Control Systems

Water is used in so many ways throughout the food and beverage industry, even as the final product, which means the quality of that water needs to be carefully monitored. With such an influence on the finished product, precise water quality monitoring can provide the key to consistent quality output, so is it time to look at the next generation of compact continuous analysis solutions?

Manufacturers in the food and beverage industry have two main priorities: product quality and hygiene. For those operating with different fluids, from fruit juice to milk, chocolate and beer, there are many challenges in measuring flow while at the same time minimising waste and energy usage.

Creating a pharmaceutical manufacturing suite is a complex task that is governed by a host of standards and specifications. For the AstraZeneca manufacturing plant in North Ryde, Sydney, Australia, the decision to change its primary supplier of process control valves to Bürkert, reduced installation and commissioning costs while also improving process data availability.

Modern cruise ships are promoted as the epitome of comfort and luxury; hence, allowing passengers to adjust cabin temperatures to their liking is an essential part of the experience. With such a large number of rooms the HVAC control systems need to balance easy, responsive individual adjustment for hundreds of cabins with the main ship’s systems - in order to ensure an efficient, reliable and accurate service is maintained. 

The Kuber-212G- a compact-sized, fan-less embedded system from Mitwell, a subsidiary of Portwell, features the latest 14nm Intel Celeron N3350 processor (codenamed Apollo Lake). It is compact 99 (L) x 63 (W) x 92 (D) mm design, and features low power consumption, high-performance computing and a powerful graphics engine.

University Health network (UHN) is Canada's largest research hospital which operates four major hospitals and one teaching institute: Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margret Cancer Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and The Michener Institute.

Fuel cells have been hailed as the energy source of the future; they can provide a non-polluting supply of power by re-combining hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity and water. The chemistry sounds very simple, however creating a reliable, efficient and safe energy source requires considerable expertise, especially in the control of the fluids and gases that are involved in this exciting technology. Tony Brennan, Field Segment Manager, at Bürkert, looks at the process in more detail, what is needed to develop the technology and make it more widely available.

There is a new generation of intelligent input systems with capacitive touch technology. The intuitive operation with a finger swipe, wipe, rotate or tap via the touch screen corresponds to that of a smartphone and thus meets the current consumer taste.

British Thermal engineering specialist GRE has won a five-figure contract to develop bespoke ultra-pure water cooling solutions for the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden, a multi-disciplinary research facility based on the most powerful pulsed neutron source ever seen.

Providing high quality water supplies is an essential service delivered by municipal authorities and utility companies around the world. Maintaining water quality requires constant monitoring and testing to ensure accurate measurements are being taken. Traditionally this has involved time-consuming calibration and maintenance.