Parker Hannifin: Why Right Sizing Matters




A decrease in machine availability due to power quality issues disturbs the natural flow of manufacturing, leading to lost productivity, increased maintenance requirements and eroded customer trust. Machine downtime is the single largest source of lost production, typically accounting for almost 5 percent of factory losses—although many manufacturers lose more.
As technological advancements become common-place and affordable, more industries look to implement motion control and machine vision systems to automate tasks that may be menial and time consuming. Many industries can benefit from automated systems but, the question is, how do they get started? Often, they know what they want to mechanize, but do not have automation experts on staff to make it happen. Mechatronics Canada had the opportunity to talk with Eric Rice, Product Market Manager – Electric Automation at Festo, to discuss a case study where a customer recently chose Festo to help them implement machine vision with a motion control system to automate their industrial application.
It can feel like you can do anything with your smart machines today thanks to the near infinite potential of data, connectivity and IoT technologies. But one thing can still hold them back: their computing assets.
With technological advancement and growing uncertainty amid the global pandemic, we have adapted to new ways of working, rehashed our priorities and business strategies with safety at the epicenter of our operations. Today, most large industrial companies facing workplace hazards have a devoted health, safety, and environment (HSE) management system that ensures safety for not only the employees but customers as well.
enCompass Solutions Group (ESG) and ABB Inc. have announced a partnership to join forces on delivering and servicing LV and MV System Drives. ESG is proud to be recognized as an important ABB Value Provider (AVP) for these solutions in Canada and believe that this will accelerate market share and enhance customer experience.
Safety used to be treated somewhat as an afterthought, in that it was added as a separate system once all the other production equipment was in place. Nowadays, many manufacturers are seeing the benefits of integrated safety systems, in which safety features are designed into equipment from the very beginning.

Weidmüller’s scalable engineering software, u-control 2000, adapts individually to your requirements. And, the u-control is powerful, compact and fully compatible with Weidmüller’s I/O system u-remote. This article looks at what makes u-control the heart of your automation.
Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are one of the main components of any automated system. A typical control system has inputs, outputs, controllers (i.e., PLCs), and some type of human interaction with the system, a human machine interface (HMI), for example.

December 18, 2025 Questions created by Krystie Johnston, Managing Editor at Kerrwil Media Ltd. Answers to be attributed to Nick Rinaldi, Director of Business Development – Home Builders, Schneider Electric Canada Canada’s housing market is demanding smarter, more sustainable solutions, and Schneider Electric Canada is helping to lead this transformation. Their innovative residential technologies make homes more energy Read More…
December 18, 2025 By Krystie Johnston There is something special about having a passion and putting it to work for a good reason. And that is exactly what STUDSON and HighBar are doing right now with the recent launch of their HighBar-equipped SHK-1 industrial helmet. A revolution in head safety, the concept version was introduced just last year Read More…