Processing's Weekly Mixer: How to peacefully coexist with control valves, and more
Welcome to the latest installment of Processing's Weekly Mixer, which highlights recent content from EndeavorB2B brands relevant to process manufacturers.
This week's entry features content from Chemical Processing, Food Processing and Automation World, as well as this week's content from Processing.
How to peacefully coexist with control valves
Preparing chemical facilities for NATECH events
Also from CP: In the latest episode of Process Safety with Trish and Traci, Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum explore NATECH events, where natural hazards collide with industrial risk. Drawing on real incidents including Arkema in Crosby, Texas, BioLab in Lake Charles and the Fukushima disaster, they examine why facilities consistently underestimate natural hazard risk, how to build truly complete ride-out and recovery plans, and why traditional PHAs fall short for NATECH scenarios. Kerin's bottom line: assume the event will happen, and prepare accordingly. Listen below!
eChem Expo 2026 releases full conference program
eChem Expo, the solutions marketplace and technology innovations conference for plant-level processing and manufacturing, has announced the full conference program for eChem Expo 2026, taking place April 8–9, 2026 at the MeadowView Conference Resort & Convention Center in Kingsport, Tennessee.
The two-day conference will bring together plant leaders, engineers, operations teams, and industry stakeholders for expert-led sessions and panels designed to address the operational, reliability, and workforce challenges facing modern processing and manufacturing facilities. The program is built around real purchasing needs and operational priorities identified through stakeholder interviews with professionals across the industry.
The conference program features over 20 hours of accredited education led by industry experts from companies including Mettler-Toledo, KOCH, Protego, IndexAR Solutions, Hargrove, and Endress+Hauser.
Conference Director Damon Bryan Shackelford said, "Amid rapid change and rising performance demands, manufacturing teams need clear, practical guidance top-down and peer-to-peer. eChem Expo is designed to bring the industry together to share proven insights and technologies that help organizations move forward with confidence."
Eight technical tracks aligned with plant priorities
The 2026 conference program is organized into eight focused educational tracks designed to address the operational priorities shaping plant performance, safety, and reliability.
Day 1 tracks (Wednesday, April 8)
- Capital Effectiveness
- Operational Excellence
- Industrial Artificial Intelligence
- Workforce Development
Day 2 tracks (Thursday, April 9)
- EHS & Compliance
- Instrumentation for Process Reliability
- Accelerating Turnarounds
- Novel Equipment Design
Across both days, attendees will have access to expert-led presentations, interactive discussions, and real-world case studies designed to provide practical insights that can be applied immediately within plant environments.
How sanitation forms food safety’s foundation
How Hormel Foods responds to evolving consumers, protein demand
Q&A: Network management strategies for today’s connected industry
From Automation World:
Ensuring the scalability and management of control networks has become a manufacturing imperative with the merging of IT and OT networks. This confluence of networks that were once separated means that industrial networks, in addition to managing thousands of connected plant floor devices as they always have, must also connect and coordinate these devices in ways that enhance operations through data sharing while ensuring visibility, often across multiple sites.
This reality is leading manufacturing organizations to use network management tools more commonly used on the IT side of the business. To get insights on what these tools offer to OT, Automation World spoke to Mike Fisher (MF), senior manager of solution architecture at Belden, a supplier of networking and data technologies.
Read the Q&A here.
