant growth throughout 2013 and thus far into 2014.

The Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) concept came from the idea that from design to production, a part can be fully simulated and the optimal production process selected. The production process can be fully automated; the human interaction is done in the initial design and production constraints and parameters. The systems then take the raw material from the initial state to the end state. Dr. Heinz Derenbach, the Executive Vice President Technical and Engineering in the Corporate Sector for Information Systems and Services of Bosch GmbH said, “In an extreme vision, this unfinished material already knows for which customer it is intended and carries with it all the information about where and when it will be processed. Once the material is in the machine, the material itself records any deviations from the standard process, determines when it’s ‘done,’ and knows how to get to its customer.” The decentralization of computer systems is also important. Each system has to have adequate intelligence and autonomy to carry out its tasks with as little information as possible from the central systems, or the complexity of the system becomes impossible to scale. This requires new ways of designing controls and integrating devices as well as new manufacturing processes. The benefits of distributed autonomous systems will be local manufacturing that can reduce supply chain length and increase customization by having on-demand manufacturing done closer to the customer. This will reduce the shipping costs of the final product and increase the availability of products to more markets. From an economic perspective this will create more manufacturing jobs since there will be a greater number of shops making more products. According to Rick Moran, COO of System Insights, “To achieve a full CPS implementation, the first step is to understand our current manufacturing processes and how the machinists and operators are making parts and running the equipment. This first step is called tribal knowledge capture. We must learn from the people and the machines how to configure, setup, and adjust the processes to make every part perfect and make the processes repeatable.” About System Insights System Insights, (www.systeminsights.com) based in Berkeley, California, with offices in Chennai, India, is a leading global supplier of manufacturing software in both machining based, discrete and process industries. The SI flagship product - vimana - delivers predictive analytics solutions to improve clients’ efficiency, productivity, and profitability. vimana provides these data while enabling customers to realize sustainable manufacturing objectives. The vimana software platform delivers a unique combination of Cloud Computing and Big Data capabilities that sets out to revolutionize the economics of manufacturing. System Insights is a proud member of both AMT (Association for Manufacturing Technology) and NTMA (National Tooling and Machining Association). Follow System Insights on Twitter @systeminsights.

P&A International, a company that provides a wide variety of machine shop services, has just announced that they will be part of the LogiMAT 12th International Trade Fair for Distribution, which will be held Feb. 25 to 27 at Stuttgart Airport. This will be the company’s third appearance at the trade exhibition, which will focus on innovative products, solutions and systems for procurement, distribution logistics, warehousing and production.

For decades, the state of the art in engineering required drawings to be sent to a machine shop to check the efficacy of a design by manufacturing a prototype. Costing thousands – to, in some cases, millions – of dollars, and taking weeks or months for delivery, the process has been notoriously inefficient. If a prototype doesn’t function correctly, it is literally and figuratively sent “back to the drawing board”.

San Francisco has become known as the tech mecca, and Silicon Valley is now home to many of the world’s biggest technology companies and service providers, from Apple to Google and Facebook. The constant expansion of the region’s technology elite is driving demand for construction of new headquarters, storage facilities, server rooms and more. VIATechnik is an engineering services and consultancy group that has seen huge success from its hubs in Chicago and Manila, and has now expanded to take up a new home in San Francisco to help define the next era in the digital gold rush.