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Motion Control Round-up |
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| Dear Reader, |
 Welcome to 2010. One of the nice things about changing the calendar to a new year is that feeling of a fresh start. Naturally at the beginning of the year, various people like to offer their predictions ranging from the gloomy to the wildly optimistic. At least one thing does seem to be moving in a positive direction and that is the economy. To be sure it's slow, but here's hoping it continues through 2010 and beyond. At BEI, we're ready to lend a hand as businesses start to recover and grow. Give us a call anytime. |
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The Missing Piece |
 Have you ever needed to replace an existing industrial encoder only to find that the manufacturer has gone out of business? . . . or that model isn't made anymore? . . . or it has a really long lead time? . . . or you can't even identify the part? Just like a missing puzzle piece, you can't finish the job.
If any of the above scenarios sound familiar, then you should consider giving our Applications Specialists a call and asking about our crossover service. BEI has been in business for over 30 years and has seen a lot of manufacturers come and go. During that time we have built an extensive reference library and odds are pretty good that we can match the performance requirements and, in a lot of instances, the mechanical outline of most encoders.
So next time you need an encoder replacement, call BEI first - it may be the only call you need to make. Take a look at a partial listing of our crossover capability by clicking the link below.
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| Life's High Notes |
 "I have found that if you love life, life will love you right back"
"Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition."
"I'm passionately involved in life: I love its change, its color, its movement. To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings - it's all a miracle."
Not many people will recognize this month's featured biography from the photo at left, but his name is fairly well know amongst the music set.
Arthur Rubinstein was born in Poland in 1886 and became a US citizen in 1946. He was widely recognized as one of the most accomplished pianists of his day. Rubinstein started playing at the age of eight and eventually debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1906 at the age of 19. He was not universally critically acclaimed at first partly due to the "immaturity" of his music, so he withdrew to Europe to hone his skills and re-emerged in 1910 in Berlin. He subsequently enjoyed a career spanning some 75 years until he passed away in Switzerland at the age of 96.
To read more of the life of this fascinating and exuberantly passionate performer, just click on his picture. |
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Can You Solve This? |
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 Here's a rather unique challenge that came to our Applications Group the other day. A system integrator came to us with a client that needed to add in some instrumentation to measure the height of a movable gate. He wasn't at liberty to give us too many details about the nature of the installation, but we did get some details. First of he did not want to mount a transducer directly on the gate travel mechanism, though he had room to put a mounting bracket about 60 inches (1.5 m) away. Secondly he expected a fairly high temperature and high humidity environment. The amount of travel he needed to measure was about 40 inches (1 m) and if he had a resolution of about 1/10th of an inch (2.5 mm) he was fine. How could we solve his problem?
Answer: This seemed like an ideal situation for the LT25. He needed a linear measurement in a harsh wet environment - perfect conditions for this transducer type. The measurement range was easily within the capability of the LT25 and the remote mounting allowed him flexibility in installation. If necessary, he could run the cable over a small pulley to change the orientation of the cable lead so it aligned with his gate travel. Once we pointed him in that direction, he was thrilled.
For your own look at the LT25 specification sheet, just click the picture. 
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A Series for the Serious |
 Ever since people began to understand mathematics as a discipline, they have sought to use it as a tool to describe their world. This application of mathematics to the physical world has given rise to the laws of motion, structural analysis, flow dynamics and a whole host of other fascinating areas of study. One of the more interesting areas where the physical and mathematical worlds merge is in the simple number series: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc. where the next number in line is the sum of the two proceeding it. Many of you will recognize this as the Fibonacci series.
Named after an Italian mathematician born in 1175, the Fibonacci series has been used to describe the nesting seed patterns of flower heads, construction of certain sea shells, and even reproductive patterns in rabbits. Whether you are already familiar with this series, or just new to the concept you'll enjoy reading the link below to learn some more intriguing relationships  between this simple sequence and the underlying structure of many common patterns. Just click anywhere on the spiral. | |
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| Remember us for your automation needs. Our Customer Service, Applications and Sales Teams are ready to help. Give us a call or send an email. |
Thanks for reading,
Scott Orlosky
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