Minor Ingredient Automated from an Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC)

一个大的食品公司雷电竞made recipe changes that required multiple new ingredients. These ingredients were being delivered in Intermediate Bulk Containers, also called IBCs or totes.

Initially, the customer hooked up pumps to the totes and transferred the ingredients to the batch, as needed. Several issues arose. Without close monitoring, the totes would run out of product and ruin the batch. To keep this from occurring, the customer changed out the tote when the fluid level reached 10 percent, leaving nearly 30 gallons of product in the tote as waste.

当外界温度开始变冷时，另一个问题出现了。在夏季，包装箱的温度将达到或高于70°F，但随着秋冬的临近，这些相同成分的包装箱的温度将低于60°F。在这些寒冷的温度下，许多产品无法正常流入泵，导致生产延迟。此外，客户最初安装的泵产生过大的脉动，导致批量测量不一致。

The customer was referred to Central States Industrial for help. Through testing samples of the products, CSI was able to determine a good temperature and viscosity profile.Alfa Laval SRUseries pumps were used, which allowed for gentle handling of the product with low pulsation that did not affect the metering devices. These pump wereclean-in-place (CIP)capable, which eliminated any disassembly or handling concerns.

The pumps were paired with犯罪现场调查's tote卸料系统采用整体式加热储罐和液位开关。这使得顾客可以在飞行中预热配料，而不是等待整个手提包加热到正确的温度。储液罐允许桶完全排空并在不中断批次的情况下运行，因为空桶被换成满桶。由于使用了液位开关，操作员不再需要观察手提袋以确保它没有空转，因为液位开关在更换空手提袋时触发了警报。

配料添加失败立即停止，客户可以看到立即节省。他们不再需要担心失去宝贵的产品和生产时间。客户的次要原料成本减少了10%，这是因为消除了手提包中剩余的未使用产品。这相当于在不到6个月的时间内获得投资回报（ROI）。