When Omni was approached by a process engineer we’ve collaborated with in the past to look into some challenges at a new production facility, we rolled up our sleeves to help find solutions.
The facility in question had twelve 7,000-gallon process tanks equipped with agitators, load cells, level transmitters, and temperature transmitters. The tanks were used for mixing, heating, pasteurizing, storing, and transferring various liquid products. The engineer had been tasked with streamlining the facility’s process to improve overall product quality, but he ran into a puzzling problem with tank instrumentation. Level transmitters were intermittently providing false readings or failing to function altogether. Load cells were oftentimes indicating that tanks were full while the associated level transmitters were reading empty.
Omni dispatched a senior technician to examine the process and review batch trends from previous months, and it became clear that the level transmitters were malfunctioning. We contacted the manufacturer’s application engineer, who recommended calibration, various tuning procedures, and testing.
Despite following the application engineer’s guidelines, however, the issues persisted, so we delved deeper and eventually zeroed in on the cause. We discovered that when the tank level transmitters were selected, the heavy steam blanket that would be generated within the tanks had not been considered. Omni recommended a different instrument company that manufactures level transmitters specifically designed to work with heavy steam processes.
This manufacturer provided two level transmitters on loan, which were installed on two of the tanks, calibrated, and trend-logged over a three-week period. The new transmitters worked perfectly, and the facility purchased twelve new level transmitters to replace the faulty instruments that had been in use.
With the new transmitters in place, the process engineer was able to achieve the client's goal of smoother operations, streamlined product batches, and improved overall process efficiency.