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Technical Bulletins and Guides

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Automation

Optimize performance without sacrificing safety with Doosan Cobots Doosan Robotics is leading the cobot market in innovative safety features that allow you to maintain productivity while keeping your team as safe as possible. Doosan offers cobots with the industry’s highest safety rating, PL e Cat 4. Their emphasis on innovation…

Your Doosan cobot is communicating with you! What do the colors mean? All Doosan cobots have an LED light ring. The H and M series both feature a flange light while the A series has a light on its base. These lights are used to indicate what mode the robot…

Technical Guide: Gantry System vs 6-Axis Robot Solution Cross Company sells both Gantry and 6-Axis robotic solutions. Our goal is for our customers and readers to make the smartest choice for their situation and application. In the world of motion control, the industry has reached the point where the initial…

Coval LEMAX: Improving Efficiency for Packaging Applications Vacuum applications can be prone to inefficiencies and, therefore, waste a lot of energy. If you have a “dumb” or under-sensored process, you may as well count the dollars as the air blows through the exhaust of a venturi! Inefficiencies are a fact of life with…

Hose and Fittings

Guide to Hose Compounds, Properties, and Their Applications When choosing the right hose for your application, it is helpful to understand the benefits of different hose materials. Before we get into the various types of rubber compounds, let’s begin with a primer into the origin of natural rubber. The para’…

Hydraulic Hose Pressure Ratings: Working Pressure vs Burst Pressure When designing a hydraulic system or replacing a hose assembly, it’s important to know the conditions of its application. Specifically, the working pressure for the application and whether the pressure is dynamic or static. The working pressure is the highest amount…

Technical Guide: Industrial Hose Secure Clamp Styles When it comes to industrial hose assemblies, there are multiple ways to attach fittings to a length of hose. A few of those methods include pre-formed band clamps, double bolt clamps, gear or worm drive clamps, crimpable ferrules, and crimpable sleeves. Depending on…

Hose Fitting Conversion Adapter Guide When working with equipment manufactured in different parts of the world, one of the most important factors to take into consideration is the system measurement in the place of origin. With items equipped for hydraulics or pneumatics, hose and fitting connectors can come in a…

Technical Guide: How to Identify Flange Fittings One of the challenges for a hose user is how to identify the fitting on the end of your hydraulic hose. This particular style of fitting is referred to as a Flange Head Style Fitting.  The most common sizes range from 1/2 inch…

Technical Guide: Proper Hydraulic Hose Routing Proper Hydraulic Hose Routing Simplifies Maintenance and Reduces Failure When high-pressure hydraulic hoses fail, they can be responsible for lost productivity, equipment failure, and personal injury – all coming at a steep cost to the machine or company owner. In hydraulically controlled equipment, some component…

Mobile Systems Integration

A Guide to Selecting the Right Hydraulic Filter Filtration, whether prioritized or not, is one of the most important components in a hydraulic system and can be the difference in a machine running for 10 years or having expensive component damage within a matter of seconds. Here, we’ll lay out…

A Guide to Selecting the Right Hydraulic Motor Selecting the right hydraulic motor for your application may not be as straightforward as you wish it were, but getting it right is critical to the overall performance of your machine. While it is likely that more than one design will work,…

Technical Guide: Hydraulic Steering 101 for Off-Road Vehicles Lynn Charlson, self-taught inventor, designer, and mechanical genius, was a pioneer in the field of hydraulic power, and founder of the Char-Lynn Company in 1942. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, low-speed high-torque motors and steering valves were referred to simply as…

Technical Guide: How to Implement or Convert a Control System The following guide was put together as step by step approach to implementing (or converting to) a control system. Our engineers work on a variety of projects and have focused on the top 10 things to consider in the process.…

Precision Measurement

Study: Coefficients of Thermal Expansion Thermal Expansion in dimensional calibration is a significant factor to the values we report on traceable certificates. Thermal expansion is dependent on the composition of the material we measure and the standards we use for comparison. In addition, the time allowed for the device under…

As a Cross calibration customer, you have free access to GageSuite, our comprehensive, user-friendly calibration management system. Beyond giving you instant access to the complete calibration and repair history for each piece of equipment, GageSuite now gives you drift charts for each piece of equipment. GageSuite uses real data from…

Measurement of small radius and radius with short arc length or included angle present a challenge to metrologist regardless of the device used to gather data points. The following data illustrates the effects of form error and/or measurement error and reduction of arc length. 1. Points A1 (X0,Y0.5), B1 (X0.01913,Y0.04619) and…

Below are methods used to calibrate gage blocks within all J.A. King network locations offering gage block calibration services. Primary Method Per national standards, the length of the gauge block is defined as the distance between a flat surface wrung to one end of the block, and a gauging point…

Process Solutions

Achieving High Availability with Redundant Rockwell ControlLogix Systems Rockwell’s Allen Bradley ControlLogix line supports enhanced redundancy with processors, communications, and power supplies to achieve high availability of your control system. Here are some of our recommendations, plus some pitfalls to avoid when implementing such a system. 1. Make sure you…

A PID loop adjusts its OP to maintain its PV at its SP. Some PID loops cannot be satisfactorily tuned by adjusting the three primary constants. When combined with good basic tuning, advanced methods can improve stability, responsiveness, and limit overshooting. See The Basics of Tuning PID Loops for suggestions on…

The art of tuning a PID loop is to have it adjust its output (OP) to move the process variable (PV) as quickly as possible to the set point  (responsive), minimize overshoot, and then hold the variable steady at the set point without excessive OP changes (stable). Definitions PID = Proportional,…

Hazardous Area Classification Guide The National Electrical Code (NEC) defines hazardous locations as those areas “where fire or explosion hazards may exist due to flammable gases or vapors, flammable liquids, combustible dust, or ignitable fibers or flyings.” Hazardous locations are classified in three ways by the NEC: type, condition, and…

Oval Gear Flow Meter Installation & Troubleshooting Knowing the do’s and don’ts of oval gear flow meter installations is just as important to the life of your meter as was the selection criteria for choosing  an oval gear flow meter. To avoid any unintentional damage to your new oval gear…

Draeger Tube Accuro Pump Best Practices & Maintenance Guide What is the Draeger-Tube System? In order to optimize your gas detection results, you need a clear understanding of the Draeger Tube System. So, exactly what is a Draeger Tube System? The system contains two key parts that work in tandem.…

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In the meantime, enjoy these fun facts…

Did you know... the precision measurement group at Cross was founded in 1939 by our current CEO's grandfather, Jim King. That's a whole lot of calibration!
Did you know... A fingerprint weighs about 50 micrograms. We know, we weighed it! The residue left from a finger can actually make a difference in weight results which is why we wear gloves when we calibrate weights. For reference, a sheet to paper is about 4.5 grams, that’s 4.5 million micrograms.
Did you know… Cross Company is an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). Our ESOP started in 1979 and as of 2006, we are a 100% employee owned! Learn more about our ESOP and how that benefits both team members and our customers.
Did you know… Cross Company has grown significantly since our start in 1954. Over the years we've acquired 26 companies! Today, our five groups have expertise in everything from industrial automation to precision measurement, and industry knowledge going all the way back to 1939.