CPECN.COM / OCTOBER 2026
VOLUME 54 / ISSUE 5
TRADE DIVERSIFICATION IN PRACTICE
A Manufacturer’s Guide to Trading Beyond the U.S.
PLUS FOCUS ON: How Automation Became the Hacker’s Playground
ALSO: Troubleshooting Operational Procedure
October 2026 Vol. 54, No. 5 cpecn.com
COVER STORY
6
6 DIVERSIFICATION IN PRACTICE
A manufacturer’s guide to trading beyond the U.S.
FEATURES
10 One Full Year, Riding the Tiger
14 Stop Must Mean Stop
DEPARTMENTS
16
FROM THE EDITOR 4 Historical context to modern chaos.
COVER IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
A catch-up interview with Greg Moffatt, president of the CIAC.
A programming oversight nearly destroyed a $250,000 pump.
NEWS 5 The latest industry news.
16 Strategic Volunteering
PRODUCTS 22 New products from KROHNE, Antaira, Foodsafe, et al.
18 Ghosts in the Machine
Breaking out of short-termism to see long-term value.
How automation became the hacker’s playground.
We Measure What Matters Flow • Level • Pressure • Temperature
KOBOLD Instruments Canada Inc 1-888-769-5550
request@kobold.ca www.koboldusa.com AUGUST 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
CPE_KoboldCanada_April26_CSA.indd 1
3
2026-03-12 10:46 AM
FROM THE EDITOR
Historical Context to Modern Chaos
U
Indian share of global textile trade in 1700
4
p until the 17th century, India’s the chaos. The Trump administration textile manufacturing base was sees a chance for dominance in every facet the largest in the world. Plain- of international relations, setting it fundawoven cotton textile called mentally at odds with the prevailing freecalico, and a painted version trade economics of the past 30 years, called chintz, was exported across Asia, which has seen trade relationships as from China and Japan to the Ottoman mutually beneficial. Canada, doomed to Empire. Centuries of hard-won industrial be the closest of neighbours with this new knowledge allowed Indian artisans to America, is having its role re-imagined for cheaply manufacture intricate fabrics that it by the Trump administration and, unbecame highly sought after. imaginative as they are, they have chosen When the English (later British) East to try and revert to the economics of the India Company arrived in the subcontin- colonial era. We see this returned mercanent, it seized the chance to start importing tilism in the following ways: these textiles into England, where they 1. Trump sees U.S. trade deficits as became very fashionable in comparison evidence that the U.S. is being taken to the plainer English wool. Suddenly, advantage of. England’s well established cottage indus- 2. Washington wants to strangle Canada’s try of textile manufacturers was under manufacturing sectors while it leaves threat of being destroyed by cheaper and the import of Canadian natural resoursuperior Indian fabrics, so a vocal moveces relatively untouched. We see this in ment emerged to ban the import of forthe way Trump’s tariffs disproportioneign textiles, culminating in the Calico ately target Quebec and Ontario more Acts of 1700 and 1721. than Alberta. The development of Britain’s colonial 3. The U.S. wants uninhibited access to hold over India was characterized by the sell American goods in Canada. effort to squash India’s manufacturing 4. It wants to control Canada’s trade relabase while shielding the emergence of tionships, most significantly with China. British competitors, this finding formal 5. This is all underwritten by a general expression in the economic system called threat to Canadian sovereignty, float‘Mercantilism’. ing a new relationship that could be Mercantilism (see if you notice anyunderstood as ‘colonial’. thing familiar here) is the idea that interIf Canada’s current position seems a national trade is fundamentally zero-sum. far cry from colonial India, it is because For every winner there is a loser. Success- the days of good-will and mutual collabful countries will have trade surpluses—i.e. oration were only a few years ago. We are the value of exports exceeds imports— starting from a position of well-estabwhile the states with trade deficits lose lished cooperation and affluence. their own lucrative productive capacities Canada will be ok. We have too many and become merely a passive consumer resources, too many global connections, market. Trade was a tool of state power. and too much international good-will for In practice, the success of a mercantilist these old-fashioned ambitions to find state required the domination of another any success. But I think it is helpful to country; it required colonialism. Enforced understand the malicious rationality beby the threat of violence, the colony served hind this trade war, and for us to give up the dominant power by being a dumping any hope of seeing eye to eye with this ground for manufactured products and, particular set of American leaders. Prime because they could only buy products from Minister Carney’s move to end any furone country, they had to pay the price the ther trade negotiations makes complete coloniser determined. India had no sover- sense. The most Canadian thing to do eignty over its own trade relationships. It here is to continue to insist that global was gradually deindustrialized (to borrow trade can be mutually beneficial, and that a modern term) and was reduced to being the future belongs to countries that a basket of resources from which British cooperate for shared prosperity. manufacturers could pick. It had to sell its resources cheaply to Britain, and it had to buy expensive British finished products. As the relationship today between Canada and Trump’s America explodes JUSTIN YULE, editor into open trade war, I cannot help but see this rationale from a by-gone era behind jyule@annexbusinessmedia.com
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
Volume 54 No.5
OCTOBER 2026
Reader Service
Print and digital subscription inquiries or changes, please contact Angelita Potal Customer Service Tel: 416-510-5113 Fax: (416) 510-6875 Email: apotal@annexbusinessmedia.com Mail: 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Audience Manager Anita Madden 416.510.5183 amadden@annexbusinessmedia.com Brand Sales Manager Pat Lorusso 416.518.5509 plorusso@annexbusinessmedia.com
Editor Justin Yule 438.483.7451 jyule@annexbusinessmedia.com Account Coordinator Kristine Deokaran 416.510.6774 kdeokaran@annexbusinessmedia.com Group Publisher, Manufacturing Paul Grossinger pgrossinger@annexbusinessmedia.com CEO Scott Jamieson sjamieson@annexbusinessmedia.com CPE&CN is published bi-monthly by: Annex Business Media 111 Gordon Baker Rd, Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 T: 416-442-5600 F: 416-442-2230 © All materials in this publication are copyright protected and the property of Annex Business Media., the publishers of Canadian Process Equipment & Control News magazine. For permission on reprinting or reproducing any materials, e-mail your requests to cpe@cpecn.com Canadian Postmaster send address corrections to: 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Canadian Process Equipment & Control News assumes no responsibility for the validity of claims in items reported. Annex Privacy Officer privacy@annexbusinessmedia.com Tel: 800-668-2384 PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT #40065710 Printed in Canada ISSN 0318-0859
Subscription Rates Canadian (Plus Taxes) USA Foreign
1 Year 2 Years $53.04 $100.78 $63.65 $95.47
CPECN.COM
Single $7.00
NEWS
The question of whether another pipeline should be built seems to pit energy sovereignty against environmental concerns.
