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What should you consider when planning robotic operations for your company? There are many, many aspects, issues, and perspectives that may pertain to your specific situation. This is a list of eleven considerations that nearly everyone in your position should weigh before a purchase order is made. Oftentimes, if you don’t consider these things, you can’t even make it to the purchase stage. If you find this list helpful, peruse our blog and website for more important information. You’ll also find that consulting with our experts about your automation upgrade will pay dividends in both the short- and long-run. Without further ado, onward to the most exciting eleven-point list on choosing industrial robots!

1. But Mama, what is a robot?

Robots aren’t all Decepticons and Autobots. Business people need to stop envisioning robots as anthropomorphic, emoting characters. Robots are machines of myriad physical dimensions that can move, assemble, and measure materials and be reprogrammable for different tasks. Robots on YouTube that look like dogs or a Terminator nemesis are rare incarnations in manufacturing. [Read more…] about Have You Addressed these Eleven Points for Robots?

Many packaging types require sealing by heat. That sounds simple enough, but the choices and variety of heat-sealed packages are vast. In this article, we’ll get an overview of nine of the most important things to consider when planning heat-sealed packaging.

1. Configuring the Ideal Seal

There are a multitude of parameters to consider when selecting a type of heatseal. Heavy-duty seals tend not to be produceable at the same speeds of more minor seals. There’s a classic trade-off between seal durability, cost, and production speed. Below is a list of ideas and relationships to think about:

• What shape do you need? Wide, narrow, or custom? Just seal or seal with a cut?
• Do you need a heavy-duty seal for something like a pressurised item, or will a minor seal do the trick?
• How important is appearance? This factors into that trade-off we mentioned earlier.

[Read more…] about The Noble 9-Fold Path of Heatsealing

RFID technology is one of those investments that takes research, thought, planning, and care. The advantages of RFID are sizeable. For businesses that know what they’re doing, the technology can provide the data necessary to avoid all kinds of shortages, ensure timely and reliable delivery, provide maintenance history, and plenty more. This is one of those investments that pay for themselves very quickly, but only for those who know what they’re doing with it. There are twelve common issues frequently faced by RFID first-timers. If you’re considering investing in RFID, read this, then go forth and prosper.

1. Understand that RFID might not be best for your business right now

RFID can propel a business far, but it’s not for everyone. Some might want to invest for the wrong reasons. A competitor using it, a general affinity for technology, and consultation with magic 8-balls are all bad reasons for taking this plunge. You really need to have a clear understanding of why RFID will be a boon to your firm. Investing in RFID prematurely can lead to heartache.

2. Clearly identify your pain points

What exact problem would RFID fix? If you don’t have a precise idea of what you need to accomplish, you can wind up over- or under-investing. Once you’ve identified your pain points, you need to quantify the cost, then conduct an analysis to see what savings RFID could bring. [Read more…] about 12 Tips Before Investing In RFID

Many companies today have a strained relationship with worker safety. There’s a certain leaning toward cost reduction that encourages a leaning away from safety. Despite workplace injuries be liabilities to firms large and small, some leaders still elect to deprioritize the wellbeing of their workers. The truth is that ensuring a safe workplace can be accomplished without compromising profits or angering shareholders. While reducing risk carries incentives such as avoiding fines and reputation damage, there is an even more important reason: It’s the only honorable thing to do. Luckily, business leaders don’t have to choose between worker safety and profitability. There are seven viable ways to improve operation while keeping workers’ risk low. As luck would have it, they’re presented here in convenient blog-post format.

Every Level of the Organization Must Be in on It

The CEO must be vocal about safety being a priority, down through middle management through to entry-level employees. Follow this with action reflecting the sentiment. Many companies have a policy requiring executives to be informed of major incidents as soon as they happen. This is followed by a review of each incident. When operational staff know that C-suite officers take their individual safety so seriously, it keeps middle management aware of injury prevention. [Read more…] about Quick Safety Tips for the Savvy Business Leader

Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO, is a vital component in determining whether or not a business should invest in certain equipment or upgrades. It’s one of several factors that must be considered. Here, we’ll look at what TCO is, why it matters, and how to apply it to purchasing x-ray and fat analysis (FA) machinery for food manufacturing.

It’s Always Good to Start with Definitions

TCO is a calculated value reflecting the total cost of an investment over the course of its lifetime. The TCO analysis is very important given that this major investment could have a lifetime of a decade or longer. This equation involves costs of hardware, installation, and various costs required to maintain the asset and keep it running. Another objective of the TCO calculation is to determine how long the machine will last until its cost outweighs its benefits.

In truth, this model varies depending on a multitude of factors. The variables constituting the equation are unique to each situation. The TCO reveals how much the proprietor must continuously invest in the machine to keep the production at desired quality and delivering at or above quota. One then multiplies that cost by the unit of time one expects the machine to be in use. [Read more…] about How Does TCO Impact Your Next X-Ray Machine Purchase?

As businesses grow and their levels of automation increase, many choose to implement robots or their cousins, cobots. A robot or cobot is definitely an investment that any business has to be ready for. Your small business may be ready sooner than you think. Most manufactures are surprised at the quick ROI a cobot can achieve.  But, before we get into that, let’s talk about the classes of robots and that question you’ve been asking, “What’s a cobot?”

The International Organization for Standards has created definition 8373, which describes what exactly a robot is. It states that a robot is an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator. It’s programmable in three or more axes, which can be fixed in place or mobile for purposes of industrial automation.

Now that we have a technical definition of these machines, we can look at the 4 different classes of robots and the cobot. [Read more…] about Can Collaborative Robots help you NOW?