IN LINE ADDITIVE DISPENSER

Dosing of additives in a pipe in line automatically.

The client had the need to add various additives to a product. Previously, it was done manually, which generated the risk of working at height for the operator and the possibility of failure in the quantities to be added.

Many innovations and engineering solutions were included:

  • Calculation and design of a hygienic, extractable, in-line staged static mixer for mixing the injection of additives in the main fluid line.
  • Installation of double seat and double butterfly valves, with leak detection, allows cleaning with CIP (acid, base…) with the certainty that no mixtures are produced, after the dosage of the product.
  • High efficiency agitator installed in mixing tank.
  • Double screw pump, driven by servomotor, allows pumping a large number of additives with different rheological characteristics, as well as CIP. The rotational speeds of the pump depend on the combination of additives to be added and are controlled on the touch screen by means of recipes.

These dosing equipment were unified with the factory’s SAP management program.

Once the additives were included in the main fluid, they changed status in the SAP program (for example, they changed status from raw material to finished product).

What are the most difficult challenges we face?

  • Being an innovative project, the correct online mixing of the additives with the main fluid was successfully achieved with the FECOATEC design static mixer.
  • The exquisite cleaning of the installation after each cycle was a critical point, which was resolved correctly.
  • Automation, and drastic reduction of errors compared to the manual use of the addition of minority ingredients.

PROJECT PHOTOGRAPHIES

Client

The client had the need to add additives such as colorants, aromas, preservatives, solids… to a product during a process that was previously manual and where its operators had to introduce different amounts of said additives into a tank.

The amount of additives and their different mixtures with each other exceeds 1000 recipes and the possibility of failure in the amounts to be added, as it is a manual process, was high.

At Fecoatec we have designed a solution that has allowed them to dose the different additives in an online pipe, not in the tank, and fully automatically with a static mixer.

Project Type

The design was made taking into account the customer’s requirements. Of special importance was the repeatability of the process (ensuring that the same quantity of additives is always introduced into the process), safety, and cleanliness (possible mix-ups must be avoided).

A solution was designed that allows dosing the different additives in a line pipe, not in the tank, and in a fully automatic way.

With this, the rejection ratios were improved (fewer failures), a better mixture was achieved (we designed and installed a static mixer, to improve the mixing of the components), and the constant necessary presence of an operator was avoided.

Technical Considerations

3 skids including tank, pumps, valves, pipes, instrumentation, electrical panel and touch screen and PLC for process control were designed and manufactured.

The different additives are pre-weighed, and marked with a barcode gun on the skid itself.

If the mixture of additives marked and its sequence is correct, the lid of the mixture tank opens, and the additives are introduced.

A homogenization of the same is carried out, and later they are pumped and injected into the main fluid line.

Posteriormente se realiza un CIP automático del skid de dosificación.