Stories Category - Progressive Automations Blog

Large-scale interactive sculptures are truly a work of art that can brighten anyone’s day, lift our spirits, and bring inspiration. Behind every large-scale masterpiece, there is a journey of a team working together to ensure a successful project for the community to enjoy. If you were looking for design inspirations and ideas for your next art project, this is just the article for you! We will be showcasing the Fleur De LUX giant metallic flo...

Overlanding is an exciting way for people to explore remote trails and enjoy a memorable journey outdoors with their families. Adventure vehicles and trailers need to have a durable and well-thought-out configuration to ensure a family with safety, comfort, and shelter that can handle any outdoor conditions. If you were looking for project ideas and inspirations for your next camping adventures, this is just the article for you! We will be loo...

Plasma cutter machines are designed to efficiently handle our cutting tasks with incredible accuracy and precision; however, certain materials require more clearance height than others to make proper cuts. For example, tall steel tubing will require much more clearance height than one layer of sheet metal to fit underneath the cutting area of a plasma cutter machine. In this article, we will learn how one of our customers used lifting columns ...

Automated rovers are an advanced yet exciting technology for learning about our neighboring planets. Building a Rover for Mars can be a challenging task for any team, especially in the face of global uncertainties such as the pandemic. From supply chain issues and delayed shipments to limited communication and restricted in-person team interactions, team DJS Antariksh has proven that they can create a very successful Mars Rover while enduring ...

Hidden TV cabinets are popular for home automation applications as they offer many different benefits for TVs such as TV protection, extra storage, and a stylish appearance. There are all sorts of ambient modes used by manufacturers to make TVs look better when not in use, however, custom made TV lift cabinets offer a new level of style to elevate the TV as the centerpiece of a room. If you were thinking of building your own homemade DIY TV li...

Outdoor camping is a fun and exciting activity that many of us enjoy, however, space constraints can make the process of bringing all our favorite luxuries quite challenging. This is where innovation and creativity can help us in building a comfortable yet space-efficient camping environment. If you were thinking of making projects similar to an RV dinette table or an RV bed lift system, this article is just for you! We will be covering how Ch...

Popular movies such as Star Wars often have fan favorite characters like R2-D2 which many would wish for the opportunity to see in real life. We had the privilege to speak with Michael McMaster in 2013 about his plans to use our actuators for a new R2-D2 life size model. When Mike McMaster got the itch to recreate a working model of R2-D2, like so many of us have contemplated in the past, he came upon the R2 Builder's Club Yahoo! Group. After ...

Pinball machines are highly sought after for those who enjoy reliving their childhood, and is an entertaining game to play as a new hobby. Proudly sponsored by Progressive Automations, Project Pintable by Loren Browman aims to combine modern aesthetics and form factor with a traditional pinball machine. By integrating some top linear actuators in his project, Loren made his very own DIY pinball machine in a coffee table that is comfortable to ...

It's that time of the year again where we just can't pass up the chance to experience some gorgeous fall scenery, crackling fires, roaring waterfalls, and whooshing rivers - all this that makes up nature's soundtrack. The Autumn months indeed provide the perfect atmosphere for camping. For a perfect camping experience, a camping tent can make all the difference! Nowadays, we can choose from a variety of modern and technologically advanced tent...

Today, lifting mechanisms are widely applied in both domestic and industrial purpose automation. Featuring a simple construction controlled by the push of a button, automated lifts can help solve a wide array of tasks like freight transportation, position optimization, automated opening/closing of doors and windows and so on. In this article, we will discuss how to make a lifting mechanism and which tools one will require to do it. We will als...

A topper lift system is what is used to extend a truck cap up into the air. It uses linear actuators to allow for the top of the lift to be raised up as far as is necessary. A truck topper lift can be used for anything from turning your truck into a camper van, to making more room for equipment and supplies, or even just to make things easier when opening the back door to remove things. This article focuses on the basics behind a truck topper ...

Linear actuators have totally revolutionized the way things move around us. This invention of modern technology has allowed automated mechanization to replace manual work in performing routine, motional operations. By transforming pneumatic, hydraulic, or electric energy into linear displacement, actuators are perfect for automating any object. Their universality of these components has found ideas virtually in all aspects of life – from agric...

Automated products are becoming more popular in today’s households. Using our products to create useful devices, such as an automated kitchen spice rack, we aim to show you how linear actuators can help save space, provide innovative designs, and create an efficient home.   Bringing Automation into Your Home Having its roots in the Middle Ages, automation started gathering significant momentum in the 1950s. Back then it was predominantly an in...

