With the announcement of their latest software release, Cinder, Red Meters have transcended the confines of the static instrument space.
Cinder is part of the technology ecosystem of Red Meters industrial measurement systems. The systems are used to measure density and mass flow of slurries within mining, dredging, oil and gas, and other industrial processes. Implemented by major companies around the globe, the systems empower engineers with data which enables process control. The technology ecosystem is comprised of physical and electronic components, as well the front and back-end software and data science. Cinder is the middle layer of the ecosystem, and the foundation for future Red Meters products.
The team noticed a gap in the market specifically around software interfaces, which have a direct impact on the experience of the engineers using them. The team conducted extensive research on platforms currently available to process engineers, finding them to be antiquated, underpowered, and difficult to use.
Cinder was built using Material Design and web technologies, aka, software you use every day. Steered by dozens of hours of “white board sessions”, followed by multiple rounds of user observation trials, the team created an intuitive, beautiful, and easy to use interface which requires little, if any, training to use.
The core priority of Cinder is customization. It was designed for engineers to tweak the interface for their needs. Included is a View Builder, which presents the process data that engineers want in the format they deem most effective.
“When we were focused on selling density meters, we were just establishing density based off of a volumetric measurement and a weight measurement, and then using the other ancillary information internally in our system,” Ben Ornstein, head of Strategic Development at Red Meters said. “The reality is that those are also useful datasets for our clients and our prospective clients. What if we can provide all of this data to users?”
The release of Cinder provides exactly that. The question becomes how to market a groundbreaking solution in a space commonly viewed with some skepticism. “Our clients used to say non-nuclear density meters are snake oil. They all claim to work. They don’t work,” he said. “Well, we work. We can prove it categorically.”
