The CentriFlow Meter from Eastern Instruments is a Solid Particle Mass Flow Meter that is durable, accurate, maintenance-free, compact, and cost-effective. It is unique and positioned to replace weigh belts, impact meters, loss in weight meters, and static weigh scales, anywhere that accuracy, low maintenance, and zero drift are paramount.
Please see below for additional information regarding the various options that are offered for our CentriFlow family of meters. If you do not see an option that suits your particular application, don't worry. We have an engineering team that is ready to assist you with a custom solution for your application, so contact us and we will be happy to assist.
PLASTIC PELLET INVENTORY AND STORAGE: Plastic Pellet Measurement
PROCESS PREDICAMENTS
The customer needed to accurately measure the mass flow rate and total weight of finished plastic pellets going to the storage silo for inventory, production yield, and customer billing purposes. The pellets moved to the silos by pneumatic conveyor. Due to existing space constraints, the mass flow meter needed to be compact. They also needed the meter to be reliable, durable, and wear resistant. The average density of the pellets was 52lb/ft3 with a maximum flow rate of 40,000 lb/hr (18.14 tonne/hr) and a minimum flow rate of 28,000 lb/hr (11.34 tonne/hr). This meant that the flow meter needed to be capable of handling and accurately measuring a volumetric capacity from 9 to 13 ft3/min (0.23 to 0.57 m3/min). The flow meter needed to have a local display that indicated the flow rate, the total weight of product to each of the silos, and the total weekly weight.
EASTERN INSTRUMENTS SOLUTION
The customer installed a CentriFlow Meter. The unit selected for installation in the pneumatic line, between an airlock and the storage silos, was the 24” Type II CentriFlow Meter. All contact surfaces of the CentriFlow meter were made from stainless steel in order to provide maximum wear resistance against the abrasive nature of the plastic pellets. In addition, a Ratemeter/Totalizer was integrated to locally display the flow rate of the pellets through the meter and provide an averaged 4-20 mA signal (proportional to flow rate) which was directed to the customer’s PLC. A second totalizer was used to totalize the weekly weight of pellets flowing through the CentriFlow Meter, allowing the customer to provide the weight of pellets flowing to each silo.
CONCLUSIONS
Once the CentriFlow Meter was installed and the unit was calibrated it began performing reliably and well within the stated accuracy. The customer is now able to monitor how much material is produced and moved to each silo and has seen improvements in both inventory control and production management.
MATERIAL TEST REPORTS: Plastic Products
The CentriFlow Meter has been positioned after pelletizers in order to measure the continuous rate of output of plastic pellets. Meters have also been used in a variety of industries measuring a variety of plastics, including pellets, recycled plastic bottles, chipped PET plastic and even ground plastic bags.
