Molex makes automation connections at PACK EXPO

In its booth (S5884), Molex is displaying its range of connectors, control and power products. Each of the components is designed to help machine builders and system integrators incorporate components designed to stand up to the rough conditions found in food and beverage manufacturing.

Challenges and opportunities​

Frank Malczyk, Molex business development manager for food and beverage, told FoodProductionDaily.com that the increased prevalence of automation has presented a number of challenges for his firm, and for machine builders and integrators.

“Automation has made things more challenging, but it presents opportunities as well,” ​he said. “This industry covers everything we eat and drink and all those companies operate on a diferent scale, including the smaller companies trying to make decisions on how to get more automated, and how to make those capital expenditures work.”​

Malczyk told FPD that operational efficiency is the name of the game, and it is something that every food processing and packaging firm, from the big household names to the more modest companies, strive to improve.

Safety focus​

Additionally, Malczyk said, food-related businesses place a laser focus on safety and sanitation.

“Bringing up sanitation standards is a requirement in the industry,” ​he said. “The Food Safety Modernization Act being signed into law is a result of the increasingly importance placed on documentation of safe and its practices.”​

According to Malczyk, Molex and Woodhead (the electrical technology supplier it acquired in 2006) have worked on creating components that could stand up to the demanding environment of food processing operations.

“From the very beginning, we took on a design philosophy that said, ‘Okay, what would be the roughest, toughest, harshest, highest temperature conditions we could be in?’” ​he said. “Especially in the ‘wet zone’ where there’s cleaning one or two times a day, with very high-psi spraydowns, those conditions can wear down cabling and connections—our approach is to design products that will last in those harsh conditions.”​

Malczyk said that at PACK EXPO, Molex representatives will take the opportunity to stroll the show floor and talk to processing and packaging machine suppliers, talking about their process and how their connector, control, and power products work.

PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2013 is taking place September 23-25. For updates, keep watching FoodProductionDaily.com​ and follow @FoodProductionDaily​ on Twitter.