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Complete automation

Planning and implementing a dosing, mixing and filling plant for vitamin mixtures
Complete automation

When planning an integrated dosing, mixing and filling plant, it is essential to maintain a balance between complete automation and construction costs. The production plant for vitamin mixtures at Société Chimique Roche is one example of a successfully realised project.

Jean-M. Cuennet

The new production plant at Société Chimique Roche produces vitamin mixtures from approximately 150 basic ingredients and more than 1300 recipes. The factory also has to meet extremely high quality standards regarding hygiene and dosing accuracy. Within the various recipes, individual ingredient weights range from a few grams to quantities of over 1000 kg. The system manages 20 to 25 batches per day with an average of 8 to 10 doses per batch and alternating production and cleaning cycles.
Basic ingredient supply
An optimum compromise had to be found between mobile and stationary storage containers. A plant equipped only with stationary containers would have been too complex. The use of mobile containers only increases handling costs and entails disadvantages with regard to possible cross-contamination. The basic ingredients are therefore subdivided into the following groups:
• ingredients needed only in small amounts (2 kg) are weighed manually and filled into small bags.
• ingredients needed in large amounts (2 to >1000 kg) less than ten times daily are filled into containers acting as mobile silos.
• ingredients used in large amounts (2 to >1000 kg) more than ten times daily are filled into stationary silos. The basic ingredients are dosed according to the formula and loaded into a mobile IBC. The possibility of cross-contamination has to be taken into consideration during this process. Nevertheless, large ingredient quantities from the stationary silos and storage containers need to be discharged as quickly and as accurately as possible. The problem of product contamination can be partially avoided by choosing the most suitable recipe sequence. In other cases, either a separate system has to be used for discharging or the installation must be cleaned beforehand. The basic ingredients that are already prepared in containers are therefore subdivided again into three product classes. A separate container discharge unit is installed for each product class.
Flexible, fast and accurate
The solution is a combination of different plant components and feed outlets. There is a Multi-Dosimat dosing unit underneath each stationary silo. The basic ingredients are dosed into a CTS (Containment Transfer System) type container-filling unit with an integrated discharge unit and then discharged into the IBC. The CTS is mounted on a weighing frame. The IBC is emptied by three Dosicon discharge and dosing stations. The ingredients dosed from the stationary silos and containers are subdivided into three categories – quantities of less than 25 kg, quantities of between 25 kg and 50 kg and quantities of more than 50 kg.
Product quantities of less than 25 kg are accurately dosed into the CTS container-filling unit by the dosing unit (Multi-Dosimat or Dosicon). Between 25 kg and 50 kg the Multi-Dosimat or Dosicon doses approximately 20 kg of product into the CTS container-filling unit, where it is accurately weighed. After docking onto the IBC, the discharge unit is opened and the product is discharged. Next, the CTS is undocked, the exact shortfall dosed into it and after it has docked onto the IBC again discharged into the latter. With larger quantities the CTS container-filling unit docks onto the IBC and the discharge unit opens. The dosing unit then measures the required amount of product to within approximately 20 kg and doses it directly into the IBC. The discharging process is then stopped by the scales on the IBC’s automatically guided vehicle, the CTS is undocked, the amount of product in the IBC is recorded and the shortfall is calculated. Next, the exact shortfall is dosed into the CTS container-filling unit, docked once again onto the IBC and discharged into it.
Operating sequence
The central process control system with its integrated relational database controls the four-floor installation. When the basic ingredients have been prepared, they are automatically pre-dosed into the CTS according to the formula. On the second floor is a track on which three radio-controlled, automatically guided vehicles, each with an IBC mounted on it, collect the basic ingredients for each vitamin formula. In practice, an automatically guided vehicle moves underneath a CTS of the corresponding dosing or feed unit. After docking onto the IBC, the basic ingredient is discharged according to one of the categories described above. When all the basic ingredients have been gathered together, the trolley returns to its original starting position.
The filled IBC is now placed onto the container discharge station above the corresponding mixer and completely emptied into it by means of a fork-lift truck. During mixing, a clean container is placed on a lifting platform under the mixer. After the ingredients have been mixed and the quality of the mixture tested, the product is discharged into the container. The filled container is provided with a barcode and transported to one of the three packing installations by a fork-lift truck. A central CIP system is installed for cleaning the entire plant. It automatically cleans and dries any contaminated parts whenever there is a change of product.
Production cycle
The basic ingredients (vitamins and additives) are delivered in cartons, bags and big bags. Using a barcode scanner, all raw materials are identified, newly labelled for internal handling and repacked in small bags, mobile containers or stationary small or large silos, according to the above-mentioned categories.
The basic ingredients can be charged into the automatically guided vehicles under the dosing units in four different ways:
• Manual addition of pre-weighed, low-volume ingredients (small bags) via two separate feed hoppers on the weighing frame,
• Dosed addition of less frequently used, high-volume ingredients via three independent container discharging and dosing stations,
• Dosed addition of more frequently used, medium and high-volume ingredients via ten feed hoppers and ten silos, each equipped with a Multi-Dosimat type dosing unit,
• Dosed addition with an accuracy of 50 grams. Before each addition, the raw materials are re-identified by means of a bar-code scanner.
Four mixing plants, all of which are charged by means of the filled IBCs, can be operated in parallel. The formulas are sieved prior to mixing and subsequently discharged again into clean containers. The mixing process, sampling and subsequent CIP take place according to the formula control.
The full containers from the mixing plant are taken to the first floor of the packing area and emptied into three filling machines by means of a discharge station.
These dose the finished mixtures into bags, sacks and cartons from 1 kg to as much as 25 kg in size, which are then automatically palletised for transportation, according to the customer’s specification.
ANAG
Fax: ++41/26/4 92 68 68
Further information cpp-278
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