Radwell International’s Blog

Innovation and flexibility are key factors for success in the manufacturing industry. How can manufacturing engineering research and development be streamlined to achieve these goals?

Radwell is a hybrid distribution and engineering company that is designed using modern advances in ecommerce and internet connections. Unlike older distribution models using small local industrial engineering-enabled distribution, or more modern national e-commerce web sites that lack engineering support, Radwell gives you the option to combine local engineering support style distribution along with the power of a national ecommerce platform. With Radwell you get the ease of a worldwide ecommerce site combined with the largest technical support provider globally. Added to that, with Radwell’s after-marketplace you have access to the largest stock of new and obsolete parts available globally.

It’s been over 50 years since the birth of the Programmable Logic Controller. We look back at the history of the PLC and how replacing hard wired relay systems changed the world of manufacturing.

It was the year 1964 when a young cunning engineer, Dick Morley, was unemployed, had a new baby, a mortgage to pay and only $1,000 in the bank. Morley had previously worked a desk job designing atomic bombs, airplanes and communication systems performing the duties he was instructed to do. 

It was October 1st of 1984.

Prince Harry had just been born. MTV held their first Video Music Awards. “Lets Go Crazy” by Prince was playing on every radio station. And a young man named Mark King started a new job at a small industrial repair company called Speck Industrial Controls. That company was the beginning of what has become Radwell International today. On October 1^st, 2019, Mark has been employed at Radwell International for 35 years. Brian Radwell, the company President and Owner, is the longest tenured employee at Radwell. Out of almost 1,000 employees, Mark King has the next longest tenure as a Radwell employee.

We sat down with Mark to hear his story and to look back at the early days of Radwell International.

Servo motors allow for accurate control and precision inside a closed-loop circuit. These motors aren’t necessarily a specific type of motor but rather a combination of certain parts. These devices have been cultivated and improved since the 1800s and have been used in a multitude of different applications. Learn more about what a Servo Motor is here.

In this day and age, human machine interfaces are everywhere. Think about every point of contact a human has with technology and it becomes a reminder that as humans, we interact with machines in just about every aspect of our lives today. Self-service checkout at the grocery store, plugging an address into your car’s GPS or getting some cash at the ATM are all examples of instances when humans interact with an interface designed to help foster human/machine communication.

As it applies to automation equipment in a manufacturing facility, human machine interface products offer the necessary electronics to easily control automation equipment in an industrial environment. HMI products can range from a simple design with basic screen controls to a more complex touchscreen with numerous features and windows. In most environments, whether for service oriented tasks or in an industrial environment, HMI systems must be resistant to dust, water, moisture, high or low temperatures and even chemicals.

All over the world, manufacturers in the glass fiberizing and glass wool industry are interested in increasing the quality of their products. The Gedevelop GFM System is suited for this process. It works with glass flow and collects data in real time for optimum control of the manufacturing process. This system reduces material costs and shortens production downtime.

How exactly does this system work? The Gedevelop system uses a camera which looks at the glass stream and reads information for stream diameter and stream velocity. The information is then sent to the central unit and based on set parameters, calculates the glass flow. The glass flow meter continuously measures glass flow individually for each fiberizing unit and allows the pull to be controlled within .5%. It also checks that the quality of the glass stream is at the correct level and if it isn’t, the system can make adjustments. This glass flow meter is a
non-contact, optical measurement system that calculates the flow of molten glass that falls from the bushing into the fiberizer. Many installations worldwide have proven that glass flow measurement is a very profitable investment in a short amount of payback time.

One of the repair services we provide for our customers at Radwell International is CNC spindle drive retrofits. This service is something that is designed to not only provide cost savings for our clients but also extend the life of a CNC machine tool without requiring an entire machine retrofit. We recently caught up with Mark Councilman, the CNC Sales Manager at Radwell International, based out of our Arlington, Texas location. Mark is a CNC Subject Matter Expert and has been working in the CNC area for 17 years. We had the chance to discuss a bit about CNC machines and how CNC Spindle Retrofits can save time and money for a manufacturing environment.  

What is your role at Radwell International?

My role as CNC Sales Manager is to develop & implement strategies for production, distribution, inside/outside sales, and marketing that position Radwell as a leader in the CNC support market. Currently, my day includes gathering information as I research the CNC market. Typically, I’ll review and validate current pricing on the website and process requests for CNC parts as they trickle in from ASM’s, ISM’s, and customers. I might reach out to Alan Gage with an opportunity for Radwell Verified Subs, and/or seek support from Todd Radwell for a list of parts that should be targeted for pre-certification. The facilities I worked in specialized in exchange and repair of motors, drives, power supplies, CRT’s, and control boards for the CNC market. That's how I came to be considered a subject matter expert in this area.

For many manufacturers, the prospect of moving towards eco-friendly solutions and innovations such as renewable energy is very much front of mind; however, actually implementing the necessary changes is easier said than done. Luckily, as technology develops, and the appetite for carbon neutrality increases around the globe, there are many options for saving not only the bottom line, but the environment.

At Radwell International, we are known for the quality of products and outstanding level of service we provide to our clients. One of our services is our repair capabilities. Although we are known for being able to provide all kinds of repairs for all kinds of industrial automation equipment, it’s easy to overlook some of the more basic items that we are also capable of fixing for our customers. Items like temperature gauges, process controls, timers and counters are items we are just as capable of repairing as much larger items.

It’s so easy to overlook a small display or a dial. Many of our clients wouldn’t even think about having these items repaired. Yet in our NJ Headquarters, we have an entire repair team dedicated to exactly these types of repairs. Repairs in this category are fully testable, and the parts are easy for us to replace if we can’t fix the item. Sounds like a win-win!

Steve Ramirez, a long time Repair Technician with Radwell International, is an expert when it comes to these types of repairs. Steve started with Radwell in July of 1999, working in the calibration lab. Basically, he has been repairing these types of parts for the past 16 years!