Thomas Robbins of Lenze Americas has a great new article titled 'Feed your VFD with the Right Power'.
The article explains different precautions and tips you should use when installing variable frequency drives. Precautions involving wiring, isolation, grounding and shielding which are relevant to all VFD applications!
A few highlights include a bulleted list of 'practical installation tips' when installing variable frequency drives and also a list of 'approaches that spell trouble' (hopefully you don't see these in your application!).
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the full line of AC Tech Lenze high performance AC drives.
Read the entire article here!
Search all of our AC Tech Lenze drives here!
Patlite has introduced their new CLK LED Worklight Series. The CLK worklight is water, oil, and chemical resistant with an ultra-bright LED. It has IP66G, IP67G, and IP69K ratings.
Marshall Wolf Automation, your full-line industrial automation distributor, is an authorized Patlite distributor.
Some product features are:
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Available in three lengths of 200mm, 300mm and 600mm
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Three different body and lens material combinations available
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Uses the popular M12 quick disconnect
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Includes Patlite's own "Micro-array Lens" design to even out light distribution
Light up your work space using this new CLK work light!
Please view a sampling of our large selection of automation products on our website www.wolfautomation.com.
Please email any inquiries to sales@wolfautomation.com. Marshall Wolf Automation wants to be your sole source iindustrial automation distributor!
While most of us have an idea of what the more popular NEMA ratings mean we probably haven't actually looked at the definitions in quite some time.
Here is a great resource (yes, on www.WolfAutomation.com of course!) that explains NEMA ratings for you. Learn more than you ever wanted to know about NEMA ratings here!
NEMA stands for National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for a complete line of NEMA products including:
Many more NEMA rated products are available!
Marshall Wolf Automation is your industrial automation distributor for all things NEMA rated!
I just found these great images of the recessed cover for custom inlays and the quick turn screws on the Altech TG series of industrial enclosures:
Our next e-newsletter will be featuring all of our Altech products including Altech terminal blocks, Altech industrial DC power supplies, Altech industrial circuit breakers and many other Altech products!
Would you like to sign up now for our FREE e-newsletter? Click here now!
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the complete Altech line!
If you have ever worked with enclosures, please answer the following:
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Would you like a cover that would never fall off? We call that a 'retained' or 'integrated' cover.
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How about a recessed cover so you could include custom inlays? Done.
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Quick turn screws - open or close with just a 1/4 turn? Got it.
Our innovative Altech TG series of industrial enclosures offers you all of the above plus these features:
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IP67 (NEMA 4X)
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16 sizes
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ABS or Polycarbonate material
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Gray or tinted transparent covers
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Integral mounting studs in base
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Flame resistant and halogen free
Marshall Wolf Automation is your source for a wide range of industrial enclosures including small industrial enclosures, NEMA 3R enclosures and everything in between.
We are your authorized industrial automation distributor for Saginaw enclosures as well as Altech, Carlo Gavazzi, Attabox polycarbonate enclosures, Iboco and Wiegmann.
I received a call the other day from a service technician looking to order a replacement CHINT brand contactor with optional thermal overload.
The question that was tough for the contact to answer was due to the fact that the equipment was OEM with no technical or wiring documentation or diagrams.
What is the control voltage of the contactor?. Where to find the information? After much review of all technical documents and brochures, where to find the information on the contactor? Is it on the faceplate, the side, etc? Where is the information?
Well, it really can be tough if the unit is still mounted in a crowded control panel, because that's where you need to stick your head! Actually, the best method is to pull the contactor, take a picture or mark wiring first, then you'll be able to find the control voltage. It's actually located on the top and toward the rear end of the contactor.
Actually, it seems that most of the brands we carry are all pretty much in the same location, so if you need contactors from Chint, Carlo Gavazzi and EE Controls, then wolfautomation.com is your Industrial Automation Distributor source! For more information, please contact us at sales@wolfautomation.com or www.wolfautomation.com or if you want to discuss your application, you can reach the inside sales staff at 1-800-325-9653.
You have industrial automation needs, Marshall Wolf Automation has answers....we can help!
Interestingly I had received a call the other day to come up with a solution for an auction house where the customer wanted to mount a signal tower up on a wall to convey simple color coded messages.
