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Taking a wetland vehicle out into a marsh can be daunting.  Looking out at miles of open marsh, you get the same feeling as gazing deep into forested mountains or across towering ocean waves – it’s wild country, and making it back safely is solely up to you and the equipment you bring along. No matter what mission you’re on, the vehicle you select is likely the most important decision involved.  Wetland vehicles are a special breed of off-road equipment that must excel in widely varying conditions, all while serving a multitude of challenging functions reliably and safely. 

There are few conversations happening in the public sphere today as loudly as that of sustainability. While we are not looking to exploit an overused buzzword, we do see ample opportunity in supporting our customers as they navigate these conversations occurring within their own organizations. Industrial manufacturing as a market sector falls under considerable scrutiny for its relatively high energy and raw material consumption, but at the same time stands overwhelmingly well poised to make huge, positive impacts.

If readers ever need a reminder that workplace accidents can occur at any time, from any source, without warning, breezing through the OSHA Catastrophic Accident database will surely do the trick. Responding to an uptick in accidents involving compressed gas cylinders, this is exactly what one of our long-time distribution customers did in searching for ways that they could help reduce their end-users’ risk.

Procuring industrial components under a formal purchasing contract historically has not been very common in the United States, but with the supply chain rumblings of the last several years, more and more volume part buyers are exploring contract-like engagements to secure the products they need.

Few topics are as socially charged these days as the debate between electric versus fossil fuel vehicles.  Regardless of where you land on the matter, one point is crystal clear, which is that next generation vehicles of any type will increasingly rely on advanced instrumentation, electronic, and integrated circuit technologies to meet both environmental and consumer experience demands. In this article, we’ll take a look at the role of instrumentation in emerging vehicle technologies beyond just fuel types. 

As with many regulatory compliance matters, navigating code requirements for industrial automation projects can range from mildly confusing to virtually impossible!  No singular body of code tells controls engineers what regulations their projects must comply with, complicating a seemingly simple task like specifying a sensor.  But, there is hope.  One very useful way that instrumentation manufacturers such as Whitman Controls help streamline compliance is by using Certification, Approval, and Testing marks.  Let’s define each of these items, and then go on to an example:  

At an inspection rate of 300 glass bottles per minute, our customer’s continuous inline inspection platform carries responsibility for making a instantaneous pass-or-fail decision on a single bottle every two-tenths of one second.  When a ‘fail’ decision is computed, a series of pneumatic cylinders and positioners isolate the suspect bottle, move it to a reject conveyor outfeed, and hold spacing on the remaining bottles so that inspections continue seamlessly. How did we protect the system from control air supply upsets? Find out the four ways we solved this challenge.

A recent customer contacted Whitman to discuss a solar-powered water pump application.  This client designs and manufactures solar pump systems intended to be deployed anywhere in the world where sunlight shines and water needs to flow.  A necessary technical feature of these systems was that they would automatically shut down should they lose incoming water flow, and that was all we needed to know to determine that we could help.

Process control sensors in Food & Beverage applications have a rough life.  Relentless cleaning with harsh chemicals, intentional large swings in operating conditions, and the perpetual demand to perform flawlessly or else real people might get real sick consuming compromised food products – you’d think it’d be a no-win situation for instrumentation manufacturers.

Recently, a midstream energy producer contacted Whitman to discuss an application that sought to optimize these proportions towards cleaner burning, more efficiently produced end-products. The issue at hand was inaccurate, high cost, high maintenance level control in the distillation feed tanks. Good thing custom level control is right up our alley!