BELT WEIGHING ISSUES RESOLVED AFTER PRECIA-MOLEN INSTALLATION

Phil Black - PII Editor 03/03/2011

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Based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, McCain Foods UK Ltd is one of the leading manufacturers of oven ready chips. Dedicated to maintaining the standards that have made them Britain”s favourite chip manufacturer the company were keen to improve the process performance of their existing intake potato conveyor belt weigher.

Approaching Precia-Molen for advice and a solution to resolve their problem; it had already been identified that the existing belt weigher was not performing to their satisfaction and was unreliable with weight measurement not having functioned properly since installation.

Having identified and understood the problems associated with their client’s requirements Precia-Molen proceeded to carry out a detailed survey of the application, before presenting McCain Foods with a cost effective solution.

The survey resulted in McCain Foods placing an order with Precia-Molen to replace the existing weigher with a new FX belt weigher and I400 controller, which could be operated in conjunction with the plants own process control system.

The project included the supply of a new FX Belt weigher, complete with twin load cells mounted on an adjustable frame to maximise the weighing accuracy of the machine. With McCain engineers preparing the site beforehand, the installation was completed over a single weekend when the plant was shut down; Precia-Molen engineers then commissioned and calibrated the new weigher before handing it over to McCain Foods to operate.

In order to achieve maximum performance the speed of the belt was established by measuring the belt speed at the conveyors tail end drum. This was slowed down to allow the weight of material on the belt to be increased to present a more accurate measurement of material passing over the belt scale. Final adjustment and fine tuning of the Precia-Molen I 400 controller was then completed to record and log key information.

This information is managed and distributed using McCain’s on-site communication protocol to their process control room. The in-house automated control system allows the operator to set the desired weight they require for their process. This records the weight of material passing over the potato intake conveyor belt scale, passing the information to the automated controller. The automatic controller then adjusts the controlled belt speed to maximise potato intake demand and prevent over or under feeding to the process peelers, ensuring the plant is always operating at an optimum levels of efficiency, saving on energy costs whilst providing increased production performance.

The supply and installation has been a complete success for the McCain plant process. Tony Rudeforth – McCains Senior Technical Shift Engineer who worked closely with Precia-Molen engineers to ensure the best achievable outcome was achieved, commented, “We now have the confidence to operate the potato intake conveyor weigh scale in conjunction with our own production automated process which is something we could never have before.”

Precia-Molen UK Ltd are world leaders of innovative weighing solutions and a provider of weighing technologies for static and dynamic weighing solutions.

For more information contact Precia-Molen UK Ltd, Redditch, Worcs.
T: 01527 590320 F: 01527 590301
E-mail: sales@preciamolen.co.uk Web: www.preciamolen.com