About Us

Our Mission

We want to help our local GTA small business community. Automation is a combination of mechanical, electrical, electronics, computing, networking and software. A small business won't have a dedicated specialist for each of these disciplines on tap. We are a one size fits all glove to provide you with everything needed to solve your automation challenges in one place. We want our small business community to prosper and for automation not to be a barrier. We want to help small business anyway we can, and automation is what we know.

Our Approach

When you have an automation/machine issue... simply call us, and we will come to look at you problem or issue without charge. If we can help, great! If we cannot, perhaps we can recommend another solution or route. We look forward to helping you.

Our Staff

At this time (Oct 2021), the CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, middle & lower management, technical staff, and general labour is all the same person by the name of Mike. Hello! LOL. Jokes aside, I have been working with industrial automation for the past 18 years. Regardless of the machine you have, I will have it figured out in a flash! Beyond myself, I have a team of two close friends who are also the owners of their own small companies. When any one of us needs help,  we pitch in as needed. Hence the "we". I'm never flying solo when there is trouble, and neither do my teammates.

Technical Overview

This website doesn't overwhelm the reader with technical jargon. This section is the exception. Consider this an abridged curriculum vitae.

 

Technical Skills

  • Electrical design of complete solutions including all hardware selection, and the complete design of all the control panels from scratch in compliance with the Electrical Safety Authority.
  • Building of control panels, as well as integration into existing systems.
  • PLC programming (RSLogix and Studio5000, Step7 and TIA Portal, and others). In our experience we can jump across all PLC brands as the underlying fundamentals are all the same.
  • Complete support of various sorters (Intellingrated, Fives Cinetic, Datalogic, SNS, Sitma, and custom sorters), smart conveyors and automated storage (SSI Schaeffer, and custom conveyor), Pick-To-Light machines (SSI Schaeffer), Injection molding and forming machines (Husky), Packaging machines (Kyoto, Gima), CNC machines (Z. Bavalloni), and much, much more.
  • Mechanical troubleshooting including pneumatics and hydraulics.
  • Managing servers running Windows Server as well as class 1 hypervisors (Xen Server) and the associated virtual machines.
  • Network design and setup, including configuring the policies in managed switches.

 

Industrial Hardware Experience

  • Controllers - We are comfortable with both PLCs and PCs; as well as safety devices.
    • PLC - We are most comfortable with Allen Bradley (from ControlLogix to SLC to plc-5 to CompactLogix), however we are no strangers to TIA Portal for the 300 and 400 series PLCs, as well as Omron's CJ processors.
    • PC - On the PC side we have experience with C++ in a realtime environment (IntervalZero), as well as hybrid systems such as NUMs (where in a 1040, the PLC seems virtual to us). Either way, we have tons of exposure to various controllers and are comfortable with any controller as the fundementals are all the same.
    • Safety Devices - beyond the basic safety relays, we are also very familiar with safety controllers (ex: Banner SC22), and safety PLCs (from ControlLogix to CompactLogix to SmartGuard)
  • Fieldbuses - Where to even start?
    • We have worked with all kinds of protocols from Profibus to AS-i to RIO to Can-Bus, to IO-Link to infinity.
    • We are not strangers to RSNetworx for ControlNet, and for Devicenet. Nor are we strangers to loading GSD files for Profibus devices.
    • Beyond the protocol we have experience with practically all media from fiber to cable to laser to wireless.
    • We have also implemented DeviceNet for safety using the SmartGuard series safety controller.
    • As well we have used sniffers on Profibus (profitrace), and on Ethernet (Wireshark), and on RS422 (Free Serial Analyser), and on DeviceNet.
  • I/O - from light curtains that are a node on the fieldbus (Sick MLG, and we know they are discontinued) to digital I/O nodes to Analog nodes (1-10V to 4-20mA to whatever) with HART to VFDs with I/O (SEW's MoviMots for example) we have no issues reading up on the spec sheet to get up to speed on ANY I/O device.
  • Motion - We have experience with stepper drives (Applied Motion Products), servo drives (Yaskawa and Applied Motion Products), VFDs (SEW and Allen Bradley), and good old fashioned contactors for squirrel cage motors as well as DC drives that burn power over a resistor to achieve speed control. We have ample experience with motion to solve any motion problem.
  • Vision Systems & Scanners for barcodes, edge detection, and more.
    • We are familiar with both the dimensioning side, the image capturing (camera, lights & mirrors when applicable) including "line scan" and "area scan" camera chips, and the image processing done by the computer/server.
    • Companies I have experience with are Banner, Vitronic, Datalogic, Accusort, and Sick (SOPAS).
    • I also have experience with OpenCV using C++.
    • I have extensive experience with scanners as well (Sick CLV, and Datalogic)
  • Other - I won't bother with basics like power supplies, electronic fuses and the like. It's like bragging about knowing the alphabet.

 

Education & Licenses

  • Construction & Maintenance Electrician License (309A), 2009.
  • Centennial College, Automation and Robotics Technologist Diploma, 2001 - 2004.
  • Athabasca University, Bachelor of Science Degree, 2011 - 2019.

 

Hobbies

I enjoy portaging in Algonquin, Cycling, Motorcycling, Sports, Skiing, Math, the pursuit of truth, and building robots that run ROS.