November 2019

Video Postcard from FM2019 The wrap-up video from last month's Fall Meeting 2019 is hot off the press. Check it out ! Wishing you could have been part of the fun? Stay tuned for registration information for our next conference. Spring Meeting 2020 will be in La Quinta, California, April 21-24, 2020. We'll kick things off with a Tuesday Welcome Reception. Registration opens in January.

2020 Membership Dues AHTD 2020 member dues for Automation Solutions Providers (Distributors) and Manufacturer members will be emailed and mailed by the end of next week. The invoice will appear in the online queue of the primary contact we have on file for your company. You can login to pay online, dash us a check, or call in with credit card information. Please contact Leigha Schatzman with questions. We thank you for your continued membership!

B&D Industrial and Bedrock Automation Announcement B&D Industrial and Bedrock Automation announced a strategic partnership regarding intrinsic cyber security in automation, industrial controls, and variable frequency drives (VFDs) system design. The partnership, based on B&D’s 72-year history of delivering industrial expertise in the Southeast and Bedrock Automation’s OSA® Open Secure Automation technology, offers cutting-edge solutions to industrial plants, universities, and critical infrastructure like water, energy, and transportation, industries which are currently plagued with performance and cyber vulnerabilities in their traditional programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and distributed control systems (DCS). Read more .

Carlo Gavazzi Product Announcement Carlo Gavazzi is proud to announce the launch of several new Three-Phase Monitoring Relays which feature a Wider Input Voltage Range. These new models, part of the DPB and DPC families, are ideal for distributors and customers as they reduce the number of individual items that need to be stocked, while providing unsurpassed quality and functionality.  Read more .

Ringfeder Organizational Announcements Ringfeder Power Transmission is excited to announce numerous new hires and promotions that will further strengthen our sales organization and support to our customers across the US, Mexico, and Canada.  Read more about Brandon Guse, Dan Moss, Kent Thomas, and Amberae Miller.

Horner Automation Group Release All-In-One Controller Horner Automation Group unveiled their standard setting, entry level series of all-in-one control systems available with 2”, 4”, and 7” screens. Ideal for any simple application, the Micro OCS controllers can perform in multiple industries from water treatment, to food processing, to HVAC/Environmental control and many others. The Micro OCS controllers are one of the best deals on the market with all the function capabilities along with Horner’s FREE companion programming software, Cscape. Read more .

The Knotts Company Product Line Expansion The Knotts Company, provider of automation solutions, has expanded its product line by becoming a distributor for Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. Yamaha has been developing robotics for more than 30 years. Since first introducing robotics to their motorcycle production line, Yamaha has been supporting a range of production facilities with reliable, high quality industrial robots. Read more .

Balluff Inc. Inductive Couplers Balluff’s inductive couplers connect up to eight discrete sensors across a small air gap, eliminating hardware failures that can occur when slip rings, connectors, or other electromechanical connections wear out. Read more .

RRAMAC Announces New IIoT Connectivity Option RRAMAC is excited to announce a new connectivity option for users to take advantage of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The   EdgeScout Edge Node   is a secure data collection device that is extremely powerful, yet easy to use. The release of this new product will further advance EdgeScout by RRAMAC’s connectivity capabilities by offering  two additional hardware solutions  that enable IIoT connectivity. Read more .

C&E Advanced Technologies Wins Awards C&E Advanced Technologies is the proud recipient of a few prestigious awards from two of their top suppliers. Read more about the awards presented to C&E Advanced Technologies by Fortress Interlocks and Siemens.

Tosibox Joins Siemens’ MindSphere World Tosibox, the trusted global leader in secure industrial connectivity solutions has joined MindSphere World, the worldwide user organization for Siemens’ cloud-based open IoT operating system MindSphere. Tosibox will join Siemens also at their MindSphere Lounge in hall 11 at SPS in Nuremberg, Germany on November 26–28.   “MindSphere is a great initiative with focus on the complete digital value stream and offers out-of-the-box functions for seamless onboarding of new customers. TOSIBOX® fits the equation perfectly as an enabler for MindSphere users taking their game from single temporary remote connections to the next level,” says Jarno Limnéll, CEO at Tosibox. Read more: https://www.tosibox.com/tosibox-joins-mindsphere-world/

Smarter Lifter Boosts Workplace Safety Lifting can be a dangerous thing. The Centers for Disease Control reports that soft tissue injuries are common with manual material handling. And the cost of injuries to employers is alarming: In 2017, the total cost of work injuries in the U.S. was $161.5 billion . Lost work time, and the cost of investigating injuries and writing up injury reports, accounted for $12.6 billion of that total. There are a lot of these work injuries, too: In 2017 alone, there were 111,000 back injuries that caused employees to miss work.  Read more .

Interlynx - Free Webinar If you are a Sales, Marketing or Senior Level Manager and you depend on distributors to grow your business, this webinar is for you! Providing a steady stream of high-quality sales leads to your distributor partners is one of the best ways to drive distributors sales and distributor mindshare.   Fortunately, good sales leads are pretty easy to find and almost always FREE!! In our webinar, “3 Ways a Manufacturer Can Drive More Sales Leads”, we will explain 3 ways to capture more sales leads in your business so that you can send more sales leads and drive distributor mindshare and sales opportunities higher! Read more about free webinar on December 9th at 12:00 p.m. central or register here .

DCKAP DCKAP organized a Digital Commerce Conference - The DCKAP Summit 2019 on November 12, 2019, at the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles. It was a community initiative to bring together the subject matter experts to network, learn and share the latest trends in digital commerce and growth strategies. The day-long event was filled with enlightening sessions by the thought leaders in the eCommerce industry. DCKAP also showcased its product suite - Productimize , Cloras , and flexiPIM , and QA Touch .   At DCKAP, we believe in sharing knowledge and help distributors leverage the learning. We publish in-depth blogs that empowers the distributors in their business. Our latest blog shares some tips on creating compelling newsletters for distributors — a must-read for all those who are in the distribution industry.  For queries, contact us at marketing@dckap.com or call 1-877-872-3252

Employee Recognition: Make it Personal In this episode of Ask MRA, Peg shares ideas on how to make recognition and rewards have the most impact. The key is making recognition personal. What is your best approach to rewards? Learn tips on how to make it personal, meaningful, and memorable!   Watch the video  to learn more.

Promotions Please share your company milestones, news, and events with us by emailing promotions@ahtd.org to be in an upcoming newsletter. We'll publish one article per member company each month. Don't fret if you don't see your article right away. We publish articles in the order received.   Questions? Contact Leigha Schatzman, Executive Director at 262.696.3645 or email Leigha.Schatzman@ahtd.org .