Pump control and batching software for Treatt

COMPANY

Founded in 1886, Treatt is a natural extracts and ingredients manufacturer with sites across the UK, US and China. Their global team have a real focus on sustainability and caring for the planet, whilst using ground-breaking technology to create extracts and flavourings for the global beverage, flavour, fragrance and consumer goods markets across the globe.

OVERVIEW

Over the years, we have provided Treatt with products and support for their headquarters in the UK. This particular solution was needed to control batching of required quantities of liquid via a peristaltic pump controlled via a 4-20mA output. With each batch, a label was produced to adhere to the batched container.

APPROACH

The solution consisted of a Cardinal 825 weight indicator with batching and labelling software, a P311T label printer and DAC card for milliamp control.

The system stores a database of pre-set products with associated total target values and variable speed control targets. Once the product is selected and the batch information is inputted using the 825’s full QWERTY keypad, the display shows live weight readings to the user. A summary is then displayed of the selected values. It is imperative to check these values prior to batching as the cost of the material can be very high so minimising wastage is a priority. The selectable data includes;

The target weight
Percentage of the target weight to run at full speed to make the process as time efficient as possible.
Percentage of the maximum pump speed that corresponds to full speed.
Percentage of the maximum pump speed that corresponds to fine speed.
Free fall compensation – to account for any material in the tubing that cannot be stopped from flowing out after the target is reached. This is minimised in the process by reversing the pump near the end of the fill so as to not waste any liquid and speed up the process.

Upon completion of installation and testing, the customer is now successfully controlling the batching and filling of their recipes to a high level of accuracy. This is a crucial part of their production process, due to the nature of the ingredients they’re handling.