In a technological world that continues to advance exponentially, the safety, convenience, and comfort of our homes and workplaces must increase with it as well. Proudly sponsored by Progressive Automations, the AutoWindows team is on a journey to create aesthetically pleasing automatic window systems for all. By combining some of the world's top linear actuators with windows, AutoWindows goal is to have their system installed into homes acros...

Progressive Automations is pleased to share another sponsorship project! One of our innovative customers, John McGurk, has built a mechanism to raise and lower a grill rack above a charcoal or wooden-fired grill pit. The goal was to design a stylish cantilever-like apparatus so that it is easier to cook and manage, while socializing at the same time. This project was inspired by the traditional way of cooking paella over open-wood fire in Vale...

Progressive Automations would like to present to you another impressive project by one of our innovative customers! Trent Peterson, a graduate from California Polytechnic State University, has designed a Stewart Platform robot to be used in one of Cal Poly’s Robotics courses. The purpose of this design is to showcase what is being learned in the theory portion of the class, giving students the ability to apply their knowledge and verify invers...

There are several reasons why some donuts may be deemed low-quality or unsatisfactory. Sometimes, it’s the result of public coffee shops being closed, understaffed, or sparsely stocked during late hours. Many customers in public spaces including airports, hospitals, universities, and other similar locations may also crave quality customized donuts at different times throughout the day. To solve this issue, a team of engineering students from t...

Project C.A.R., a group of students from Rochester Institute of Technology, has created a full-motion racing simulator to give student-drivers an opportunity to experience realistic simulator training. They have achieved this with as close to ‘real world’ feedback as possible. Although their project has been delayed due to the closure of RIT caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we still would love to showcase how this group achieved what they have...

Idea Generation Brian Szeredy and Brian Scanlon, also known as The Brian’s, have been building show choir props for about six years. In 2019, they decided to create automated concert wings for the Shepherd Hill Regional High School’s show choir group, ILLUSION, to perform during the 35th Central Massachusetts Show Choir Festival. After hours and hours of research, Brian’s created a prototype of a very simple scissor-like assembly with pieces o...

Teams from around the world compete at the University Rover Challenge (URC), held each year in the desert of Southern Utah in the United States. Student teams compete to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside astronauts exploring the Red Planet. One such team that has stood out for us is Team Anveshak from IIT, Madras, India. The group of over 20 student engineers is on a mission to build the next ...

Technology continues to grow and as a result, the world is changing around us. Companies are becoming more technology-based and daily lives are being more automated. So the question at hand is:  Are you willing to leap into this automated world and make your home not only more convenient and comfortable but more efficient? You may have seen videos of luxurious homes with automated features that you thought you could only dream about. However, ...

Consumer flight sims are increasing in popularity nowadays. From aviation Geeks to hobbyists and innovators, more and more people are getting into building flight simulators. One such group is the EAA 485 – a group of aviation enthusiasts in Florida who come together often to share their love of flying. John McKiernan, President of EAA 485, reached out to us about the group’s most recent rebuild of a child biplane simulator known as Rusty. “We...

Linear actuators are being popularly used across different industries and for various applications. Innovators are finding different ways to automate their daily work and sometimes we are also surprised by the use of our products in different applications. Over the years we have received information from our customers on applications they’ve built using our actuators, from a DIY Planetarium projector to a Flight simulator.  We’re always pleas...

Linear actuators have been used in several ways, in different industries, and for various applications. Today, they are being used to transform a home to a smart home, giving homeowners the ability to control items in the house such as windows, doors, TV cabinets and much more, with the aim to make things simple and easy. We at Progressive Automations recently received a beautiful project of a towable Tiny Home by New York Based startup, Cubis...

Each year, we receive stories of creative innovations using our actuator products and the year 2018 saw some interesting inventions such as the hidden table lift project in Japanese style, the flight simulator, and the Barbershop success story. Lucky for us it didn’t stop there and 2018 ended on a positive note for our customer in Seattle. Volunteers from Seattle’s top architecture firms, Gelotte Hommas Drivdahl (GHD) Architecture, and Master ...

One of our talented customers from Free Fall Technologies was nice enough to share his custom project with us, built with the help of our products. Free Fall Technologies is a planetarium education company that specializes in making interesting and educational technical systems for the field.  The project is a custom planetarium projector lift that utilizes our FLT-03-2-1 Lifting Column set to raise itself up and down. This is the fourth proje...

