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.
While there have been many success stories, blockchain technologies are still developing, so producers and processors will need to examine their needs carefully
Blockchain providers are working hard to gain the acceptance of food and beverage processors—no matter their size, and standard datasets like GS1 are helping to define the rules for consistent information handling.
Many large food and beverage manufacturers have their own engineering staffs, which provide system integration and automation services to their various facilities. However, most medium- and small-sized processors often don’t have these capabilities—and may have just a single plant engineer.
Take the temperature of a moving fluid inside a pipe without inserting a temperature probe, and get an accurate measurement through the external pipe temperature? You’ve got to be kidding. Is this some kind of a joke?
Getting parts and materials on schedule can be a challenge, let alone the workforce to execute projects and keep plants operational, but technology is helping to fill in the gaps
For the second time in as many years, FE’s annual Food Automation and Manufacturing Conference was held quite successfully on line—rather than in person—due to the persistent COVID-19 pandemic.