Maintenance and remote services reach the pump world - Above all, a pump must deliver reliably - right? More and more manufacturers are drilling their flow machines with additional digital benefits. But what do operators gain when the pump goes to the cloud?

Stand in many an oil field and you will feel yourself transported back to the early 1970s. Despite past price crises and predictions of “peak oil”, little has changed in terms of measurement data acquisition, monitoring, and automation. Employees travel long distances every day; their most important tools are pen and clipboard. Yet efficiency can be significantly increased simply by equipping the measuring points with radio systems. This is the first step on the road to the digital oilfield, at the end of which lies greater added value. The principle of Open Process Automation provides future-proofing.

The rise of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the chemical and chemical processing industry has helped plant operators to monitor critical infrastructure, undertake better informed decisions and achieve accurate, efficient and quick results without putting their personnel at risk.

The time-to-market has always been a concern for the pharmaceutical industry. But the development of a vaccine against covid-19 in just a few months and making it available within a year has left one speechless: How was/is that possible? What has the industry learned from this for the future? What can be adapted and what cannot? Insights from a web conference organized and hosted by PROCESS.

The mixing of a viscoplastic fluid with an anchor impeller is studied visually. Three different types of experiments, documented through videos and still images, demonstrate the existence of an unyielded region, rotating like a rigid body. These results are in good agreement with previous workers’ numerical predictions, and dramatically show the influence of yield stress on mixing effectiveness, even with a well-designed agitation system. The unyielded region is the equivalent, for a close-clearance impeller, of the stagnant region outside the well-known ‘cavern’ forming around a small-diameter impeller. Furthermore, for such systems the presence of motion is not by itself a criterion by which quality of mixing can be assessed.

Achema back as a live event for the first time since it was postponed— After some back and forth, the leading trade fair for the process industry opens its doors in August. Despite great anticipation for the upcoming meeting, expectations are mixed. Achema between the Ukraine war and the fading pandemic.

Start-Up Companies at Achema — Achema not only wants to be the world’s leading trade fair for the chemical industry, but also to provide a forum for start-ups. Because despite the unbroken innovative power of the industry, start-ups in the chemical industry have a hard time. Is there a lack of recognition, capital or simply the opportunities? Achema wants to change all that.

For process automation specialist Endress+Hauser, the Field Xpert SMT70 plant asset management tablet has become an indispensable mobile workstation for customer applications. The hardware basis for this intelligent mobile device is provided by the Pad-Ex 01 from Pepperl+Fuchs brand Ecom Instruments, an intrinsically safe Windows tablet for industrial use. Thanks to the combination of this hardware and the cloud-based IIoT ecosystem Netilion, Endress+Hauser was able to master a tricky diagnostic task at a customer company and resolve previously inexplicable plant downtimes.

The digitization train is picking up speed and many companies in the process industry have already jumped on board to gain a competitive edge through a deeper understanding of their production and a better overview of their various systems and locations. In this process, more and more companies are exploiting the fast and pragmatic approaches offered by open-source software. Automation experts, such as those from Wago Kontakttechnik, in a team with system integrators combine sensor systems, gateways, container applications and cloud computing to extract even more information from company processes.

How good, agile service enhances a company’s reputation and becomes a gateway to the customer?Germany is not a service desert: For pharmaceutical machinery manufacturer Glatt, the after-sales service team is a source of pride. Martin Zemke’s technicians are available around the clock for customers worldwide. In an interview, Zemke reveals what makes the difference.