With over 20 years’ experience in the food processing industry, Mike Mitchell has filled many roles in his career. Now, as the key accounts manager for Middleby Food Processing brand, MP Equipment, Mitchell has been pivotal in advancing food technology. He understands the demands of frequent, late-night repairs on first generation equipment.

Productivity and efficiency are paramount in the highly competitive snack food production industry. JD Manufacturing, Inc (JDM) in Pine Bluffs, WY, stands out as a leader with its high-performance automatic batch fryers, which are engineered specifically for kettle chip production. The batch frying process imparts kettle chips, whether made from potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, or beets, with their distinctive premium texture and taste.

There’s a delicate balance in the constant evolution of today’s assembly line. Once dominated by hydraulics, manufacturing floors are incorporating a growing number of electromechanical solutions to supplement legacy hydraulic components, particularly in lower force, linear motion applications. Manufacturers that recognize this trend and harness the benefits of both hydraulic and electromechanical solutions position themselves to optimize future operations, regardless of market trend demands.

Siemens Digital Industries Software has collaborated with FoodChain ID to bring world-class food supply chain compliance and regulatory information to the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software - enabling the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry to maintain product quality while managing the complexity of regional compliance.

Wintriss Controls Group has added flexible and affordable purchase options for ShopFloorConnect OEE, Production Tracking, and Data Collection software, which allows users to quickly and easily leverage data from their machines. ShopFloorConnect is an on-premises software solution that provides timely, accurate, and unbiased data directly from the shop floor for making informed management decisions. Wintriss received a positive response when it debuted the new start-up purchase packages and options at Fabtech 2024. It will also be presenting the packages at Pack Expo 2024, Booth # LU-8431 McCormick Place, Chicago Illinois from November 3 – 6 this year.

The applications are too numerous to list in their entirety. Coffee grounds. Eggshell waste. Pomegranates and pineapples. Manure and paper mill sludge. Tobacco. These are just a few of the materials that require dewatering, a process that—as its name suggests—separates fluids from solids, often converting what would otherwise go down the drain or end up in a landfill into saleable products.

The increasing cost of food and beverage machinery makes running equipment to failure not just impractical, but potentially devastating to your bottom line. However, there are solutions that can lead to significant savings, and an often overlooked one is implementing an effective lubrication program. A well-structured program delivers a trifecta of benefits: reduced downtime, a cleaner and safer work environment, and easier compliance with the stringent regulations of the food processing industry. 

Recently I’ve had a number of people tell me how much they enjoy our work here at PTE. While it’s always nice to receive “attaboys,” these recent unsolicited compliments have been both thoughtful and specific, which is especially gratifying because they validate many of the choices we make as publishers. 

The family of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is facing intense scrutiny. A reporting rule will take effect in the United States in 2026, while Europe has actually been considering a sweeping, cross-industry ban on these substances since early last year. The implications of such a ban on fluoropolymers would be particularly critical, as a discontinuation of these high-performance materials would drastically impact many industries. But what kinds of challenges would emerge in the search for adequate substitutes? This was the focus of a recent study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM) in cooperation with materials experts from the Freudenberg Group.

With the launch of its Inspector83x 2D vision sensor, SICK has enabled out-of-the-box Artificial Intelligence machine vision inspections for common inline inspection tasks in demanding high-speed production.