PHOTO: COURTESY AKCHAMCZUK/GETTY IMAGES
ALBERTA AND ONTARIO PROPOSE NORTHERN SHIELD ENERGY CORRIDOR TO REDUCE U.S. DEPENDENCE
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the proposed Northern Shield Energy Corridor, a 3,300-kilometre crude oil pipeline connecting Hardisty, Alberta to Sarnia, Ontario. The pipeline would carry approximately 500,000 barrels per day, with capacity expandable to 800,000 barrels. Ontario is also exploring establishing its own strategic petroleum reserve. A feasibility study examining costs and commercialization options will be completed by year end. Ford indicated a government-led project remains possible if private proponents do not emerge. The proposal resembles the previously cancelled Energy East pipeline and would allow Canadian producers to move crude domestically rather than routing through U.S.
CPE_Accutron-InfoScrpit_October26_CSA.indd 1
infrastructure, such as Enbridge’s Line 5. The announcement follows Prime Minister Mark Carney and Smith’s plans last week for a separate one million barrel per day Pacific coast pipeline targeting Asian export markets. Both projects respond to Canadian efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. infrastructure amid ongoing trade tensions. New pipeline infrastructure raises climate considerations. Expanded oil transportation capacity supports continued fossil fuel production and consumption, potentially complicating Canadian emissions reduction commitments. Long-lived infrastructure investments in oil transportation may extend industry timelines beyond current climate policy frameworks.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES $100 MILLION STEEL FREIGHT REBATE TO SUPPORT DOMESTIC MANUFACTURER The federal government has
announced a $100 million rebate program covering half the freight costs for shipping Canadian steel between provinces and territories, aiming to support domestic producers affected by U.S. tariffs. Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon detailed the program, which will reimburse manufacturers for 50 percent of eligible freight costs when moving Canadian steel products across the country by rail or ship. The rebate applies to products of Canadian origin with destinations within Canada. Applications open Monday, with the program running through next summer or until funding is exhausted. Individual recipients can receive a maximum cumulative rebate of $50 million. The initiative aims to encourage Canadian manufacturers using steel in production processes to source from domestic suppliers rather than relying on U.S. or other foreign steel producers. MacKinnon indicated the program supports demand for Canadian products from consumers, governments, and businesses.
COORDINATED CYBERATTACKS ON U.S. WATER SYSTEMS UNDERSCORE GROWING THREAT TO CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
A series of coordinated cyberattacks reported across seven U.S. states has drawn attention to the vulnerability of water utilities and other critical infrastructure to state-sponsored and other sophisticated cyber threats.
Minnesota reported last week that more than 30 of its state water systems had faced a coordinated cyberattack. The FBI subsequently indicated that cyberattacks had been reported in seven states, with some activity degrading water operations. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is reportedly investigating potential connections to Iran, according to U.S. media reports, though the agency has not confirmed this publicly. Attribution of the attacks remains under investigation. Cybersecurity experts have suggested Iranian involvement is plausible given the current geopolitical context, but definitive attribution has not been established. Investigators are reportedly examining whether attackers may have posed as Iran-based operators as a deception tactic during the ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran. Morgan Wright, a former U.S. State Department anti-terror adviser, indicated that attacks of this nature are typically attributed to North Korea or Iran, with current geopolitical tensions making Iran a leading suspect. However, he stopped short of making a definitive attribution. Jake Braun, former acting White House Deputy National Cyber Director, suggested that political considerations may complicate public disclosure of attribution findings. He noted the administration’s involvement in its own information campaign could affect public acknowledgment of confirmed Iranian involvement.
OCTOBER 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
5
2026-06-08 1:40 PM
COVER STORY
DIVERSIFICATION IN PRACTICE A Manufacturer’s Guide to Trading Beyond the U.S. BY Alyanna Jones
alks between Canada and the United States broke down on August 22nd, after Washington introduced last-minute demands on automotive content and tried to restrict Canada’s ability to pursue trade agreements with other countries. Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, paper, and electronics took effect September 8. The useful question for a manufacturer right now isn’t how to feel about it. It’s what to actually do. Below is a practical read on where Canada’s relationships stand, what they mean commercially, and how to move products through them.
THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM It helps to start with the scale of what’s being diversified away from. In 2024, 75.9 percent of Canada’s domestic exports went to the United States, according to Statistics Canada, and that concentration isn’t even across sectors. Motor vehicles and parts were the most exposed category, with 94.1 percent of that $80.3-billion trade flowing south, while metal ores and non-metallic minerals were the least exposed, at 23.7 percent. That gap is notable: a parts supplier feeding the auto sector has almost no existing non-U.S. customer base to build from, while a mining or minerals exporter already sells more broadly and has real diversification to build on. The early data on how that concentration is shifting is mixed. Canadian export value to the U.S. fell roughly 15 percent year-over-year in May 2025, dropping from about C$51.6 billion to C$43.9 billion, while exports to nonU.S. markets grew by roughly 42 percent over the same stretch. The dollar growth elsewhere, however, was smaller than the dollar loss in the U.S. market, leaving a net shortfall. In plain terms: diversification is happening, but not yet fast enough to fully replace what’s being lost, which is exactly why the agreements already in place are worth using aggressively rather than treated as a slower, parallel option. 6
CURRENT CANADA-EUROPEAN GROUNDWORK The Canada-European diversification strategy has been under construction for over a year, and two relationships in particular are worth noting by name. On June 12, 2026, Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a General Security of Information Agreement that, alongside its defense purpose, opens up French defense procurement to Canadian firms in aerospace, cybersecurity, Al, and maritime systems. France has already bought two additional DHC-515 water bombers from De Havilland Aircraft of Canada in Calgary. The two countries also signed a joint statement on quantum science cooperation. Germany has moved even further: Canada and Germany are actively negotiating a full Strategic Partnership Agreement, and have already signed deals on Al, quantum, and battery technologies, plus a Sovereign Technology Alliance built around critical minerals. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Carney spoke again on August 24, two days after the U.S. talks collapsed, to keep that work moving. The timing isn’t a coincidence so much as a demonstration that Canada didn’t start calling Europe after Washington walked away, it was already on the phone.
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
At time of press, Prime Minister Carney was headed to Strasbourg — a rare invite for a non-European leader — to open talks on a “unique” new Canada-EU partnership, with an announcement possibly coming at the EU-Canada Summit in late October.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CANADIAN MANUFACTURERS In commercial terms, this matters most to manufacturers in critical minerals, battery components, aerospace and maritime systems, defense-adjacent supply chains, and advanced technology hardware. These are sectors named specifically in the France and Germany agreements, but the underlying access is broader than those headlines: CETA gives near-zero tariffs across the entire EU, not just France and Germany, and the CPTPP does the same across Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, and eight other Pacific economies. Both are ratified, in force, and underused relative to how much Canadian trade still defaults south. China sits apart from this. Canada isn’t pursuing a full free trade deal there; what exists is a narrow, sector-specific arrangement covering energy and agri-food, including canola seed duties cut from roughly 85 percent to about 15 percent and several agricultural tariffs suspended outright. Ottawa projects these changes will unlock close to C$3 billion in export orders. In exchange, Canada agreed to admit up to 49,000 Chinese EVs annually at a 6.1 percent tariff, so manufacturers in the auto parts and EV supply chain should treat the China opening as conditional, not general. CPECN.COM
PHOTO: COURTESY OLEKSII LISKONIH/GETTY IMAGES
T
Finally, a manufacturing podcast worth your commute! Find Us Wherever You Podcast.
manufacturingeh.ca
OCTOBER 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
7
B.C.’s west coast ports — Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Nanaimo — already move about half of Canada’s overseas trade. Both Vancouver and Prince Rupert are expanding capacity, with Prince Rupert’s edge being its shorter sailing distance to Asia.
