Plcs - Articles - Page 3 | Food Engineering

Engineering R&D

Monitoring machine health 24/7

Wayne Labs

March 5, 2015

Process and packaging machine builders have been looking for ways to cut back on client support expenses.

Technology Sourcebook

Bagging machine

January 14, 2015

The Circle Packaging Flexibag Si-500 bagging machine creates 4-side sealed sachets.

Automation Series

The rise of robotic automation

Robotics can play a role in pick-and-place, packaging, case packing and palletizing processes, but how do you know where to implement robotic automation?

Wayne Labs

January 8, 2015

Throughput. It all comes down to this number.

Field Reports

Brewery minimizes downtime with controls update

Two obsolete PLCs were replaced by a modern controller while the original I/O was kept, thanks to a new control network gateway.

October 7, 2014

Whether it’s football in the US or rugby in Great Britain, the two sports have one thing in common: Many of their spectators like beer.

Engineering R&D

The fantastic voyage of a temperature probe

Best way to measure the internal process temperature of a cooking stage: Send an RFID probe through the process piping!

Wayne Labs

September 4, 2014

Measuring the internal temperature or the doneness of any product as it travels through a continuous cooking system is not an easy task.

Farm bill on its last legs according to IDFA

TECH FLASH

Report: PLC market stagnant

Previous growth levels in the programmable logic controller market have not been reached in three years

Jeremy Gerrard

August 25, 2014

The ARC Group says technological developments are shifting away from programmable logic controller hardware.

Technology Sourcebook

Featuring onboard I/Os for digital, analog and high-speed functionality, the Unitronics Samba palm-sized PLC has a built-in HMI 3 1/2-in., 16-bit touch screen that enables data entry and display of variable data; the unit supports 24 user-designed screens and up to 40 images per application.

Technology Sourcebook

Small-machine PLC

August 7, 2014

Designed for small machines and compressor control, the Rockwell Allen-Bradley Micro820 20-point programmable logic controller features embedded Ethernet and serial ports, a microSD slot, pulse-width modulation output and recipe management.

Field Reports

DIY: Automating a donut line

Mel-O-Cream Donuts designed a simple yet robust automated packaging and labeling line to replace a manual system.

May 6, 2014

Founded in 1932 as a retail shop in Springfield, IL, Mel-O-Cream International manufactures bakery products, primarily for wholesale distribution to supermarkets and bakeries.

the Beckhoff CP26xx multi-touch panel PC

Technology Sourcebook

HMI/PLC/motion control system

April 7, 2014

Equipped with a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU with access to 1GB internal DDR3 RAM memory, the Beckhoff CP26xx multi-touch panel PC has TwinCAT automation software that makes the unit an all-in-one HMI, PLC and motion control system.