Is LabVIEW in use in the Food Industry ?

[Ben]

Hi CC,

Another idea I can pass to you so you can run with it.

I beleive Heinz headquartered in Pittsburgh PA* uses LabVIEW.

Sorry I don't have a contact to get you started.

Ben

*Former pickle capital of the world!

[chilly_charly]

Not bad for a start. We have some interesting applications here, that demonstrate that LV can be used in the food industry. The question is : "is it used effectivelly ? Or are these examples mere anomalies ? 😉

Clearly I need more application examples in order to make the report credible.

Unfortunately this thread is rapidly drowned under the flow of incoming questions. I wonder if Laura could float it to the top. Afterall, it's something I'm doing to promote LabVIEW.

Laura ?

Message Edité par chilly charly le 10-24-2007 11:22 AM

[Wiebe@CARYA]

Sorry for the late drop in.

We've used LabVIEW to automate beer broweries pilot plants, but also in even
more restricted area, like oil and gas.

Regards,

Wiebe.

[chilly_charly]

---

Wiebe@CARYA a écrit:  We've used LabVIEW to automate beer broweries pilot plants, but also in even
more restricted area, like oil and gas.

---

Sound interesting. Can you give more details ? you can contact me directly at chillycharly(a)free.fr

Thanks Wiebe !

[Ben]

Hi CC,

Why the requirement for the food industry?

Technology generally follows the money and the food industry (if i understand correctly) is known for its low profit margins.

So if you are looking to prepare the engineers of tomorow, why does the litmus test involve the lowest tech sector?

You should really be looking at what is happening in oil gas energy and military.

Well maybe not military, they have a tendancy to get upset when you publish their apps.

Ben

[chilly_charly]

Ben,

I have a special interest in the Food Industry because I'm teaching in the Food Science & Technology department of my Engineering school (Remember, I'm a specialist of fermentation technology). Is that a good enough justification ?I'm specifically concerned by the quality of the formation given to our students and I believe that they should spend more time with LabVIEW than with Visual Basic.

Now, I'm facing people who know little about computer sciences and absolutely nothing about LabVIEW.

What would you do ?

Message Edité par chilly charly le 10-24-2007 03:19 PM

[Ben]

OK CC,

Rather than limit to solutions to app already deployed in food related apps, why don't you tell us what the food industry use in the way of computers and let us find analogs.

I have "pilot plant" apps that use recipes to precipitate calcium carbonate.

I have to measure out volumes of ingrediants control the heat and mix till I get a specific viscosity.

Sure no one wants to eat calcium carbonate.

I also control material processing facilities to harden metal etc.

These are implemented using recipes, again.

I did a process control app for the people who used to turn McDonalds big mac containers into simultated woord trim.

They had secret recipes to control the quality of the end product.

Since your students are going to be engineers, they will be doing new things that no one has ever done before. Teaching them about how other industries has harnessed technology should not hurt.

Ben

[Spectre_Dave]

CC

NI has a section on their web-site for customer solutions.  http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/main. 

There is a section on Food / beverage http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/nav/p/sn/n21:Food-SLASH-Beverage

[Wiebe@CARYA]

The brewery stuff is all propriatairy. Basically, it doesn't matter if a
pilot plant is handling beer, milk or oil. The piping, tmeperatures and
pressures are different, but from a software point of view things are pretty
similar.

What kind of details do you want? I've done pilot plants with up to 125
I/O's (Digital, analog, counters, pwms, thermocouples, heaters and scales)
with logging, recipes, and all the pipes and wissles you can imagine.

Regards,

Wiebe.

[Jeffrey_P]

Chilly Charly,

Are you looking for examples in any specific aspect of the food industry.  I have heard of many examples of LabVIEW used in packaging and/or inspection.  Are you interested in any specific aspect?

Thanks,