How technology is helping Santa this Christmas

Surely, a bit of technology can help Santa improve his operations and reduce his carbon footprint.

Delivering presents to billions of people in a single night is a daunting job. Which is why Santa thanks technology for making it all possible and his lucky star for having to do it only once a year.

To get all the deliveries in time, Santa has to travel at 650 miles/1,000km per second! To make sure he’s travelling at the right pace, he’s using aircraft technology - a pitot tube flow meter that measures his speed.  

Once he sets off, Santa monitors air pressure. This helps him find out how much magic the reindeers need to propel themselves at 650 miles/second. To do this, he’s got his hands on a wireless pressure transmitter that has a 10-year battery life, so he can set it and forget it. 

To keep an eye on temperature, he’s using a bunch of non-invasive temperature sensors that have no problem measuring anything from freezing cold to boiling hot. Because that’s what you need to handle the trip across snowy forests, scorching deserts, and everything in between. 

Santa’s sleigh has a heavy load. Some years, the weight tips the scale to a whopping 60,000 tonnes/60,000,000 kg. To control the heavy load, Santa uses a heavy-duty load sensor. That’s the only way he can trust his sleigh under extreme conditions. 

This Christmas, Santa is installing optical sensors on his sleigh to spot greenhouse gas leaks from above. He’s seen sensors like this on satellites orbiting the earth and he thinks they are cool. 

If you’re going to jump down someone’s chimney, it’s good to know how far it will be to the bottom. A good, reliable laser level transmitter comes in handy for when you prepare to take the plunge. 

 

A day in the life of Santa

Santa and his elves have been busy all year making toys for girls and boys around the world. Now, all that is left to do is wrap them. Santa is getting the perfect quality recycled paper to last through any extreme weather he may encounter. To each gift, Santa is adding a sweet treat wrapped in recycled foil.  

Would you know how much water a reindeer needs to fly around the world? Santa does because he relies on new ultrasonic level transmitters to measure the amount of water that goes in and out of the troughs, ensuring each reindeer is fully hydrated.

Santa also needs to know where he can get his hands on water for the reindeers. His AquaMaster4 flowmeter is extremely accurate and gives him up to the minute data on water availability. 

Santa’s favorite part of the trip is to enjoy the milk and cookies left by the children. He’s bringing a pH sensor for the ride to make sure he’s getting the freshest milk to keep him going. 

Santa loves a Christmas tipple by the fire after the big night. A Coriolis flowmeter used in the production of whisky helps keep spirits bright by ensuring every dram hits the right level of quality.

Is there anyone more in need of an assistant than Santa? Self-service and remote support is important for someone who is travelling the world, which is why he relies on a web app for tutorials, spare parts and direct contact with the experts who can fix his sleigh if it breaks down. 

And what a relief to have access to a global service network no matter where he is. Just the peace of mind he needs. 

Santa goes green

With just about everyone talking about sustainability, Santa is under pressure. How hard can it be? Surely, he can improve performance, reduce his carbon footprint, and be back home with his feet up before sunrise?

With the growing demand for toys pushing his existing production facility to the maximum, Santa is busy building a new and much larger factory that will churn out millions of toys each day. He’s already decided to install a continuous emissions monitoring system to help him monitor emissions coming out of chimneys at his manufacturing plant.  

He is also making the switch to renewables but needs a reliable back up power supply. He’s set his sights on green hydrogen, and this has prompted an unprecedented spree on the best tools for the job. 

Santa is no stranger to batteries. After all, they’re the key ingredient in many of the must-have toys that he makes in their thousands every year. That's why he relies on instrumentation, analyzers, force measurement and digital solutions to speed up the production of batteries. He’s so excited about developments in electrification and energy storage that will help him to keep his vast toy production and distribution empire running all year round. 

The new and much larger factory Santa is building needs a lot of cement, so Santa has also built his own personal cement kiln, which uses alternative fuels to make sure it is as environmentally friendly as possible. 

Santa and his elves may be used to living in the North Pole, but they still like to keep themselves toasty warm. Meeting the 24/7/365 heating requirements of Santa’s operation means a reliable boiler is essential. Luckily, Santa is a long-time user of some tried and tested electrical actuators. He’s using them to control the air flow to the boiler for perfect combustion.  

Santa is making the switch to digital. He’s realizing that he needs reliable connectivity for his operations. With multiple remote toy-making sites fulfilling some of the orders, he’s using input/output (I/O) modules to stay connected and monitor production.

With most Christmas wish lists arriving by email, the servers at the North Pole are heating up. The servers can get pretty warm, so Santa is stocking up on the latest Ethernet-enabled flow meters to help control cooling water flows. He is also relying on a fancy paperless recorder to make energy calculation and report on energy savings.

With some gifts shipped across the world, Santa is mindful of transportation emissions. He’s happy his cargo ships use emissions analyzers to monitor air quality.

 

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