Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. specializes in delivering customized Products (Systems & Services) with integrated automation, process equipment, and process control for a wide range of applications in a variety of industries, including Feed, PetFood, Agriculture, Food, Baking, Rubber and many others. For more than fifty (50) years Sterling Systems & Controls has provided effective, efficient and reliable Products and Systems. Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. offers Products and System Capabilities in the following areas:
- Automation Software Upgrade
- Batching Systems
- Bearing Condition Monitor
- Bulk Bag Filling Systems
- Bulk Bag Unloading Systems
- Complete Systems
- Complete Process Systems
- Controls and Automation
- Data Management for Fracturing Sand Facilities
- Feed Mill Automation
- Food and Baking Automation Systems
- Hand Prompt Batching Station
- Liquid Handling
- Material Weighing Systems
- Micro Weighing Systems
- Minor and Major Weighing Systems
- Preventative Maintenance
- Process Controls and Automation
- Kitchen Batching System
- Software
- Supervisory Control Software
Automation Software Upgrade
What is FreshStart™?
FreshStart™ is a technology program for automation software upgrades designed specifically for your Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. legacy PC-based software. Do you have automation software applications including batching, mixing, grinding and much more designed for and operating on MS-DOS, Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8/8.1? Your company or industry does not matter. If you currently use the state-of-the-art Microsoft .Net based software applications from Sterling Systems, great! If not and you currently use our legacy PC-based software, the FreshStart technology upgrade is for you.
Some of the Reasons for Automation Software Upgrade and Benefits
- Scalability. The modular design of the Sterling Systems state-of-the-art .NET based software can easily grow as your manufacturing process grows which helps reduce automation software upgrade costs in the long run. This is not possible with your old legacy software system (MS-DOS, Win XP, Win 7, Win 8/8.1 based).
- Various modules are available as modern .NET based software. This currently includes Batching, Transfer, Receiving, Grinding, Pelleting, Loadout, Hand Prompt, Alarm & Events, PMPlanR™ Preventative Maintenance, and WebCentral™ Remote Supervisory Control and Web Access to Data.
- The software can run on Windows 10 Pro OS and future releases. Windows Server 2016 or later can be used. Web access can run on most modern browsers either on desktop or mobile devices. There is no chance of incompatibility issues in future releases.
- The latest and most state-of-the-art Microsoft and Allen Bradley technologies are used, thereby providing the latest security and the very best user experience and features possible.
Batching Systems
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. can provide Automatic and Semi-Automatic
Batching System products that will improve the efficiency of your powder and bulk, or liquid, material handling process. We specialize in custom designing, engineering, and manufacturing batching systems to increase your process performance, improve product consistency, eliminate product waste, and provide robust production data collection and reporting. Batching Systems can also include blending/mixing operations, and other process equipment, controls and automation. Batching Systems capabilities can include, but are not limited to:
- Inventories an unlimited number of materials
- Tolerance control for accurate weights and batch integrity
- Lot tracking & validation features
- Multiple levels of security, password protection
- Automation of material conveying/feeding devices (dry & liquid)
- Prompting of hand-additions (systems with semi-automatic batching)
- Automation of mixers
- Automation of upstream and downstream equipment
- Pneumatic & Mechanical conveyor automation
- Multiple operating platforms (Software & Hardware)
- Operator interface devices throughout the process with ergonomic designs
- Enclosures available in stainless steel, mild steel or composite materials (NEMA rated)
- Workstations/tables for platform scales, shelves to support other equipment such as printers, barcode readers and displays
Batching and weighing systems are oftentimes known by various terms, and we custom engineer ingredient batching systems to meet the specific objectives of each customer. Some other terms batching systems may be known as include Batch Bulk Weighing Systems, Continuous Weighing Systems, Bulk Weigh Scale Systems, Micro-Systems/Micro-Ingredient Systems, Gain-In-Weight or Loss-In-Weight Batching Systems, Weigh Hopper and Batching Systems, Batching Control Systems, Minor/Micro/Major/Hybrid Ingredient Systems, and Liquid Weighing/Metering Systems.
