Control Systems Technology, an Australian manufacturer of trade certified belt weighers, is providing the local industry with accurate belt weighing systems.
A few decades ago, it was unusual to find sophisticated industrial instrumentation made in Australia.
The local bulk handling industry depended upon American and European manufacturers for anything sophisticated and Australian users of technology were ‘on their own’, having to solve application problems as they arose.
Control Systems Technology (CST) sought to change this, joining several Australian brands of instrumentation which are finding world markets. The CST Wim3 Belt Scale Controller is one such product.
CST has been building its own belt scale controllers for 40 years and the product has passed through several generations as technology has evolved. Ian Burrell, managing director of CST describes its products as “living products”.
“Products are not frozen when introduced to the market, but continue to evolve as new innovations are introduced. Customers often have a particular need and CST is pleased to find an innovative solution and to roll it out to all its customers, both in new production and as retrofits to existing installation,” he said.
“Technology is always improving, and CST now offers a new much brighter display capable of 1000 lumen. We have also introduced display features to further improve readability in bright sunlight.”
The display can be set to indoor or a ‘high contrast’ outdoor format and the brightness is programmable. The latest innovation is the ability to choose brightness and display format according to time of day. If the installation is outdoors, it might need more brightness in the afternoon, and reduced brightness at night.
Specialised technology such as the CST Wim3 are in demand world-wide, particularly for 0.1 per cent accurate belt weighing systems for ship loading. CST has manufactured thousands of Wim3 units at its Revesby factory.
The CST Wim3 electronics system has CSA and CE approval and is trade certified in Australia, the USA and Europe. Recently CST was granted an
OIML Certificate as a Class 0.2 system, Certificate Number R50/2014-A-AU1-2023.01 Revision 0.
CST received an order for a 0.1 per cent trade certifiable belt scale for the port of Matarani in Peru. The new belt scale will replace a belt scale of lesser accuracy which has recently become obsolete.
“The installation in Peru has tested with errors within 0.1 per cent without adjustment for more than 18 months,” Burrell said.
“This particular system, used to load copper concentrates onto ships, is live load tested according to OIML rules every 3 months, and to restate the main point, it is not adjusted every three months, it has not been adjusted since its initial verification.”
“CST has a large service team in Australia and has offices in Canada, Peru and Chile. Through our offices, other representatives and partners, we have a worldwide reach for service and product installations.”