Last updated: 15 October 2026
This is the largest range in the workshop group: thirty-three units in the MW series covering programmable logic control, pneumatic and electro-pneumatic circuits, hydraulic, electro-hydraulic and proportional hydraulic sets, stepper and servo drives, a three-axis Cartesian robot, machine vision with a conveyor, an automated storage and retrieval system, an elevator trainer, an industrial Ethernet trainer, a factory automation trainer, sensors and transducers, a control engineering trainer, and a modular workbench to mount it all on. Mechatronics is the trade of making those things work together, which is why the range is wide and why the way you buy it matters more than in any other workshop.
Nine of the thirty-three units are PLC trainers. That is not padding; it reflects how much of this trade is control programming. But it does mean the single most consequential decision you will make here is which control platform your students learn on, and that decision is made once and lived with for a decade.
A mechatronics workshop fails in a specific way. The individual trainers all work, the students pass the individual exercises, and nothing can ever be joined to anything else - so the one thing the trade is actually about, integration, is never taught. Before approving a list, put it through four questions.
| Question | What a wrong answer costs |
|---|---|
| Do the units share a mounting standard? | Mechatronics exercises are built by assembling modules onto a frame. If the pneumatic set, the sensor kit and the PLC mount in three incompatible ways, no station can ever be built. Ask whether everything mounts on the modular workbench, MW-0037, and in what size units |
| Do they share one control voltage? | A mixture of 24 V DC and mains-powered modules with different common returns makes interconnection an electrical problem rather than a teaching exercise |
| Do they share one PLC platform and one programming environment? | Two platforms means two software licences, two sets of cables and two syllabuses. Pick one for the workshop and buy everything to it |
| Can one air supply and one hydraulic power pack serve the stations you plan? | Air and oil are shared services. Sizing them for one station and then adding three is the commonest reason a workshop runs out of capacity in year two |
If all four answers are yes, a class can progress from a single module to a working station, which is the whole point. Ask us to quote a station rather than a list: the frame, the control, the actuation, the sensing and the exercise material as one specified set.
Three of the nine PLC units name a specific manufacturer platform and the rest are generic in the listing, so ask on every one: which make and model of PLC is fitted, and is it the platform used by the industry your students will work in and named by the syllabus you teach? A PLC trainer teaches a programming environment as much as it teaches a principle, and the environment is what transfers to employment.
Then ask about the software, because this is where mechatronics purchases go wrong. Is the programming software included, what does it cost per seat, is the licence perpetual, and will it install on the computers your laboratory actually has? Ask which of the standard programming languages it supports - ladder, function block and structured text are all defined in the international standard for PLC programming languages, and a syllabus that examines structured text cannot be taught on software that only offers ladder. Ask also whether a simulator is included, since a simulator lets a whole class write and test programs when there are only four trainers; two of the units here, MW-0001 and MW-0012, are simulator-based for exactly that reason. Related courseware is listed in the software workshop range.
Five units here are pneumatic or electro-pneumatic, and none of them do anything without air. Size the supply before the trainers, and size it on flow rather than pressure: a compressor that reaches the right pressure but cannot sustain the flow of four stations working at once will cycle continuously and still disappoint. Then settle four things.
Air preparation. A filter, regulator and, where the equipment requires it, a lubricator at each station. Water in the lines is what destroys pneumatic valves, and in a humid climate a compressor without a dryer or an adequate receiver and drain will deliver wet air within weeks. Ask what air quality the equipment requires and specify the preparation to match it.
Noise. Both the compressor and the exhausts. Exhaust silencers on the valves make a pneumatics class usable; a compressor in the same room usually does not, so plan for it to be elsewhere or in an enclosure.
The two safety rules that have to be taught in the first session. A pressurised line that comes loose will whip and the fitting on the end of it is a projectile, so fittings are checked before pressure is applied and a circuit is depressurised before it is altered, not after something comes apart. And compressed air is never used to blow down clothing or skin.
