Whitman Controls

vehicle hydraulic system
Case Studies

Application Case Study: Pressure Protection in Vehicle Hydraulic Testing

Most readers will have a mental concept of surface mining, with big excavators and dump trucks zipping about a pit dug into the Earth in search of valuable materials such as copper, gold, and diamonds. We thought we had a good understanding of what open-pit mining entailed as well, until we learned just how big the equipment used in these operations really is. Not long back, we received an inquiry from a returning client looking to address an automation challenge with their hydraulic test rigs – rigs that exclusively tested mining equipment hydraulics used in large open-pit mines. As the client described their test rigs and the mining vehicles they served, we realized that our mental image of mining equipment was way too small. Luckily, even such large equipment and the test rigs that keep them in tip-top operation still use normal sized instrumentation. With that, we turned our attention to the client’s concerns about protecting their test rigs from significant, hazardous high pressure situations, and dug right in.

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hvac systems
Case Studies

Application Case Study: Pressure Control in Adiabatic Cooling

A prospective client requested Whitman’s review of a new application they were working on involving industrial adiabatic cooling technology, seeking an analysis and recommendation on control sensor solutions that could fit into a new product lineup they were developing. “Sure, we’ll help,” we said, “that sounds pretty cool.” Pun completely intended!

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co2 laser
Case Studies

Application Case Study: Pressure Protection in CO2 Lasers

Tuesday mornings are arguably the best possible time of the week to be reminded of high school science terms we haven’t thought about for too many decades. Or at least for one Tuesday morning in particular, in which we received an email asking about our experience in gas control for interferometry propagation. We’ll save you a Wikipedia search – lasers; they were referring to lasers. This email was from a leading CO2 fabrication laser manufacturer looking for assistance in solving a gas mixture delivery challenge for an upcoming continuous laser marking application.

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procurement team at work
News

Using E-Procurement for Instrumentation Contracts

Most of us have heard about e-commerce for over twenty years, with online retail shopping being a matter of course today. During this same period, commercial and industrial suppliers have quietly evolved their own online procurement ecosystem, with modern footprints that often rival consumer platforms in revenue if not volume.

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person operating machinery safely
News

Functional Safety Controls – Protecting Your Employees and Processes

It’s not always so obvious how many (or how few) degrees of protection stand between a normal operation and a significant emergency, especially for more mundane systems that don’t fail in spectacular ways. With this thought in mind, we’re too-often shocked when we hear about incidents where virtually no safety measures were in place, which motivates us to write this article sharing ideas about how engineers can conceptualize safety decisions using a unique layered approach.

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