News & Knowledge

We’re your source for automation news. Keep up with the latest industry updates and E Tech employee spotlights, as well as tips and guidance from our manufacturing experts.

| June 28, 2023

Utilizing the AVEVA PI System for a Large Pharmaceutical Client

The generation, maintenance and use of historical process data is always an important part of the discussion in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector where transparency and traceability throughout the automation system is key. It affects things such as regulatory compliance, process optimization, business strategy, and overall viability in the marketplace. To enhance this aspect of their business, one of our clients chose to leverage the AVEVA PI Software Suite in their control system retrofit. The AVEVA PI system is one of the leaders in the industry and provides various architecture and licensing options to accommodate customers’ needs. The AVEVA PI is a product of industry collaboration and incorporates OSISoft’s data management prowess with AVEVA’s engineering expertise. Utilizing this powerful automation platform enhances process visibility, decision-making, and optimization throughout the industrial value chain. The functionality of the AVEVA PI system can be broken down into the following subsections: collecting data, storing data, contextualizing data, and visualizing/accessing data. Redundant Data Collection Collecting data is the process of taking data from a source and sending it along the pipeline to be stored. In this use case, the data sources are PLCs and relational databases. The PI System uses PI Interfaces and Connectors to perform the data collection. AVEVA offers over 450 interfaces, allowing for collection from a vast array of data sources. In the past, the client had issues with its legacy data collection; data gaps and outages would occur too frequently. PI Interfaces facilitate data collection and allow for redundancy to ensure that there is not a single point of failure in the system. In addition to the available redundancy, PI interfaces also provide buffering: if the archive itself is unavailable, the interface will store data locally until the archive is available again. The buffered data is then forwarded to the archive, … Continued

Using the OSI PI System for a Large Pharmaceutical Customer

| June 13, 2023

Building an Automation Infrastructure

E Tech Group Director of Operations, Cassy Gardner, is featured as a part of the following article, which originally appeared in Food Engineering Magazine. The better you know what you already have in place, the easier it is to plan for a successful future. Unless you operate a brand-new state-of-the-art plant, you probably have a facility with a mish-mash of aging processing and packaging equipment with various vintages of network and application software support—maybe several areas still requiring manual labor. As technology continues to move forward, piecemeal, aging automation systems reach a bottleneck, hampering further growth and competitiveness for the company. For older facilities, knowing where and what to automate—what your priorities should be—is important to helping you stay competitive now and in the future. For those with new plants, it’s never too late to plan your future goals – today’s turnkey automated factory is tomorrow’s control system retrofit. In this article, we consider how to know when, where and what to automate in an older facility. Of course, the answers to these questions won’t be the same for every plant, but we can see a framework essential to all automation projects come through regardless. Automation Solving Labor Shortage Problems The primary motivations driving food processors to automate their operations include labor reduction, increased production efficiency and enhanced product quality, says Ryan Beesley, CAP, Regional Engineering Manager at Kennewick, Concept Systems, Inc., a Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Certified Member. But the labor aspect has especially been an acute problem for the last couple of years as manufacturers realize the labor shortage is not a short-term problem. Other Advantages of Process Automation Getting Started in the Planning Process No two automation solutions will be the same—each one is unique. “Custom automation solutions typically begin with a feasibility and concept phase … Continued

| April 12, 2023

Why Make CIP an Integral Part of Your Automated Processes

In the same way you use automation to make consistent, quality products, why not use CIP to ensure germ-free cleaning every time? You’ve automated your process and packaging and have computer-generated paper trails to show food safety and quality throughout your facility. Why wouldn’t you do the same with cleaning—wherever it’s practical? Granted, there are certain pieces of equipment you just have to take out of the process to clean manually, but for other components—like piping, some conveyor belting, certain pumps, mixers, tanks and other equipment—you can clean them in place (CIP) and have automated recordkeeping to show proof of cleaning and sanitation to regulating bodies when they ask. An Expert Opinion on Sanitation Safety in Food & Beverage Automation “CIP is an integral part of cleaning and sanitation, which affects the food safety of any facility. Cleaning and sanitation not only help you comply with regulatory requirements, but also protect consumers and your brand from contamination and recalls,” says Pablo Coronel, Ph.D., CRB Senior Fellow in Food Process & Food Safety. “CIP is carried out in process lines without dismantling and must reach every nook and cranny of the process equipment; thus, well-designed equipment that is amenable to CIP (as opposed to COP—clean out of place) is a must for any installation. Materials of construction, drainability, ease of cleaning, and prevention of dead areas/zones are some of the criteria for design,” adds Coronel. Besides the equipment design, a successful CIP system depends on several variables, such as water flow rate and temperature, chemicals used (concentration) and time of cleaning. These variables are set in cooperation with the chemical supplier by the characteristics of the product to be cleaned (viscosity, stickiness, amount of fouling and presence of allergens) and the equipment that needs to be cleaned. The presence of allergens, … Continued

News Releases,

| February 28, 2023

E Tech Group Acquires E-Volve Systems

Together, E-Volve and E Tech Group Expand to Over 500 Industrial Automation and System Integration Professionals with a North American Footprint West Chester, OH – February 28, 2023 – E Tech Group announced today the acquisition of E-Volve Systems, a leading provider of industrial automation, controls engineering and computer systems validation to clients in the life sciences, food and beverage, and consumer products industries. E-Volve will operate under the name “E-Volve Systems, an E Tech Group Company.” Kevin Stout and Principals Jason Antolovich, Vivek Puthezath will remain with the company, and no significant employment changes are anticipated in E-Volve’s Merrimack, New Hampshire, or Cincinnati, Ohio, offices. “We are thrilled to add E-Volve Systems to the E Tech Group,” said E Tech CEO Matt Wise. “E-Volve is an outstanding firm with an excellent reputation for quality. Their deep footprint in Life Sciences combined with our extensive client set makes us a clear leader in the space. Additionally, our combined clients and services enables E Tech to offer one of the automation industry’s broadest services sets, from cyber security & OT optimization, through automation design, systems integration, industrial data management and business intelligence with 24/7 support. We fulfill the promise of a one-stop shop for advanced automation.” “As legacy E Tech and Superior employees prior to founding our company in 2011, we have tremendous respect for E Tech Group and are confident this will be a seamless transition that will quickly pay dividends for clients of both companies,” said E-Volve’s partners in a joint statement. “We’re also excited about the career opportunities other members of the E-Volve team may enjoy as part of a larger, fast-growing organization like E Tech Group.” About E Tech Group E Tech Group is one of the largest engineering and system integration firms in the United … Continued