Don't Forget Customer Support and Technical Support When Buying Process Instruments

Make sure your vendor's Customer Service and Tech Support
are knowledgeable, experienced, and ENTHUSIASTIC.

Today, many engineers do their product selection largely via the Internet, and usually by just comparing specifications between manufacturers. While this provides a fast, efficient, and objective means to narrow down prospective vendors, it totally ignores a critically important (albeit subjective) component to the success of their project - the vendor's Customer and Technical Support infrastructure.

When choosing a vendor for process instrumentation (industrial refractometers for instance), it's imperative to include an evaluation of the vendor's Technical Support and Customer Support infrastructure. Realizing what these professionals have to contribute, and taking advantage of their knowledge and talent, will save time and money, and greatly contribute to a successful project outcome.

Understanding Why Technical Support and Customer Support are Critical

It's all about two things:

1. Experience
2. Attitude

Experience

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair

By the nature of their job, Customer Service personnel are current on new products, their capabilities and their proper application. Unlike anecdotal information available on the Web, support personnel have first hand knowledge and hands-on experience. They've seen successful (and unsuccessful) product implementation scenarios and are eager to share. A brief discussion about your application with a specialist will guide you toward selecting the best equipment for the requirement. Also, because they are exposed to so many different applications and situations, Customer/Tech Support personnel are a wealth of ancillary application knowledge.

As a project engineer, you may be treading on fresh ground regarding some aspects of fully understanding the project you're working on. You may not have a full grasp on how to handle a particular challenge presented by the application. Calling upon a source with past exposure and experience to your current application prior to product selection will provide a very real, and very valuable benefit.

Attitude:

"Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job." Anonymous

Choose a company that places a huge emphasis on customer service and do some due-diligence. Determine if they're merely providing lip service, or if extreme customer service oozes from the company pores. 

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart once said "The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary." Make sure the vendor you're evaluating sees things the same way.  While reviews or testimonials (if there are any) can be helpful, they should be viewed judiciously. You're going to have to talk to people and get your own "gut-feel".  Do the employee's seem upbeat and happy? Are they knowledgeable? If they can't answer a question, do they volunteer to connect you with someone who can?  Are they enthusiastic?

As an engineer who designs or manufactures a product or process, it's strongly recommended you make the effort to research, contact, and get a first-hand feel for your prospective vendor's Customer and Technical Support Team. Learn about their product and application knowledge, their experience and their commitment to excellence. Taking the time to do this will raise the likelihood that your project will come in on time, on budget and shine brightly upon you.

Inline Process Refractometers in Tomato Processing

Inline Process Refractometers in Tomato Processing

It's obvious that tomato processors have a need to predict product yield, consistency and quality, as these variables directly affect sales and profitability. However, consistency and quality in tomato products is fairly difficult to control because of the fruit variation, harvest maturity, and farming area.

Consumers often select tomato sauces, pastes, purees and dressings based on sweetness levels, so it's very important food producers to accurately control sweetness. The common method for measuring sweetness in this industry is by reading Brix. Degrees Brix (°Bx) is the measure of the amount of sugar in an aqueous solution and is used because it's reliable and fast.

Refractometry is used to determine degrees Brix, and refractometers are the instruments used for the measurement. Very basically, refractometers use a prism to determine how light bends through a substance. The change in light direction is then used to repeatably determine certain values - in this case Brix.

There are several types of refractometers in food processing. Many food processing labs do batch sampling through the use of hand-held refractometers. Another type is the inline process refractometer.  It is used to provide a Brix measuring control loop right on the production line, and can be employed anywhere in the overall process from evaporation stages up to the concentrated final product.

Inline Process Refractometer

Inline process refractometers are installed using a sanitary-type pipe adapter, designed and manufactured to appropriate 3-A Sanitary Standards. Should the tomato product be known to produce stubborn coatings on the refractometer prism, a steam port is added to the adapter to allow the prism to be steam cleaned at specific intervals.

The head of the refractometer is mounted directly in the processing line and provides real-time detection of Brix with a measurable output. The refractometer's circuitry then conditions the head's output and compares it to a desired value in a controller. The controller provides a corrective output signal, such as 4-20mA, to a final control element, such as a control valve. The control valve increases or decreases the amount of an ingredient to keep things in balance. Not unlike any other process control variable (pressure, temperature, level or flow), Brix measurement is determined and controlled via it's own control loop by the inline process refractometer,  providing the tomato processor greater control over product quality and consistency.

