5 Ways to Pay for Your Plant Controls
BY AsphaltPro Staff
You could see a ROI quickly with a plant controls system update investment
By this point, all hot-mix asphalt (HMA) producers understand the value of using a robust controls system at the plant for mix design, production, ticketing and so much more. In simple terms, controls packages give everyone from plant operators, managers and ground crew to owners, bean counters and FOB customers, valuable insight and information in real time and—after a project—on demand for quality product, improved uptime, streamlined operations, trackable data and so much more.
If a plant didn’t come with a full controls system plugged into every aspect of production and loadout, or if you’ve pieced together a plant from components salvaged from multiple sites, you may be looking at the return on investment for installing controls after the fact. Here are five tips Stansteel/Hotmix Parts & Service of Louisville, Kentucky, shared for offsetting the cost in short order.
The Accu-Track Advantage system from Stansteel offers the plant operator alarms for multiple components. In the event something goes wrong, the controls system lets the operator know what the problem is and where it is.
1. Calibrate belt scales in the controls
Many producers calibrate belt scales during the down season and call it good. Let’s make this a higher priority item. You could have a built-in calibration deviation alert for your belt scales and your liquid asphalt cement (AC) metering within your controls.
2. Regulate AC extractions in the controls
Many producers send start-up and shutdown mix to the waste pile as a quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) measure. This is a good best practice to adhere to, but you don’t have to lose 100 tons (or more) each week to these “pulldown piles” of wasted material. You can use your controls to regulate AC extractions and meter material back into the system as recycle, thus saving big costs.
3. Tweak AC percentages with your controls
Speaking of extractions, do you ever have to wait for extraction and gradation test results to “tweak” AC percentages in your mix designs and production? If your mix designs are tested, tried and approved, then saved in your control system database, you have a leg up on Day 1 of a project.
Stansteel pointed out: “If your operations are like many plants, it really can’t get started, particularly on critical government jobs, until the first run of mix is checked for AC content and gradations. Sometimes, people are adjusting it every day or certainly every week. If you can avoid this, you may start up immediately. Instead of having delays and penalties on a job, get paid bonuses for being on-spec with your AC, always hitting the target.”
4. Troubleshoot with confidence for get-back-uptime
Your control system should allow you to “alarm” components in a way that lets you find and resolve issues efficiently. Stansteel pointed out that a feeder no-flow situation, a fines/dust plugged situation, an empty AC tank or a high-level alert in the silos could take some time to find if you don’t have a control system with an alarm showing you where the problem is occurring.
“With a general industry condition of fewer plant operators and grounds people who have many tasks to take care of in a day, it’s almost impossible to watch and monitor everything on a plant, with truck traffic, loader feed and aggregate control.” By installing a controls system, like the Accu-Track Advantage the company offers, the system monitors hundreds of points on the plant multiple times per second.
“Any upset will either give an alarm or sequentially shut the plant down, depending on how critical it is to the operation and integrity of the mix.” Having a system that pinpoints the problem for efficient troubleshooting helps you get back in business more quickly, and that’s a cost saver.
5. Update for cost-savings
As you see in the New Tech department every month, technologies and services in the asphalt industry are changing all the time. As controls systems advance for asphalt plants, you may find new ways to save on time and costs.
Stansteel acknowledges this: “As technology and materials advance, there will likely be more and more demand for adding more ingredients, whether it be hydrated lime, liquid anti-strip, chemical foamers, rejuvenators, RAS and more. If the control system you have is a relic of the past, it might prevent you from doing this correctly. It could result in the manufacturer having a huge cost to make the modification or doing it in a cobbled-up manner.”
By investing in updated controls, you can invest in a system that gives you more flexibility, better efficiency and a faster return on investment.
For more information from Stansteel, visit stansteel.com