Concrete Weighbridges for plant upgrade at BOCM PAULS
Weightron Admin|28 March, 2019
Weightron Bilanciai have supplied and installed four SBPMC concrete infill weighbridges for BOCM PAULS Ltd at their animal feed plant in Penrith, Cumbria.
The two phase installation of the 50 tonne capacity, 15 metre, pit-mounted weighbridges is part of a structured plant upgrade and will provide improved efficiencies by weighing individual vehicles as they are loaded with animal feed. This will help to provide important real-time management data on feed movement and significantly reduce vehicle bottle necks at the existing outdoor weighbridges. The third and final phase of the project will see the weighbridge data become integrated with the plant’s mill-wide DSL software.
The BOCM PAULS project set a number of challenges for Weightron in terms of accessibility and plant disruption.
Firstly, the weighbridges had to be fitted within the feed out-loading bays of the existing plant. The restricted headroom and overall available space made it almost impossible to install conventional steel weighbridges. Secondly, it was important that the work was carried out as efficiently as possible to ensure minimum operational disruption.
For such installations, the pour-on-site concrete design has a number of key advantages. The steel deck framework used to retain the ready mixed concrete is relatively light and therefore easy to manoeuvre into the pits without the need for heavy duty cranes. During the build process, these frames were supported on dummy load cells, the reinforcing frames welded in place and then filled with concrete. Once this had cured, the dummy cells were replaced with the live CPR stainless steel load canister cells. Rodent proof, steel braided cable connects the load cells through to the junction boxes and D410 digital weight indicators. The D410 indicators are fitted with flash memory MPP cards, which retain important set up and calibration data in the event of any problems.
Given that this was a new install of four additional weighbridges, cost was also an important issue for BOCM PAULS. The SBPMC provides a robust, very cost effective solution, minimising delivery transportation and crane costs.
Operations manager Mike Holden is pleased with the installation: “The limited access to the loading bays made it difficult to fit standard design weighbridges, but Weightron’s pour-on-site design provided a very cost effective solution. Their engineers worked closely with our personnel to ensure minimum day-to-day disruption. This new investment will provide us with important stock movement visibility.”
Footnote: BOCM PAULS is the UK’s leading animal feed manufacturer and the company has developed the concept of “the total feed business”, which is capable of supplying animal nutrition in whatever form required by their farmer customers.