For more information on the use of inline process refractometers in tomato processing, contact Electron Machine at 352-669-3101 or visit http://electronmachine.com.

Incorporate Inline Industrial Refractometers for Better Quality and Higher Yields

Inline refractometer in sanitary application.

Process refractometry provides an excellent method to determine the concentration of compounds (dissolved solids, proteins, chemicals) in a liquid or paste-like substance. By using the refractive index, industrial refractometry supplies real-time, accurate data to process control systems for higher quality and more efficient production. Some specific industries finding the use of industrial, inline refractometers of high value are:

• Food and juice processing - Ex: Measuring dissolved sugars (Brix) 
• Chemical processing - Ex: Boiler cleaning solution concentration
• Pulp and paper production - Ex:  dissolved solids in green liquor and black liquor
• Pharmaceutical / Bio-Tech - Ex: measuring proteins in solution

Process refractometry enables real-time monitoring and control of a process based on the comparison of a known or "control" sample of a media's desired concentration, versus the value of the product moving through the production line.  Industrial refractometry measures the concentration of compounds in a process media by determining it's refractive index and it’s temperature. The actual measurement is done by monitoring the refraction of light as it passes through the process media. At a certain "critical" angle of incidence, the source light is reflected rather than refracted. This critical angle can be correlated to the properties of the process media, and provides a marker that is used to determine a standard for the desired production output. By knowing this variable, at a known temperature, the concentration of specific compounds in the process media can be calculated and precisely controlled.

The use of inline refractometers for determining concentrations of  in solutions provides a fast, accurate measurement and response for process optimization and quality achievement. They dramatically lower cost by improving consistency, reducing waste, and increasing yield.

Industrial Refractometry Pioneer Carl Vossberg, Jr. Foresaw the Need

Carl A. Vossberg, Jr.

Electron Machine Corporation founder Carl Vossberg, Jr. was a pioneer in the application of refractometers of industrial use. As the holder of more than 30 technical patents, Mr. Vossberg dedicated his life to improving industrial processes through refractometry, measurement, and control.

His biography reveals how his dedication to industrial refractometry led Electron Machine to its leadership position in the industrial refractometer market.

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Carl A. Vossberg, Jr., (born July 16, 1918) was an American electrical engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur in the electronic instrumentation industry. He is known for more than 30 technical patents in the area of refractometry, measurement, and control. Vossberg also founded Electron-Machine Corporation, the company responsible for the introduction of inline process refractometers as a measuring system for the pulp & paper, food, and chemical processing industries.

Vossberg began his college education at the City College of the City of New York (CCNY), studying electronics, and was awarded a BEE in Electrical Engineering from CCNY and a MS in Electrical Engineering (EE) from Columbia University. He also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During WWII, Vossberg worked for the U.S. Office of Strategic Service (now CIA) participating in the development of remote radio transponders, artillery tracking systems, weapon fire detection controllers, and video transmission.

Vossberg entered the profession as a radio engineer for RCA and designed circuits and established radio facsimile facilities for the Office of War information. Later he became Chief Engineer for Standard Electronics Research Corporation, where his duties were to originate and direct the research and development programs and supervise engineering and technical personnel in electronics, x-rays, communication, instrumentation and process controls. He was also Vice President of Research and Developments, Inc., and Vice President of Industrial Gauges Corporation.

After the war, Vossberg set out to apply electronics technology to industrial applications. Electron Machine Corporation was formed in 1946 for the purpose of designing automatic electronic gaging and indicating equipment. The company was established in the back of a radiator repair shop in Lynbrook, New York. Instruments for diameter and thickness measurements for steel and cable products were conceived, developed, and licensed to other manufacturers. These instruments included the first commercial x-ray thickness gage, optical cable diameter gages, and an industrial process control computer. In 1950 he, in partnership, formed the Industrial Gauges Corporation and later established Research Developments, Inc., as a subsidiary. This expansion provided the manufacturing facilities for the products developed by the Electron Machine Company.

Engineering, manufacturing and design continues today with the third generation of Vossberg leadership. As a vertically-integrated manufacturer, Electron Machine continues the Founder's legacy of manufacturing inline industrial refractometers that solve the most challenging industrial applications while providing the highest levels of service and support to customers.

