Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.
Artificial intelligence, coupled with machine learning, promises to improve plant operations from sensor level to the enterprise, but adoption has been slow with some overzealous starts.
With the rushed production schedules at plants, having key process information is not the only data needed, but key device data allows scheduled maintenance.
PackML transforms the concept of individual machines in a packaging line to a single unified machine with component parts for packaging, making line changes and maintenance faster and easier.
Industrial heat pumps provide chilling and freezing, and reclaim the heat energy lost in chilling to save money on heating water for cooking and cleaning—but is retrofitting possible?
Industrial heat pumps provide chilling and freezing, and reclaim the heat energy lost in chilling to save money on heating water for cooking and cleaning—but is retrofitting possible?
Unlike wet ingredients, the handling of dry powder ingredients and products usually requires specifically designed process areas to prevent dangerous situations that could result in worker injuries or death.
Over the years, data acquisition systems and sensor technology have made it easier to track and improve OEE scores — now AI and ML can find nuances in data to up performance.
While you can measure and chart OEE manually, today’s AI and ML-based technologies with smart sensors can help processors find the little things that can improve availability, performance and quality — leading to autonomous manufacturing.
AI looks to be a panacea for making better inspection choices, but knowing specifically what the inspection criteria should be needs to be in place before employing an AI-based system.
AI looks to be a panacea for making better inspection choices, but knowing specifically what the inspection criteria should be needs to be in place before employing an AI-based system.