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By Gayle Putrich
STAFF REPORTER
Published: March 10, 2014 12:10 pm ET
Updated: March 10, 2014 12:14 pm ET
ANAHEIM, CALIF. — If you can control your DVR from afar, why not your gravimetric feeders, too?
Conair Group has expanded its web-enabled control software to make its TrueFeed feeders controllable with most networked devices, adding to its combination of Internet-controlled blenders, dryers and material-handling controls.
The auxiliary supplier, based in Cranberry Township, Pa., checked up on feeders via touch-screen controls and an FLX central material-handling control system back at their headquarters while enjoying the California sunshine during February’s MD&M West trade show in Anaheim.
Existing FLX users can add gravimentric feeder control to their Web-enabled control suite at no additional cost in the third-generation software upgrade, said Conair’s product manager for conveying, Doug Brewster.
“This is the most intelligence we could put in that little box,” he said. “You can have 40 independent systems running on FLX at once from anywhere and still never have to worry about being out of touch.”
Also at the trade show, Conair introduced its new small-diameter planetary cutter, which automates cut-to-length operations and speeds production of medical tubing without concerns about particulate contamination or distortion. Planetary cutters, while not new, are usually used in large-diameter operations, such as pipe. But Conair’s Traveling Planetary Cutter units can automate the cutting process on tubing as small as .080 inches in diameter, said Bob Bessmer, sales manager for medical extrusion. | |
