The case study:

Diva foods had installed a Pump Pack, in order to measure the volume of Vegetable/Palm Oil mixture, in the food manufacturing process. The existing meter required almost weekly calibrations and gave very inconsistent readings, resulting in incorrect batch quantities. This resulted in loss of raw material, as well as inconsistent end products, not complying with UNICEF Standards. The client requested an accurate system, giving them maximum control over the batch quantities, as quality is of paramount importance to the end product.

 The solution:

We recommended installing a McNaught Flow Meter with Pulse Output. The flow meter was specified with Stainless Steel internals, in order to comply with international food hygiene Standards. We specified the McNaught SO25 1” Flow Meter together with a Contrec 414B Batching controller. A Burkert Solenoid Valve is controlled with a Contrec 414B.

 The retrofit:

The solution was retrofitted to existing equipment in April 2013. Final calibration resulted in a certificate being issued with a +0.2% accuracy.  A number of calibration runs were performed together with Diva foods QC Lab, in order to get the exact batch amount of 79.4kg (88.7 litres) of Palm/Veg Oil mix. The meter is consistently dispensing 200ml of product over the set-point. We used the Auto tune function of the Contrec to automatically compensate, resulting in repetitive, accurate batch quantities.

After the successful installation of our recommended solution, Diva has more installations they would like LAS to convert. This project provided LAS with an opportunity to diversify into the food and chemical industries.

This wonderful Grand Dame has done us proud. 14 years and 60 million litres of 96% alcohol later and still looking as good as she does and she continues to be part of the management team that governs the fuel at this facility in Mauritius.

She was born in Houston Texas and started working some few months later in Mauritius where she has been ever since.

We raise our glasses to her and to our supplier LC that provided us with her.

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LAS have been  looking to improve our existing offering with updated solutions for our tank gauging clients, which would suit their requirements, while staying ahead of the game and maximising returns on their reduced budgets.  This was very important to us with the existing trend in oil pricing and the strong focus on environmental and safety protection. 

 Motherwell Tank Gauging (MTG) is capable of providing exactly what’s required with their innovative range of equipment and solutions.  With much more user and maintenance friendly solutions offered as a real cost effective solution LAS is able to go back to our large installed base and the rest of the industry supplying this revolution to the Southern African market.  LAS marketing division is very excited to promote MTG products which we can comfortably say, with our years of experience and knowledge of other leading brands, are miles ahead of the rest.  With cost being a deciding factor, LAS can now play a much more competitive role in this ever changing industry and with MTG being big enough to supply top class equipment they are still agile enough to care and cater for each end user’s individual needs.

Riaan van der Nest reviews MTG’s high accuracy radar antenna test area with David White, MTG’s lead test engineer.

Riaan reviews MTG’s manufacturing plant with Ged Walsh of MTG

That is truly impressive and deserves recognition. Well done to all LAS staff currently on site as well as staff that have assisted on that site over the years.

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