Product category:
Automation and assembly equipment
News Release from: Stevens Group | Subject: In-line checkweigher
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 24 July 2002
Long cartridge weighing process
shortened
To check the weight of CO2 cartridges installed in fire extinguishers, a weighing and recording system is efficient, has an accuracy of 0.01 grams and has increased assembly throughput.
Chubb, the global leader in security and fire protection, have installed a specially designed in-line checkweigher from Stevens Group, in their Rhondda factory, to check the weight of the CO2 cartridges in their fire extinguishers and improve throughput performance The system implemented is simple to use
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 29 Oct 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The cylinders are placed onto a conveyor where they are each given a unique printed bar code.
They then move along the conveyor automatically and their tare weight is recorded against the bar code onto a PC database via a barcode scanner.
Should it not be able to be read automatically an alarm is given out and the system can be halted, the cylinder removed and the system restarted at the touch of a button.
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The new installed weighing and recording system is both accurate and efficient - it has an accuracy of 0.01grams and up to 8 cylinders can be put through the process every minute.
After the initial weighing and recording process, the cylinders are taken - in any order - and are filled then placed onto a conveyor for weighing again to check that the fill level is correct according to the pre-determined levels that have been inputted into the system.
The bar code is read automatically once more and the system deducts the recorded tare weight that was held against it from the gross weight it is now.
If it is outside the preset tolerances then it is automatically rejected.
As the cylinders are weighed automatically then the filling can be continuously undertaken as well - which increases the number of cylinders moving through the process without increasing the labour costs.
After a set time period, the cylinders are checked for leakages.
If any visible leakage signs cannot be seen then they are reweighed on a stand alone system.
Here the bar code is read and the gross weight minus the tare weight that is stored against that particular bar code is checked.
If there is any difference between the two then it is automatically rejected.
The stand alone weighing system, also from Stevens Group, has the same accuracy as the automatic in-line checkweighers system but because of the handling method utilised, the throughput can be up to 20 cylinders per minute.
Melvyn Smith, Manufacturing Director, commented, "The accurate reweighing of cartridges has been an on-going problem.
With this method we have increased our throughput significantly and reduced our work in progress." Stevens Group are part of the Dataprocess Group of companies and are one of the UK's leading suppliers of weighing machines and integrated process control systems to a variety of industries.
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