Refractometry: A Basic Understanding and Common Uses

A ray of light being refracted in a plastic block
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Refractometry, a combination of physics, materials, and chemistry, is the process which measures the composition of known substances by means of calculating their respective refractive indexes (RI). RIs are evaluated via a refractometer, a device which measures the curve, or refraction, resulting when the wavelength of light moves from the air into and through a tested substance. The unitless number given by the refractometer, usually between 1.3000 and 1.7000, is the RI. The composition of substances is then determined when the RI is compared to a standard curve specific to the material of the substance. There are also four separate types of refractometers: digital, analog, lab, and inline process. Although refractometry can measure a variety of substances, including gases and solids, the most common category of known substances to calculate are liquids; the inline process refractometer is used to quantify the makeup of liquids.

Refraction of a light ray
(courtesy of Wikipedia)

The ultimate focus of industrial refractometry is to describe what is in a final product or output of a process step. A field which relies directly on the results of refractometry is gemology. Gemological refractometry is crucial for accurately identifying the gemstones being classified, whether the gemstones are opaque, transparent, or translucent.

Other common examples of industrial refractometry uses are measuring the salinity of water to determine drinkability; figuring beverages’ ratios of sugar content versus other sweeteners or water; setting eye-glass prescriptions; understanding the hydrocarbon content of motor fuels; totaling plasma protein in blood samples; and quantifying the concentration of maple syrup. Regarding fuels, refractometry scrutinizes the possible output of energy and conductivity, and for drug-testing purposes, refractometry measures the specific gravity, or the density, of human urine. Regarding food, refractometry has the ability to measure the glucose in fruit during the fermentation process. Because of this, those in food services know when fruit is at peak ripeness and, in turn, also understand the most advantageous point in the fruit’s “lifetime” to put it on the market.

The determination of the substance composition of the product examples listed above all speak to the purpose of quality control and the upholding of standardized guidelines; consumers rely on manufacturers not only to produce these products but also to produce these products consistently and identically every single time. Therefore, the success of commercialism, etc. is dependent on maintaining the standards for the composition of substances, i.e. industrial refractometry.

Equipment manufacturers have developed numerous refractometer configurations tailored to specific use and application. Each has a set of features making it the advantageous choice for its intended application.

Consistent Ice Cream Quality with Inline Process Refractometer

Inline refractometer helps
make better ice cream.

Improve large scale ice cream production and quality control by accurately measuring milk and sugar concentrations with inline process refractometers. The refractometer directly measures dissolved solids, which can be easily converted to Brix. This measurement is unaffected by bubbles or suspended particles.

The Electron Machine MPR E-Scan refractometer is used to measure both the dairy concentration as well as the sweetener (sucrose, fructose, etc.) Brix level going into the mixing tank. This in-line measurement allows real-time trimming of both ingredients to meet the final target concentration in the mixing tank. Additional measurement of the mixed product is used for further adjustments to the composition before packaging.

By installing the Electron Machine Corporation MPR E-Scan a factory can insure an accurate process control resulting in consistent ice cream quality. Thus, increasing profit from economical operation. By maintaining a desired process concentration there will be a decrease in offline testing and an increase quality control. This results in the ability to optimize work force man hours and eliminate unnecessary product waste saving the factory time and money.

Inline Process Refractometers for Ice Cream Production from Electron Machine Corporation

Electron Machine Maintains "A" Rating with ISNetworld

Electron Machine Maintains
ISNetworld A Rating

ISNetworld is a resource that assists in establishing partnerships between hiring clients and contractors through corporate transparency across management, training, and safety infrastructure. They maintain a world-wide online contractor management database, designed to meet internal and governmental record keeping and compliance requirements. They collect and present health and safety, procurement, quality and regulatory information to their subscriber-ship of hiring clients.

ISNetwork’s goal is to connect hiring clients with safe, reliable and sustainable contractors and suppliers. Their process (for contractors) requires maintaining accurate information, records, and processes concerning insurability, safety, training, hiring, and diversity information. ISNetwork's hiring clients and contractors both benefit through a streamlined, thorough, and consistent qualification process.

Electron Machine Corporation is proud to be an ISNetwork approved contractor in good standing and has has been awarded an “A” in contractor rating for demonstrating high standards of quality and safety. An “A” rating typically means the contractor is listed as “excellent/preferred” and can be hired without restriction.