Processing serves professionals who are focused on the development, management, maintenance and improvement of industrial processing operations to maximize product quality, output and profitability. With this mission, our annual Breakthrough Products Awards honor innovative technology solutions that made significant contributions to improvements in the process industries within the past year.
Processing is proud to present the 10 winners of the 2022 Breakthrough Products Awards. The manufacturers recognized this year introduced solutions that help end users effectively manage tough processing environments, meet stringent safety requirements, reduce unplanned downtime and drive overall profitability.
These awards celebrate major innovations as well as incremental improvements in technology that increase efficiency, productivity, safety and, ultimately, the bottom line.
Congratulations to the 2022 winners!
Prosonic Flow W 400 ultrasonic flowmeter
Endress+Hauser
The Prosonic Flow W 400 brings the modern technology of Endress+Hauser’s Proline device series to clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeters. The W 400 clamp-on and I 400 insertion units provide comprehensive process monitoring with long-term cost efficiency and extensive diagnostics. These sensors pair with Endress+Hauser’s Proline 400 transmitter to provide a complete flow metering solution.
The Prosonic Flow W 400 uses a nonintrusive, clamp-on measurement method, with its ultrasonic sensors mounted directly on a pipe’s exterior. This provides safe measurement of many fluids, independent of their conductivity or other properties. This includes corrosive, abrasive and toxic fluids, making this flowmeter ideal for monitoring countless processes. Because neither piping nor process flow are interrupted, clamp-on flowmeters can be easily used for retrofitting at any time. They are suitable for low- or high-pressure applications, on pipes smaller than an inch in diameter, and up to 160 inches.
The Prosonic Flow W 400 can be used to measure flow, monitor processes, verify previously installed flowmeters, detect leaks in a pipeline, and for other applications. The flowmeter’s IP68 Type 6P submergence-rated ultrasonic sensors provide long-term and reliable operation, requiring little maintenance. This makes them suitable for use in harsh process and ambient conditions, able to withstand temperatures from –40 to +266 °F.
Kappa X wireless vibration sensor
Sensoteq
The Sensoteq Kappa X is an evolution of wireless continuous health monitoring for a wide range of machinery. Built in partnership with industry vibration experts, the Kappa X is a triaxial vibration sensor with a market-leading 10kHz Fmax enabling earlier fault warning and increased diagnostic capabilities. The Kappa X wireless vibration sensor features a small footprint, IP69 ingress protection and a user-replaceable battery. It was designed for monitoring almost any application or balance condition of plant machinery. The Kappa X wireless temperature and vibration sensor detects:
- Bearing failure
- Unbalance
- Shaft and bearing wear
- Mechanical looseness
- Misalignment
- Electrical noise and resonance
TrendMiner NextGen
TrendMiner
TrendMiner NextGen is the company's advanced next-generation production client for process manufacturing analytics. It provides a seamless user experience that empowers an extended pool of operational experts to make data-driven decisions and optimize the performance of their operations to meet business, environmental and safety ambitions. Among key features, its state-of-the-art, vendor-agnostic software boosts productivity for operators, engineers and data scientists at each analytics maturity level. Its mission of advanced analytics for all drives user-centric innovation to support a wider range of use cases. Finally, its new “Secure by Default” and “Secure by Design” architectural backbone meets today’s critical security requirements for every deployment type, whether that be on premise, in the cloud, SaaS or hybrid.
TrendMiner NextGen enables operational experts to analyze, monitor and predict production performance using sensor-generated, time-series data in combination with contextual event information. TrendMiner NextGen distinguishes itself from other trend clients by its easy-to-use method of searching through thousands of sensor readings over years of data. This provides instant answers to know what has happened, how often and why. Searching, filtering, coloring, switching and comparing trend views offer a quick production performance snapshot.
TrendMiner NextGen brings operational insights to anyone in an organization, regardless of their level of analytics training. Users can do anything from basic trend viewing to advanced diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics, including the application of machine learning techniques.
Shiftconnector/Shiftconnector GO
eschbach
eschbach’s Shiftconnector software is a cloud-based plant process management enterprise platform that provides digitalization of data shared among shifts accessible at every level of plant operations and management. Specifically developed for process manufacturing, it recognizes the unique characteristics of these plants that are highly reliant on operational best practices to ensure quality, safety and adherence to regulatory compliance. An interactive shift log details current operations transparently in real-time. Dashboards, accessible from the plant floor to the C-Suite, give an overview of current activities, including all events and changes. Information is captured, stored and auditable for compliance.
Critical information sharing is augmented with Shiftconnector GO Mobile Rounds, for iOS, Android and Windows. The app connects field workers with board operators for routine management and provides an audit trail for compliance. Workers can report activities, with photos if needed, directly from their mobile devices to a central location, no matter where they are in the plant or the field — even if they are offline.
Shiftconnector supports work processes and issue resolution, keeping teams aligned around production targets, increasing safety, quality and overall production performance, and cross-departmental collaboration. It easily integrates with existing systems like process historians, SCADA, maintenance management and ERP. An intuitive cloud-based software interface, Shiftconnector is customized both for plant and individual role requirements. By linking shift teams and departments, real-time status of plant operations is delivered. The platform gives plants an integrated, digital process that reduces compliance risks, improves cross-department communication, increases access and accuracy to key operational information, thus boosting overall operational efficiencies.
