AVOIDING ONE HOUR OF MACHINE DOWNTIME PAYS FOR THE WATCHMAN™

Norwalk, CT (October 10, 2003) — With companies across the globe striving to increase productivity and build efficiencies, PDC International Corporation has introduced the Watchman™ Productivity Data Tracker to assist with those efforts. The Watchman™ helps industry maintain, optimize and improve all manufacturing operations and can be mounted on any type of equipment or machinery.

The Watchman Productivity Data Tracker is an easy-to-use device for accumulating and monitoring machine usage data. The Watchman logs the hours of a machine's operation and indicates when certain service hour intervals are reached. It provides the operator or supervisor with data and visual reports on a machine's utilization. By tracking operation history, Watchman makes it easier to monitor service intervals in order to prevent unforeseen and costly production interruptions and downtime. Avoiding just one hour of machine downtime, which results in wasted labor costs, order delays and emergency part replacement, can pay for the cost of the Watchman system.

Information is gathered through Watchman's infrared interface COM-link, which communicates easily with most PDA's (OS 3.3 or higher), which can then be fed into a PC. Service personnel, supervisors or management personnel can easily collect the data by simply pointing the PDA at the Watchman and clicking. The PDA will only load information to/from the individual machine that is being monitored as each unit is programmed with a unique equipment identification or serial number allowing multiple Watchman to be installed throughout a factory.

Custom PC software, which comes with the Watchman, can generate a variety of reports to provide data to keep any machine in peak operating condition. Additional software packages are available including Job Watcher, Crew Watcher, Inspection Watcher, Material Watcher, Repair Watcher and Power Watcher for monitoring other machine functions.

Measuring only 4.5" wide x 2.4" high x 1.25" deep, the Watchman Productivity Data Tracker installs via a simple three-wire interface with the host machine. Watchman is sold individually or packaged with a PDA. Multiple units can be purchased for use on several machines requiring only a single PDA for data collection.

PDC International Corporation has manufactured heavy-duty packaging machinery specializing in tamper evident neck banding, shrink sleeve labeling, multipackers and shrink tunnels for over 35 years. The firm specializes in designing systems to customer-specific production requirements with customer preferred PLC platforms and touchscreens while meeting rigorous field-testing and Factory Acceptance Test protocols. PDC sales and service operation is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut with worldwide packaging installations in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, household and personal products industries.

For more information on the new Watchman™ Productivity Data Tracker, contact:
Reid Vail
Sales and Marketing Manager
PDC International Corporation
8 Sheehan Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06854

Telephone: 203-853-1516
Fax: 203-854-0834