Gescan is committed to continually improving upon the service and support we provide for our customers. Part of this process involves education about our people, products, and technology. Below you will find links to numerous whitepapers authored by staff of Gescan and our partners.
Driving Value with Energy Management
The volatile price of energy has put increased pressure on the executives in energy intensive industries. It is now more important than ever to understand a plant’s energy needs and to cut out wasteful energy consumption wherever possible so that companies can improve predictability into their energy usage.
There are many pressures driving companies to focus on energy management, but the most important is the need to reduce costs in manufacturing operations. Executives managing industrial plants often underestimate the ability to reduce costs through an effective energy management strategy. This is especially critical in energy-intensive plants where energy costs can be a large percentage of the total operational costs of the plant, often as high as 25% of the overall cost. In such a scenario the ability to cut even a small percentage of total energy consumption can result in significant overall savings for the organization.
Power Quality Issues
Most of the more important international standards define power quality as the physical characteristics of the electrical supply provided under normal operating conditions that do not disrupt or disturb the customer’s processes. Therefore, a power quality problem exists if any voltage, current or frequency deviation results in a failure or in a bad operation of customer’s equipment. However, it is important to notice that the quality of power supply implies basically voltage quality and supply reliability. Voltage quality problems relate any failure of equipment due to deviations of the line voltage from its normal characteristics, and the supply reliability is characterized by its adequacy (ability to supply the load), security (ability to withstand sudden disturbances such as system faults) and availability (focusing especially on long interruptions).
Data Recovery - Lose Stress not Production
In today's fast-paced world of manufacturing, change is constant. Customer needs are continually evolving and production processes are evolving right along with them. Business is required to be running at a breakneck pace to keep up with it all. In this environment, uptime equals success, productivity rules and efficiency often marks the difference between getting by and getting ahead.
When the plant is running at peak efficiency, so is the business. Raw materials come into the plant, finished product comes out and the entire process runs like a well-oiled machine. But when things break down and production lines stop, so does the productivity... and that can have far-reaching implications on the bottom-line.
‘Time is Money’
Drive Down Your Energy Costs
Cost Certainty and Cost Reduction are ideas that pain and plague many plants in today’s competitive marketplace. How many times have you been asked to reduce the costs your plant incurs just doing business every day?
The impact of energy costs, though not necessarily the number one culprit affecting your bottom line, has often been regarded as one of “the costs of doing business”. While you can’t eliminate these costs, unless you plan on shutting the doors of your plant, if carefully managed they can be reduced.
Ensuring that you shut off the lights and any equipment that doesn’t need to be running, can reduce your energy costs, but this is a small and not necessarily tangible savings.
The true savings comes in when you start to look at some of the necessary equipment in your plant, like pumps and fans. Both are driven by motors, and these motors are usually allowed to run at 100% speed, consuming energy as they please.
Did you know that it costs upwards of $650/year per Horse Power (HP) of the motor if it is running at 100% speed, 100% of the time?
Driving Operational Excellence in Manufacturing
The ever increasing demands on today’s manufacturers to enable Lean Manufacturing, JIT (Just In Time) delivery and reduced WIP (Work In Process) inventories require an increasing level of system capabilities, coupled with more robust and effective solutions for supporting automation and information technologies. Without such solutions, the requirements manufacturers need to have in place – including error proofing to ensure the part is built correctly the first time, containing potential quality recall issues, preventing missed deliveries with associated penalties and reducing production downtime – would be very cumbersome or nearly impossible to achieve.
For example, build to order manufacturing in the automotive sector requires suppliers to deliver sub-assemblies in proper assembly build sequence, and it is estimated that up to 70% of vehicle content will be sequenced by 2010. Suppliers need to increase investment in sequencing, lean manufacturing and part traceability to meet sequencing demands.
R.F.I.D. - What, How, and Why?
Radio Frequency Identification or RFID is rapidly becoming one of the biggest buzzwords in today’s industrial and retail marketplaces. From Wal-Mart’s mandate to its suppliers, to a need for process and quality data, there are hundreds of reasons why RFID is important, but most are left wondering:
What is it? How does it work? And, why should I use it?
Currently, RFID comes in many different types with many different standards and the confusion concerning which product is right for which application can be frustrating. Beyond that, once a technology has been decided upon, how does one select the appropriate components for an RFID system?
Before commencing an RFID application, it is important that you understand the technology and how it can be applied. A successful implementation starts with a good working knowledge of the types of equipment available, as well as the reasons why it should be used in your application.
RTU Technology - When you need ALL the data ALL the time.
Automatic collection and storage of treatment facility data continues to increase in importance in the water/wastewater industry. This data is critical to supporting the increasing needs of MOE/CEPA compliance reporting and is the basis for driving operational performance improvements. The advent of historian products extends the ability of a traditional system to effectively store data and efficiently make use of the data.
Water treatment usually involves a large geographic area, requiring numerous remote automation locations. Advances in automation technology have provided alternatives to traditional approaches to managing these remote sites and helped users speed implementation, reduce costs, improve data integrity and the resulting treatment processes, and significantly ease accessibility.
It’s better when your RTU technology does not act REMOTE...