Bearing Condition Monitor
Particle size reduction equipment may also be known as grinders and classifiers. There are other types of size reduction equipment. These devices are milling machines of various types used to reduce the particle size of dry solids, such as grain and other granular materials. These devices are rotating machinery. Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. designs and manufactures the highest quality bearing condition monitor for use with the Prater Industries brand of high-speed mills. Various standard and optional features are available, including a choice of intrinsically safe bearing sensors for Prater equipment in hazardous areas. Intrinsically safe sensors are intended for use in the following hazardous areas:
• Class I, Div. 1, Groups A, B, C and D
• Class II, Div. 1, Groups E, F and G
• Class III, Div. 1
• Ex ia IIC T4 Ga
• Ex II 1 G
• Class I Zone 0 AEx/Ex ia IIC T4 Ta = -50°C to 120°C
The Control Panel for the Standalone Bearing Condition Monitoring systems is a NEMA4X Fiberglass Enclosure with a front door window kit and includes:
• Intrinsically Safe Barriers (if applicable) for accelerometer and temperature sensor outputs
• Digital Display Relay Modules & Display Controllers
• Clearly labeled and secure screw-type terminals for all external connections
Integrated systems are custom-engineered and manufactured. View more …..
Bulk Bag Filling Systems
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. has designed and manufactured bulk bag filling stations for a wide range of applications. Whether as a standalone 
process or as part of an overall bulk material processing system, Sterling Systems & Controls bulk bag filling stations are custom-engineered to fit your exact process and to perform the way you need and want them to. Sterling Systems & Controls can also engineer and provide the automation and process control system for the entire bag filling operation, which can include a Motor Starter Process Control Panel with an Allen Bradley PLC (provides both discrete and analog outputs), an Allen Bradley Panel View Plus color touchscreen, custom automation software including all M/O/A (Manual/Off/Automatic) switches with running indicating lights, motor starters, and all necessary fusing, wiring etc. to meet the application requirements.
Sterling Systems & Controls bulk bag filling stations incorporate many of the same structural aspects as the micro, minor, and bulk weighing systems, but are specifically designed to efficiently and effectively load/fill a bulk bag, usually at the end of the production process. Solutions are provided for filling bulk bags of dry bulk solid materials and filling supply bins such as drums or tote tippers. Bulk bag filling stations can be combined with a variety of turnkey solutions for batching, mixing, conveying/transporting, etc.. The bag filling stations are custom engineered to fit within the physical constraints of your facility and can provide the controls as a standalone process, or as a part of the complete manufacturing process automation.
Bulk Bag Unloading Systems
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. offers a full line of Bulk Bag Unloading and Weighing Systems that incorporate many of the same structural aspects as the micro, minor, and bulk weighing systems, but are specifically designed to unload a bulk bag or tote, typically into a fixed hopper within the system.
Solutions are provided for unloading bulk bags of dry bulk solid materials and filling the supply bins such as drums or tote tippers. In addition, batch weighing can be added along with batching controls. These can include the addition of mechanical or pneumatic conveying and a choice of weighing solutions including gain-in-weight & loss-in-weight.
Bulk bag unloading systems that include weighing can be combined with a variety of turnkey solutions for conveying/transporting or dispensing the batch. These carefully selected solutions are used to convey/transport the product to the use points such as a day bin or mixer. Typical conveying systems include pneumatic and mechanical conveyors. Totes are commonly used where cross-contamination or product degradation is a concern; both solid surface totes and flexible totes are used. A variety of bulk bag unloading and weighing systems installation configurations are possible, including allowing for the system to be mounted through a floor, or on a floor with legs.
Complete Systems
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. can bundle your milling, grinding, sifting, metal separation, and other process equipment into a complete system. Our skilled and experienced engineers have in-depth knowledge of the process equipment and the technology required to properly operate your process from raw material feeding to the final product destination. Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. has developed strategic partnerships with industry-leading equipment manufacturers to be able to provide our customers with complete system design and integration, such as with Prater Industries and Industrial Magnetics.
