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Trainer Spotlight: Dexter Vilar

October 25, 2021 | Company News

You might know Dexter Vilar as one of the faces of Neal Systems! Dexter is our lead application engineer and has been a staple trainer for Neal Systems from the start. He has an electrical engineering degree from Penn State, and extensive application engineering and technical support background in instrumentation, controls, drives, and recorders. His specialties at NSI are:

  • Draeger Gas Detection
  • Eurotherm Controls and Data Acquisition
  • Foxboro Temperature, Pressure, and Flow Meters
  • Control Valves
  • Intrinsic Safety Wiring Practices
  • Explosion Proof Wiring Practices

Most recently, Dexter presented a course entitled Toxic and Combustible Gas Leak Detection in the Water Industry at the American Water Works Association’s 2021 New Jersey Section Annual Conference. If you are interested in this course or others in Dexter’s areas of expertise, please contact us directly to arrange having this presentation and more delivered to you and your facilities staff personally. This can be accomplished on-site at your facility; virtually; or at our recently expanded Newtown, PA facility, which features a 16-person Training Classroom and Instrument Wet Lab.




Need to Control and Protect your Furnace, Oven, or Kiln?

October 18, 2021 | Company News

When an industrial furnace, oven, or kiln is heat-treating a part and something goes wrong with a heating element, there is a risk that the PID temperature controller could have a run-away condition – causing the furnace to heat up to the point that it destroys itself and the critical parts inside.   For that reason, the furnace is often fitted with a “limit-alarm controller” that shuts down the process by disconnecting power should the temperature reading exceed a specific value (High-Limit).  There are Low-Limit alarm controllers as well for special applications.  In order to guarantee that these have been fully tested, Factory Mutual provides a Standard 3545 that the limit controller must meet in order to be suitable for protection purposes.   

Eurotherm by Schneider Electric has long been one of the premiere suppliers of high accuracy PID temperature controllers that are trusted in furnaces and ovens for the aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, and other heat treating markets.  Eurotherm’s newest brand of controller, the EPC series, has now received FM approval for doing Hi or Lo temperature limit alarming as an option. 

Traditionally, the limit alarm controller was always a separate controller within the furnace control panel, however, recent changes have seen many companies start to use a single controller that functions both as the PID controller and separately has a limit alarm control option.  The Eurotherm can now be used either way. 

Contact us for information about how we can help!




How Will Pyrometry Specifications Change in the Coming Decade?

October 12, 2021 | Company News

Most of the parts that are heat-treated in America for use in planes, rockets, or space flight vehicles are treated in furnaces that adhere to a standard known as NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program).  According to Peter Sherwin, one of the heat treat experts from Eurotherm, the goal of this standard is to ensure that we “reduce the variation in output from a heat treat furnace.”  The standard, known as AMS (Aerospace Material Specifications) has a specific section that is geared toward the temperature measurement, control, and recording – AMS2750 (currently on revision F). 

In this video of heat treat experts, a discussion about what the future holds for pyrometry specifications reveals some interesting tidbits about what we might see in AMS2750 Revision G, how the standards need to more dynamic, and how standards followed already in the pharmaceutical industry might make their way to aerospace. 

NSI watches these changes carefully, as they significantly impact our digital solutions for measurement, control, and data acquisition that we provide to heat treaters looking to comply with regulatory standards for their furnaces.      


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