18.02.2014
Conair continued its rollout of Web-enabled machine controls at PLASTEC West this week. After introducing the concept last year on some of its auxiliary equipment, the company chose the 2014 event to showcase its TrueFeed gravimetric blenders that now can be accessed via Internet-connected devices. Plastics processors are now free to move about the country and beyond, says Doug Brewster, Product Manager, Conveying. "Anything you can do in front of your equipment, you can do from anywhere on the planet."
Conair demonstrated the reach of its technology by connecting equipment running at its headquarters in Cranberry Township, PA, with an iPad at its booth at PLASTEC West. The control interface displaying on the iPad is identical to the one on the control panel of the machine, stresses Brewster. You can change settings, troubleshoot, and perform any number of other operations remotely as if you were on the shop floor. While this can be done as easily from a brauhaus in Bavaria as the convention center in Anaheim, most people tend to use the technology within their facility. "You don't have to leave your desk or run to the other side of the building to check on the equipment," says Brewster.