In Memoriam

摘要

John Kowal, Director of Business Development at B&R Industrial Automation, passed away in July 8, 2020 after a long battle with cancer. Kowal was one of the most influential figures in packaging automation over the past two decades. In the '90s, Kowal authored a book on PC vs PLC control. Joining the servo division in the late 1990s of what is now Bosch Rexroth, Kowal evangelized the potential for servo control for the packaging machinery industry at a time when there was resistance to the new technology. As part of this effort, Kowal was instrumental in propelling the then-sleepy OMAC organization into the packaging community in the late '90s, giving it a sense of purpose and vitality that put it on the map. (At the time, OMAC stood for Open Modular Architecture Controls but was later renamed to Organization for Machine Automation and Control.).