Typically a standard paint batch that took approximarely half a ady to produce now takes only half an hour.The accuragy, consistency and quality control of each batch has increased dramatically
The production PC is located in the supervisor's office and is networked to two batching computers with touch-screens as well as a remote road weighbridge computer. The system controls the manufacture of all the paint base materials, the pumping of these materials to various holding tanks, blending tanks or make-up tanks and the batching and blending of the various paint types and grades. Only the liquid batching is automated at this stage while the powdered materials are loaded manually in bulk bags and recorded by the system. One of the next phases will be to incorporate an automatic decanting and filling system with a bar code labelling system for dispatch and tracking.
The Opto 22 system is interfaced to 22 model AD-4328 AND digital weigh indicators, via an addressable RS422 communications port. Seven material holding tanks and four emulsion storage tanks have one loadcell mounted under one leg of each tank. These tanks remotely display the mass/level of each holding tank. This allows the supervisor to remotely schedule the production, based on the individual holding tanks level/mass.
Seven paint blending tanks located on the mezzanine floor each have three loadcells supporting each tank for higher accuracies when weighing. These tanks automatically batch and blend the various paint grades, types and colour.
Two 15 t high-speed disperser tanks, each with three supporting loadcells, automatically batch, mix and blend the required raw ingredients to form the paint base. Once adequately dispersed, the material is stored in one of two holding tanks or transferred directly to one of two 30 t make-up tanks where it is processed further to form a specific paint grade. This grade/type is then transferred to any one of five holding tanks where it is either dispensed directly from the holding tank or batched into any one of the seven blending tanks for further processing and colouring.
There are two Auto/Manual control panels, one located on the mezzanine floor at the blending tank area and the other on the ground floor in the, make-up and disperser tank area. The system controls a complex maze of pipe trees with ±200 pneumatically operated diversion and control valves, additive dosing pumps, agitator motors, timers and transfer pumps. Current transformers on the high-speed disperser motors control the raise and lower of the high-speed impellers into the tank, thereby obtaining maximum dispersion of the material.
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