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The electrical motor discovery first took place in 1821 by the British scientist Michael Faraday when he discovered the torque caused by a magnetic field. It wasn't until after 1870 that we started to see electrical motors used in the field. At the time, they were all brushed DC motors. Since then, different types of DC and AC motors have been developed for different applications. This article will, very briefly, discuss some of these motor types and highlight the basic differences. To start, we would like to give our reader a quick look at different common motors types currently used...

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Switch contact configurations can sometimes be confusing. With this article, we hope to clarify some of these ambiguities. Unfortunately, not all switches are created equal. They come in different shapes and forms and for different functions. From limit switches, proximity switches, to toggle switches and many in between, these switches represent critical components of controls system and are used as information gathering. Switches and sensors are the eyes and ears of controls systems. They can be digital inputs of controls. Controls inputs can also be analog and some switches have analog signals as well as digital, but that will not be discussed in this article. Below is a list of general terms to keep in mind while reading this article.

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American Wire Gauge or AWG is a standardized unit of measurement mostly used in North America to record the diameter of most electrical wires. Increasing gauge number corresponds to decreasing diameter. The ampacity (number of Amps that a wire can handle) of a wire depends on the wire material, its insulation and temperature rating, electrical resistance, the voltage frequency and heat dissipation along with ambient temperature. There are calculators that can help size wires and take most of these variables into consideration. It is however more convenient to use a look-up table if the user is dealing with standard applications.