Upgrades

• Sustainability in an Industrial Environment

  Sustainability in an Industrial Environment Doug Medley, PE, CEM discuses sustainability in an industrial environment, why to implement a sustainability program and steps to achieving sustainability at your facility.  ‹ SHARE

  Read MoreDoug Medley, PE / Energy Audit  / Energy Efficiency  / Energy Savings  / Power Factor Correction  / Safety  / Sustainability  / Variable Speed  / WAGES  / Sustainability  / Upgrades 

• Design and Implementation is Product of Automation Life Cycle Planning

  Design and Implementation is Product of Automation Life Cycle Planning After creating the roadmap during the automation life cycle planning process, the next step in the journey is the design and implementation of the plan. For smaller systems the design and implementation stages of a system upgrade can take weeks or months and not all […]

  Read MoreTony Ferguson / Automation Planning  / Engineering Consulting Services  / Industrial Automation Upgrades  / Life Cycle  / Maintenance  / Manufacturing Operations Management  / Pre-Engineering  / Process Automation Engineering  / Retrofit  / System Upgrade  / Improvement  / Planning  / Upgrade  / Improvement  / Upgrades 

• Converting Old PLC Code: Benefits and Pitfalls

  Converting Old PLC Code: Benefits and Pitfalls Sounds great, doesn’t it? Buy the new programmable logic controller (PLC) equipment, run the old PLC code through a translator program, and the new system is up and running. Now to give credit where credit is due, very few people would actually believe a control system upgrade would […]

  Read MoreDave Blaida, PE / Automation Integration  / Control System Upgrade  / Conversion  / CPU  / Industrial Automation Engineering  / Manufacturing Operations Management  / Manufacturing Process Control  / PLC  / Source Code  / Planning  / Upgrades 

• Integrating an HTST Skid to Prevent Biopharma Cell Culture Contamination

  Integrating an HTST Skid to Prevent Biopharma Cell Culture Contamination One of the most critical challenges of biopharmaceutical manufacturing is cell culture contamination prevention. Contamination of nutrients used to grow cells means scrapping the whole product and starting over, potentially costing the manufacturer millions of dollars. Here’s how Matrix Technologies recently helped one of the […]

  Read MoreGreg Pfleghaar / Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing  / Good Documentation Practices  / HTST Skid  / System Integration  / Validation  / Improvement  / Planning  / ControlLogix  / Integrations  / Upgrades 

• Business Results, not Technology, Drive Process Control System Migrations

  Business Results, not Technology, Drive Process Control System Migrations Process Control System (PCS)/Distributed Control System (DCS) platform migrations and production system improvements are aimed at satisfying business drivers and are justified by business case results. Most manufacturers cannot justify investment in process control automation by simply replicating obsolete systems with current technology and maintaining the […]

  Read MoreDave Blaida, PE / FEL  / Front-End Loading  / PCS/DCS Migration  / Process Control Automation  / Process Design  / Production System Migrations  / Upgrade  / Upgrades 

• Understanding and Preventing Fault Masking

  Understanding and Preventing Fault Masking It’s critical that industrial machinery stops safely when a system fault occurs.  However, older safety systems and complex systems with multiple safety switches may be prone to fault masking. Fault masking is a dangerous condition in safety circuits.  It results from daisy chaining multiple safety devices in a safety circuit, […]

  Read MoreCarl Bohman, PE / Daisy Chain  / Fault Masking  / Industrial Automation Engineering  / OSSD  / Safety Limit Switch  / Safety Relay  / Safety Switch  / System Fault  / Safety  / Improvement  / Upgrades 

• Specifying Instrumentation Requires a Team Effort

  Specifying Instrumentation Requires a Team Effort The engineering design process for specifying instrumentation is a multidiscipline engineering team effort at Matrix Technologies. The manufacturing engineering consultants (process, piping, mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation and controls) must be in constant communication with each other, throughout the entire project regarding coordination, changes, updates and deletions. This article describes […]

  Read MoreBob Kurczewski / Control System Upgrade  / Engineering Consulting Services  / Industrial Automation Engineering  / Instrumentation Engineering  / Manufacturing Engineering  / Multidiscipline Engineering  / Planning  / Upgrades 

• Using an Arc Flash Study to Improve Worker Safety

  Using an Arc Flash Study to Improve Worker Safety Protecting workers from extremely high temperatures, tremendous pressure blasts and shrapnel hurling at high velocity resulting from an arc fault is of paramount importance in every facility’s operation. An arcing fault is the flow of current through the air between phase conductors or between phase conductors […]

  Read MoreRon Studtmann, PE / Arc Flash  / Engineering Consulting Services  / Industrial Automation Engineering  / Industrial Safety Service  / Manufacturing Operations Management  / Risk Assessment  / Safety  / Safety  / Upgrades 

• Servo Controlled System Upgrade Optimizes Inline Bottle Capping

  Servo Controlled System Upgrade Optimizes Inline Bottle Capping Servo-based systems can deliver crucial efficiency and flexibility in industrial manufacturing. Here’s how Matrix Technologies helped a prominent manufacturer of food and beverage products and consumer packaged goods test and integrate a new servo controlled inline bottle capping system. The Goal: Faster Capping and Reconfiguration A leading […]

  Read MoreTom Chase / Food & Beverage Engineering  / Industrial Automation Engineering  / Manufacturing Operations Management  / Motion Control  / Rockwell Solution Partner  / Servo Systems  / Planning  / Safety  / Integrations  / Rockwell Automation  / Upgrades 

• Preventing Water Hammering in Food and Beverage Applications

  Preventing Water Hammering in Food and Beverage Applications Hydraulic shock, commonly known as water hammer, causes a slamming or banging noise through vibration in piping. These vibrations wreak havoc in many production systems, and are especially prevalent in the food and beverage industry, where Clean In Place (CIP) applications require quick valve closures for maximum […]

  Read MoreJeremy Runk, PE / CIP  / Clean in Place  / Hydraulic Shock  / Parallel Divert Valve  / Process Simulation  / Sanitary Divert Valve  / Estimating  / Improvement  / Planning  / Quality  / Upgrades