Moog acquires California Linear Devices
Moog Inc., Blacksburg, Va., has acquired California Linear Devices Inc. (CLD), Carlsbad, Calif., a privately held company specializing in high performance linear servomotors for motion control applications. CLD provides motion solutions to industrial applications like factory automation, material testing, packaging, pumping, and tufting. These high-force linear motors are used in equipment where fast and accurate moves under heavy loads are required. This brushless, direct-drive technology provides an alternative to hydraulic and pneumatic sources for linear motion control. Moog has acquired the intellectual property and other assets of the company.
Moog Inc. is a designer, manufacturer, and integrator of precision control components and systems. The company's high performance systems control military and commercial aircraft, satellites and space vehicles, launch vehicles, missiles, automated industrial machinery, marine, and medical equipment. For more information, visit www.moog.com/components.
B&R partners with The MathWorks
B&R Industrial Automation Corp., Roswell, Ga., is expanding its collaboration with The MathWorks, Natick, Mass., by entering the company's “Connections Program,” which supports third-party suppliers in development of products relating to MATLAB and Simulink. Program initiatives include promoting innovation, achieving the best use of shared interfaces, and ensuring compatibility with future versions. For example, B&R has developed system-compatible expansions that ensure seamless interaction between MATLAB/Simulink and B&R's development environment, Automation Studio. For more information, visit www.br-automation.com.
Festo and LeekSeek enter agreement
Festo AG & Co. KG, Germany, and LeekSeek International Ltd., England, have signed a global cooperation agreement. The two companies will pool their expertise in efficient compressed air applications, enabling them to offer an extensive service package for reducing air consumption. They will provide operators of pneumatic systems with improved methods to identify and optimize compressed air savings options and to enjoy substantial savings, according to company sources. Leaky compressed air components are potential sources of energy waste, as well as financial waste. LeekSeek will detect and document leaks in production systems, while Festo will eliminate the leaks, optimize systems, and then offer condition monitoring and diagnostic services to keep processes running efficiently. For more information, visit www.festo.com or www.leekseek.com.
Heinz-Dieter Schunk honored
Heinz-Dieter Schunk, CEO of SCHUNK Inc., was awarded the German Machine Development Prize on October 14, 2008 during the German Machine Development Summit in Berlin, for his lifetime efforts. Under his management, a small garage business in Germany has been transformed into “an innovation hotbed of clamping technology and automation” with 1,800 employees, according to industry sources. Heinz-Dieter Schunk was 22 when he joined his father, Friedrich Schunk, at the company in 1964. Founded in 1945, today SCHUNK manufactures toolholding systems, stationary clamping systems, lathe chucks and jaws, special hydraulic expansion holding devices, grippers, rotary and linear modules, and robot accessories.
The company will hold its popular Service Robotics Expert Days on Feb. 18 to 19 in Germany. The international forum brings together experts from around the world, featuring presentations in English that will include an overview of the current market and future possibilities for the service robotics industry. For more information, visit www.schunk.com.
Omron picks EtherCAT as motion bus
Eiji Ikeno, general manager, Motion Control Division of Omron Corp., announces that the company has selected EtherCAT as its next motion bus system. Omron has also decided to take an active role in the EtherCAT Technology Group within the Japanese and Asian markets to help customers there transition to EtherCAT. Ikeno says that Omron will pursue the adoption of EtherCAT as a national Japanese standard and will also establish an EtherCAT conformance and interoperability test lab in Japan. According to Ikeno, Omron intends to develop EtherCAT-based servomotors and inverters as well as motion controllers by summer 2009.
Danaher Motion names Thomson president
Ron Meyer has been appointed president of Thomson, a Danaher Motion company, Wood Dale, Ill. Thomson produces ball bushing and profile rail bearings, case shafting, ground and rolled ballscrews, linear actuators, linear systems, and related accessories. Meyer will oversee the strategy and management of Thomson's facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia. He joined Danaher Corp. in 1997 as president of Qualitrol, where he will maintain his leadership responsibilities. Meyer has a BA and MBA from the University of Minnesota.