For those of us designing, or helping to design and manufacture big, beautiful machines, 2023 could only be described as a year of mixed results. The digital transformation of industry has continued in full force but the onset of PTSD after 3 years of COVID ravaged economics, continues to drive fundamental changes in the way industry is operating and performing. Supply chain shortages are still with us, and these shortages are driving fits and starts in production lines in the USA, and all over the world. Despite good news about overall US unemployment rates at record lows, a labor force in transition was unable to produce all the specific talent we needed for faster growth. Wars broke out, the cost of living has increased and inflationary concerns for the first time in many years, made electronics manufacturers more cautious about their investments in 2023 than we might have hoped.

Of particular interest to CPI, is the effect all this has had, or maybe failed to have had on supply chain decision making. As a determined US based supplier of products with more than one offshore competitor, we feel like what we’ve been saying for years about supply chain stability being worth something, has been dramatically vindicated.

Anyway, here’s a few key thoughts for our end-of-year group therapy, and why we think that despite our global challenges, a period of more stable and sustained growth might be just around the corner.

New Vocabulary for 2023, “ReShoring”

During 2022 and into 2023, China continued to struggle with COVID-19 outbreaks and continued its “Zero COVID” policy, pushing companies to move manufacturing out of China. According to a CNBC report from December 2022, US manufacturing orders from China dropped 40%, and new US export controls on semiconductors and chip manufacturing technology are hampering China’s plans to lead the semiconductor industry as well as its ability to produce advanced chips. Internally, wages in China have doubled in the last few years making it much less of a bargain than it used to be for large manufacturers.

Thus was a new term coined, “reshoring,” as large manufacturers like Apple computers announced major moves to relieve some of the dependence on China. In August of 2023, the first shipments of IPhone 15’s made in India, rolled off assembly lines.  Despite some examples like this, reshoring will not be a quick process and companies likely need to plan for continued component shortages in 2024. Solutions for manufacturing include improved digitization of the supply chain, the continued move to agile manufacturing, and the solution near and dear to our heart: find a better, more stable component supplier right here on US shores.

Overall, reshoring helps to establish a more resilient supply chain, which prevents the frequent starts and stops in production that have become common. It also offers additional benefits, such as increased quality control, shorter delivery times, reduced shipping costs, easier product customization, and smoother communication between manufacturers and suppliers due to language and time zone commonality.

2024 Is Already Showing Some Promise

Legislation enacted in 2022 continues to have a significant impact on investment despite continued supply chain disruptions. These Acts include the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Together, these laws prioritize rebuilding infrastructure, advancing clean energy initiatives, and building out the domestic semiconductor industry, while also aiming to foster job growth, workforce development, and equity. By introducing an infusion of funds and tax incentives into US manufacturing across various sectors—including semiconductors, clean energy components, electric vehicles, batteries, and the constituent parts and raw materials of these products—the IIJA, CHIPS, and IRA have already spurred record private sector investment in the manufacturing industry.

While this legislation sets the stage, the evolution of Technology and the industrial metaverse will also play an enormous role in 2024. Manufacturers are embracing a smart factory approach, exploring the fuller digitization of the global supply chain, and investigating the possibilities of generative AI, one of the latest additions to everyone’s vocabulary, as tools they can use to add value to their operations and ultimately help manage a much more efficient supply chain.

And last but not least, are the massive global changes designed to address decarbonization and electrification. Awareness of the need for sustainable products has never been higher. Global warming is quite literally a burning topic, with consequences felt worldwide. This has created a rising demand for sustainable products, and manufacturers are also increasingly required to use more sustainable and socially-responsible manufacturing methods. The electronics industry, which accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, will be forced to make changes to meet the new requirements and demand.

Note that at CPI we were ahead of the curve here. The solar array on our front lawn installed almost 10 years ago, supplies a significant amount of our factory’s daily operating electricity!

Final Thoughts on 2024

The reshoring of manufacturing and by extension, supply chain, is probably long overdue and in many ways, the world has woken up to the inherent risks of having all one’s proverbial eggs in one manufacturing basket. For the foreseeable future, this is not likely to improve, at least with respect to China.

While CPI products have some of the most unique performance characteristics in the world for the markets they target, there will always be builders who really need what we are, but want to pay for what we are not. As manufacturers get over their global PTSD, and begin to add up the costs of factory downtime, shipping costs, and poor quality control, a key learning must be that an unstable supply chain cost them much more in the long run.

Here’s to a great holiday season and a prosperous 2024!

This blog was originally published at https://www.cpi-nj.com/2023-the-year-in-review/

 The mass production of food products is a fascinating business, requiring the specification of many different types of technology in many different operating environments. In some cases, massive amounts of raw food product has to be carefully cooked and packaged and kept at certain temperatures for certain amounts of time, all done in a hygienic way so as not to poison folks and such.

