PII Editorial Audio

Digitalisation is gaining momentum among process industry manufacturers. A new age of fully automated plants competing on a global scale is approaching. But what will this world mean to the critical process control applications?

Steam production is responsible for up to 60% of total energy consumption. As a result, ensuring steam is not unnecessarily lost, and the fuel used to create it not wasted, benefits both production and profitability. Here, Sam Mawby, Technical Director at Thermal Energy International, takes an in depth look at how some of these losses can be avoided and how effective steam management can further improve processes on site.

Powder/Solids processing valves present more performance challenges than gas or liquid valves and therefore often require more consideration of available options and customisation. Before we detail the two most common options, readers may find it useful to review the basic factors to consider when specifying solids processing valves in our article Valves for Powders.

Tightening environmental standards and the rising cost of tankering wastewater mean more and more industrial process companies are taking control of their own treatment systems. However, many who have opted for onsite treatment facilities have had their fingers burned by badly planned and delivered projects.

Depending on the process requirements, a wide range of bulk solids batching, dosing and weighing systems are available in the market. It's a fact that, properly selected weighing systems will provide many years of a problem free service with minimum loss of raw materials due to improper measurement.   In general, end users are focused on the determination of proper configuration of dosing systems. Consequently storage and conveying systems that supply raw material to dosing systems are generally ignored or overlooked. As it is essential to achieve the most appropriate configuration for minimum budget and shortest return of investment, these systems should be investigated in depth

As a consultant engineer to the bulk solids handling and processing industry, problems relating to unreliable flow from storage vessels (hoppers, silos, bunkers) are a regular occurrence. This paper sets out to explain how hoppers work, how design for reliable flow for a new vessel and retrofit techniques that be used to improve the discharge from existing vessels.

Variable speed drives have been used for over half a century, with the main advantage being the reduction of electrical energy use. With the advance of Industry 4.0 the role of the drive moves from that of a pure power processor to that of an intelligent element of the automation system. The ability of the drive to act as a smart sensor, makes it a natural choice when implementing condition monitoring. In this article we present how this can be used in water and wastewater applications.

Machine vision is a well-established technique across a host of industries, improving quality and efficiency in the manufacturing and processing sectors. Its ability to make inspections reliably and at speed 24/7 makes it an invaluable enabling technology in quality control. Technological advances in machine vision continue to be made rapidly, opening up more and more possibilities. Improvements in sensor technology, processing power, optics, illumination technology and software all contribute to improved performance in the traditional machine vision sector.