Industrial Factory Automation

Schaeffler 's energy-efficient ball-screw drive is being utilised on the electromechanical steering system for the Volkswagen Tiguan. Schaeffler supplies the ball-screw drive to Volkswagen, as well as a toothed rack, which is partly designed as a spindle on which the drive is located. Ball-screw drives are used to transform rotary motion into linear motion through a direct coupling between the drive element and the output element. In the Tiguan, the ball nut is driven by a servomotor, which is linked to the ball-screw drive via a belt. These low-friction, low-noise ball-screw drives play a role in helping to improve a vehicle's fuel consumption and reduce CO2 emissions. As well as offering the driver optimised handling, the latest electromechanical steering systems can also reduce fuel consumption by as much as three per cent compared to conventional hydraulic steering systems. An advantage of an electromechanical steering system over a hydraulic one is that the servomotors req...

Rittal has extended its Power System Module (PSM) range to allow the power consumption of individual servers and peripheral hardware to be measured per socket. New plug-in modules for PSM rails record the individual currents for each socket and show the power consumption of the devices connected, via three coloured LEDs on the right-hand side.  A second LED on the left-hand side of the outgoing slots provides an overview of the overall power of the module. The presentation logic is automatically adjusted to the mounting position to rule out any misinterpretation. Colour coding follows the traffic-light principle: green LEDs indicate that other equipment may now be connected safely; amber indicates increased current on the module and that before any other equipment is connected its installed load needs to be examined; red indicates that another consuming device would trigger the overloading of the power supply.  Values can also be viewed on a digital display, enabling administ...

Boge has brought out a range of energy-saving refrigerant dryers. The DS series features components used in compressed-air drying. Optimally dimensioned components assure reliability and efficiency, even in the most demanding conditions. The DS series dryers also constantly adapt to changes in ambient and volume flow to ensure dry compressed air is always delivered. At the same time the intelligent heat-exchanger system creates a lower pressure drop when compared with conventional systems. This low-pressure drop means that the compressor generation pressure can be reduced, with each 1 bar pressure reduction translating into a six per cent energy saving. By ensuring the lowest possible pressure loss, a high level of energy efficiency can be achieved. As the energy consumption of the compressor is greater than the dryer, these savings have a much larger impact and so increase the efficiency of the compressor. It is estimated that over a five-year operating period the purchase price of a...