Since Bagtech International made Festo its industrial automation partner, the Durban company has experienced amazing results. What started out as a component switch eventually led to the complete automation and control of a four hopper, mobile blending plant for fertiliser.
Bagtech, a manufacturer of bagging equipment and an outsourced bagging company for various big players in the fertiliser industry, originally switched to the Festo Corrosion Resistant (CR) range of cylinders as they were better able to resist the highly corrosive chemicals, such as potassium chloride and ammonium nitrate, which are present in most fertiliser blends.
Standard cylinders with bronze bushes and aluminium bodies were wearing out in less than a fortnight, but the Festo CR range of stainless steel cylinders, made from 1.4301 and 1.4401 alloys, protects against chemical or mechanical stress and damage. The CR range, therefore, offers increased protection against the pitting and crevice corrosion associated with chlorides.
Festo recommends that the CR cylinders be properly cleaned to avoid an accumulation of chloride ions. Selected sealing materials further ensure very high resistance to a wide range of chemical compounds.
Building on the relationship and trust from the successful switch to the Festo CR range of cylinders, Bagtech also switched all of its machinery to the Festo CPX T03 PLCs, MPA valve terminals and FED-700 displays – all supplied as a complete solution in enclosures from Festo. “Providing a complete process automation solution which increases our customers’ productivity is part of the Festo mission,” says Festo sales engineer Johan Bester, “and we are very proud to be involved in Bagtech projects.”
A further success resulted from constant information and feedback between Festo and the customer regarding specific needs. This led to Bagtech building a test prototype of a new measuring gate using a Festo EMMS-AS-70 servo motor and a precision, low backlash, 90 degree planetary gearbox with a 32:1 ratio. “Upon testing this solution, we determined that this new configuration led to a 60% increase in production and a 90% improvement in accuracy and consistency. This saves the customer both time and money,” concludes Bester.
Bagtech secured an order that required the extraction of raw products in the correct ratio for a specific blend out of four individual 5 ton bulk holding hoppers, so that the sum of the products, as per the ratio, was equal to or smaller than 1500 kg. The product then needed to be transported to a ribbon blender with holding capacity of 1500 kg, and blended for a predetermined time to create a consistent blend.
From here, the product is sent to a servo motor operated bagging machine, otherwise known as a double nett weigher. This machine fills 50 kg bags with the blended product at a rate of 60 tons/hour and to an accuracy of ±50 grams. Monitoring and adjusting of the whole process is done with Wonderware SCADA from a PC or remotely from a laptop or iPad. Report pages created on scada can be printed at the end of a production run. Historical trending pages are also included in scada – assisting the customer with production analyses, with Festo providing remote assistance via the Internet.
Bagtech is now marketing this solution worldwide as it is currently one of the fastest, most accurate and technically advanced machines in this industry.
To see this solution in action visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOPoKo4VIuM
For more information contact Tracey Swart, Festo, +27 (0)11 971 5560, [email protected], www.festo.com
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| Fax: | +27 11 974 2157 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.festo.co.za |
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