An Instrumentation Update For Changing Times

Jim Cairns, marketing operations and process business manager for Environmental and Process Instruments with Thermo Fisher Scientific, talks to Water Online Radio about the evolution of water analysis, and introduces new products to adapt to a changing environment.

The following is an excerpt from the Q&A. Click on the Radio Player above to hear the full interview.

Water Online Radio: Talk a little bit about how the process industry has evolved and where you think it’s headed.

Jim: When I first started in this business, I would visit the labs. The mechanic labs there would be five or six guys whose responsibility it was to make sure that everything in that process was working the way it should be.

Now when I visit those exact same plants, it’s down to maybe one or two guys having to do the same amount of work. The shift we’re seeing in the industry is that these guys are being asked to do a lot more work with a lot less.

The thing I keep hearing about is the managers getting called in and told that they are doing a great job this year: “You did a good job. By the way, you have to do it again next year but with 15% less in your budget.” It’s really challenging, so we offer instrumentation and equipment to help them be more efficient.

Water Online Radio: Talk about some of the new products that Thermo Scientific has introduced to help deal with these changes in conditions.

Jim: Actually, we’ve introduced a couple of great products. One we call the AquaPro – it’s a multi-input analyzer. It can accommodate up to four channels. The nice thing about the AquaPro is that it’s intelligent. It helps the maintenance guys and the operators to use this instrumentation in their processes without having to put too much effort or time into it.