This category -- and the subcategories included with it -- brings together sites concerned with the supply and service of machines, systems, and associated ancillary equipment that, in one way or another, alter the nature or condition of batches of materials, components, or parts that have so far probably been only partially manufactured. In some cases, the end result is a finished product. In others, the processing is merely a step along the way. Whatever the case, a change certainly occurs between the input and output stages.
Note: Process Equipment sites usually have applications to a range of industries rather than one specific type of manufacturing. In contrast, sites that have an obvious relationship to a particular area of manufacturing are indexed in categories that conform with that relationship. (For example metalworking machinery is allocated to the Cutting_Equipment and Machine_Tools categories, just as tanning equipment and shoe making machines will be found in the Leatherworking_Machinery category.)
The emphasis in this category is on machinery, equipment, and systems that remove unwanted contaminants from gaseous, liquid, or dry material. Often enough, the cleansing/purifying process will leave a residue, but this will have no value and, at some time or other, will need to be discarded as waste.
Note: Where a residue is of value and can be put to further use, the process involves separation rather than filtration, even though some form of filter may be employed. In such cases, the associated equipment more correctly belongs in the Process_Equipment/Separators category. (For example, a "filtering" system will produce clean water and leave sludge behind, whereas a "separator" system will remove oil from water so that both liquids can be used again.)
Additional note: The filters and screens used with filtering equipment are indexed on their own in the Process_Equipment/Separators/Filters category.
Sites in this category cover the manufacture, distribution, inspection, repair, and reglassing of glass lined equipment that is used quite extensively in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The objective is resistance to corrosion and the provision of protection from other adverse reaction when chemical materials and products are being handled, processed, stored, and transhipped.
This category contains sites put together by companies that manufacture and service magnetic separation and detection equipment, primarily for use in mining, foundry, scrapyard, and metal processing environments. The purpose is twofold: either lifting and transporting metal or removing it when its presence isn't required.
Sites in this category relate to a wide range of machinery, equipment, and systems that mix, blend, dispense, and deliver a host of wet and dry materials and components. Applications exist in numerous industries, but the common denominator is the use in some form of processing that results in an output that differs from the input.
Note: In contrast, equipment and devices that separate and sort materials and components, rather than, as it were, turning them into all-of-a-piece, are more properly allocated to the Process_Equipment/Separators category and its subcategories.
This category and its subcategories are concerned with the recognition, handling, and processing of materials and components that have more than one constituent part. The systems, machinery, and equipment, as well as the various ancillary products they employ, are designed to analyze, categorize, sort, and separately store or dispose of the different parts. The end results can vary, but they will invariably comprise at least a couple of distinct elements.
Note: Sites related to joining or merging materials and their parts are more properly indexed in the Process_Equipment/Mixers_and_Dispensers category.
Additional note: On the whole, sites concerned with the removal of contaminants in air, gases, and water belong in the Process_Equipment/Filtering category. (This differentiation is based on a recognition that a single cleansed/purified element/condition is the end result of filtering, whereas a separating process [as already implied above] produces at least two parts of the original whole.) At the same time, however, there's something of a fine distinction when it comes to oil/water, liquid/solid, and wastewater treatment systems, which invariably result in two reusable elements and are therefore more properly allocated to this Separators category.
The focus in this category is on used and surplus processing machinery, equipment, and parts. It does not -- and should not -- contain sites whose main business is the supply of new machinery, which more properly belong in the categories that cover their particular type of equipment.