Brad Beale '89: Leaning in to New Things

Place of Influence: Minnesota, Germany, and manufacturing companies worldwide

Role: Managing Director, P+F Comtrol

Product: Sensor-to-cloud connectivity for industrial machines

Application: AI-driven analytics on real-time and historical data trends for Industrial machine monitoring.  This provides condition monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions for global industrial and process industry clients to deliver sustainable and production efficiency gains for their factories and plants. 

Leaning in to New Things

Brad Beale is no stranger to leaning in to new things. This mindset may be the reason his family's company, Comtrol, still exists today.

In his 20s, Beale worked in sales for the family's Minnesota company. Their flagship product was RocketPort, a multi-port serial adapter Comtrol invented to connect dozens of devices to a single server, powering call centers, auto shops, and retail.

"I was going to leave the company because I was bored," says Beale. "My dad said, 'Stay. Start your own thing. Do what you want to do.'"

So he did. Beale led a redesign of the company's adapters to connect sensors and devices to Ethernet. This prescient move saved the company from becoming obsolete and poised them to serve a broader customer base. 

Over the next decade, Beale kept attuned to industry trends, adjusting and adapting the products Comtrol produced in tandem with changes in manufacturing industries. Their main job? Connecting sensors to machines, machines to servers, and collecting machine data.

Then came artificial intelligence. "[Companies had been] ingesting vast amounts of data from sensors. Everybody was throwing it into the data lake*, and it just sat there." 

Beale and his team saw an opportunity. AI excels at reading massive volumes of data and looking for patterns. Once you find patterns, you can connect them to problems and then come up with solutions. This revelation launched a new era for Comtrol, now owned by the German-based Pepperl+Fuchs. 

What They Did

Beale's team developed sensor-to-cloud connectivity hardware that integrates with cloud platforms and enterprise software.

What does that mean?

In the same way you might set up a smart thermostat to feed data to your phone (temperature, humidity, energy saving, etc.), this new hardware enables factory machines to upload data directly to the cloud. 

Systems already in the cloud can then track, analyze, and respond to that data. This would be like using an app on your phone to adjust your home temperature from 78°F down to 72°F. 

Why it Matters

Suddenly factories and companies can solve problems before they happen.

One example is the work P+F Comtrol does for Cadent Gas. Cadent's pipelines transport gas from high pressure hubs to homes and businesses across the UK. Sensors installed at unmanned regulator and compressor stations feed data back to a central site. 

"You have to monitor pressure carefully. A sudden rush of gas moving from larger to smaller pipes can actually crack the foundation of the supporting structure," says Beale.

In the past, technicians had to visit these sites, at times reducing gas flow or pausing operations while assessing the situation and gathering needed tools.

Smart sensors solve this problem by picking up even the slightest change in vibrations and comparing that to cloud data. If the vibration has ever been associated with past problems, the system alerts Cadent, which can dispatch the correct technician and tools when needed.

This technology limits emergency shutdowns while also improving safety for the average citizen by circumventing hazardous incidents. 

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Augmenting, not Replacing Humans

In most cases, the job done by Beale's technology augments rather than replaces human work. Just a few of these include:

Engineers design warning systems for industrial equipment based on the patterns AI uncovered in the data lake 

Mechanics more efficiently maintain machinery when AI picks up early warning signs of aberration

Technicians fix manufacturing defects on the front end thanks to earlier detection of quality control issues

Sustainability

The specific type of AI that Beale's company works with can also improve sustainability. A few areas include:

Reducing the physical waste generated by scrapping failed projects

Lowering energy consumption by ensuring that equipment runs at peak performance

Limiting excessive inventory and expired stock by ensuring supplies are only ordered when needed

Average Joe AI Advice

Beale's top AI advice for the small to medium scale business?

"Learn to use digital assistants. I don't think people realize how much time they spend on the minutiae." 

He gives the example from his own company's inventory of optical, ultrasonic, and other sensors. A good AI agent can save hours of time determining the ideal product for a situation.

Beale's other recommendation? Innovation tempered by discernment.

"Set guardrails and use it wisely. There are countless horrible uses for AI. There are also truly positive applications where it can benefit communities and society."

For Beale, leaning in to those positive use cases keeps his company relevant and open to new opportunities.

MA Takeaway

My experience at Minnehaha helped me become an independant thinker. It pushed me to work with diverse teams and customers, to listen to problems, and collaborate towards developing innovative solutions. Herr Guido Kauls inspired me to learn German well during my early days at Minnehaha. This has helped me work with customers across the globe, finding common and relatable understanding across diverse cultures. Minnehaha Academy developed me into a person with the ability to create solutions for customers and partners because MA taught me to never give up and also inspired in me a focus on team-work and innovation.