May 21, 2024

Automation, Instrumentation and Test Engineering with Drew Wilson

34 minutes

Today for The Robot Industry Podcast (#122) I welcome Drew Wilson. Drew has been a leader in all things electrical and mechanical test and he is a friend. Drew is a brilliant engineer and is not afraid to speak his mind especially about all things automation and testing. He has helped educate hundreds of engineers and customers about common sense testing in the automation industry.

You have had a very interesting jobs and projects in your life. You have worked on the people mover in Detroit and in automotive, medical device, pharma machines and there are lots that we cannot talk about too.

Drew, Test is a challenge for manufacturers and machine builders, because I feel that they just want to buy something and move on and they, the machine builder and maybe even the end customer don’t really know why and what they are testing. They just want a Pass or a Fail…a simple answer to a complex problem. Would you agree?

Can you tell our listeners what a gauge R & R is?

Why would you recommend a test company and not an automation company or machine builder to do the test part of an automated system?

What are some trends that you have noticed in automated testing over the last few years?

What are some of the best practices for test/testing?

Do you have some favourite test equipment companies, hardware and software?

Testing is a huge challenge to both the manufacturer and the automator, how would your recommend to some of our listeners who might be thinking ~ how can I specialize (or maybe how can my kid) specialize in test and test instrumentation, how do I learn about this?

Maybe I want to start a test instrumentation company? How do I do that?

Machine vision is sometimes confused with testing…what are your thoughts?

A question about expensive test equipment.

If I am installing test equipment in an automated system, am I best to distribute the test equipment throughout the machine or put it at the end of the line, what is your thoughts on this?

What are the big mistakes that automation integrators, even very big and capable ones make when it comes to test?

What do you like doing when you are not selling robots?

How can people get a hold of you?

Enjoy the podcast. Thanks for subscribing, thanks for listening.

Regards,

Jim

Jim Beretta  Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing & The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with A3 | The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustrypodcast at gmail dot com, no spaces.

If you would like to get in touch with Drew, LinkedIn is the best place:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-wilson-8206b43 or you can get in touch with me.

Ehrhardt Automation is our key sponsor. Ehrhardt builds and commissions robot and custom turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Our co-sponsor is Anchor Danly. They are the leading manufacturer and distributor of robot and automation bases, high quality die sets, components, Blanchard Ground steel plates, and metal fabrications used in the production of tools, dies, and molds for metal working and plastics injection molding, mining and construction equipment, and general fabrications.

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By Jim Beretta in partnership with A3 Association for Advancing Automation.

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