Automation | Food Engineering

Robotics

Palletizing cobots handle tea, ease workload

Nestlé needed a robust, precise and user-friendly cobotic solution—one that could handle pallet stability.

December 17, 2019

Nestlé Suisse SA in Orbe, Switzerland, a facility producing tea in capsules under the well-known brand of Special.T, was in a bind as it looked for a cobotic palletizing solution. Not only was accurate placement of cartons necessary, the robots had to work safely among people.

Pet Food Series

Tomorrow’s pet food plant: What it takes to stay competitive

Plants of the future will rely on automation to produce consistent safe quality pet foods

Wayne Labs

December 13, 2019

No Comments

What does the modern, competitive pet food plant of the future look like? What are its key design considerations to make it fast, efficient and safe (e.g., product flow, building, internal and external environmental considerations, waste streams, automation, equipment, etc.)?

Automation

Are you and your control systems ready for Windows 10?

Microsoft will drop support of Windows 7 in January 2020

Wayne Labs

December 10, 2019

No Comments

Windows 7 to 10 upgrades may not be so difficult—so upgrade to stay secure.

Wonderful Pistachios' new automated production facility

Automation

Wonderful Pistachios meets global demand with new automated production facility

Producer chooses Allen-Bradley control system over a home-brew motor control center

Wayne Labs

December 2, 2019

No Comments

The choice of a control solution collaborator was straightforward for Wonderful Pistachios, which has worked with Rockwell Automation for more than 20 years.

Tech Update

PLCs and controllers are being used as intelligent gateways to IIoT

Wayne Labs

October 16, 2019

No Comments

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

The State of Food Manufacturing

2019 State of Food Manufacturing Survey

Food Engineering’s annual survey of the industry shows efficiency is top of mind for food and beverage processors

Casey Laughman

October 7, 2019

No Comments

Since 2014, respondents to Food Engineering’s annual State of Food Manufacturing survey have ranked automation as the No. 1 trend affecting the industry—until this year.

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

No Comments

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.

Big Data

Drowning in a sea of data

We’re told to collect as much data from our processes as we can, and there’s practically infinite storage space in the cloud—but how do you make sense of all this data?

Wayne Labs

August 19, 2019

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With automation and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), it’s now easier than ever to collect data and monitor production—all this in the name of managing food quality and food safety. But, with multiple sites and lines supplying data around the clock, any staff would be all but overwhelmed—without a direction in where to focus their process management efforts.

Automation

Experts offer tips for picking an automation project and ensuring success

Rose Shilling

August 14, 2019

No Comments

With overwhelming automation choices, how do you figure out if the project is worth spending $1 million to $2 million?

Fabulous Food Plants

Fabulous Food Plants: Design, build, succeed

The decision to build a new food plant or upgrade usually comes down to which option will keep processors competitive

Wayne Labs

August 12, 2019

No Comments

These projects show that renovations and new facilities aren't just for the billion-dollar food and beverage processors. Small and medium-sized processors can benefit from properly scaled and engineered solutions too.

On-Demand: Forward-thinking plant managers aren’t just reviving their aging plants with automation – they’re building thriving, operationally effective workplaces.

On Demand This Food Plant of the Future webinar explores how to think about tomorrow, today, without going overboard or getting locked into an untenable position. Also discussed: strategies and flexible technologies that are available to keep buildings as unrestricted as possible for future growth and how to build the space and systems to accommodate unanticipated needs.

ON DEMAND: The new generation of adaptive machinery can reduce total cost of ownership, improve and maintain quality and consistency and provide the flexibility needed for the changing trends in the industry.