He needed 
to have a four color specialty tower lighting, without any audible signals. The customer needed to operate the signal tower from a podium or where the auctioneer would depress the correct button for the color to indicate what is a standarized message indicating the condition of an automobile that is coming accross the stage.
In order to help him with a solution I steered him to the following:
(1) PATLITE brand WSST series controller that could be set up at the podium
As seen here, the control box has pre-engineered buttons and a kit version includes the 24 VDC power supply, the power supply converts from 110V wall power to the box. The cord from the controller to any light tower assembly is sourced from others.
(2) I then sent to the 80 mm PATLITE WME series of stack lights. This provided the correct configuration of 4 lights and large enough to be seen at a sufficient distance. The unit is also designed to be mounted up against a flat wall or flat surface, exactly as the customer needed.
These two items together provided the correct Industrial Stack Light solution from PATLITE to complete the components for the needed system.
If you have a any stack light needs, call MARSHALL WOLF AUTOMATION, your industrial stack light distributor. 800-325-9653 or find us at www.wolfautomation.com
We're going to take a slight diversion from 'My Automation Education' with this post and talk about a pair of product lines a friend at Patlite told me about. It's something really basic that is perfect for a newbie like myself. The LU5 and LU7 stack light series are very popular in Europe, and for good reason. Let's cover a few of the highlights:
Both the LU5 and LU7 Patlite light tower series use 24VDC and have LED bulbs that are both brighter 
than standard bulbs and more energy efficient. In addition, both series can stack between 1 and 5 colors. But the best part is the simple, color-coded and spring-loaded terminal block that makes wiring easier than the standard screw-type connections.
Now, I don't recommend these as viable options for the delinquency covered in my previous blog about signal lights...they are far too useful in the work place to waste on childhood shenanigans. But if you are in the market for tower lights, take a look at these beauties. I almost forgot! The best news about these light towers is how great they are priced! Marshall Wolf Automation, your leading industrial supply distributor, is eager to help with any needs you may have. Stop on by our website and check out our bountiful cornucopia of automation products.
Now that I've become a Patlite name dropper, we'll head back to our regular 'My Automation Education' programming.
Schmersal has just developed a set of IP69K Rated products for applications that are capable of withstanding high temperature and high pressure washdowns.
Products with the IP69K rating system are perfect for environments where hygienic conditions are critical, such as food processing, medical equipment, meat packaging and pharmaceutical manufacturing applications. This is because of their flexible seals that protect the gaps between parts, limiting the places where food and particles would normally collect.
Schmersal IP69K products are also ideal for harsh outdoor environments, such as construction equipment, all-terrain vehicles, portable equipment automotive and marine applications.
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the full line of Schmersal products. Contact us today at 800-325-9653 or visit us online at www.WolfAutomation.com for all your automation needs.
At first thought you would not think there would be a connection between automation equipment and Hollywood
but, alas, there is!
Hollywood uses a variety of automation products and Marshall Wolf Automation is the proud supplier of these products.
Recently, Marvel Entertainment purchased Patlite light towers to be used on one of their movie sets. The' Wipeout' television series has purchased a Fuji 30hp Mega high performance drive for operating their obstacle course. Also, Profiles Television (creators of the Amazing Race), purchased Autonics pilot lights to be used in a control board.
I am sure there are many addiitonal applications in the entertainment industry we have yet to discover!
Please view a sampling of our vast product offering on our website at www.wolfautomation.com.
Please contact us at sales@wolfautomation.com with your request.
Marshall Wolf Automation is your full-line industrial automation distributor and your source for variable frequency drives, all types of sensors, motors, gearboxes, and light towers, just to name a few.
Our Delta AFE series is an active front end that is a controllable rectifier with a number of advantages:
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Replace traditional braking resistors with energy generation
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P
rovides bidirectional power exchange between AC and DC power
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Regenerating reusable power to the mains to reduce the cost of power
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Uses PWM modulation to greatly reduce distinctive peaks of current
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Eliminates high order harmonics
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The Delta AFE (active front end) offers stable power quality that is unaffected from mains power fluctuations!
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Clear energy savings with more than 95% of regenerative energy converted and supplied back to the mains!
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the complete line of Delta variable frequency drives, AC to DC switching power supplies, programmable logic controllers and much more!
