April 26, 2016 - Greifensee, Switzerland
Weighing
problems in many industries are expensive, whether they strike suddenly
or persist over time. Faced with both long-term and sudden
scale-related issues, agribusiness company Littlejohn Grain found a
simple solution to reduce maintenance costs and enhance uptime for its
well-used vehicle scales.
Family-owned for four generations,
Littlejohn deals in corn, soybean, and wheat and operates six
grain-storage facilities throughout eastern Illinois. During peak
season, grain from local farms is delivered to Littlejohn facilities
nearly continuously, resulting in roughly 500 truckloads of grain
weighed on vehicle scales every day.
Rodents, lightning, and railyard fees
Ultimately, grain is shipped by rail to end users. Littlejohn's
railyard facility in Martinsville, Illinois, weighs as many as 30 trains
of grain annually. But over the years, their railroad scale experienced
frequent problems. Rodents-ever present wherever grain is being
stored-often gnawed through load-cell cables, shutting down the scales
until the cables could be replaced. And, because of the way the scale
was set up, it didn't just affect cables. Each cable had a load cell
permanently attached to it that had to be replaced as well. When
considered alongside periodic lightning strikes from Midwestern storms,
scale damage became so frequent that the facility began stocking
replacement parts themselves to minimize downtime.
In addition
to these costly repairs, the railroad would charge Littlejohn Grain
demurrage fees of $10,000 for each day per train on the tracks when the
scale was out of service. This added insult to injury, and it
significantly increased the overall costs of running the vehicle scale.
Solving the downtime issue
To solve these persistent issues, Littlejohn turned to their local
METTLER TOLEDO distributor Koenig Scale. Rather than continue to replace
damaged equipment, Koenig suggested upgrading the railroad scale with POWERCELL® PDX® load cells
, which have heavy-duty cables covered with braided stainless steel to
resist rodents. Koenig then routed the cables through flexible metal
conduit for added protection. In the unlikely event a cable is damaged,
POWERCELL® PDX® quick-locking connectors let technicians replace the
cable without the expense of replacing the load cell.
Shortly after railroad scale update, disaster struck the Martinsville facility's truck scale.
The scale seemed to be doing fine-until it collapsed into the scale pit
due to an overstressed extension lever. Careful inspection revealed
cracks in the main lever and stand, indicating that the trouble had been
brewing for some time. While the scale was down, trucks had to be
rerouted to another facility to be weighed and unloaded, then shipped
back to the Martinsville facility at significant additional cost.
POWERCELL® PDX® to the rescue once again
To meet the urgent need to get the scale back up and running, Koenig
again recommended POWERCELL® PDX®. Converting the scale to the new load
cell technology promised to save both time and money. Load cell
installation proved to be quicker, easier and less expensive than
repairing the damaged lever system. And because a certificate of
conformity already existed for the conversion kit, the facility was able
to start weighing without the delay of requesting a variance from the
State of Illinois. The new technology also allows the facility to
install a wireless remote display that can show incoming customers
weighing results for completely transparent processing.
So far,
upgraded train and truck scales have performed well with no maintenance
issues, and plans to interface the scale with a personal computer for
more efficient weigh data processing are underway. "I'm guessing we'll
save $10,000-$16,000 a year just from these two installations," said
Doug Littlejohn. "Of course, we have five other scales besides these
that we may change over time."
Adapted from an article originally published in Material Handling Network 01.01.2015 http://issuu.com/mhnetwork/docs/1501_net_digital.