ROUTES THAT DON’T RUN THROUGH THE U.S. None of this works without a way to physically move product, and Canada’s west coast is being built out specifically for this purpose. Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Nanaimo already handle roughly half of Canada’s trade outside North America—close to C$270 billion in overseas cargo last year—and Prince Rupert sits several sailing days closer to Asia than any competing U.S. West Coast port. Vancouver’s Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion is projected to add 50 percent more container capacity, and Prince Rupert has roughly C$3 billion in port and rail projects underway to handle the growth. For Europe, Halifax and Montreal remain the standard Atlantic gateways and are the natural routing for CETA-driven exports. The practical step is to get a freight forwarder or customs broker to quote a west coast sailing to Asia or an Atlantic sailing to Europe before you need one, not after. BEST MARKETS TO WATCH RIGHT NOW Given current momentum, a few markets stand out for near-term attention: Germany: the most active European relationship right now, with a Strategic Partnership Agreement in negotiation and existing deals in critical minerals, batteries, and Al. Germany is the strong-
8
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
CPECN.COM
PHOTO TOP TO BOTTOM: COURTESY OVERFLIGHTSTOCK LTD/GETTY IMAGES; DYPICS/GETTY IMAGES
COVER STORY
est fit for advanced manufacturing and industrial components. France: Canada has newly expanded defense procurement access and aerospace ties, best suited to firms in aerospace, maritime systems, and defense-adjacent manufacturing. The broader EU via CETA: near-zero tariffs across 27 countries for any manufacturer not yet using the agreement; the Netherlands and other major EU ports offer additional entry points beyond France and Germany specifically. Japan and South Korea: established CPTPP and bilateral access, mature markets with predictable regulatory environments, strong fit for industrial and advanced manufacturing exporters. India: the fastest-growing option, with a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement under negotiation and a stated goal of doubling bilateral trade to C$70 billion by 2030; higher long-term upside, but market entry there tends to be more complex than in Canada’s established agreement partners.
None of this requires walking away from the U.S. relationship, and none of it happens overnight. What it requires is treating the agreements Canada already has, and the relationships Ottawa has spent the past year building, as tools to actually use rather than background noise. Manufacturers who know their preferential rates, have a second shipping route already priced out, and understand which specific markets are moving fastest right now are the ones with real options the next time a deadline like September 8 arrives.
At Peacock Tariff Consulting, Alyanna Jones helps businesses navigate tariff developments, trade policies, and customs requirements, turning complex regulatory issues into practical insights. She’s also active in industry outreach and communications, using media and social content to keep manufacturers, importers, and exporters informed on global trade.
GETTING THE TARIFF SAVINGS YOU’RE ALREADY ENTITLED TO The single biggest reason Canadian manufacturers underuse these agreements is not lack of access, but the daunting paperwork. The numbers bear this out: only about 65 percent of CETA-eligible Canadian exports to the EU claimed the preferential tariff in 2021, according to Global Affairs Canada, up from 52 percent in 2018. But this still means over a third of eligible trade paid tariffs it didn’t have to. The gap is worse in specific sectors: machinery exports to Germany, Canada’s largest CETA machinery market, claimed the preference only 36.8 percent of the time. Claiming CETA’s preferential tariff starts with classifying your product’s HS code through the Canada Tariff Finder, confirming it meets CETA’s product-specific rules of origin and, for shipments over €6,000, registering for an Exporter Identification Number with the CRA. From there, CETA runs on self-certification: a specific declaration of origin on your commercial invoice, no government-issued certificate required, but records need to be kept for six years. CPTPP works similarly, with its own origin procedures set out through Global Affairs Canada. Separately, and importantly for anyone shipping technology, defense-adjacent, or dual-use goods, check whether your product appears on Canada’s Export Control List and whether your destination is on the Area Control List. Most controlled items need an Individual Export Permit through Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Controls Bureau before they can leave the country, applied for through the EXCOL online system. Getting this wrong carries real penalties, so for anything that is not a clearly uncontrolled, straightforward good, it is worth a conversation with a customs broker or trade compliance advisor before the first shipment, not after a CBSA hold. THE BOTTOM LINE CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS 9
CPE_CameronInstruments_Oct26_CSA.indd 1
2026-08-27 9:49 AM
CHEMICALS & PLASTICS
ONE FULL YEAR, RIDING THE TIGER A catch-up interview with Greg Moffatt, president of the CIAC. By Justin Yule
tending accelerated capital cost allowance as priorities. Has that changed? MOFFATT: I wouldn’t say they’ve shifted at all. They remain just as relevant today as they were a year ago when I came into the role. We’ve seen encouraging signs from the federal government and from provincial governments on competitiveness reforms and regulatory efficiency, but the real challenge is making sure those policy changes turn into meaningful action.
O
JUSTING YULE: You inherited a role held by only three predecessors in 62 years, and you described it as likely to define the rest of your working life. Has that weight changed how you approach the job? GREG MOFFATT: I’ve developed an even greater appreciation for the responsibility that the role entails. Chemistry and plastics are foundational to almost everything we interact with every day, and in Canada this is a major industry with a lot of responsibility attached to it. I’ve become more confident that our industry needs strong leadership and a strong voice. That’s not just about me; it reflects the team we have at CIC and the members that make up our association. Where we see opportunities to do things better in Canada, we have the confidence to be more assertive, but in a pragmatic and collaborative way. YULE: You originally laid out regulatory reform, tax reform, and ex10
Greg Moffatt was named president and CEO of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada in January 2025, becoming only the fourth person to lead the organization in its 62-year history. His background spans Alberta politics, transportation, energy infrastructure, and oil and gas.
“When shipping is disrupted, input costs go up across the supply chain. That doesn’t always mean manufacturers can simply pass those costs on, because prices are set globally and the market is highly competitive. The disruption is a reminder of the importance of supply chain resilience and of Canada’s potential as a safe, stable, trusted supplier.”
