Electricity + Control February 2019

SENSORS, SWITCHES + TRANSDUCERS

Accurate tank level management in dairy production

Food and beverage manufacturers in South Africa, while facing stringent legal requirements for food safety, are under pressure to optimise their processes to deliver high quality, cost-effective products to an increasingly discerning market.

Legal requirements for food safety are stringent. The production teamneed- ed devices that improved accuracy, with reliable, repeatable measurement. Take Note!

1

2

A well-known South African beverage com- pany with a long and successful history in the local dairy and fast-moving consumer goods industries, recently faced an engineering challenge in optimising its mixing process. This company’s presence in the beverage sec- tor has been entrenched by several taste and qual- ity accolades, and it therefore has an established reputation which it is committed to upholding. With a basket of established brands and a require- ment for frequent change-overs in production, product losses were becoming a financial burden and raised the potential for unintended environ- mental impact from the manufacturing floor. Process optimisation and resource savings are central to the corporate culture at the manu- facturing facilities. The maintenance manager fo- cuses on improving overall plant reliability without compromising on product quality and, at the same time, keeps a close watch to limit production-relat- ed environmental impacts.

At the plant, the performance of the existing level transmitters in the mixing tanks was prov- ing unsatisfactory. The installation involved turbu- lence, tank intrusions, an agitator and a degree of foaming in a vessel with a conical base. The capacitance type probes in use did not measure sufficiently accurately to the bottom of the mixing tanks. This resulted in product being left behind when transferring to the buffer tanks. The net effect of this measurement problem resulted in high product loss and high effluent costs. The production team needed new devices to deliver improved accuracy with a reliable and repeatable measurement. Endress+Hauser was approached to assist in resolving this process problem with a trial unit that would be tested alongside other competing brands. This was an opportunity to showcase the performance capabilities of its 80 GHz free space radar level transmitter. Endress+Hauser offered

Enquiries: Anban Pillai, Industry Manager – Food and Beverage, email: Anban.pillai@ za.endress.com

20 Electricity + Control

FEBRUARY 2019