View all of our Delta Industrial Automation products now!
I was recently organizing our pressure sensor category and made an innocent Google search to find out a little bit more about this line of products. Wow.
My good pal Wikipedia had this to say:
'A pressure sensor measures pressure (okay, really? I get that.), typically of gases or liquids'.
'Pressure sensors are used for control and monitoring in thousands of everyday applications.'
'Pressure sensors can also be called pressure transducers, pressure transmitters, pressure indicators, among other names.'
Obviously pressure sensors can be used for everything from tire pressure to atmospheric pressure to detecting a fluid leak. There are endless applications for these sensors... please keep in mind that we handle only the industrial side of them!
We have digital pressure sensors (or digital pressure transducers if you prefer) and analog pressure transmitters (pressure sensors).
We carry everything from the classic A.J. Antunes JD-2 series of air pressure switches to digital, compact pressure sensors.
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for all top brands of pressure sensors!
Lenze announced today that, due to limited availability and extreme lead times, they are discontinuing the Lenze MAS motor product lines and associated cable effective immediately.
Lenze is recommending that customers currently using the Lenze MAS series switch to the Lenze MCS motor line.
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the full line of Lenze AC Tech variable frequency drives, servo motors and drives and much more.
To learn more about the switch from Lenze MAS to MCS click here.
I received a call the other day regarding a customer setting up his newly purchased TECO Westinghouse brand of a high performance AC drive. As he was finishing wiring from the motor back to the output side of the drive and had a question in his mind.
He asked if it was important to wire his ground wire back to the drive because he already had a ground from the motor to his machine frame. 
My answer is grounding is one of your variable frequency drives best friends.
In addition, a grounding conductor must be brought back from the motor to the VFD's internal grounding terminal. This direct motor ground to the VFD is required to minimize interference and for the ground-fault protection function of the drive to operate properly.
In other words, please don't take the short cut route and just ground from the motor to a panel but to the PE terminal on the output side of the the drive.
While we are discussing grounding, a couple of other quick points to remember:
1) If your application has the motor operating at reduced speeds it will also have reduced cooling; as a result, it may fail due to thermal breakdown of the motor windings insulation. Thus, the optimum protection for a motor is thermal sensing of the motor windings. This sensing is then interlocked with the VFD's control circuit. This is highly recommended for any motor that is to be operated for extended periods of time at low speeds, just a little tip to help obtain maximum life of the motor.
2) Altitude affects the heat dissipation capability of the heat sink and units in locations at 3300 ft (1000 m) above sea level must be derated. A common rule of thumb is a 2% derating for every 1000 ft above the 3300 ft altitude level.
When you need a high performance AC drive, consider Wolf Automation as your Industrial Supply Distributor for AC Freqency drives, we carry 9 different brands of drives to assist in all your application needs. Contact us at 800-325-9653 or check us out at www.wolfautomation.com contact us we can help!
'My Automation Education' continues with variable-frequency drives. These are pretty important parts of an automated system. They are what allows an automated process to be paced and not running wide-open all day.
A variable-frequency drive (VFD) is a system for controlling the speed of a rotational or linear alternating current (AC) electric motor by controlling the frequency of the electrical power supplied to the motor. Variable-frequency drives are used in a wide number of applications to control pumps, fans, hoists, conveyors, and other machinery.
I like to think of motors as the brawn in an automated system, and a drive as the brains. Let's try exploring this analogy a little further:
Pretend you are a farmer in the 1800s trying to plow your new plot in the beautiful heartland. You have to plow your entire field in one day. Your oxen will pull with all their might and have little direction or control, leaving you with a pretty worthless field because it will be crooked, uneven and probably just torn up. Without you - the drive - to regulate their effort and direction, the task is a failure.
Another analogy for a VFD would be the tortoise and the hare. Without a VFD the motor is going to be the hare and run itself at full power until it just has no more to give. A variable-frequency drive allows a motor to be both tortoise and hare, slow and consistent production with the ability for bursts if needed.
Marshall Wolf Automation, your number one industrial automation distributor, carries a wide variety of VFDs to meet any need you may have. We offer AC Tech Lenze and TECO Westinghouse drives, plus many more. If you want to rein in your oxen or turn your hare into a distance runner check out our website.
