Weighing problems in many industries are expensive, whether they strike suddenly or persist over time. Faced with both long-term and sudden scale-related issues, agribusiness company Littlejohn Grain found a simple solution to reduce maintenance costs and enhance uptime for its well-used vehicle scales.
Family-owned for four generations, Littlejohn deals in corn, soybean, and wheat and operates six grain-storage facilities throughout eastern Illinois. During peak season, grain from local farms is delivered to Littlejohn facilities nearly continuously, resulting in roughly 500 truckloads of grain weighed on vehicle scales every day.
Rodents, lightning, and railyard fees
Ultimately, grain is shipped by rail to end users. Littlejohn's railyard facility in Martinsville, Illinois, weighs as many as 30 trains of grain annually. But over the years, their railroad scale experienced frequent problems. Rodents-ever present wherever grain is being stored-often gnawed through load-cell cables, shutting down the scales until the cables could be replaced. And, because of the way the scale was set up, it didn't just affect cables. Each cable had a load cell permanently attached to it that had to be replaced as well. When considered alongside periodic lightning strikes from Midwestern storms, scale damage became so frequent that the facility began stocking replacement parts themselves to minimize downtime.
In addition to these costly repairs, the railroad would charge Littlejohn Grain demurrage fees of $10,000 for each day per train on the tracks when the scale was out of service. This added insult to injury, and it significantly increased the overall costs of running the vehicle scale.
Solving the downtime issue
To solve these persistent issues, Littlejohn turned to their local METTLER TOLEDO distributor Koenig Scale. Rather than continue to replace damaged equipment, Koenig suggested upgrading the railroad scale with POWERCELL® PDX® load cells , which have heavy-duty cables covered with braided stainless steel to resist rodents. Koenig then routed the cables through flexible metal conduit for added protection. In the unlikely event a cable is damaged, POWERCELL® PDX® quick-locking connectors let technicians replace the cable without the expense of replacing the load cell.
Shortly after railroad scale update, disaster struck the Martinsville facility's truck scale. The scale seemed to be doing fine-until it collapsed into the scale pit due to an overstressed extension lever. Careful inspection revealed cracks in the main lever and stand, indicating that the trouble had been brewing for some time. While the scale was down, trucks had to be rerouted to another facility to be weighed and unloaded, then shipped back to the Martinsville facility at significant additional cost.
POWERCELL® PDX® to the rescue once again
To meet the urgent need to get the scale back up and running, Koenig again recommended POWERCELL® PDX®. Converting the scale to the new load cell technology promised to save both time and money. Load cell installation proved to be quicker, easier and less expensive than repairing the damaged lever system. And because a certificate of conformity already existed for the conversion kit, the facility was able to start weighing without the delay of requesting a variance from the State of Illinois. The new technology also allows the facility to install a wireless remote display that can show incoming customers weighing results for completely transparent processing.
So far, upgraded train and truck scales have performed well with no maintenance issues, and plans to interface the scale with a personal computer for more efficient weigh data processing are underway. "I'm guessing we'll save $10,000-$16,000 a year just from these two installations," said Doug Littlejohn. "Of course, we have five other scales besides these that we may change over time."
Adapted from an article originally published in Material Handling Network 01.01.2015 http://issuu.com/mhnetwork/docs/1501_net_digital.
