Alfa Laval has developed the ThinkTop V20 valve indication unit to digitise monitoring processes
Maintenance-free, the device enables 360° LED visual status indication from all directions and does not require manual set-up or programming.
UK manufacturing is coming under increasing pressure to manage costs and improve productivity, driving a need to ensure all operations are running as efficiently as possible. Process managers are therefore under increasing pressure and therefore digitisation is moving away from being a preference to becoming a priority for many companies, especially for integral plant equipment such as valves.
According to Leonardo Morabito of Alfa Laval, higher levels of process control will be crucial to manufacturers looking to increase their competitiveness, especially for those reliant on visual or signal feedback from open or closed valve positions.
The ThinkTop V20 has been designed for hot-swapping, meaning it can be simply plugged into existing, ongoing processes without any disruption to production. Additionally, its compatibility with most common communications platforms, including Digital, ASI and I/O Link, together with its self-setup, means it is a plug-and-play, fit-and-forget device.
“Unplanned downtime can hugely affect the bottom line and productivity of organisations in the manufacturing sector, so being able to seamlessly replace older valve indication units while safeguarding productivity is crucial,” concludes Morabito.
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