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The world is moving towards automated production but what exactly will the cost of automation be? The global spend on automation increased more than 140% to $155 billion dollars compared to just $65 billion in 2000 and is estimated to increase to over $300 Billion by 2020. It’s easy to see why that trend will continue to increase. More efficient processes, increasing throughput, decreasing labor costs, improved quality control, and the reduction of waste are among the benefits of automating production environments. Upfront cost has been a reluctance for some small to medium-sized companies to invest in automation, but the return on investment makes the true cost of automation increasingly attainable. Here is how much automation really costs:

For customers looking to increase batching effectiveness, batching customization is an incredible opportunity to increase efficiency without the addition of complex automated control mechanisms. Our Industrial Applications team recently installed a solution to fit a plastic pellet manufacture’s unique process in a safe and intuitive way.

Product verification is an integral part of quality processes. Verifying correct parts, regulatory weight, and proper packaging is vital to ensuring that your customers receive the product they have paid for. In-motion check weighing is a common solution to check product quality. However, your processes may not fit standard solutions available on the market today. Here is a custom check weighing solution our Carlton Industrial Automation team built to solve those problems:

Sometimes scale operators are necessary for truck weighing applications to ensure that processes are being followed. Automation can help keep processes moving swiftly and working at off hours while still ensuring the correct process steps are being followed. In a recent project, our Carlton Industrial Automation team helped a waste management municipality make their third-party dumping process more efficient. This allowed for yard operators to focus elsewhere in the facility, saving manpower and money.

 

Automation is the future of manufacturing, especially with batch processes. The question is, what is the best way to start incorporating automation processes? Most engineers are incredibly comfortable with PLC system control, but that leaves floor level scale operators, maintenance personnel, and scale technicians in a difficult situation when it comes to maintenance and operation. It also involves complex protocols that may not be able to let the automated mechanism respond quick enough to perform the action, resulting in too much of the ingredient in the mix or worse, ruined batches! The best alternative is to utilize a dedicated batch controller for your batching.

 

 

Often customers will ask, should I use analog or digital load cells? Both have pros and cons, but the main difference between the two is how their signals are processed.  Signal strength, signal content, and data sample rate are the main elements that vary between the two load cell options…..