Take a look at a recent interview with CEO and President of Leuze USA, Matthias Otto, discussing safety in manufacturing plants!
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized Leuze Electronics industrial automation distributor.
View all of our Leuze USA products now!
I recently came across a great brochure from Carlo Gavazzi that targets the building automation industry. I am going to break apart the brochure and focus on each sections for a series of blogs.
Did you know that over 40% of energy in many buildings is consumed by the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems?
It is possible to save up to 30% on your energy consumption by using Carlo Gavazzi's solutions.
Efficient control and management of these systems is the name of the game, and will result in significant energy savings.
Do you have motors that are simply switched on and off? If you are not regulating the speed of the motors they are running continuously at full speed during the the operating period... whether it's necessary or not.
In upcoming blogs I will be focusing on these HVAC systems:
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Air handling units
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Heat pumps
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Chillers
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Rooftops
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Pellet burners
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Scroll Compressors and Soft Starters
Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the complete line of Carlo Gavazzi sensors, industrial DC power supplies, phase monitoring relays, inductive and capacitive proximity sensors and much more.
Rugged and Versatile! No, unfortunately not me. But what is rugged and versatile is the EQ5 drive from Teco.
Marshall Wolf Automation, your full-line industrial automation distributor, is an authorized Teco Westinghouse distributor.
Some typical applications for using the Teco EQ5 are:
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Crushers, Grinders
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Compressors
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Water and Wastewater
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Warehouse Automation
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Mixers
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Winders
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Material Handling
Some Features and Benefits of the Teco EQ5 drive are:
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Models are dual rated for constant or variable torque operation
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Reduced motor instability at low speed
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On-line tuning system
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Global Products and Communication
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Intelligent Keypad Panel
Please view more information on the Teco EQ5 drive on our website at www.wolfautomation.com.
Please email your requests to sales@wolfautomation.com.
Baumer Electric again proves that they are a leader in sensor miniaturization and precision!
OMG! Has everyone seen this? The FHDK 04 Photoelectric Proximity Sensor from Baumer Electric Sensors is the coolest and smallest photoelectric that I have ever seen.
It measures only 4 mm wide (4x6x45mm). Basically, the size of a match stick. PLUS, IT USES FIXED DISTANCE BACKGOUND SUPPRESSION FOR IT'S SENSING METHOD.
Baumer Electric Sensors is a LEADER in this technology and offers more high-precision sensing solutions in more technology groups than any other company in the world. Who else would design a sensor that can mount in a piece of aluminum extrusion such as 80/20? HOW SIMPLE IS THAT?! :-)
Some of the key features of the Baumer Electric FHDK 04 are; it's availability in a 30 mm or 50 mm sensing distances, push
-pull (NPN or PNP) output, IP65 protection, and a 2 mm beam diameter. Detection is INDEPENDENT of the object's color or surface, including dirt. Several sensors can operate next to one another without any optical interference or cross-talk between them.
Baumer Electric Sensors can handle simple monitoring applications up to complex remote wireless intelligence systems. Contact Marshall Wolf Automation at 800-325-9653. Marshall Wolf Automation is your one stop Industrial Automation Distributor for all of your Automation Control needs.
Bruce J. Van Kessel - ext. 17
I recently read an article by Domenic Capobianco of Carlo Gavazzi and published in Mechanical Business, titled 'The Hidden Costs of Installing Energy Efficient Motors' and would like to share some of the points he made.
Many customers think simply swapping out their motors with energy efficienct models is the 'green' thing to do. Did you know there are a few other things to consider before you buy that industrial electric motor?
Two big things to look at before replacing your motors are if the motor is sized properly and also that you are properly starting it.
The article I mention above does a great job of going into detail on both of these points as well as discussing power factor and power demand charges. Obviously, in an industrial business, motors will make up a large percentage of your total electricity bill and it's worth taking a look at.
Marshall Wolf Automation is your industrial automation distributor for all the top brands of industrial electric motors. We also carry a full selection of variable frequency drives and soft starters to make sure you are properly starting those motors!
We also offer free in-house technical support to make sure you are buying a properly sized motor for your application.
Take a look at all of our industrial electric motors!
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