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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers
Government Food Safety System 'Appalling'
December 11, 2009 3:14 am | by Garance Burke, Associated Press Writer | News | CommentsFRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A crucial part of the nation's rapid-reponse plan — the ability to trace food through the supply chain during an illness outbreak or bioterrorism attack — is seriously flawed, an independent watchdog agency has found. Federal auditors found that nearly half the food manufacturers they surveyed that are supposed to register with the Food and Drug Administration failed to give the agency accurate contact information, according to a report to be released Friday by the U.
Lawmaker Wants Meatpacker Closed After Recall
December 10, 2009 10:36 am | News | CommentsFRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro wants to temporarily shut down a California beef processor that has recalled nearly 850,000 pounds of hamburger meat due to salmonella fears. The Connecticut Democrat says Fresno-based Beef Packers Inc. should be closed until investigators probe conditions that prompted the recalls, the most recent of which happened last Friday.
The Post Industrial Myth
December 10, 2009 9:29 am | Articles | CommentsIn 1973, Daniel Bell wrote a book entitled The Coming of the Post Industrial Society , in which he correctly predicted the global diffusion of capital, trade deficits, and the decline of the manufacturing sector in the economy. In a recent article on this phenomenon, The Economist makes the case that we can transition to a “post industrial” service economy with continued economic growth.
Proper Considerations When Selecting An Epoxy
December 10, 2009 9:22 am | by Yitzy Feman, Master Bond Inc. | Articles | CommentsIndustries worldwide employ epoxies for their highly reliable properties, especially those that are hard to come by in alternative solutions. Given the range of considerations involved with epoxy selection, manufacturers today offer a wide variety of solutions, each with optimized, application-specific properties.
Swanson Transitions From Pen-to-Paper To MES
December 10, 2009 9:18 am | Articles | CommentsFactivity fit Swanson Industries with its shop floor technology in August 2008—replacing pen-to-paper with a PC-based manufacturing execution system (MES). The transition proved easy company-wide; operators and top tier management are now equipped with real time business information to make informed decisions while jobs are on the line.
Lean Manu ... Something Or Other
December 10, 2009 8:56 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO | Blogs | CommentsDuring a break from the recent onslaught of food and football that is the Thanksgiving weekend, I was half-watching CNN and reading the Sunday morning paper when one of the network’s “reports” really caught my attention. It was detailing the losses of U.
Mr. Squiggles Was The Triggerman
December 10, 2009 8:30 am | by by David Mantey, Editor, PD&D | Blogs | CommentsSo if I am shot, I shouldn’t bleed or die as long as the gunman doesn’t consider the way the bullet was manufactured to be legitimate, right? Don’t tell me that I have to suck on a toy hamster to prove a point, but if I fall off the grid tonight, there’s a good chance that Mr.
Full-Body Nomex Harnesses
December 10, 2009 8:12 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe Thermatek Kit from MSA (Pittsburgh, PA) is a full-body harness kit for high-heat or welding applications, and features a Kevlar/Nomex-blend webbing to provide resistance against chemicals, weld splatter, and other high-heat exposures. Kevlar stitching in contrasting colors enables users to more easily inspect the product for flaws that might arise, and the shock absorber features a Tuffweld protective cover to increase the lanyard longevity.
Air Velocity And Temperature In One
December 10, 2009 8:12 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe HHF143 handheld rotating vane thermo-anemometer from Omega Engineering (Stamford, CT) provides accurate air velocity and temperature measurements in harsh environments, and features a minimum and maximum recall, analog voltage output, and a low speed sensitivity. NIST calibration is also included.
Energy-Saving Industrial Doors
December 10, 2009 8:11 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe HR6 Energy Door from Custom Quality Products (Cincinnati, OH) is suitable for heavy cart to light motorized traffic and is available in single- or double-panel configurations. A full perimeter thermal break makes the doors ideal for applications such as walk-in coolers with self-closing hardware, a vapor barrier, and a triple-pane, gas-filled window.
Maximum Cabling Flexibility
December 10, 2009 8:10 am | Product Releases | CommentsWilcoxon Research (Germantown, MD) has broadened its line of MaxFlex cables for portable data collects to include an optional safety connections that break away if the sensor or cable becomes entangled. If more than 10 pounds of pull force is exerted, the cable will disconnect to protect the operator, and cannot be reconnected until the sensor and cable are safety retrieved from the monitoring point.
Simplicity On The Road To Recovery
December 10, 2009 7:45 am | Articles | CommentsListen to talk radio or the cable news pundits, and it’s easy to believe Michigan, and its largest city (Detroit), are industrial wasteland. True, the unemployment levels are the highest in the nation, and the battering the automotive industry has taken has been significant and deeply felt.
Too Lazy To Do Dishes? There's A Robot For That
December 10, 2009 4:06 am | Articles | CommentsYou just can’t stop the Japanese obsession with robotics. We’ve featured domestic robots on the IMPO Insider before, but they’ve never made us quite this lazy. For those who have decided that putting their dirty dishes in the dishwasher is now too difficult—fear not, robotics will help you not only on the plant floor, but at home too.
OLED Displays: Wearing Your Plant Around Your Wrist
December 10, 2009 4:01 am | Articles | CommentsFirst came those clunky CRT monitors that could kill a man even when unplugged, then dainty LCD panels that were thin and light, but looked like you could snap them in two. Now there’s OLED—the latest and greatest in display technology. Just imagine the possibilities of flexible, wearable OLED monitors in manufacturing.
Fake Thunderstorms And A Few Thousand Spot Welds
December 10, 2009 3:55 am | Articles | CommentsMany of us have ridden one, but do any of us know where—or how—the New York subway trains are put together? National Geographic takes us through the Brazilian plant that produces the NYC staple. There’s even a thunderstorm involved, but you’ll have to see just how that fits in for yourself.
