Flexible solution weighs in for Ahlstrom
A
Mettler Toledo product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 1, 2004
The installation of a new weighing system has provided the ideal solution for a leading nonwovens company.
The installation of a new weighing system has provided the ideal solution for a leading nonwovens company.
Ahlstrom is a market leader in high performance, engineered, nonwoven materials, including filter media and glass-fibre products for use in the automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, medical and recreation industries.
The company, established over 150 years ago, employs approximately 6600 personnel and has sales networks and production facilities in more than 20 countries on five continents.
The site in Duns, Berwickshire converts raw materials in to high performance fibre solutions for use as components in a supply chain or as an end product.
The weighing equipment and load cells used throughout the site needed an upgrade.
Trade law states that all equipment used for trade must be approved by the Board of Trade and therefore the new equipment needed to comply with this too.
As well as wanting approved machines, the equipment also needed to be integrated in to existing workstations as well as being networked.
The new equipment was required for the whole manufacturing process, as Alan Simmonds, Instrument Engineer, explains.
"We needed the equipment to weigh our raw materials and jumbo rolls as well as final slit reel weighing ready for dispatch to customers".
"We also wanted to connect the new equipment to the site wide data system for direct data transfer to our manufacturing software".
The solution proposed was a combination of Flexmount weigh modules and a JagXtreme terminal.
Ahlstrom chose these products for a number of reasons.
First, it already used Mettler-Toledo instruments in other areas of the site and they proved to be reliable and accurate as well as competitively priced.
However, the main reason for choosing Mettler-Toledo was the high level of service and knowledge available from the sales force and particularly the Scottish service office.
The Flexmount weigh modules are designed for static loading applications and can easily adapt to any vessel, converting it to a scale, providing accurate and repeatable results.
This self-contained weigh module is ideal for most weighing applications and the top mounting plate allows for thermal expansion and contraction.
These weigh modules offer numerous features - ideal for Ahlstrom's requirements - including a unique top plate design to check the system while allowing the structure to expand and contract, an anti-lifting bolt to prevent the vessel from tipping over and a blind hole design to control the weight application by concentrating all the vertical load at one point on the load cell.
In addition to the weigh modules the company also required a weighing terminal to help data connectivity as the weighing data needed to be transferred to a PC for ID printing and production information.
The JagXtreme is Mettler-Toledo's most advanced scale terminal designed specifically to provide cost-effective and flexible methods of production while minimising engineering time and effort.
The Internet-enabled terminal incorporates industry standard connectivity to facilitate communication and data exchange and is the first weighing solution to integrate information, equipment lifecycle management and automation control into manufacturing processes.
The JagXtreme provides accurate and reliable results and increased throughput and is easily integrated in to existing process control systems - exactly meeting the company's specifications.
It also maintains ISO calibration compliance and can predict failures before they occur, alerting designated individuals by e-mail of potential failure or maintenance needs.
The installation has improved processes at the site as well as cementing an excellent partnership between two world leaders, as Alan Simmonds explains.
"By providing an effective and reliable solution to our weighing needs with good service support and backup should we need it, Mettler-Toledo has reduced the time we spend maintaining the equipment.
It has also reduced operator time".
In conclusion "The main benefits we've seen from the installation are greatly improved reliability, accuracy and most importantly the stability of weigh readings".
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Contact Mettler Toledo
Tel +44 116 234 5005
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