Liquid Metering Upgrade With Dry Fertilizer & Liquid Blending

PROJECT: Wedgworth’s Inc., Lake Placid, Florida

OVERVIEW

Wedgworth’s Inc. modernized their Lake Placid, Florida, fertilizer and chemical facility to become fully automated to control 39 products.

WHAT THEY NEEDED

Before the Kahler system, product blends were manually made with switch panels and scales, which was time intensive and created opportunity for errors. They wanted to manufacture specialty blends more efficiently with their two mixers for liquid and dry products. By streamlining the mixing process they could focus on being more productive, to load more trucks, more accurately.

Wedgworth’s Inc. - Lake Placid, FL

Three dry product hoppers on scales that feed the two liquid blenders.

A few of the mag meters located in different areas used to measure various products.

Plumbing and valves for the micro ingredients.

One of two blenders to manufacture product from dry and liquid additives.

Control room with sloped 15” touchscreen and Plant Supervisor PSX® software allows staff to accurately fulfill product dispensing orders.

In-bay controls allow the operator to start and pause orders as well as get notified when an air purge completes the order.

WHAT WE DESIGNED

• Upgraded previous system with mass flow and magnetic flow meters to allow all product to be measured at once for maximum productivity

• Integrated with existing liquid and dry system components such as plumbing, blending, and scale equipment

• Installed automation control software with ERP business integration for streamlined billing

• Provided in-person hardware and software training to help staff be fully knowledgeable and skilled

WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY

Interview with Mike Langston, Plant Manager, Wedgworth’s Inc., Lake Placid, FL

Q: How has efficiency improved with Kahler, compared to how things worked previously?

“Before the automation was put in, it was taking approximately 45 minutes to make a load. All products were coming in one at a time. After the automation, everything comes in in one shot, so we're making loads in about 20 minutes.”

Q: Over the course of a day, how much would you say productivity has improved?

“You can get 200 to 300 more tons in a day pretty easily.”

Q: Have you seen streamlining of your billing process compared to the prior system?

“It’s easier for the people in the front office because everything's done on the computer. So once it's loaded out they can pull it up. They can see that it's loaded out and then it's ready to be billed in the office rather than having to run paperwork back and forth.”