Company News

Australian manufacturing performance software company, OFS, and US ‘grain-to-glass’ brewery data management company, The 5th Ingredient, have signed a first-of-its-kind craft brewing partnership to help the companies expand in each other’s home markets to help the craft beer industry become more data driven. OFS’s software, which uses sensors to draw real-time data from the packing line to identify and reduce inefficiencies and waste, has become the de facto standard for filling and packing-line efficiency monitoring in Australia. It is already used by around half of Australia’s craft breweries including Stomping Ground and Tribe Breweries. The 5th Ingredient, founded in the craft beer capital of San Diego, has had similar success in the US with its proprietary Beer30 brewery software, which assesses data from the moment raw ingredients are purchased to when the can, bottle or keg is sold. The 5th Ingredient has already deployed its software in more than 10 per cent of the Australian industry, while OFS, having recently launched in the US, has already signed its first three US breweries including Pelican Brewing Company, a leading Oregon-based craft brewery. The brewing software specialists now aim to expand their footprint across both countries’ entire industries, at a rate of 100 breweries a year. The software integration between Beer30 and OFS provides unmatched visibility into yield, covering losses from every step of the brewing and packing process in real time. For example, OFS could capture a series of downtimes on the filler correlating to a CO2 quality issue captured by Beer30, which has affected a portion of the product. If the overall problem is related to raw ingredients, it could also identify the relevant batch and which products were affected, preventing a larger-than-needed product recall. Importantly, both OFS and Beer30 are viable solutions for brewers of all sizes where efficiency […]

The long service life of igus chainflex high-end TPE cables from Treotham convinces inspectors and gives customers certified security As the world’s first manufacturer, igus has received UL AWM certification from the well-known US organisation Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for its high-end TPE cables that do not use fire-retardant halogens as additives. This is the first time that the testing organisation has recognised that halogen-free TPE cables can also meet the fire protection requirements in industry. The independent organisation Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is one of the most important authorities in the USA in terms of product safety. It has been testing components of machines and systems since 1894 to see whether they are suitable for industrial use. Their seal is one of the prerequisites for a successful market entry in North America. Fire protection is a key decisive criteria. This is because, according to the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), machine fires are the fourth leading cause of fires in industrial environments in the USA, closely followed by fires caused by electrical factors. Fire protection can also be achieved without halogens For this certification, the igus engineers had to do a lot of persuading. Up to now, the flame retardancy of cables has been the key factor in obtaining UL certification for fire protection. Approval is therefore only granted to products containing flame retardants such as chlorine, fluorine or bromine. These additives increase the flame retardancy. However, so far it has not been taken into account that the flame retardants generally change the chemical structure of the jacket and reduce the mechanical load-bearing capacity. Therefore, igus starts much earlier in the process: The cable specialist focuses less on preventing a fire from spreading, but rather on how the cable itself caused the fire. The TPE jacket compounds are extremely resistant […]