Connected macerator

A system (100, Fig 1) having at least one pulp macerator and sensors n to sense operational parameters of each macerator and transmit a message to an associated controller. Each controller interprets the message and any further messages from respective sensors, and compares this/these state(s) to stored sensor states and determines an operation to execute based on the results of the comparisons. Communication 200 between controllers, transfers to operator interface 202 via terminal 201 and vice versa. Sensors may be optical, liquid, pressure, RF tag, microphone, user ID, ultrasonic or magnetic sensors. Each macerator may comprise an actuator to respond to controller command and may be of linear, rotary, audio transducer, display screen, gas or liquid valve, air compressor, water pump and/or cutter motor actuators. The controller may also store time interval information between messages of a particular type to establish frequency, which when above a certain threshold allows an alert to be sent.