A great example that recently came to our attention was for a rotary conveyor in a huge freezer shown above. In this case, the food is already cooked and simply needs to be moved around within cold storage via trays that ride on a track. In this environment, moisture, condensation, and icing is an unavoidable problem and the machinery occasionally gets off track – literally.

CPI Cold Operating Limit Switches

Unlike typical commercial switches and sensors that run from 0 to 70 C, even basic CPI limit switches are fully IP68 rated and sealed in Santoprene which gives them a default temperature rating of -40C to 100C.

But long and deep experience has taught us that cold and wet environments pose unique problems for switch operation that even switches with low temperature ratings may have challenges overcoming. In one such experience it was found that switches that were actuated for long periods of time would “freeze” in place upon release due to the deformity of the thermoplastic boot which could not be pushed back into its original state upon release. In cases that exist at the edge of cold temperature operation, CPI recommends our military grade limit switch where the temperature range goes all the way down to -65F. These switches are encased in neoprene rubber which avoids the semi-permanent deformity that is possible with thermoplastic seals. And with CPI’s USA based, in house manufacturing team, the cost of producing these in quantity is on par with their Santoprene cousins.

In the case of our rotary conveyor, a series of CPI E1100 angle mount brackets using our B series momentary switch provide feedback to the rotary controller when the system is off the track. In this application our switches are daisy-chained so that any detection of a failed conveyor will immediately pause the conveyor, while requiring only one monitoring point at the controller.

CPI Tastes Good on Food Processing Equipment

In the mass production of food products, CPI limit switches have been used for position and safety sensing in both hot and cold environments. They not only take the heat/cold, but they do it for a really really long time.

Call our team today, lets see what we can cook up for you!

This blog was originally published at https://www.cpi-nj.com/conveying-food/

 Lately it feels like there is a race between the widespread improvement and adoption of renewable energy sources, and the worst effects of a rapidly warming planet. We’re not there yet but the dedicated and intelligent work of so many individuals and companies who announce exciting advances every day, gives us hope that we may yet win the race.

It turns out that CPI Thermal switches have a part to play in a number of renewable energy technologies that form part of the overall solution for green energy production. Because of our Thermal Switch capabilities related to both cold and hot temperature detection, CPI switches get designed in to many systems.

Here’s just a few ways in which CPI is doing it’s part to help the green energy movement.

Ocean Based Windmill Farms

Large wind turbines, especially ocean based, can be protected from cold related failure by use of special anti-freeze fluids, that create heated gearboxes or trigger internally heated electronics which can also fail in extreme cold.

This is a proven application for CPI thermal switches which have been used in power grid applications including windmills to detect cold weather conditions which might affect the operation of components. in one such application windmills depend on critical voltage converters to translate the mechanical energy of the turbine to electrical energy. These converters have a lower limit on the temperature under which they can safely operate. Our switch is used as a cold temperature indicator that the converter controller software reads. If the temperature hits the low temperature set point (in this case -3C) it is a signal that the internal heating system for the voltage converter has failed to turn on. To prevent a failure, our switch sends a signal to raise a fault and shut down the converter.

In other applications the same switch closure is used to turn on local heating elements which prevent the gearbox and associated electronics from reaching  freezing temperatures which may exceed their ratings.

The switch closure can also be used in windmills to enable the flow of antifreeze by turning on pumps and generating alarms when various temperature thresholds are reached.

Fuel Cells

The promise of hydrogen based fuel cells is certainly one of the most exciting energy technologies on the cusp of mainstream acceptance.  Fuel cells  are expected to be over a 40 billion dollar industry by 2030 as advances in technology and adoption continue. 

Reactions within a fuel cell are carefully temperature controlled to allow for maximum efficiency in energy conversion. That’s where our  AD173 bimetallic thermal switch comes in. This switch has a small form factor that can detect temperatures from –18C to 148C with tolerances as tight as 2.8C.

Deployed at a 35F set point, our AD series switches have been used to initiate anti-freeze protection extending the useful temperature range of outdoor fuel cells.

Electric Bus Charging Solutions

Prototype electric buses employ magnetic charging solutions that actually charge the bus while its sitting at each bus stop. Because of the high electromagnetic field in use, CPI developed special versions of our AD190 Thermal Switch with a dielectric resistance up to 5000 VAC. Their double snap action and hermetic sealing option, make them perfect for this application.

Nuclear Energy Thermal Sensing

Nuclear energy may be the overlooked child in the green energy revolution. While this is somewhat understandable given public perceptions of the danger of Nuclear Power plants and the difficulty dealing with used fuel rods. Still most experts consider modern nuclear power plant reactor designs to be exceedingly safe, and that the energy generated will be an important stopgap energy solution on the way to a completely green world.

While temperature measurement inside an active reactor are the province of extremely specialized thermocouples due to high neutron bombardment, it turns out there are a boatload of other temperature measurements that could be perfect for a robust, standalone, high precision thermal switch product like those that CPI makes.  Here’s just a few examples:

• Measuring the temperature of Cooling Water
• Measuring Oven chamber temperatures during fuel rod processing
• Measuring the temperatures of control room electronics and activation of thermal alarms.
• Measurement of Steam and Generator temperatures.