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
YULE: How has Canada’s chemicals and plastics sector been affected by the near cessation of shipping out of the Persian Gulf? MOFFATT: The impact has been real. North America has some advantages — abundant feedstock, relatively well-priced feedstock, and a strong industrial base — but chemistry and plastics do operate in a global market. When shipping is disrupted, input costs go up across the supply chain. That doesn’t always mean manufacturers can simply pass those costs on, because prices are set globally and the market is highly competitive. The disruption is a reminder of the importance of supply chain resilience and of Canada’s potential as a safe, stable, trusted supplier. YULE: With input costs rising, has that essentially balanced out through higher selling prices? CPECN.COM
PHOTO: COURTESY
YULE: What successes and challenges has the chemical sector encountered with the federal government under the current prime minister? MOFFATT: I would say the approach is more constructive and more pragmatic than it used to be. What we’re seeing now is a greater willingness to look at environment, trade, and industrial policy through a competitiveness lens, which really matters. The major projects office, regulatory streamlining, a whole-of-government competitiveness plan, trade corridor investment, changes to science and research programs, and accelerated capital cost allowance all point in that direction. We’d like to see that continue.
ne year ago, I had the pleasure of talking with Greg Moffatt on the occasion of his selection as the president of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, only the fourth in the association’s history. He talked about the honour of the position and his enthusiasm to throw himself at the challenges on the horizon. Indeed, as the times have insisted on becoming ever more ‘interesting’, I was eager to catch up again with Greg to debrief his first year at the helm.
MOFFATT: I don’t think it’s fair to say that higher prices automatically mean everybody is doing better. Chemistry is not one thing, it’s a big basket of goods, and companies can’t always pass costs on to customers. Prices may rise, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the higher cost of producing the product. The underlying issue remains global overcapacity in the chemical and plastics market. In some ways, the logistics disruption may be masking a problem that still exists.
YULE: How did this overcapacity happen? MOFFATT: Overcapacity is not inherently bad; it’s the basis of trade. You produce more than you need and sell the surplus to others. That works when market forces are at play. What I’m concerned about is overcapacity coming from non-market economies, where there’s heavy subsidization and a policy intent to produce maximum quantities to lower domestic input costs. That distorts trade.
PHOTO: COURTESY BIM/GETTY IMAGES
YULE: How exposed is the sector to CUSMA turbulence, and what strategies are being considered? MOFFATT: We are highly exposed because North American chemistry and plastics are tightly integrated. Many of our member companies are connected through the American Chemistry Council and the Mexican Chemical Association, so this is a genuinely continental supply chain. The good news is that if companies meet the rules of origin requirements under CUSMA, they can largely avoid tariffs. Our focus has been on information, awareness, and collaboration, working closely with our counterparts in the U.S. and Mexico to reinforce how important rules-based trade is and to address structural excess capacity. I don’t think the agreement needs to be changed; I think we need to use it well. YULE: You’ve spoken about unlocking private capital instead of relying on government funding. How has that held up in the past year? MOFFATT: I still believe private capital has to be the primary focus. Government doesn’t have enough money to do everything that needs to be done to improve productivity. The job of government is to create the right conditions through tax reform, regulatory reform, and durable policy frameworks. Uncertainty is one of the biggest drivers of weak business sentiment and weak investment decisions, so we need governments to be as efficient as possible and to reduce the friction that slows the economy down. YULE: Is AI and data-centre growth soaking up potential investment that might otherwise go to plastics companies? MOFFATT: It could be showing up, yes, especially in areas like construction labour and EPC capacity. For chemistry and plastics in CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
11
CPE_Festo_Oct26_CSA.indd 1
2026-09-08 2:49 PM
Canada, the bigger issue may be natural gas and natural gas liquids. If data-centre demand materializes, we need to be able to power it, and in the short and medium term that means natural gas. That brings us back to regulation and permitting. The federal and provincial governments need to make sure the system can respond quickly and bring on new capacity and new transmission infrastructure. If they don’t, prices will rise and that will put pressure on chemical manufacturers.
YULE: How has Responsible Care panned out as a premium market differentiator? MOFFATT: I wouldn’t frame it as a price premium. I don’t think people are generally prepared to pay extra just because a product was made by a Responsible Care company. But it is a real differentiator in terms of trust and performance. Responsible Care is voluntary, it goes beyond regulation, and
NIR MOISTURE MEASUREMENT
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026 CPE_MoistTech _October26_CSA.indd 1
YULE: How does Operation Clean Sweep fit into this? MOFFATT: Operation Clean Sweep is a stewardship program for anyone handling resin pellet, flake, or powder. If you’re within our association, you must be Operation Clean Sweep. That matters because this is about keeping plastic materials out of the environment and making sure companies in the plastics value chain are operating responsibly. If I had a company in my municipality or province handling resin, flake, or powder, I would absolutely want to know whether they were part of Operation Clean Sweep.
REDUCE MOISTURE VARIABILITY WITHOUT SLOWING PRODUCTION
Control product moisture for processing, transport, and saleable quality
12
it reflects continuous improvement. It’s about reducing and eliminating risk — within the facility, for communities, and throughout transportation routes. If I were a government and I had a chemical facility in my jurisdiction, I would want it to be Responsible Care. If it wasn’t, I’d ask why not.
www.moisttech.com info@moisttech.com 941-727-1800
CPECN.COM 2026-09-08 11:43 AM
PHOTO: COURTESY FRANCKREPORTER/GETTY IMAGES
CHEMICALS & PLASTICS
PHOTO: COURTESY ALVAREZ/GETTY IMAGES
YULE: How have critical minerals processing, semiconductors, and their inputs panned out as opportunities for your members? MOFFATT: I think the opportunity is becoming more tangible. There’s a lot of alignment now around critical minerals and semiconductors, especially in the context of defense industrial strategy. But we need to keep reminding people that when they talk about critical minerals, they also need to think about chemistry. Those minerals don’t become useful on their own. They need to be concentrated, refined, and upgraded, and all of that depends on chemistry. If Canada only mines and exports raw minerals without adding value here, we haven’t solved our dependence on Asia. The same goes for semiconductors. They rely on products like PFAS, hydrogen peroxide, and high-purity industrial gases, and those are chemistry products. YULE: If you had to name the single biggest unresolved threat
to the sector’s competitiveness, what would it be? MOFFATT: Uncertainty. That’s the biggest one. There is so much uncertainty globally and in North America, and that uncertainty continues to hold back opportunity and investment in our sector and in manufacturing more broadly. If I had to name the defining challenge, it would be uncertainty.
YULE: What’s been the most satisfying moment for you in the last year? MOFFATT: Working with the people here at CIC has been the most satisfying part. That means the staff, the board of directors, the Plastics Division Leadership Council, and our members more broadly. There’s a lot going on, but I see this role as a privilege. It’s not just me, it’s the whole team. And on a personal level, getting to do this work with those people has been the most rewarding part.
