News & Knowledge

We’re your source for automation news. Keep up with the latest industry updates and E Tech employee spotlights, as well as tips and guidance from our manufacturing experts.

| May 31, 2023

Can Your Vision System Do This? E Tech Group & Apera Webinar Recording

E Tech Group, a control system integrator that delivers turnkey automation solutions, and Apera AI, a company that offers AI vision guidance, partnered together to produce a webinar covering the capabilities of robotic integration with 4D vision technology, which you can watch below. AI & Vision-Guided Robotics: Talking Points What if we told you that vision-guided robotics powered by AI could do all of this? Identify objects in bins and give a robot picking instructions in only 0.3 seconds. Operate in changing light conditions with no special lighting or sensors. Remove the custom programming that makes projects expensive. Traditional vision systems required a lot of expertise to train and implement, and were not very resilient to lighting changes. The new system from Apera AI is self-programming and can handle variations in lighting conditions. Some key points from the webinar: The system uses two camera sets mounted overhead to look at a bin of parts. It can learn the entire process, including the different parts and the end-of-arm tooling, by itself. It is very fast and can be used in a variety of applications, including process or discrete applications. E Tech Group can also help with the digital modeling of the solution to test it before it’s implemented. Check out the video below to view a recording of the webinar, which was originally presented on May 9, 2023. We hope you’ll gain some new ideas about making your facilities more productive!

| May 16, 2023

Podcast: The changing role of control system integrators in the automation industry

E Tech Group’s Business Director for Material Handling, Kurt Wakeman participated in a roundtable discussion on the future of automation industry with two other industry professionals for the Plant Services, The Tool Belt Podcast. The podcast and article were originally published by Plant Services. Click here to listen or read the transcript of the full episode. In this episode of The Tool Belt, three system integrator professionals share their perspectives on where the automation industry is heading. The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) is a global trade association with over 500 member companies in 35 countries that seeks to advance the industry of control system integration. Control system integrators use their engineering, technical and business skills to help manufacturers and others automate their industrial equipment and systems. For this year’s System Integrator Roundtable episode, Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk spoke with three veteran system integrator professionals about how the industry is changing and which new technologies are poised to make a big impact. Kurt Wakeman is the business director for Material Handling group at E Tech Group. Bob Pusateri is director of business development at Electronic Drives and Controls. Sam Hoff is President and CEO of Patti Engineering. PS: Kurt, let me pose that question to you. Do you see a big change in the kind of work that your team will be doing in 2023 or beyond, versus the last couple of years? Or do you see the same kind of workload increasing? KW: Yeah, I do think 2023 looks a little different based on some of the economic challenges we’ve been facing. Customers tend to be investing a little bit more in existing equipment as opposed to buying new systems. They’re a little bit tighter with their money and they’re investments, so we’ve seen a big uptick in demand for recontrols, … Continued

| April 14, 2023

What is Digital Twin and What Does it Do?

Production line shot of digital twin palletizing line.

| November 15, 2022

E Tech Group Promotes New Director of Digital Technology

We’re pleased to announce that Mike Whatley, Business Director for Material Handling, will take on a new corporate operations role within E Tech Group as Director of Digital Technology. Mike will assume this new role immediately, while working with the Material Handling team to transition his current responsibilities. Kurt Wakeman has joined E Tech Group and assumed responsibility for the Material Handling Program. In his new role, Mike will work alongside the IT & Advanced Software teams, among others, to drive the company’s overall digital transformation strategy and roadmap. He will support the development and implementation of internal technology initiatives, primarily focused on Engineering and Corporate Workflow Automation & Optimization through digitization and standardization across the enterprise. These initiatives are critical to the ongoing effort to integrate 4 outstanding brands into 1 best-in-class company with common standards and practices. We appreciate Mike’s contributions over the past 16+ years in a variety of programming, engineering and management roles – supporting the growth and success of E Tech Group. Congratulations Mike and thank you for your dedication to E Tech Group!