Shiftconnector GO closes an important communications gap by ensuring field workers are able to connect with board operators for routine actions and compliance management. A QR code confirms the worker’s location. If an anomaly is discovered, the event is immediately shared in the shift report and cited and tracked for corrective action alleviating misinformation or omissions during handovers.
Smart valve positioner
Emerson
Emerson's TopWorx PD Series Smart Valve Positioner expands on the company's current portfolio of TopWorx sensing and control products, providing intelligence, reliability and versatility to valve control. The PD Series enhances the current TopWorx portfolio of discrete valve controllers, providing 100% control over valve position and integrating communication via a 4-20 mA loop signal and HART protocols. Customers can extract valuable feedback through this intelligent communication and can monitor for trends that offer predictive maintenance insights to help prevent costly downtime. The PD Series is suitable for use in oil and gas, chemical and food and beverage applications.
Asset monitoring platform
Sensata Technologies
Sensata Technologies' Sensata IQ platform makes it easy to deploy asset health monitoring to prevent unplanned downtime within process manufacturing environments. Online asset monitoring systems have traditionally been expensive, complex and required users to have deep domain expertise. As a result, many plants and factories end up monitoring only the most critical assets, leaving up to 85% of their plant floor unprotected and unmonitored. Backed by Sensata’s decades of sensor experience, Sensata IQ delivers a cost-effective, easy-to-install solution that enables factory managers and maintenance engineers to intuitively monitor all their assets from anywhere, including on a smartphone, PC or tablet. The cloud-based platform uses artificial intelligence to process data from a broad portfolio of Sensata IoT devices and qualified third-party sensors to gain insights into the health of each asset. With Sensata IQ, plant managers get reliable and easy-to understand alerts regarding their facility’s equipment health before assets fail, thereby reducing unplanned downtime and optimizing maintenance strategies to minimize labor and parts expenses.
Edge computing platform
Stratus Technologies
Stratus’ second generation ztC Edge is a zero-touch, secure and highly automated Edge Computing platform, purpose-built for Edge environments. It delivers twice the performance of its prior generation and is the industry’s only solution offering built-in application virtualization and fault tolerance in an easy-to-install, ruggedized design for the industrial Edge. Both locally and remotely, ztC Edge is a secure platform that is easy to deploy, manage, maintain and service. Its simple, protected and autonomous features are responsible for powering digital transformation at the Edge.
The second-generation platform carries UL Class I Div 2 certification and IP40 rating, making it ideal for industrial environments. Platforms are designed based on ISA/IEC 62443 security standards and continue to enable OT and IT convergence with simple plug-and-play deployment and self-monitoring maintenance to reduce the need for IT support. The platform can quickly be installed at a single location or across multiple locations without the need for specialized IT skills. It is ideal for running critical applications and building smart machines in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, oil and gas, food and beverage and other industries where data loss and downtime are unacceptable and costly.
Self-cleaning filters
Celeros Flow Technology
Maintaining product quality while optimizing uptime is key in many industries, including water treatment, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and the manufacture of paints and solvents. Celeros Flow Technology offers the Airpel Series of self-cleaning filter (SCF), designed to reduce downtime, increase productivity and contain/reclaim unwanted debris to comply with company and environmental legislation. The Airpel SCF Series allows for standalone, low maintenance processing of liquids. The filters can be automated, either electronically or pneumatically, from 1.25 inches and above. The level of automation can be selected from manual cleaning and valve operation to fully automated filters which can be supplied wired and fully tested, requiring only on-site connection to the power source and dump valve connection. The latter option means they can be deployed rapidly and with minimal disruption to production. The Airpel SCF design blends modern technology with simplicity to provide a versatile method of filtering process fluids. Customers can select from three modes of operation — automated, motorized or manual — and from standard pressure or high-pressure models to achieve a filtration solution to match their application and their budget.
Spring-energized elastomer seals
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions
Meeting the needs of the oil, gas and energy industries, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions' XploR S-Seal and XploR FS-Seal custom-engineered, spring-energized elastomer seals offer maximum extrusion resistance in demanding high pressure, high temperature sealing environments. The elastomer materials for the seals are from the XploR range of compounds developed for the harshest of oil and gas processing conditions. Molded into the elastomer profile of the XploR S-Seal and XploR FS-Seal are two corrosion-resistant metallic anti-extrusion springs. These facilitate high pressure operation through a temperature range of -49°F to 500°F and ensure pressure transmits uniformly across the seal footprint.
Synchronous motor
Nidec Corporation
As energy costs climb, the need for the highest level of energy-efficient pumping equipment has never been more critical. Nidec Motor Corp. has responded to that demand by introducing SynRA, an innovative, patent-pending synchronous motor. In addition to significant energy savings, this new technology from Nidec’s U.S. Motors brand offers the advantage of easy motor replacement without having to install an entirely new system and controls, saving time and money. SynRA provides the operating benefit of a pure synchronous reluctance motor and the suitability benefit from a simple volts/hz drive. The unique design gives the freedom to replace components individually instead of the entire system, leading to a lower cost of maintenance. The product’s smart technology results in less wear and tear on blower or pump systems by matching application demands with variable speed. The design of the SynRA motor itself is made with ease in mind. The synchronous reluctance rotor with an aluminum cage design is magnet-free, allowing for easy programming and compatibility with existing variable frequency drives.
