The Internet. The explosion of wireless technologies. The Industrial Internet of Things. Technologies and trends that have been shaping, and will continue to shape, our world and the industries in which we work. As you face the challenges of plant modernization, especially in the areas of automation and controls, you will also face the challenges…
DetailsWe first posted about the relationship between water and energy in 2011 and have made numerous other posts since then with updates on this issue. Because such a large part of the costs experienced in water distribution and the wastewater treatment process are for energy, this is an issue of great interest within our industry. The subject…
DetailsBy Bruce Koppenhoefer Whenever major trade show events come around, managers everywhere have to ask themselves the “why” question: Why should I and/or my staff attend? What will we gain? And those are important questions to ask. Even if the related travel expenses aren’t much, there’s still employee time to consider: what could they be…
DetailsWhat do you do to follow up a record year of order performance? You get lean and prepare to do even better. Our production facility is regularly seeking ways to improve productivity, and last year we implemented several ideas our shop teams identified (shop improvements blog). After finishing fiscal 2017 with a record volume of…
Detailsby Andrew Green There’s money to be made in your plant. And it can be had without buying new robots, hiring more production workers, or making the R&D department work overtime. It’s a good bet your equipment and motors can be run more efficiently, producing significant savings in energy expenditures. So how can you tell…
DetailsWhen I learned that Sean Gucken had been struck down suddenly by an apparent heart attack, I was stunned. He always exuded the health of someone who looked much younger than his age of 55. He was really into spear fishing, but he did it free diving, meaning no SCUBA gear, to depths that certainly…
DetailsBy Michelle Segrest, Contributing Editor for Maintenance Technology (Editor’s note: Reprinted with permission. Some editing has been employed. You may read the article in its entirety, with all links, references, and photos at Maintenance Technology.) While new construction in the municipal water-treatment market has remained relatively flat, growth in the industrial water-treatment market has increased—driven largely by…
DetailsBy Andrew Green (Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in August 2016 and is still often viewed, so we are reposting for our newer followers. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It is a fundamental part of many plant-wide control systems across all industries.) SCADA systems are easily…
DetailsThe Okeechobee SFWMD Command & Control Center project was a $6 million project that had to be run like six $1 million projects, according to project superintendent Don Barnes. The project involved automating a string of massive pump stations along the north rim of Lake Okeechobee, and the distance between pump stations is the source…
Detailsby Jim Hazelwood According to the NFPA 70B, “Infrared inspections of electrical systems are beneficial to reduce the number of costly and catastrophic equipment failures and unscheduled plant shutdowns.” In addition to being a relatively non-invasive examination, infrared inspections (also commonly referred to as “thermography studies”) can also find hot spots inside electrical systems before…
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