Food & Beverage

Below you will find white papers on topics involving process control and automation.

Vision Integration Transforms Collaborative Robotics

Submitted by Luck Chand || Valin Corporation

In the world of automation, both industrial and collaborative robots have proven invaluable in improving efficiency, repeatability, and safety. However, many robots in use today still operate in what can be considered a “blind” mode.

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Engineering 101: Three Ways Heat Can Transfer

Submitted by Ryan Kraus || Valin Corporation

Learn the fundamentals of heat transfer and how conduction, convection & radiation impact heater performance. This Engineering 101 guide makes complex thermal concepts easy to understand and helps you choose the right heating solution for your process.

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Navigating the Challenges of Motor Commutation

Submitted by Corey Foster & Bruce Ng || Valin Corporation

In the world of motion control, engineers often face the challenge of integrating different brands of drives and motors into a cohesive system. At first glance, mixing and matching equipment might not seem like a problem, especially if the sizes of the components line up. 

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Why Operating Environment Matters for Actuator Selection

Submitted by Bruce Ng || Valin Corporation

Actuators are required for a variety of operations throughout a multitude of different industries. With so many different potential applications, one would correctly assume that the options can often be overwhelming. Many of these actuators only require a base-level of sizing that is mostly driven by the load (for the bearings) and the desired motion profile (for the drivetrain).

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Coalescing 101: Sizing and Considerations

Submitted by Joe Bodle and Norm Hall || Valin Corporation

In the world of industrial filtration, one of the most common activities involves the removal or displacement of water from another liquid. However, this process is further subdivided into three distinct phases. Chronologically, the first of these phases is particulate filtration (sometimes referred to as prefiltration).

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Heating a Tank for an Industrial Process

Submitted by Jon Irvine || Valin Corporation

Taking a systematic approach to specifying a tank heater can help ensure the equipment specified delivers the heating performance desired. Factors to consider include the amount of energy needed, heat loss, direct or indirect heating, materials of construction, and controls.

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Condition Monitoring: What Are We Measuring?

Submitted by Corey Foster || Valin Corporation

The concepts of preventive maintenance and condition monitoring are not always characterized in a way that is entirely accurate. They sometimes seem to be treated as a one-size-fits-all service that many operators believe they need. However, these concepts can mean very different things depending on the application.

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Considerations for Selecting Conveyors

Submitted by James Walker || Valin Corporation

Selecting a conveyor for an automation project is certainly not a one-size-fits-all scenario. Automation applications are incredibly diverse, and the options and features available on conveyors reflect that.

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How to Monitor Assets Remotely Today

Submitted by Corey Foster || Valin Corporation

As long as products have had ethernet ports, people have been asking for remote access to them. They believed they could just plug the devices into the internet, and it would all work.?As more software tools became available and internet speeds increased, capable users found ways to give themselves access, however, there was a catch.

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Steam vs. Electric Heating — The Basics

Most facilities in the chemical process industries (CPI) require some form of heat. The amount of heat required, and the necessary level of consistency can vary from process to process. Regardless of the details, engineers must decide on a heating source that works best for a particular process.

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Silicon-Controlled Rectifier Power Controls: Worth the Investment

Submitted by Randy Mulvaney || Valin Corporation

In terms of what matters to most in the field today, it is safe to assume that reliability, flexibility, accuracy and cost are at the top of the list. With these factors in mind, implementing a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) control system for an electric heater is often an optimal approach.

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