High temperature, high pressure and cryogenic, applications with one device OPTIMASS 6400 – for advanced process applications in the Oil & Gas industry
krohne.link/optimass-us products solutions services OCTOBER 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS CPE_Krohne _August25_CSA.indd 1
13
2025-07-15 9:07 AM
GETTING IT WRIGHT
STOP MUST MEAN STOP A programming oversight nearly destroyed a $250,000 pump. By Michael Wrigh
S
WHAT WENT WRONG The final result of the investigation was that an engineer would have to go through every one of the roughly 750 overload modules to ensure that each was programmed correctly. Also, the PLCs would have to be replaced with a more powerful model that could handle the high rates of data transfer while still controlling the process. Sadly, the one thing that wasn’t discussed at 14
the various finger-pointing meetings was that by moving a couple of wires around on the terminal block the STOP button would have been placed in series with the motor control circuit and would have electrically shut down the pump, regardless of how badly the programmers had done their job.
reliably function in spite of how badly the controls are programmed. Often the simplest option is to have the STOP button wired into the motor contactor circuit, either directly or through an electro-mechanical (as opposed to “solid-state”) control relay. However, if this doesn’t work with your operation, consider having E-STOP buttons near the equipment on the plant floor and either having them wired to activate a safety relay that shuts down several pieces of related process equipment at once or that activates a “shunt trip” in a supply breaker that will cut the power to the equipment. Finally, if your system is as complicated as a mine hoist or a service elevator where it isn’t “reasonably practicable” to hard wire the safety devices, you need to go to professionals who specialize in this area and not just “bet your life” on the low bidder because he can bamboozle you with his extensive knowledge of TLA’s. (Note: in geek-speak, “TLA” is the three-letter acronym for “Three Letter Acronym”.)
HARD-WIRED VS. PROGRAMMED In this digital era, the 100-year-old way of wiring control circuits so that the STOP or Emergency-stop (E-STOP) electrically shuts down a piece of equipment is often disrespected because it is easier for designers (or AI) to crank out drawings showing all field devices running into PLC/DCS inputs than it is to make individual drawings showing hard wired circuits. And yes, it is true that computer control system hardware is incredibly reliable. However, it is important to realize that programmers are human, and humans make errors. When safety devices such as the STOP or E-STOP are hard wired into a control circuit, the Commissioning crew can go through the circuit wire-by-wire to ensure that the device Michael Wright is an electrical engineer will actually stop a piece of equipment when with more than 50 years of experience in activated, and they can physically verify that the heavy industry. Although he has done an circuit works with a voltmeter. extensive amount of PLC/DCS programHowever, when the activation of a safety de- ming and upgrading of power systems, he is a very vice is buried in 10,000 lines of code and pos- strong generalist with a broad knowledge of hydraulsibly distributed across two or three “smart” ics, pneumatics, power transfer, welding practices, devices programmed by different contractors, it mining equipment, mobile equipment, process control is virtually impossible for the Commissioning strategies, pumping systems, rock mechanics moncrew to properly pre-test it under actual operat- itoring, mechanical maintenance practices, MRO ing conditions. So instead of putting blind faith procurement contracts, energy management, and in some programmer who uses geek-speak to cost control. As such, he specializes in problem prebaffle you into believing that he is infallible, vention as a subject matter expert (or as a fixer on trust your gut and ensure that the safety devices “problem projects”). It is his belief that safety is not in your plant will shut down the intended equip- a “priority” but is a way of life; that good engineerment under any and all circumstances that you ing makes life simpler and easier for others; and that can reasonably see occurring. the best ideas come from those with calloused hands Remember, there are options available to and dirty coveralls. He can be reached at: ensure that the safety devices in your plant will mawright@sasktel.net.
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
CPECN.COM
PHOTO: COURTESY IBRAHIMYIGITKAYMAK0/GETTY IMAGES
everal years ago, I was the electrical engineering site lead for power systems, and management had drawn a hard line between my area of responsibility and that of the engineers doing Instrumentation and Controls (I&C). As such, I was expected to keep my opinions on how I&C systems were wired or programmed to myself. However, at that point I had been working with I&C for about 40 years, so when an incident that nearly wrecked a $250,000 pump was discussed at the morning meeting, my ears perked up. It seemed that the Commissioning crew had tried to “bump” (a quick switch on then off) the pump to check rotation when it started up and the STOP button wouldn’t stop it. And because it was running dry and without gland water, they had to make a panicked radio call in the hope that somebody, somewhere, could shut it down. Fortunately, there was an electrician in the area switch-room and he was able to trip the supply breaker before they fried the pump. The investigation that followed revealed that the STOP button was only “connected” to the pump digitally, but that was supposed to be OK because the STOP command went through a “smart” overload-I/O module before being passed on to the PLC. Had it been properly programmed, the “smart” module would have shut the pump down even though the PLC had been too slow to act. It turns out that the “smart” overload was supposed to come to site pre-programmed, but the OEM had failed to program in the STOP command. Also, during pre-commissioning, the PLC responded to the STOP command, but that was when the traffic on the PLC Ethernet was at a minimum. Once the plant started to operate, the PLC processors and Ethernet system became heavily loaded with “historical” data, so the processor missed the STOP command altogether.
OCTOBER 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
15
KERSHAW CORNER
BREAKING OUT OF SHORT-TERMISM TO SEE LONG-TERM VALUE By Ryan Kershaw
16
us hit our numbers next month?” The question needs to be more along the lines of “how is Bob’s volunteering going to affect the perception of our company in the market?” Market perception of a company does not change quickly (at least in the positive sense, it can definitely be ruined quickly), so the timeline on the second question is going to have a timeline of years, not months. Success is also going to be much less dependent on a simple cost/benefit analysis, and more reliant on its impact on a strategic shift within the company.
