100% Employee Owned, Founded 1954

Life Science Industry Newsletter – January 2025

Helping Automate the Packaging and Palletizing Process

Cross Automation recently worked with a chemical manufacturer in Western North Carolina who was struggling to find and keep labor. With a turnover rate of over 80%, they realized they needed to do something differently and reached out to us to discuss automation opportunities.

Our customer has thirteen packaging lines which form, fill and seal the product into bags. Operators then put the bags into boxes and the boxes onto pallets. They wanted to start with palletizing and have a palletizer flexible enough to run multiple box sizes.

The Innovation Team at Cross Automation designed a palletizer using a Fanuc industrial robot with a custom multi- zone vacuum gripper, enclosed in a safety fence with light curtains. In addition, each cell includes a reject station prior to the robot, in order to separate the unfinished or malformed boxes before they could be grabbed by the robot. It also has an automated break detection system to improve safety and protect the robot from harm.

Technical Guide: Temperature Ramping When Tuning PID Loops

Cross’s Process Solutions engineers are often asked to control a temperature in a PID loop that must ramp up as rapidly as possible to a target setpoint, minimize any overshoot, and control steadily at that setpoint once achieving it.

Senior Systems Integration Engineer Chris Hardy wrote this technical guide to explain one method he recently used to achieve this. This is one method to achieve a rapid ramp with minimal overshoot, then good steady-state control at the target. Configuring the system to automatically capture steady state CV and adjust pre-cutoff offsets can reduce the need for manual tuning going forward.

What's New at Cross

New Pressure Transmitter and Vortex Meter Partner: Azbil

Advanced Direct Mount Pressure Transmitter

Cross Process Solutions is pleased to announce our partnership with Azbil North America, a division of Azbil Corporation. Azbil, formerly known as Yamatake Corporation, was founded in 1906 and produces measurement and control technology for buildings and industrial automation.

In particular, Azbil’s differential pressure transmitters are highly advanced, well made and their two way communication enables self-diagnosis, range resetting, and automatic zero adjustment operations.

Azbil’s vortex flow meters also stand out for their superior technology and quality workmanship. With no moving parts, they need little maintenance and repair and can be used to measure liquids, gases and steam. Watch this video to learn the theory of vortex meters and the features and benefits of the Azbil line.

Did you know?

Sample Conditioning: What Is It and When Should You Use It?

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For processes with aggressive or otherwise particularly sensitive media, measuring pH, conductivity, or dissolved oxygen is not as easy as pulling measurements from the mainline. Some processes require a media sample to be extracted for treatment and conditioning before an accurate measurement can be made.

Sample conditioning allows operators to understand a process using media samples that would otherwise overwhelm or damage typical sensors due to high pressure, extreme heat or inconsistent flow rates. The experts in Cross Process Solutions can help specify the appropriate sample conditioning elements for your particular process from our partner M4Knick.

Understanding Autofocus in Optical Measurement

Calibration is an essential part of compliance in the life sciences industries, almost a cost of doing business. But if your calibration provider isn’t getting your equipment back to you in a timely manner, you have the extra cost of purchasing and maintaining spare equipment while it’s out.

Cross Precision Measurement is a full service, ISO 17025-accredited calibration provider with twenty labs across the Southeast and Midwest, including our newest labs in Atlanta and Charleston. We are accredited in over 150 different parameters and can perform NIST-traceable calibration on literally thousands of types of equipment. Critically, 90% of the equipment we calibrate is turned around in 7 days or less.

Don’t carry the cost of spare equipment because your calibration provider is too slow. See how Cross Precision Measurement can help!

Life Science Industry Newsletter - January 2025 3

Cross Provides Tangible Value for You

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Improve Efficiency

The new 10% overpressure vents from Cross partner GROTH are able to achieve the same flow capacity with a far lower psi, leading to better performance at lower cost than pilot-operated vents.

The sealing of the new valves was also developed to minimize fugitive emissions while providing increased protection and safety to tank equipment and on-site personnel. They can also be paired with a flame arrestor for applications with explosive concerns

Life Science Industry Newsletter - January 2025 4

Reduce Risk

Specifically designed for the biotech industry, the Integrx HPX™ sanitary rupture disc from Cross partner Continental Disc is a semi-circular, scored, reverse-acting rupture disc, perfectly suited for cyclic process conditions from full vacuum to 90-95% of the stamped rating. Its welded design mitigates the impact of downstream piping loads on the rupture disc burst pressure and overall performance. It features an external tag, aiding installation and providing clearly visible identification in the field and easy access to marked data.

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Raise Quality

As calibration providers, we know how critical record keeping is for both quality and compliance. Cross’s award-winning, cloud-based calibration software GageSuite® is user friendly and available anywhere.

It’s also ideal for visibility of multiple production locations. Whether those are across the street or across the country, GageSuite® allows you to track every gage and ensure that all of them are within calibration, with one single log-in.

See how our team can help improve quality, increase efficiency, and reduce risk

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In the meantime, enjoy these fun facts…

Did you know… Cross Company is an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). Our ESOP started in 1979 and as of 2006, we are 100% employee-owned! Learn more about our ESOP and how that benefits both team members and our customers.
Did you know... the precision measurement group at Cross was founded in 1939 by our current CEO's grandfather, Jim King. That's a whole lot of calibration!
Did you know... A fingerprint weighs about 50 micrograms. We know, we weighed it! The residue left from a finger can actually make a difference in weight results which is why we wear gloves when we calibrate weights. For reference, a sheet of paper is about 4.5 grams, that’s 4.5 million micrograms.
Did you know… Cross Company has grown significantly since our start in 1954. Over the years we've acquired 26 companies! Today, our five groups have expertise in everything from industrial automation to precision measurement, and industry knowledge going all the way back to 1939.