Aaron Hand

Editor at Large, PMMI Media Group

Flowserve Screens

IoT Service Platform Puts Eyes on Critical Assets

The launch of Flowserve’s RedRaven platform provides remote monitoring and optimization of flow-related equipment and devices, enabling predictive maintenance for a number of industries.

Upgrading all of its production lines with a new incline layout, Vepo Cheese added a Fortress Interceptor metal detector with each line.

Metal Detector Upgrade Helps Cheesemaker Satisfy Growing Demand

Improved sensitivity, an automated reject system, and data transparency all contribute to better inspection efficiencies for Dutch cheese producer.

With demands caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, West Liberty Foods had to shift more of its production from bulk food service packages to smaller retail packages for consumers.

COVID-19 Provides a Push for Digital Innovation

As food and beverage manufacturers scramble to keep workers safe and shelves stocked, many have moved forward with automation and digital transformation initiatives that might have only been on the radar before the pandemic.

Rhino Foods’ frozen chocolate-chip cookie dough pellets—shown tumbling from a Messer Wave Freezer, ready for packing—add texture and flavor to ice creams.

Wave Freezer Boosts Cookie Dough Production

For production of the frozen cookie dough bits that appear in ice creams, Rhino Foods has found a cryogenic freezer that provides good vibrations for their sweet sensations.

More from Aaron Hand

COVID-19 has put new demands on sanitation procedures.

Challenges Amid a Pandemic

COVID-19 is changing the way food and beverage manufacturers manage their cleaning processes and products, accounting for social distancing and increased sanitation requirements.

Ecolab is using augmented reality from Microsoft to help service its customers remotely, particularly in light of pandemic restrictions on access.

Remote Access Technologies Help Keep Food Sanitation Workers Safe

Cloud services, augmented and virtual reality, and videoconferencing applications are among the latest tools that suppliers are using to keep food and beverage workers safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CRC uses DroneDeploy to fly and map thermal imagery and conduct thermal inspections.

Drones Map and Inspect Energy Operations

California Resources Corp. is growing its drone program with the use of DroneDeploy software to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year mapping and inspecting operations and enabling proactive asset management.

Sunny Dell Foods is a private label and custom recipe provider of high-quality marinated and refrigerated mushrooms, pasta and other sauces, soups, dressings, marinades, peppers and capers.

A Quick Metal Detector Turnaround Gets Mushroom Maker Back Online

When a legacy metal detection system went down and brought production with it, Sunny Dell Foods was able to get back in operation with a brand new system in just 36 hours.

After evaluating the club store format of its Keurig McCafe carton (left), KDP redesigned the packaging for e-commerce (right), working specifically with Amazon SIOC specifications.

Keurig Dr Pepper Helps Guide CPGs Through Amazon Packaging Compliance

Having braved its own journey into Amazon’s Ships in Own Container (SIOC) certification demands, KDP packaging engineers explain what’s required to ready products for e-commerce delivery.

Bendt No. 5 is Bendt Distilling Company’s first blended whiskey release, blending five different whiskeys made in-house.

Craft Distiller Turns Waste From Whiskey Process Into Revenue

A waste byproduct becomes a useful livestock feed for farmers by using a centrifugal sifter to dewater the stillage, the grain/water mixture stripped out after the fermentation process.

The Brenton RP1000 robotic palletizer with integrated Orion MADX stretch wrapper.

Robotics Integration in End-of-Line Packaging

Showing how various modules can be integrated into a packaging line with robotic capabilities, Brenton highlighted innovations in case packing and linear servo tracks.

Using Beumer Smart Glasses provides operators with hands-free troubleshooting, and helps to mitigate the costs of a technician traveling to the customer site.

Smart Glasses Ease Troubleshooting Communication

Beumer has added augmented reality to the tools available to its customers while servicing equipment, enabling faster, easier support. The OEM even used the smart glasses technology to commission and install new equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Getty Images 184637581 Potato Chips

Frito-Lay Potato Chip Fryer Puts Bearings to the Test

After realizing that their Graphalloy bearings had been going strong for six years without any attention, the Arkansas plant decided to see where else Graphite Metallizing’s graphite/metal alloys could provide maintenance-free support.