As automation trends become increasingly popular, customers are always looking for ways to implement linear actuators into their applications. For instance, in farming locations, chickens stay cooped up inside until you let them out. This requires you to bundle up and head outside to open the door in the colder months. With the use of a linear actuator and a digital timer, you can have this process automated for you! [cta] [cta-content] Choose...

Fluid Power South is a distributor and seller of automation components. They have been serving Georgia OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), machine users, and resellers for nearly four decades. Their work helps companies of all sizes from growing manufacturers to Fortune 500 businesses generate billions of dollars in revenue each year. Many Fluid Power South’s customers are in the agricultural industry and they are demanding more automatio...

With the advancement of the technology used in augmented reality, no longer are simulators limited to training facilities and large companies. Makers all over the world are utilizing motion control components to create interactive and cost-effective simulators right at home, many of whom use Progressive Automations’ linear actuators for their linear motion needs. Anthony Escalante, a local Progressive Automations’ customer took the meaning of ...

As real estate prices increase, businesses constantly look for innovative ways to densify their space. Whether it be using automated checkout counters or online check-in, automation is a key driving force for conserving space and time. The mobile barbershop business is no different. Anthony Martin, the owner of BarberDasher Club, started his unique mobile barbershop business in Vancouver about a year ago. Looking to combine that classic barber...

Our go-to recommendation for Dr. Decks’ mind-blowing deck automation projects is our PA-04 IP66 Linear Actuator. Being based in the Northwestern United States, it is critical that the actuators Dr. Decks uses can withstand the downpour of rain and occasional snow common in the area. Featuring an IP66 protection rating, the PA-04 has one of the highest water and dust ingress protection ratings among our actuators, making it a top choice for aut...

We wanted to share a very cool project that we sponsored recently. Nice Box is a company that creates specially customized storage boxes, specifically custom sneaker boxes, for customers. The company was started by Cedric Townsend and he utilized our actuators and control systems to help bring some of his creations to life. He's built specially designed boxes for athletes and celebrities such as Rick Ross, 2 Chainz and Andre Drummond. The box...

Dr. Decks has been one of our most valued customers for a long time and we have worked together on a number of exciting automation projects together in the past. We are partnering up again and working on an addition to his line of "Phantom" devices, this time the Phantom BBQ. Previous "Phantom" creations that we have worked on together include the Phantom Bench, Phantom Lounge Chair and Phantom Staircase projects. All of these creations involv...

Life is hard. Nobody needs to be told (or reminded, really) just how hard it is. The goal is to make it a bit easier. The automation projects we provide you with here will hopefully do just that – make your life easier. That doesn’t mean that only when everything is installed, your life becomes easier. Installation should be an easy process, too. Here are our top four picks. 4. The Automated Recliner Hours Needed: 1. Components Needed: 1 act...

Guy Marsden tells us about linear actuators for his solar panel tracking system and sustainability:  "As someone who is very committed to living sustainably, I have done a great deal to reduce my energy footprint, both by increasing the efficiency of my Maine home and workshop and by adding solar heating and electric systems that I designed and installed myself with the help of friends, neighbors, and family. It took me a few years to cov...

Texas A & M Uses Heavy Duty Linear Actuators for their Diamond Weapon Safe. Gun safety is an all-important issue today, and four students from Texas A & M have created a gun safe system that individually locks each weapon. This keeps the weapons that a person does not want to use safe and secure. Overview "Diamond will start from its rest place in the ground. It will be elevated by the use of a single actuator and kept in place by a r...

Wondering how to hide your TV? Try these innovative ideas. Want to put your TV away when you aren’t watching it to have more space? Whether you’re hiding your TV on a boat, in your home or anywhere else, using actuators is a low cost, efficient solution. There are many ways to hide a TV in your bedroom, depending on how much time you have and what you’d like the result to be. TV Chest The motorized TV lift is any chest that you’ve outfitted to...

Dr. Decks has brought us another great and exciting invention from his Phantom line of products. This hidden rail project uses one of our PA-15 high-speed linear actuators to extend and retract the railing using linear motion. Need to adjust the height? The motion control systems that are used for this can adjust the railing to just the right height. That means the railing is the right height to prevent the little ones from falling into the ...

