Fane Valley Feeds, one of Northern Ireland’s largest animal feed manufacturers, has installed non-contacting, ultrasonic measurement equipment at its new mill.
The company contracted Pulsar Measurement to provide Blackbox controllers to make life easier for the maintenance and installation staff at the site.
The new mill has new mill has a compounding capacity of around 300,000 tonnes per annum, a significant proportion of the 2,000,000-tonne total animal feed production in Northern Ireland.
On the main grain silos, which holds wheat, maize and barley, Pulsar installed 25 decibel transducers using ‘aiming kits’ to make sure that the equipment measures right down to the bottom of the silo.
Signals from the Blackbox controller are loaded into the programmable logic controller on site, so staff have an immediate, visual indication of silo contents.
This provides important reordering information to avoid expensive and inconvenient raw material shortages
Materials including palm oil and molasses are also measured at the site, with local indication of level providing vehicle drivers with the indication they need to make sure they don’t overfill.
Diesel tanks are measured to both provide refill information and to monitor usage of this important resource around the site.
William McAusland, Fane Valley’s Mill Construction Project Manager, says the company designed the new facility to resolve the capacity limitations of the old mill, to meet the latest feed quality and environmental requirements, and reduce production costs.
“This meant installing the best equipment available,” he says. “We have been delighted with Pulsar’s support, from project specification, through delivery, installation, and commissioning. The accuracy and reliability of the equipment has allowed us to make significant efficiency improvements both in production and vehicle usage.”