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
Of course, the big question remains: “is it worth it?” It is more critical now than it ever has been. The International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT) has developed assessment frameworks that help companies achieve their Industry 4.0 goals. Part of the assessment is to look at 16 dimensions across 3 building blocks, one of which is Inter- and Intra- Company Collaboration. Literally, how well does your company collaborate internally and how well does it work with its peers. This dimension is given the same weight as shopCPECN.COM
PHOTO: COURTESY NIKOLA SPASENOSKI/GETTY IMAGES
I
n my last article, I talked about how one of the issues that led to the downfall of the CPCA was the growing apathy towards volunteering and being part of a volunteer organization. This is not limited to the CPCA, as I’ve seen the same reduction of active volunteers in other professional and non-profit organizations. Anecdotal evidence aside, StatsCan backs this up, noting that the overall volunteer rate has decreased by 8 percent from 2018 to 2023. While those numbers encompass everything from sports to hospitals, they do break out business and professional associations and unions, which have actually seen a 13 percent drop-in volunteering hours over the same period. The quantitative data seems cut and dry, but the qualitative data, the why, is harder to nail down. My theory? People are being pressured to provide higher returns from their time. Returns in the business sense are financial, so if Bob, who makes $30/hour, can make 10 widgets an hour and each widget represents $10 in profit, then Bob is bringing in $100/hour for the company. Unfortunately for professional volunteering, every hour volunteered represents a double hit from a financial perspective. Not only does Bob still get paid $30/ hour, but the company also doesn’t see the $100/hour of profit that Bob makes when he’s working. The former is a direct cost, while the latter is an opportunity cost, overall from a financial perspective, the company incurs a $130 cost when Bob volunteers. This is where we run into the major issue with professional volunteering: how can we calculate the benefits from a financial standpoint? The answer is that we struggle significantly to do so. If we didn’t, it would be a pretty black and white issue. If Bob’s volunteering had a benefit to the company that exceeded $130/hour, then Bob would be doing a bunch of volunteering, if not, then Bob would not be doing that. When we think about costs and benefits from an hourly perspective, it’s an extremely tactical viewpoint. It is useful, but it’s also very short term, and volunteering rarely provides short term returns. We need to start thinking about volunteering from a strategic perspective. It needs to be looked at from a long-term perspective if it is going to make sense. It can’t be, “How is Bob’s volunteering going to help
floor automation. In other words, being an active member of the larger industrial community is just as important as the technology that’s been installed on the manufacturing floor. Why? Being an active member ensures that the company has good visibility when it comes to new trends and technologies, and is able to work with their peers to help guide supporting entities (government, education, suppliers, etc.) to help them achieve their goals. Governments, for example, are much more likely to listen to a consortium of companies rather than an individual organization. Successful companies know the benefits that come with encouraging their employees to be part of the larger community. In ISA, there are a few companies whose name is synonymous with the association. Emerson, E+H, Rockwell, Shell, and Exxon are some of the biggest that come to mind. They, and more importantly their employees, have been active participants in the association for years. Not only has this helped their brand, since they’re known as active contributors with good industrial knowledge and influence, but thanks to the standards work in ISA, they know about upcoming changes to standards long before their competitors. For the end-users, this means additional time between finding out about a regulatory change and needing to implement it, which is a major competitive advantage. For the suppliers, they get to sit in the same room as their clients and work together on problems, something that carries a lot of weight when it comes to choosing a provider, and the foreknowledge of new trends and regulations that can be used to develop the next generation of products.
worry about having untrained employees stick- REFERENCE: ing around. This applies to volunteering as well. • Statistics Canada: Volunteering and charitIt is an investment in employees and the comable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023. The munity as well, and companies need to start Daily — Volunteering and charitable giving treating it as that, an investment, not a cost. We in Canada, 2018 to 2023 all know that smart investments tend to pay off • INCIT: Indexes: SIRI. SIRI - Industry 4.0 in the long term, and active participation in the Maturity Assessment | INCIT industrial community is one of the smartest investments a company can make. Ryan Kershaw is the Director of Industrial Process and Controls at Thing-Zero and lives in Maple, Ontario.
VAC MAKES YOUR DIGITAL SELECTION SIMPLE Tired of endless phone mazes, unreturned calls, late delivery excuses, and all of the headaches associated with ordering a positioner—call VAC. D400 • Rugged Aluminum Housing with LCD Display • Modular design allows for adding accessories easily • Unique Adaptive Control updates performance
D500
• Advanced diagnostics (pressure sensors) -SIL2-ESD • Very high resolution, high air delivery • Simple intuitive push button calibration and adjustments • Option for natural gas service
“Governments are much more likely to listen to a consortium of companies rather than an individual organization.” Unfortunately, the strategic view that needs to be adopted when it comes to getting employees to volunteer clashes with the quarter-to-quarter mindset that has become so prevalent. Volunteering should be seen in the same light as training. It may not impact operations tomorrow, but it will drive longer-term successes. That said, there are concerns with both in that additional training or networking could increase the value of the employee and lead to other companies trying to pry them away from the organization. There’s an old joke where a CFO asks why they should put money into training if the employees could take that knowledge and leave, and the CEO responds with the CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
17
D 500
D 400
MADE IN GERMANY
Canadian Master Distributor: Belletek Controls Inc. 2535 Stallion, St. Lazare, Qc, Canada J7T 2E4 J.C. Labelle: (514) 916-5895 Fax: (514) 500-5802 Email: jc@belletek.com
VA LV E A C C E S S O R I E S & CONTROLS, INC. VA C A C C E S S O R I E S .C O M
Serving the Positioner Industry for 25 Years
CPE_VAC_Oct26_CSA.indd 1
2026-09-17 10:26 AM
INDUSTRIAL SECURITY
GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE How automation became the hacker’s playground. By Claudiu Popa
I
remotely supported and more integrated with business systems. PLCs now talk to historians, HMIs talk to plant networks, robot cells send production data upstream, and vendors routinely diagnose equipment from locations nowhere near the factory. All of this is useful. But it is also how automation quietly acquired a much larger attack surface. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security offered a more immediate reminder in October 2025 when it
“Good remote access therefore needs operational rules around it. The plant should know who connected, which systems they reached, how long the session lasted and what changed. Access should expire when the work ends instead of surviving as a permanent monument to the last turnaround.”
installed by vendors or integrators, because the connection nobody remembers is often more useful to an attacker than the firewall everyone remembers buying.
HOW THE PLANT ACQUIRED MORE DOORS When I work with plant and manufacturing clients, security reviews rarely begin with an exotic piece of malware. They usually begin with architecture and a series of surprisingly ordinary questions. Which systems can reach this PLC? Why can that engineering workstation communicate with several production cells? Does the equipment supplier still have remote access? Is that access always enabled? Who maintains the cellular gateway in the cabinet? When was the robot program last backed up, and could anybody prove that the backup is the version currently running? None of these arrangements came about because engineers stopped caring about risk. Plants accumulated connectivity because each connection solved a real operational problem. The robot vendor needed remote diagnostics. Maintenance wanted condition data. Corporate wanted production information. A systems integrator needed temporary access during
PHOTO: COURTESY HT GANZO/GETTY IMAGES
n 2017, researchers from Politecnico di Milano and Trend Micro detonated the security assumptions behind a modern industrial robot controller. They were not interested in stealing production reports or getting into somebody’s email. They wanted to know whether an attacker who compromised the controller could change what the robot actually did. The answer was uncomfortable. Their research showed that vulnerabilities in the controller could allow remote compromise and manipulation of robot behaviour, including its accuracy, calibration and the state presented to the operator. The significance was not that industrial robots were suddenly homicidal. It was that automation designed to repeat physical actions with extraordinary precision could also repeat malicious instructions with the same efficacy. That was nearly a decade ago. Since then, industrial automation has become more connected, more
disclosed several incidents involving internet-accessible industrial control systems. Attackers altered pressure values at a water facility, manipulated an automated tank gauge at a Canadian oil and gas company, and changed temperature and humidity readings in a grain-drying silo. These were incidents involving equipment that had become reachable from outside the environment in which it was supposed to operate. By July 2026, CISA was reporting a significant increase in attacks against programmable logic controllers in the water and wastewater sector. Attackers had changed PLC passwords, altered IP addresses and forced some operators into manual operation. CISA also warned organizations to look for undocumented cellular modems
18
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
CPECN.COM
PHOTO: COURTESY THINKHUBSTUDIO/GETTY IMAGES
commissioning. A dashboard was added because management wanted better visibility. Unfortunately, “temporary” has an impressive career in industrial technology. A service installed for six weeks can still be quietly running six years later. Accounts remain active after projects end. A remote-support appliance becomes part of the permanent architecture without ever being treated as infrastructure. Each individual decision makes sense. The collection of those decisions can produce a network nobody would have designed deliberately.