A high-speed actuator, Arduino, code and a camera propels a football throwing machine into the future. Students at Florida International University have taken the standard football throwing machine to a new level with some help from Progressive Automations. The drawback to the traditional throwing machine is its inability to fire the ball towards a target that moves back and forth across a field unless the machine is manually operated. Team A...

Progressive Automations is proud to present this video from Dr. Decks using our FLT-03-2-2 Table Lift. Home automation is about innovation. Doing something that makes you think about the possibilities in a way you never thought possible. In this highly anticipated video, Dr. Decks has built the Phantom Bench. It seems like a deck, right? At the flip of a switch, the automation kicks into action revealing a hidden bench. When we saw what Dr. D...

This customer used our compact, PA-15 High-Speed Linear Actuator for this hidden compartment project. One of our customers recently sent us this video. He wanted to head up a home automation project and built this hidden TV cabinet compartment to hold his DVD player and cable box. The project uses our PA-15, a fast actuator with enough force to open and close the box. This compact actuator is also small enough to fit in the TV stand comfortab...

This dynamic duo has created one of the most interesting ideas using two miniature actuators that we've seen - using Twitter. The TwitterDog System Part I. Have you ever wished your Twitter could keep an eye on your dog while you were away? Javon Felder and his partner, Allison Lenzi, have come up with an automated system using linear actuators and sensors that will feed your dog, let him outside and even send you Twitter updates whenever he...

Looking for some linear actuator ideas for hobby automation? For the home hobbyist who likes building and inventing, knowing about linear actuators is a must. Actuators are simply mechanisms that convert energy into movement along a straight line. A regular motor differs from a linear actuator in that a motor creates rotational movement. There is a device available for every conceivable use by a hobbyist. The Many Roles An actuator may be dr...

Our Aquarium hood lift kit is perfect for those who have an aquarium hood in a position where it cannot be easily reached, too heavy, if you want to add a more convenient way to open it or just to have a sleek look. Using linear actuators to open and close your hood lift makes the job of feeding the fish and cleaning the tank a lot easier and straightforward. To create your own aquarium hood lift we recommend using 2 x PA-14 linear actuators, 4 x mounting brackets and our PA-30 control box with wireless remote and an AC adapter.

Another inspirational project by the young to assist the elderly. Progressive Automations proudly sponsored Team S.C.A.R as they won the grand championship in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Competition this year. Eleven teams participated in the March 2013 robotics event themed around improving the quality of life for the elderly by promoting their independence. Slips and falls are the most p...

Students from the Florida A&M University and Florida State University are competing in the RASC-AL ROBO-OPS competition. To find out more about the robot and the competition take a look at the video below as well as information from one of the students who brought this rover to life. "We are a team of six engineering students from the Florida A&M University and Florida State University who are competing in the RASC-AL ROBO-OPS compet...

Even your little ones can ride in style with this new Tot Rod, designed with the help of linear actuators from Progressive Automations. This miniature ride, designed and built by Progressive Automations’ customers, comes complete with a booming sound system, hidden by the back bench. The system has been designed to with a dock for an iPod or iPhone and has easy access with a button in the cab. The control system has been installed on the f...

Your life has just been made easier with this new automated cabinet system made possible with mini-linear actuators from Progressive Automations. Our customers have provided this innovative and unique design, automating their cabinet to hide and reveal their TV. Two mini-tube linear actuators have been used for this cabinet system, along with a wireless control system. As you can see in the video, the controls are simple, straight forward an...

Chef Francios a man known for making gourmet food using only power tools has decided to make every man’s fantasy, The Ultimate “Man Cave". With the electric actuators from Progressive Automations, he will be able to do just that. In the video below he has completed the “proof of concept" for his project. Using linear actuators Chef Francios will be developing innovative methods to create a multipurpose room that can be used for a number of...

Household Linear Actuator Projects. The video below shows several ways to incorporate linear actuators into your household products. We will go through each step in this project shown in detail that describes which Progressive Automations units and accessories you need for the application. You can follow our recommendation or opt for a different unit based on your requirements. Reclining Couch Overview Automatically reclining couches are...

Solar panels have become more popular over the last 20 years to help reduce our energy bills as well as have less of a carbon footprint on the environment. The main issue that has plagued solar panel use over the years is they cannot follow the sun to take full advantage of the sun's power. Progressive Automations offers an inexpensive and safe alternative to take full advantage of the sun all hours of the day. To have a system in the video a...