AUBURN, Mass. - Kadant Solutions, a division of Kadant Inc. (NYSE: KAI), announced the launch of the kConnect series. The kConnect series is a group of smart-connected products and services designed with process and manufacturing industries in mind, creating a simple but rich and customer-focused user experience. Currently, the series includes two main program offerings: the kConnect blade cabinet with automated inventory management and the M-clean PRO with kConnect for predictive maintenance.

The kConnect blade cabinet provides a compact place to store blades while using RFID technology to track inventory, facilitating maintenance planning activities and blade replenishment to avoid stockouts. Blade consumption metrics per roll/machine position are also provided to aid in predicting and identifying maintenance issues on doctoring equipment.

The M-clean PRO with kConnect offers intelligent monitoring that leads to insights about preventative maintenance and predictive system uptime and performance. A variety of sensors are incorporated into the M-clean PRO for monitoring and analysis. The sensor data is used to optimize preventative maintenance activities to avoid unplanned downtime.

"As part of our digital transformation, we have been singularly focused on bringing value to our customers through an enhanced customer experience," according to Bilal Mehmood, president of Kadant Solutions. "The kConnect series is intended to streamline preventative maintenance activities and facilitate identification of Kadant genuine parts by providing real-time data of metrics important to the machine's health."

About Kadant Solutions

Kadant Solutions, based in Auburn, Massachusetts, is a leading supplier of doctor blades, doctor blade holders, and doctoring systems for papermaking and other industrial processes. The company's cleaning and conditioning products are applied to the cleaning of forming and press fabrics and the filtration of process water as well as engineered wet-end products for papermaking.

About Kadant

Kadant is a global supplier of technologies and engineered systems that drive Sustainable Industrial Processing. The Company's products and services play an integral role in enhancing efficiency, optimizing energy utilization, and maximizing productivity in process industries. Kadant is based in Westford, Massachusetts, with approximately 3,000 employees in 20 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.kadant.com.