Hovis welcome a new pit weighbridge to their Wellingborough Flour Mill

Out with the old weighbridge, in the with the new – all within 12 hours at Hovis’s Flour Mill.

Weightron Bilanciai recently replaced an aging pit weighbridge at the Hovis flour mill in Wellingborough, with the whole process of removing the old deck and installing and calibrating the new weighbridge taking just under twelve hours.

The weighbridge upgrade posed a number of challenges for both Weightron and the on-site Hovis engineers. First and foremost, the daily deliveries of the special blend of Hovis flour could not be disrupted for more than a few hours without serious consequences for production at the company’s eight bakeries around the UK. These facilities produce over 1.3 million loaves every day of the week and therefore rely on daily flour deliveries.

Secondly, the weighbridge at Hovis, located below the flour out-loading silo, is a low profile pit design with a depth of only 300 mm. Flour tankers drive onto the weighbridge and the flour is weighed out from the silo. Once the old deck had been removed, there would be no access to the silo until the new unit was in place.

Site manager Mark Newberry was justifiably anxious about any delays during the replacement process and the possible knock-on effects on production:

“Our weighbridge is vital to our daily operations. Other weighbridge companies that we contacted initially, including the original manufacturer of the weighbridge, could not come up with a practical solution that would fit within our time frame. One suggestion was filling in the pit and fitting a surface weighbridge. This may have appeared to be the easiest solution but would have involved significant and unacceptable structural changes to the silo to accommodate the extra height. We already have a Weightron weighbridge on another part of the site and following a positive site visit, they were confident they could provide a replacement low profile pit weighbridge. This included removing the old deck and installing and calibrating the new unit – all within the twelve-hour window we had set.”

It was clear that to achieve this, meticulous planning would be involved before and during the installation. Added to the challenges was the fact that the pit structure itself was showing its age, and some remedial work would be necessary when the old deck had been removed. Also, the restricted height access to the weighbridge pit would complicate the installation and require some expert mechanical handling.

For this application, Weightron decided to install their modular 18 metre SB Eurodeck weighbridge. This robust design features three interlinking deck sections, which would facilitate the craning-in operation. To accommodate the restricted pit depth, Weightron modified the height of the load cell mounting points, so that the deck would sit exactly level with the approach road.

We’re happy to report that the whole replacement process went extremely smoothly, and site manager, Mark Newberry, is delighted with the outcome.

A key part of our weighbridge installation team here at Weightron is our weighbridge delivery contractor, who plays a vital role during the weighbridge deck removal and installation process. Pinpoint craning accuracy (and often ingenuity) is essential to ensure correct alignment of the modules, whilst maintaining the highest level of safety.

Weightron’s Sales Manager Nick Burley is clear about his company’s philosophy when it comes to supplying exactly what his customers need:

“The Hovis installation clearly demonstrates Weightron’s versatile and bespoke capabilities in weighbridge design and engineering. Unlike many of our competitors, we have the in-house expertise, experience and manufacturing flexibility to build weighbridges that meet a diverse range of new and existing installation requirements.”