Advancements In Instrumentation: Breaking The Barriers To Innovation

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is a mantra that Alan Vance has heard many times from water treatment operators adverse to new technologies. Vance, who works with Endress Hauser, a supplier of process control instrumentation, recently shared why he thinks this attitude needs to change in an interview with Water Online Radio.

“The water-wastewater industry at times moves a little bit slower than the industrial industry or oil and gas or chemical. However, as these municipalities upgrade their controls, expand their plants, ect., they’re going to need more and more instrumentation and better and tighter control,” he says.

Instrumentation technology has dramatically advanced over the past 15 to 20 years, explains Vance.  Instruments can deliver more information, more accurately than ever before.  

“I tend to compare it to a cell phone. Years ago when cell phones came out, you’d flip the case open and dial a number and make a phone call, right?,” he says. “Our instruments are the same way. Years ago, they just would have one output for whatever they wanted to do. The advancement in microprocessors has definitely given us more information in one box.”

To hear the full interview with Vance click the link below.