SEGMENTATION IS LESS EXCITING THAN RECOVERY This is why network segmentation matters, despite having one of the least thrilling names in cybersecurity. Industrial security standards such as IEC 62443 use the idea of zones and conduits to separate systems according to their function, criticality and security requirements. Canada’s Cyber Centre
recommends the same basic discipline through its Cross-Sector Cyber Security Readiness Goals, including network segmentation, limiting OT connections to the public internet, controlling unauthorized devices and docu-
menting configurations. The concept is not complicated. Equipment that does not need to communicate should not be allowed to communicate merely because it happens to be on the same network.
We already understand this principle in physical engineering. Nobody designs a process plant by connecting every pipe to every other pipe on the theory that valves are administratively inconvenient. Yet flat industrial networks have
26_009270_CPECN_OCT_CN Mod: August 14, 2026 8:31 AM Print: 08/28/26 page 1 v2.5
ORDER BY 6 PM FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING
π WE CAN HANDLE IT MATERIAL HANDLING ITEMS ALWAYS IN STOCK
COMPLETE CATALOG
CPE_Uline_Oct26_CSA.indd 1
1-800-295-5510
uline.ca
OCTOBER 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
19
2026-08-31 10:39 AM
INDUSTRIAL SECURITY
CONVEYOR SYSTEMS MAKE THE PROBLEM WONDERFULLY TANGIBLE CPECN readers do not need a cybersecurity lecture to understand that small changes can create physical consequences. In the magazine’s own conveyor coverage, Todd Swinderman pointed out that increasing belt speed can alter the trajectory of discharged material, create buildup and clogging, increase spillage and sometimes reduce capacity instead of improving it. The same article warned that
STAINLESS STEEL DRIVES NOW ASSEMBLED IN CANADA
THE CLOSER WE GET TO THE PROCESS, THE LESS WE OFTEN SEE The 2025 SANS State of ICS/OT Security research gives this problem some useful scale. More than one in five surveyed organizations reported an ICS or OT cybersecurity incident during the previous year, and 40 percent of those incidents disrupted operations. Half began through unauthorized external access. Yet only about 13 percent of organizations reported full visibility across the entire ICS Cyber Kill Chain, with the largest monitoring gaps close to controllers, field devices and remote sites. That is an awkward combination. The part of the environment capable of producing a physical consequence is often the part we understand least from a security perspective. There are legitimate reasons for this. Old controllers were not designed to produce
Learn more
TORONTO
MONTREAL
sew-eurodrive.ca
CPE_SEW-Eurodrive_February26_CSA.indd 1
·
undocumented or unproven changes can gradually move a conveyor away from its original design intent. Now consider what an automated conveyor relies upon. A PLC may coordinate sequencing. VFDs regulate speed. Sensors detect position and loading. Interlocks prevent equipment from starting under unsafe conditions. Alarms inform operators that the process is moving outside acceptable limits. An attacker does not need to make the conveyor perform a circus trick. A change to a timing value, speed reference, permissive or alarm threshold may be enough to cause repeated trips, mechanical stress, material buildup or mysterious downtime. The effect could easily be blamed on maintenance, instrumentation or a temperamental drive long before anyone thinks about unauthorized logic changes. That is precisely why subtle attacks are more interesting than spectacular ones. A spectacular attack announces itself. A small unexplained change can consume days of troubleshooting while everyone assumes the machinery is simply having a bad week.
VANCOUVER sewcan.ca
2026-01-07 11:15 AM
20
PHOTO: COURTESY MATEJMO/GETTY IMAGES
sometimes developed along exactly that logic because broad connectivity makes commissioning, troubleshooting and vendor support easier. It makes intrusion easier too. Segmentation will not stop every cyber incident, but it can turn a compromise of one engineering workstation into a problem with one production area instead of an educational tour of the entire factory.
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
detailed security logs. Aggressive scanning questions about OT environments. can create concerns in fragile environments. That is not unreasonable. Automation has Proprietary protocols and long equipment made industry safer, faster and more productive. lifecycles complicate monitoring. None of The point of cybersecurity is not to reverse that that makes the visibility problem disappear. progress by putting every PLC behind three It simply means industrial security needs committees and a permission slip. The point is to to be engineered around operational reality remember what automation actually does. We instead of copied from corporate IT. build machines to execute instructions repeatedly and faithfully. They are very good at it. Our job REMOTE ACCESS SHOULD BE CONTROLLED, is to make sure we still know whose instructions NOT DEMONIZED they are following. Remote support is not going away, nor should it. A vendor specialist who can diagnose a fault in minutes without travelling across the country may save a plant an enormous amount of downtime. The problem is not remote access itself. The problem is remote access without sufficient context. The same SANS research found that only 13 percent of organizations had fully implemented advanced OT-aware controls such as session recording, while only 8 percent required real-time approval for remote sessions. VPNs and multifactor authentication are useful, but they establish who is connecting, not whether that person should be changing controller logic at 2:17 in the morning. Good remote access therefore needs operational rules around it. The plant should know who connected, which systems they reached, how long the session lasted and what changed. Access should expire when the work ends instead of surviving as a permanent monument to the last turnaround. The same principle applies to configuration backups. A plant should have validated copies of PLC logic, robot programs, HMI configurations and critical drive parameters, and it should know where those copies came from. CISA’s July warning specifically advised operators to keep known clean PLC images so that recovery does not become an archaeological expedition after a lockout or configuration change.
Claudiu Popa is a published author, industrial cybersecurity auditor and speaker, and leader at OT Security Canada. As CEO of Informatica he advises on risk, policy and compliance, particularly where operations at scale meet emerging risk. Feedback and commentary are always welcomed at SecurityandPrivacy.ca and www.OTSEC.ca.PM
SALES CORP
We Know Pumps!
