Weighing and inspection technology in the chemical industry
Weighing chemical substances requires precise weighing results for reasons of both quality and safety. Whether you manufacture cosmetics, detergents or fertilizers, absolute precision and clean environmental conditions are always vital in the chemical industry. Our Weigh Cells and checkweighers boost efficiency in the production of chemical substances and products due to the highest accuracy at maximum throughput rates. X-ray inspection systems identify contaminated products before they are shipped. These systems are thus a vital element in avoiding recall campaigns. Our machines for potentially explosive areas meet the requirements of important directives such as ATEX or NEC.
In the following, you will learn more about the areas of application of Wipotec weighing and inspection technology in the chemical industry.
Weigh Cell Technology in Industry – as Precise as it is Easy
Our SW-D-FS-EX type Weigh Cells will safely weigh your substances up to a weight of 2000 g with high performance. The system-related active self-damping guarantees you the shortest measuring times while maintaining high resolution – aspects that have a positive effect on the quality and safety of your processes. Keyword safety: We meet your high safety requirements with ignition protection types II 3 G Ex nA IIB T4 and II 3 D Ex tD IP54 100 °C.
Our Weigh Cell technology: Small and compact
The fact that we have designed the Weigh Cells to be small and compact as sensor components allows them to be used as a Modular Multilane System and guarantees you maximum flexibility.
A further advantage: Thanks to specially designed Weigh Cells, we can also integrate them in production environments of zone 2 (gas) and zone 22 (environments with non-conductive dust). The special feature here is that both integration and maintenance are equally trouble-free. A docking station allows your engineers and service teams to remove the Weigh Cell for maintenance and cleaning work and replace it just as easily.
Connection of our Weigh Cells to the control system of your process is equally straightforward: as a ready-for-connection installation component, the Weigh Cell supplies final weight values via a CAN bus as standard immediately after commissioning. If there is a need to take special environmental parameters into account in your production, they can be configured using integrated software filters and can, of course, be adapted to your own specifications.
Checkweighers:
Highly Accurate Weiging at Maximum Speed
Industrially produced consumer goods must meet the requirements of the pre-package directive. All product packages should contain the nominal filling quantity in order to preserve customer satisfaction and sustain profitability. Our dynamic checkweighers help to address the requirements of the pre-package directive through checks and documentation of product filling weights while maintaining the speed of your production line.
The modular devices can be individually customized to meet the needs of your production and can reliably and efficiently check the weight of a wide-range of objects, from individual fertilizer sticks to family packs of detergent, while performing defined actions. Packages with the incorrect weight are detected, documented and, if the limit is exceeded, ejected from the product flow. For complete line optimization, our feedback control feature improves line efficiency.
In order to compensate for vibrations within the production environment that can be responsible for false weight determination, Active Vibration Compensation (AVC) is used. AVC filters out vibrations caused for instance by forklift traffic in your production buildings and ensures reliable measured results.
Safe Handling of All Formats and Packages
Each product requires handling that matches the dimensions and features of the package. Depending on the characteristics of the product, top-bottom conveyors, measuring worm conveyors or lateral side grip conveyors are used to pick up, accelerate or separate boxes, bags and cans before and after the weighing operation. Even products with a high center of gravity can be weighed efficiently using our dynamic checkweighers. Cylindrical products are picked up separately and weighed using a specially developed revolving star system.
Here, up to 650 weighing operations per minute can be undertaken depending on the format. Products with the incorrect weight are ejected. For small forms of packaging such as four-sided sealed bags or stick packs, multiple lane systems are particularly suitable. The parallel weighing of several objects as well as short distances between products results in higher throughputs in your production line.
Hygiene Design is Key
The hygienic design of our weighing and inspection machine portfolio makes it easier for you to constantly maintain the required level of hygiene on your production line. The easy to clean machines are available in various forms from the standard to the full-hygiene version with a degree of protection suitable for wash-down. Individually adapted to your hygiene requirements, the robust fully stainless steel versions are suitable for installation in damp environments and even for frequent, intensive cleaning cycles, requiring IP69k.
Attention, Explosive! Weighing in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres
If you are facing the challenge of weighing highly flammable liquids or explosive mixtures, the explosion-protected technology from Wipotec will support you. The automatic checkweigher HC-EX was developed especially for usage in Ex zones 1 and 2 and permits usage in a potentially explosive atmosphere composed of gas mixtures. The specially designed transport system helps to prevent the formation of dangerous sparks due to static charges and discharges. The control unit is safeguarded with a pressurized enclosure that prevents the ingress of potentially explosive gas mixtures to possible sources of ignition in the interior of the device. To protect your staff, the control unit can also be installed outside the potentially explosive atmosphere.
X-ray Inspection Technology for Flawless Products
With our comprehensive inspection solutions you can ensure consumer safety and prevent expensive recalls due to contaminated products. The X-ray technology also guarantees your product is in optimal condition. Undesirable particles of stone, glass and metal, can be reliably detected with the X-ray technology and contaminated products ejected. Completeness checks of metallic or other desired elements of the product packaging can also be performed if required . The X-ray scanners inspect your products, individually or in trays, for optimal shape, correct filling quantity, integrity and completeness.
To be able to detect foreign bodies correctly, X-ray images of the highest quality are generated and displayed in real time on the screen. Defective products are ejected and the related X-ray images archived with the time stamp to ensure effective diagnostics and traceability of sources of defects. Adapted to the conditions and requirements of your production line, the X-ray scanners can be combined with weighing technology or optional optical inspection capabilities.