The receiver. An air receiver is a pressure vessel, and in many countries it is subject to statutory registration and periodic inspection. Confirm with your own authority what applies before the compressor is installed, and ask us for the receiver certificate and drawings with the quotation.
Seven units cover hydraulic, electro-hydraulic and proportional hydraulic work. Everything said about air applies here with the pressures multiplied, and one hazard is specific enough that it should be written into the exercise sheet in plain words.
A pinhole leak in a hydraulic hose produces a jet fine enough to be nearly invisible and at a pressure high enough to inject fluid through skin. That is a surgical emergency, not a cut. A leak is never searched for with a hand and never traced along a hose with fingers; a piece of card or wood is used, the system is shut down and depressurised first, and anyone who suspects an injection injury goes to hospital immediately and says what happened. Teach it on day one, put it on the wall, and ask whether the trainer has a pressure relief setting the instructor can lock.
Beyond that: ask what oil the units need and whether they ship with it, because hydraulic oil is often not shipped with equipment and the specification matters; ask about filtration and the filter change interval, since proportional and servo valves fail on contaminated oil faster than on anything else, which makes the two proportional sets here the most oil-sensitive items in the workshop; ask about hose condition and replacement intervals, because hoses age whether or not they are used; plan for a drip tray or bund and absorbent material, since a teaching hydraulic rig will leak at some point; and plan for noise and heat from the power pack. Fluid mechanics as a subject, rather than hydraulic power, is covered by the hydraulics bench workshop range.
The three-axis Cartesian robot, the storage and retrieval system, the conveyor and vision station, the elevator trainer and the servo axes all move under their own power, and a classroom is a crowded place. Ask what guarding is supplied and, specifically: is there a fixed fence, an interlocked gate or a light curtain; is there an emergency stop within reach of where a student stands, and does it stop everything or only the axis; is there a reduced teaching speed for programming; and are the trapping points guarded or only labelled. A servo axis is quiet, fast and strong enough to injure a hand that is in its path, and a student programming it is by definition not sure what it is about to do.
For the vision station, the specification that decides whether it works is lighting, not the camera. Ask what lighting is supplied and whether the station can be used in a room with windows, because ambient light changing through the day is the commonest reason a teaching vision exercise stops working after lunch. For the industrial Ethernet trainer, ask which protocol it uses: several incompatible industrial Ethernet protocols are in service, and the one worth teaching is the one the employers near you use.
If you are working from a code list, three MW items are not on these pages because they are filed under other workshops: MW-0009, a PLC application board, and MW-0033, a basic hydraulic trainer, appear in the electrical and electronics workshop listing, and MW-0010, a PLC and pneumatic control trainer, appears in the information technology workshop listing. A fourth, MW-0027, is not currently on any workshop listing. All of them can be quoted. Quote the code and the full product name together and ask for both to be confirmed on the proforma invoice; on this range in particular the names are close enough that a code alone is not enough - four separate records are called some variation of "PLC trainer" or "PLC training system".
Make and model of every PLC, drive, valve and sensor fitted, not just the trainer name; the programming software, its licence terms and its system requirements; the mounting standard and whether modules interchange with the workbench; control voltage; air quality and flow requirement per station, and oil specification and quantity, stating whether oil ships with the equipment; guarding and emergency stop arrangements per unit; the exercise list each unit is designed to deliver, to compare against your syllabus; consumables and spares with prices, which here means seals, hoses, filter elements, tubing, fittings and lamps; nominal voltage, frequency and plug pattern; and the warranty, commissioning and local service position. Any certification stated here is manufacturer-stated and should be verified against the certificate before you tender on it.
Related ranges: mechanical engineering trainers for machines and mechanisms, CNC trainers for machine tool control, and the test and measurement workshop for the instruments this workshop needs. The full set is listed under workshop training equipment. For a quotation, tell us the destination country, the supply and air available, how many stations you want to run at once and the syllabus or tender specification you are working to.
Electro-Hydraulic Training Set, Advanced Level
Advanced Proportional Hydraulic Training Set