Commitment to Product Innovation Key to Control Station’s Success
Manchester, CT – September 27, 2018 – Control Station today celebrates thirty years as an innovator of process control solutions that are licensed globally to leading academic institutions and world-class manufacturers. The milestone and associated success are a direct result of the company’s steadfast commitment to delivering value-rich product and service offerings.
Control station was originally established in 1988 with the goal of capitalizing on breakthroughs in computer technology and software programming languages. Shortly after its formation the company introduced one of the first interactive software products that targeted the needs of university faculty. With its ability to dynamically simulate real-world process behavior the software provided a significant improvement over both the static trends found in traditional textbooks and the high cost of process lab equipment. Licensed to a broad base of colleges and universities the product quickly established Control Station as a thought-leader within academic circles.
“From its inception Control Station has tackled complex challenges by applying innovative technology-based solutions,” remarked Dr. Douglas Cooper, Control Station’s Founder and member of the Board of Directors. “Those early achievements became the foundation of our business and they provided a platform from which we’ve successfully launched a wide range of industrial offerings.”
In 2004 the company reformed under new management and broadened its scope to fulfill the technology and services needs of process manufacturers. Its first industrial product was a simple process modeling and PID controller tuning technology. The product’s intuitive design and consistent results represented a significant improvement over the manual tuning methods that were commonly used by industry practitioners. Success of the PID tuning product eventually paved the way for the development and introduction of a plant-wide performance monitoring platform. Today, a full thirty years after the company’s formation, Control Station supports 100s of academic institutions and is recognized as a leading, global supplier of plant-wide process diagnostic and optimization solutions. Among the company’s numerous accomplishments are the following:
- Control Station’s entrepreneurial staff and innovative products are award-winning. Engineering talent such as Bob Rice, PhD and Brett Beauregard have received numerous awards from the International Society of Automation and other highly regarded organizations for their contributions to the process control industry. In addition to these awards the company’s LOOP-PRO™ product suite remains the only two-time winner of the Vaaler Award which is selected by a panel of industry experts and which recognizes products that dramatically improve plant operations and economics.
- Upon its introduction the company’s proprietary Non-Steady State (NSS) Modeling Innovation eliminated the requirement for a steady-state condition prior to tuning complex PID control loops. The breakthrough provides a significant advantage compared to alternative loop tuning products, and it facilitated the company’s long standing private-label relationships with both Yokogawa Corporation of American and NovaTech Process Solutions. The same NSS Modeling Innovation now powers the innovative TuneVue feature within PlantESP, simplifying control loop optimization on a plant-wide basis.
- Over the years Control Station has steadily expanded its portfolio of training and skills development offerings to support the unique information needs of operators, technicians, and engineers. Newer course offerings developed in collaboration with Hershey Foods and Chevron Products Company focus on both instrumentation and advanced process control. Similarly a multi-lingual eLearning offering was launched with the support of Air Liquide in 2015 to cater to the needs of a growing distance learning audience.
- Today Control Station is proud to support the process control technology and services needs of nearly one-half of the industrial manufacturers listed in the Fortune 500. With customers in over 55 countries the company is truly a global supplier. In 2016 the company formed a joint venture in Ireland to improve its support of international and multi-national customers. Based on its success Control Station was recognized by the Small Business Administration earlier this year as the 2018 Exporter of the Year for the State of Connecticut.
“While Control Station is no longer a start-up we have a robust product development roadmap that will facilitate continued growth,” shared Dennis Nash, the company’s President. “The market for automation solutions such as ours has never been stronger. I look forward to seeing what we’ll accomplish over the next thirty years.”
About Control Station
Control Station empowers process manufacturers to increase production efficiency and throughput. The company’s software-based solutions actively monitor and optimize plant-wide control loop performance.
The company’s products are both highly innovative and award-winning. PlantESP™ is the leading CLPM solution for identifying and isolating issues that negatively affect control loop performance. Control Station’s portfolio of LOOP-PRO™ products is recognized as the process industry’s leading solution for PID controller tuning. It is the only controller tuning software that accurately models oscillatory and noisy process data.
Control Station’s solutions are licensed to leading process manufacturers worldwide and they are available direct from Control Station and through its network of distribution partners. The company is headquartered in the United States.
Originally a first mover in process simulation software the company is now recognized for its innovative solutions for plant-wide performance diagnostics and process optimization.
