Rick started Northwest Industrial Automation in the summer of 2015. Before that, Rick's experience ranged from six years of Navy electronics from 1976 to 1982, to manufacturing plant electrical maintenance, and then on to various controls technician and engineering positions in foundry, wood products, and packaging. He has over 40 years of experience in industrial controls, maintenance, machine design, robotics, servo systems, and system design and integration. Some of Rick's many accomplishments include:
- Springfield Forest Products - Upgraded all "black box" controls on the sawline and hot presses to PLC-5. Implemented remote access to five mill sites using dial-up modems and pcAnywhere remote-control software. Replaced a two-processor PLC-2 lathe/tray system that had a processor failure with one PLC-5 processor over the space of one weekend. This included hardware installation and program conversion from PLC-2 to PLC-5.
- Swanson-Superior Forest Products - Converted all existing PLC-2 systems to PLC-5. Programmed a new small-log recovery system that made lumber out of chip wood.
- Lufkin Industries - Assisted with programming and operation of two automated facilities in the Foundry Department, working with both PLC-2 and PLC-3 controls.
- Paktech - Assisted with the development of numerous handle applicators, and programmed most of them. These applicators range from the older pneumatically-controlled machines to the latest machines using servos and robotics.