CPI Thermal Switches particularly our Rod & Tube Sensors have the high accuracy, high temperature capability and fast response times needed by many thermal sensing applications in nuclear energy.

CPI Thermals Can be Customized for Your Application

If you have an emerging or existing application in the renewable energy area, we want to be your partner. Changes to our thermal switches for a specific requirement can be readily made by our engineering team. Set points for your switches are programmable for you in our factory and lead lengths and terminations are fully customizable as are electrical parameters and other elements.

Call our engineering team today to discuss your application. 

This blog was originally published at https://www.cpi-nj.com/renewable-energy-applications-use-cpi-thermals/

 Sometimes clients come to us because they have a small need for switches on an outdoor application and want to design in a sealed switch that they won’t ever have to worry about.  A switch that is truly waterproof, with reliability over tens of thousands of actuations, and just the right tactile feel. Applications on jet ski’s and speedboats come to mind. Or motors on specialized enduro-mountain bikes, motorized fishing reels for the handicapped and push-to-talk helmet mounted buttons for cops. Dozens more like this. All small but important CPI customers because they just didn’t want to mess around with the switch. They wanted a bulletproof implementation from the get-go.

Some of the environmental stress these applications experience can be severe for sure, but a whole different set of environmental challenges exist in the commercial mobile space. This is the place which CPI switches were exactly designed for. Some of these apps represent the most difficult operating environments you will find on the planet.

The Non-Automotive Commercial Mobile Vehicle Problem

Consider the use of limit switches on a backhoe loader or other construction vehicles like a crane or dump truck. These vehicles can employ strong hydraulic movement on loader arms, dump bodies, or stabilizers with limit switches exposed to the outdoor elements constantly. This means rain, wind, dust, oil and other chemicals, even power washing. Add to that extreme temperatures, high vibration, constant use and physical abuse by operators and machines alike. Many times, these switches function as a critical safety sensor and so failure in the field can be expensive to resolve and dangerous to leave unresolved. Here are just a few examples:

Next Gen Telehandler using J4 Plunger Switch – For this brand-new design, our manufacturer uses outriggers (or stabilizers) to insure stability of the extended platform. The critical safety related nature of this application, and the need to be small form yet durable made CPI the best choice. These plunger switches act as position sensors for the stabilizers with operating parameters held to +-1mm in the CPI switch design.

Agricultural Harvester using waterproof Limit Switch E1245-501 –In this value-add addition to a popular harvester model, our client ads our simulated roller limit switch to the side of the harvester. This sensor allows them to determine when the crop harvester head is in the locked or floating position. Key to this design win was the reliability and immunity to chemicals and high pressure water our switches exhibit.

Dump Body Detection using E1092  simulated roller bracket with B-Series Switches – Driving down the highway with the dump body raised is both comical and dangerous. The installation of a simple CPI limit switch like our 1092 simulated roller actuator is commonly used to make sure all kinds of things are closed, from dump truck bodies, to safety doors, to engine hoods, and submarine hatches. Switch closure parameters such as force and electromechanical endurance as well as extended temperature ranges can be specified. And no matter what you pick, its always sealed and completely waterproof. You can read more about this dump truck raised body application at this link.

Other applications for Construction vehicles Include:

Back-up Alarm SwitchBrake Over-TempCab Closed InterlockDoor InterlockSeat Position

Door SwitchDump Body Detect SwitchHorn SwitchIdle Validation DetectLift Up/Down Control

Lift Up/Down ControlOperator Presence SwitchPark Brake SwitchRemote Horn Signal Switch

For more information on any of these applications please call a sales engineer at 973-887-9400

CPI – We’re Different on the Inside

Inside our unassuming santoprene (or neoprene) sealed “pendant” switch, lies a world of experience and field proven technology in switching and sensing. Working for up to 1 million cycles in the environments we reliably operate in, takes a lot of careful thought in both design and manufacturing, and a lot of understanding about how small mods in materials and construction can make big changes in operating characteristics.

The other way we’re different on the inside is our company operating philosophy. With all our manufacturing, engineering and design done at a single USA based corporate campus, our ability to make changes, customize, consult, ensure quality and be nimble in delivery are unmatched by any offshore solution to high performance switching you will find anywhere else in the world. With our USA based operations, your supply chain will be unaffected by the policies and hostilities of foreign made products in unstable countries with ever changing export rules.

And in quantity, our pricing is usually competitive with those offshore products. But with CPI you will also get a reliable, accessible and incredibly responsive USA based supply partner. That’s worth something.

Call (973) 887-9400 or visit https://cpi-nj.com today to discuss your next limit switch design challenge.

This blog was originally posted at https://www.cpi-nj.com/defining-harsh-environments-for-commercial-vehicles/