Why struggle with sizing air movers, filter receivers, piping, and separation magnets while dealing with multiple suppliers when you can get it all from one source, Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. Our automation systems and process controls integration with a wide range of process equipment is second to none in the industry. We handle the following, and more:
- System implementation and management
- System design and process development
- Mechanical process equipment, i.e. conveyors, mixers, grinders, etc.
- Raw material receiving, material transfer, batching, mixing/blending, grinding/milling, screening, particle extruding, storage of finished product, bagging/packaging, loadout, and more
- Lot tracking, material traceability and validation (RFID, Barcode, etc.)
- Supervisory remote control, and integration with business systems
Data Management for Fracturing Sand Facilities
SandTrack™ is a software application that provides data management for fracturing sand facilities. It provides Inventory and Activity tracking for hydraulic fracturing sand storage and distribution facilities. It can also be used with other types of sand distribution facilities. It integrates seamlessly with a Sterling Systems control system to provide data management and historical data logging for activities that occur throughout the control system. An optional Data Import/Export module can be included to provide a bridge between third-party truck or railcar systems and the Sterling Systems control system. This allows truck and railcar tickets to be imported from the third-party system, serviced by the Sterling Systems control system and exported back to the third-party system. The SandTrack inventory data management for fracturing sand facility application provides data management, historical data logging, ticket printing, management reports, and bridging between the aforementioned third-party and Sterling Systems control systems, and the Sterling Systems WebCentral™ remote supervisory application, as well as any remote Corporate Network and ERP system.
Feed Mill Automation
Feed Mill automation can simplify operations and improve the efficiency of cost and throughput. Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. custom engineers and manufactures the highest quality automation control systems for virtually any Feed Mill process or a complete facility. Regardless of the specific animal feed, cattle, poultry, swine, horse, pet food, and more, Sterling Systems is “Your Premier Provider of Feed Mill / Pet Food Production Solutions”.
Sterling Systems & Controls engineers and provides standard equipment and customized software solutions for an overall customized feed manufacturing system (a.k.a. Feed Mill system) using Allen-Bradley PLC’s and desktop PC’s running Sterling Systems & Controls customized Windows-based Automation Software.
Sterling’s fifty (50) years of process and automation experience ensures quality and efficiency in both hardware and software. Software applications for feed mill automation include: READ MORE …..
Hand Prompt Batching Station
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. engineers and manufactures semi-automatic Hand Prompt 
Station products (system in picture shown with optional bag dump) to meet the specific requirements of each customer. The semi-automatic Hand Prompt Batching Station serves a wide range of industrial applications where the negative effects of time-consuming and problematic manual batching need to be eliminated. The Hand Prompt Batching Station is a semi-automatic batching system that utilizes operator involvement through each step in the batching process, but provides automated operator instructions or prompting, ingredient validation and lot tracking, automatic weighing with over/under tolerance control, etc. This semi-automatic system will eliminate bad batches that result from operator error and interruption. The operator no longer needs to have handwritten or printed-out formulas/recipes or keep track of where he is in the batching process. The semi-automatic Hand Prompt Batching Station does that for the operator automatically. No missed ingredients! No bad batches!
Material Weighing Systems
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. offers a variety of material weighing systems for many industries and applications. Each system is custom-engineered to meet the exact requirements and demands of each customer. Material Weighing Systems are useful for automatic weighing and batching or semi-automatic weighing and batching using single or multiple scales. A semi-automatic material weighing system requires operator-assisted weighing with automatic operator instructions and lockouts to ensure there will be no more missed ingredients due to operator interruption. This ensures batch integrity, quality & consistency (ingredient weighments within a programmable tolerance). Automatic material weighing and batching systems have little operator involvement and automatically feed ingredients into batching containers or conveying systems and automatically weigh the ingredients and batches.
