food Marketing - Technology 6/2023

Cover Story
Turning Vessels and Silos Into Scales
Using Load Cells and Weighing Electronics
System integrators and process vessel manufacturers face ever-increasing demands for precision, efficiency
and quality in today’s industrial landscape. The integration of load cells n as an OEM (Original Equipment
Manufacturer) solution offers these companies a versatile and powerful way to provide process safety to their
customers while optimising their own products and services.
Find out in this article what advantages integrated load cells from Minebea Intec offer in combination with
innovative weighing electronics in container weighing for level control as well as in filling and dosing processes.
Open, close. Open, close. Again and
again, the small flaps of the containers
weighing tons open for a few seconds.
Fine quantities of powder quietly trickle
into narrow jars. One jar after the other
fills up, all at high speed. The atmosphere
in the production hall is one of precision
and perfection. An employee in a lab coat
moves through the aisles, his gaze fixed
firmly on the control screen. On it, he can
reliably follow the automated filling and
dosing processes. The hall is peppered
with impressive production facilities
and yet it is an inconspicuous element
that makes this high-precision production
process possible: the load cell in
combination with its smart electronics.
Hidden under the huge containers is
this small but fine technology, which
plays a decisive role not only in the
production halls of the pharmaceutical
industry but they also have a firm place
in the food, plastics and cosmetics
industries, where precision is just as
important in the dosing of ingredients
as in the production of medicines. From
the filling of fine spices to the production
of food supplements: Load cells are
indispensable helpers that ensure the
quality of the manufactured products.
With the weighing module Novego® in hygienic
design, very small quantities can be dosed to
the gram from tanks with a capacity of several
tonnes.
The proof: High-precision
weighing solution for Pharmatec
An example from the pharmaceutical
industry shows how successfully
Minebea Intec’s weighing technology
works. The Syntegon subsidiary
Pharmatec from Dresden, a
manufacturer of ultrapure media
systems and process plants,
commissioned Minebea Intec with the
implementation of six hopper scales.
At Pharmatec’s customer, liquid
medicines were to be dosed from tanks
with a capacity of several tonnes with
gram accuracy and the weighing results
recorded reliably and reproducibly. In
addition to the process requirements,
the local conditions also posed an
extended task for the application and
required several visits from Minebea
Intec’s specialist personnel for the
design planning alone.
Pharmatec benefited here from
the sophisticated Minebea Intec
technologies: The Novego weighing
module® offers an integrated,
infinitely variable height adjustment
of up to 8 cm, allowing different
installation heights. “The most
difficult part of load cell installation
is mounting the load cells in the
correct position and the associated
protection from external forces,
such as horizontal forces and the
resulting lifting forces,” says Yannick
Salzmann, Global Product Ma-nager.
“First and foremost, it is about making
the system accuracy as high as
possible through our installation kits
and knowhow. In addition, without
secure mounting kits, the container
can tip or even fall down . In many
cases, installation kits also provide
overload protection for the load cell.”
For Pharmatec, the specialists from
Minebea Intec chose the Novego®
weighing module® with an integrated
installation kit: 360° restraint, antilift
device and antitilt protection
eliminate the need for timeconsuming
constrainer alignments.
Further selection criteria were the
weighing module’s special resistance
to lateral forces and its hygienic
design, which is so important for
the pharmaceutical industry. In a
production plant in the pharmaceutical
industry, easy and residue free
cleaning must be guaranteed for
maximum sterility. The weighing
modules from Minebea Intec are made
of stainless steel 1.4418 and therefore
have an extremely high corrosion
resistance. This makes the weighing
modules insensitive to dirt, water and
even aggressive cleaning agents.
Fill level under control: load cells
are the optimal solution
The second field of application for
load cells in container weighing is
level control. The choice of the right
technology for this application is
crucial, as it has a direct influence
on the accuracy and reliability of the
measurements. Compared to other
technologies such as ultrasonic and
freeradiating radar, load cells offer
several key advantages. Firstly, load
cells provide very accurate weight
and level measurements regardless
of the material, which is particularly
important in industries with strict
quality standards. Secondly, they
are very robust, which leads to a
long service life and thus a high level
of investment security. Another
advantage is that the load cells are
mounted below the container, which
avoids perforation of the container
and thus significantly improves
hygiene.
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food Marketing & Technology • December 2023