REGULATION HAS FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH THE CONVERSATION Canada’s regulatory environment also changed this summer. Bill C-8 received Royal Assent in June 2026, creating the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act and a regulatory framework for designated operators in federally regulated finance, telecommunications, energy and transportation sectors. The framework includes cybersecurity programs, incident reporting and attention to third-party and supply-chain risk, although implementation of the CCSPA is being phased in. Manufacturing as a whole is not automatically captured by that regime. That does not make the development irrelevant to manufacturers. Security expectations travel through supply chains. They appear in customer contracts, insurance questionnaires, procurement rules and audits long before every plant is directly regulated. Industrial companies supplying energy, transportation or other critical sectors should expect their customers to ask harder CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
21
Liquid Handling Solutions Engineered solutions for
all industrial pumping applications Most pumps and parts shipped from stock
Pump Specialists
Access our complete line at:
www.VissersSales.com Tel: 905-841-4073 Fax: 905-841-4018 1-800-367-4180
CPE_Visser_Liquidhandling_April26_CSA.indd 1
2026-01-06 1:44 PM
PRODUCTS
ALVA INDUSTRIES LAUNCHES FRAMELESS MOTOR SERIES FOR GEARED ACTUATION SYSTEMS Alva Industries has launched GearTorq, a series of frameless motors developed for geared applications and actuator systems. The GearTorq series is built on the company’s FiberPrinting manufacturing technology. According to Alva Industries, the new motor form factor is designed to use available length in existing geared actuation designs. Compared to the company’s SlimTorq series, GearTorq motors feature a longer design intended to enable more compact and powerdense actuator solutions. The combination of a compact outer form factor and a large inner diameter allows gear sets to be mounted within the motor’s centre rather than only in series as conventionally done. The company said this design approach supports optimization of packaging constraints while maintaining performance. www.alvaindustries.com
WITT GAS CONTROLS INTRODUCES INLINE LEAK DETECTION SYSTEM FOR MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING WITT Gas Controls has released the LEAK-MASTER ONE, an inline system for detecting carbon dioxide micro-leaks in modified atmosphere packaging. The company said the system enables individual package testing at production speed, addressing what it identified as a trade-off between high-precision leak detection and testing throughput. The LEAK-MASTER ONE integrates with modified atmosphere packaging lines and checks products individually for leaks. The system uses a vacuum testing method with infrared sensors and has a detection threshold of approximately 10 micrometres. According to WITT Gas Controls, this 22
sensitivity level identifies leaks that gradually compromise the protective atmosphere but may not be apparent until product quality is affected. The system uses 12 mini vacuum chambers operating in parallel, loaded automatically through pick-and-place robotics. Testing capacity is up to 120 packages per minute. www.wittgas.com
FOODSAFE DRAINS INTRODUCES TAMPER-PROOF STRAINER FOR FOOD PROCESSING DRAIN FoodSafe Drains has released a tamper-proof magnetic strainer designed to prevent debris from entering drainage systems in food processing facilities. The strainer includes a magnetic locking system that can only be removed with a specialized key. According to the company, this design prevents unauthorized removal or accidental displacement of the strainer during operation. The unit is designed as a secondary strainer for area drains and catch basins, providing additional filtration for capturing food and debris before contaminants reach plumbing infrastructure. The strainer is intended to reduce contamination risks and prevent drainage system blockages. The strainer is constructed from food-grade stainless steel and is designed to withstand temperature extremes and chemicals used in food processing environments. The seamless design is compliant with NSF/ANSI/3-A standards and features smooth surfaces with fully radiused edges to eliminate crevices where bacteria could harbour and to support cleaning. www.foodsafedrains.com PFANNENBERG INTRODUCES ENCLOSURE COOLING PLATFORM WITH ENVIRONMENTAL REFRIGERANT Pfannenberg Inc. has released the ActiveCool DTS 5000 Series of enclosure cooling units for industrial control cabinet applications. The company said the series is designed to protect electronics in densely packed control cabinets. The units use an internal air path that
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
draws hot air from above heatgenerating components and delivers cooled air below, which supports uniform enclosure temperatures. The series features a large evaporator coil for airflow in high-density electrical enclosures and a compact side-mount design compatible with most 12-inch-wide cabinets. All units use R513A refrigerant, which the company said supports compliance with environmental regulations including those affecting California and information technology applications. The refrigerant is rated A1 nonflammable. The series is available in cooling capacities of 4,700 and 8,500 BTU per hour. Enclosure protection ratings include Type 12, 3R and 4X for dusty environments, washdown areas and outdoor infrastructure applications. www.pfannenberg.com
LASER RESEARCH OPTICS INTRODUCES CLEANING KIT FOR PRECISION OPTICS Laser Research Optics has released the Advanced Optical Cleaning Kit for cleaning precision optics. The Providence, R.I.-based company said the kit is designed for cleaning optics made from materials including sapphire, germanium, zinc sulfide, zinc selenide and fused silica. The kit was originally developed for cleaning carbon dioxide laser lenses by users in field applications. The kit is applicable to precision optics used in vision systems, telescopes, microscopes and camera lenses. According to the company, the kit is designed to improve lens performance and prevent damage to lens coatings. Kit contents include 24 cotton balls, 24 surgical-grade finger cots, 24 lens mats, distilled water, polishing compound, reagent-grade isopropyl alcohol, acetone and an air bulb for dust removal.
Precision optics are optical components manufactured to tight specifications for use in laser systems, imaging equipment and scientific instruments. Optical coatings are thin films applied to lens surfaces to enhance transmission, reflection or filtering properties. These coatings can be damaged by improper cleaning methods, including contact with abrasive materials or incompatible solvents. www.laserresearch.net
KROHNE RELEASES RADAR LEVEL TRANSMITTERS FOR SOLIDS AND LIQUID APPLICATIONS KROHNE has introduced the OPTIWAVE 1530 and OPTIWAVE 1560 radar FMCW level transmitters for measuring solids and liquids in silos, tanks, stockpiles, bunkers and vessels. The OPTIWAVE 1530 provides a measuring range of zero to 15 metres (49.2 feet) for small to medium silos, stockpiles, bunkers and tanks. The OPTIWAVE 1560 extends the range to 30 metres (98.4 feet) for tall silos, large tanks and deep vessels. According to KROHNE, both models operate without recalibration over their service life. Both models feature a compact design with potted electronics to protect internal components from dust, condensation, vibration and shock. The flush-mounted, concave PVDF lens antenna provides chemical resistance and a self-draining design to prevent material buildup. The transmitters use a four-degree beam angle, which the company said supports accuracy in confined spaces and vessels with internal obstructions by reducing interference from walls or fixtures. The units are designed for performance in applications involving dusty surfaces, foamy or agitated liquids, condensation or poorly reflecting media. Installation uses a three-inch threaded connection compatible with standard flanges and accessories that does not protrude into nozzles. An optional IP68-rated waterproof version is available for outdoor and flood-prone applications. www.krohne.com/en-ca
CPECN.COM
OCTOBER 2026 | CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS
23
Reaching a sustainable future is like kayaking. With a skilled partner, you can make the right decisions. Reaching a sustainable future is demanding in many ways. Obstacles and change must be well anticipated to make the right decisions. We are ready to tackle these challenges with you! We will help you to improve your processes to meet specific production requirements, operational optimization, or sustainable manufacturing efforts. Let’s team up to improve!
24
Do you want to learn more? www.ca.endress.com
CANADIAN PROCESS EQUIPMENT & CONTROL NEWS | OCTOBER 2026
CPECN.COM