Wayne Labs

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.

Senior Contributing Technical Editor

Green Series

Energy Efficiency Strategies for Food Processors

Wayne Labs

November 1, 2019

While food processors have to commit to using a certain amount of energy to meet production and food safety requirements, there are ways to be more efficient about how that energy is used.

Tech Update

PLCs and controllers are being used as intelligent gateways to IIoT

Wayne Labs

October 16, 2019

PLCs/PACs are the unseen workhorses in our processes and material handling/packaging equipment today.

Manufacturing News

EPA's stance on glyphosate may affect legal, regulatory outcomes

Wayne Labs

October 16, 2019

The glyphosate (aka Roundup) carcinogen controversy isn’t over yet, but the EPA’s stance on direct exposure may affect regulatory and legal outcomes on residual exposure in foods.

Engineering R&D

DNA-based solution tracks fruit, produce, oils, grains

Wayne Labs

October 16, 2019

SafeTraces Inc. was recently granted a U.S. patent which discloses a ground-breaking method for encoding and decoding digital information to and from DNA strands drawn from seaweed.

Maintenance

Mangled, cryptic English creates maintenance headaches

While some companies would like to throw smart sensors at maintenance problems, making maintenance more efficient relies on humans to communicate effectively

Wayne Labs

October 10, 2019

While not all processors have machine shops with CNCs in their plants, most food and beverage plants do have process and packaging equipment that would benefit from smarter maintenance.

Cybersecurity

How PepsiCo upgraded its access control software

FSMA requires food processors control access to those who come into contact with food, so PepsiCo took immediate action to locate a reliable access control provider

Wayne Labs

October 3, 2019

PepsiCo faced a dilemma about three years ago when its access control software provider announced “end of life” for its legacy security software, potentially leaving more than 300 PepsiCo locations in the lurch for an access control system. What to do?

Engineering R&D

Vacuum/microwave drying technology supports food, cannabis

Wayne Labs

September 17, 2019

EnWave's drying process, which combines vacuum and microwave technologies to dry foods such as blueberries or cheese, has found application in cannabis flowers and hemp.

Complying with FSMA for pet food manufacturing

Wayne Labs

September 17, 2019

Bad news first: If you make pet food, have an older facility and have been putting off examining your operation in light of FSMA, rushing to comply with the new food safety rules for animal foods is probably proving to be a challenge.

Manufacturing News

Another look at food loss and waste in the supply chain

Wayne Labs

September 13, 2019

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, 40% of America’s food supply goes uneaten.

Automation

PLCs, PACs and IPCs: Skip the IIoT acronym and get on with business

PLCs, IPCs and PACs have always been networked, so what role does IIoT really play in the overall manufacturing environment?

Wayne Labs

September 5, 2019

In a Tech Update feature headlined “PLCs/PACs: Keys to the IIoT kingdom,” we looked at programmable controllers (PLCs), programmable automation controllers (PACs) and to some extent industrial PCs (IPCs), the latter of which can certainly be applied to most any level of control—e.g., discrete, PID, batch, etc. We considered new functionality in today’s controllers, internal operating systems, I/O capabilities, security and networking—both at the fieldbus/controls level (OT) and IT-side connections.

On Demand Kelley Rodriguez, Editor in Chief of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, will be joined in this 60-minute webinar by industry experts to help unpack the latest research.

On Demand Driven by climate goals, business risk, client interest, and resilience considerations, food and beverage companies are increasingly turning their attention to decarbonizing their production processes.