What’s Going On? Lubrication, Contamination Challenges, Sustainability Wanes and Silo Busting
Editor’s note: Welcome to What’s Going On? This is a quick look at news impacting the chemical industry from the lens of outside sources, including our parent company Endeavor B2B’s many brands.
Food Processing’s Senior Editor, Andy Hanacek, recently pointed out that processing plants can boost efficiency through proper lubrication programs. Modern synthetic H1 lubricants offer longer life, energy savings, waste reduction and environmental benefits compared to traditional products, he wrote in his article “Processors Turn to Lubricants to Carry Them to Peak Efficiency.” And today's food-grade lubricants often outlast general industrial lubricants, debunking outdated perceptions about their durability and effectiveness.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers face increasing contamination control challenges as they shift toward sensitive biologics and personalized medicines that can't be terminally sterilized, according to Pharma Manufacturing’s EIC Greg Slabodkin. In his article, “Contamination control is critical for safeguarding product quality, ensuring compliance,” he explains that companies like Axplora are investing heavily in high-containment facilities with automated systems and strict segregation. Future innovations include AI-driven robotics to eliminate human presence in sterile environments, automated visual inspection systems and improved environmental monitoring methods to replace traditional petri dish testing, addressing the growing sterile injectable market expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2030.
Control Global’s Len Vermillion points out that the limelight for green investments is dimming. “It wasn’t long ago that terms such as sustainability, ESG and net zero were everywhere. Just last year, one would be hard-pressed to attend an industry conference—any industry conference—without sustainability taking center stage. This year? Not so much,” he wrote in his “Sustainability faces headwinds” commentary.
Podcast alert: The folks over at IndustryWeek are talking about breaking down silos in the latest episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement.
Hosts John Dyer and Dr. Mohamed Saleh discuss the destructive nature of silos to a team-based continuous improvement organization. They explore why silos form and delve into methods to knock those silos down.