Common Automatic Material Weighing and Batching Systems Include:
- Micro Ingredient Weighing and Batching Systems
- Minor and Major Ingredient Weighing and Batching Systems
- Bulk Bag Unloading & Material Weighing Systems
Micro Weighing Systems
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. offers customized automatic micro-ingredient material weighing and batching systems to weigh materials
that require accurately measured ingredients that are critical to batch integrity. These systems automatically feed and weigh materials. Micro ingredient material weighing and batching systems are offered with supply bins, feeders, automatic bin refilling, work platforms, bag handling equipment, dust collection, and batched material conveying equipment (pneumatic and mechanical), lot tracking, batch validation and more. The ingredient lot tracking, traceability and batch validation can be as simple or as comprehensive as desired to be implemented in each application. Supervisory remote control is also available by using the Sterling Systems WebCentral supervisory control application. These automatic systems can also be integrated with customer ERP systems.
Minor and Major Weighing Systems
A unique approach to automatic micro/minor and major ingredient weighing and batching systems sets Sterling Systems & Controls apart from typical
systems. The designs are custom-engineered for each application utilizing standardized components. The systems are offered with a bulk bag weighing systems, ridged tote bin systems, as well as large and small supply bin systems manufactured from carbon steel, stainless steel or plastic (bulk totes). The scale designs are customized to minimize the mass of the scale to ensure high-scale resolution while maximizing accuracy and repeatability. The use of multiple scales for high throughput and ingredient weighment accuracy is typical.
Preventative Maintenance
Software Products are also developed and provided by Sterling Systems & Controls. PMPlanR™ (pronounced “PM-Planer”) is a robust 
standalone Preventative Maintenance Planning Software Application. PMPlanR allows you to “Build Your Plant”. Within each Plant you can enter all Equipment Components (Areas or Machines) and Assets that should be monitored. Tasks can be assigned and work orders issued.
Process Controls and Automation
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. can match your specific equipment or process with the best process controls and automation system for 
your application. Sterling System’s process experience and knowledge are combined with the intimate familiarity with the latest control and automation components and software. Solutions are customized to meet the exact requirements and objectives of each customer. Whether you need to upgrade your present system to meet changing requirements or need a fully automated control system for a new process application or facility, Sterling Systems & Controls has expertise in designing and building control and automation systems for customers worldwide.
Kitchen Batching System
Kitchen Batching SystemSterling Systems & Controls, Inc. provides many types of Products, including multiple types of batching systems. A popular type of batching system in many industries, but most especially in the food and related foodstuffs, is the Semi-Automatic Batching System, a.k.a. the Kitchen System. The semi-automatic batching system uses similar automation technology, both hardware and software, as the automatic batching systems. However, the semi-automatic batching system requires operator to be present throughout the entire batching process to perform functions as detailed in the instructions provided by the semi-automatic system.
Supervisory Control Software
WebCentral is a browser-based supervisory control software application that allows you to access the database of a Sterling Systems control system. In an ingredient batching control system WebCentral allows you to do things like add or remove ingredients, create and manage recipes, manage ingredient and product inventories, set a batching schedule, and review and print historical reports. Because WebCentral is browser-based it is very simple and intuitive to use. This also means that WebCentral can be accessed by virtually any computer that is networked with the Sterling Systems batching or other type of control system, without having to install any software, other than a web browser. All features of WebCentral are protected with an elaborate, yet flexible, security scheme which is fully customizable. Does Accounting need to look up historical records, but they can’t modify recipes? What if your lab or corporate office needs to change recipes, but you don’t want them to change the batching schedule? No problem! WebCentral is a perfect fit for these and many other scenarios where a variety of individuals need access to information from your control system in a secure, reliable, and simple way.
Working With Us
Give us a call today to talk about your business and process objectives and see how Sterling Systems & Controls can provide a custom engineered solution. You can reach us by phone at 1-815-625-0852, toll-free in the USA 1-800-257-7214, or by email at sci@sterlingcontrols.com.