Engineers don't cry over spilled milk. Instead, they figure out a way to automate the milk transportation process so that every drop is accounted for.
Today we are showing you a system for automating and controlling the exchange and flow of milk between cistern trucks and dairy factory tanks. Designed by Eurogenyx, the co-creators of RaspyPlay 4, the system is deployed in the Serbian city of Nis.
Due to the fragile nature of the product, high reliability and accurate feedback is a necessity. Yet before the automated system was introduced, the majority of the process was done manually - operators would write down the temperature at various intervals, as well as the volume of milk that passed through the system.
Needless to say, that way of doing things was prone to human error. When it occurred, it was difficult to track down the cause.
To upgrade the process for the 21st century, Eurogenyx engineers came up with a solution that works as follows.
First the staff arrives. Dairy factory employees check in with RFid cards, while truckers use their driver's IDs. This ensures that every operator is held accountable for his work.
Then, the milk starts flowing. The process is monitored and controlled by a device that measures the flow and temperature of the milk as it fills the factory tanks. As necessary, the device adjusts the operation of the various pumps and filters. A protective mechanism that reroutes the flow through alternate pipes is also in place (in case the filters get clogged). A lot less room for human error.
A ConnectEVE board – the one with a TFT touchscreen and a FT800 graphic controller – displays all the important parameters so that humans can validate. The other computing tasks are handled by a PIC32MX695F512H MCU.
In addition to controlling the process in real-time, the device also logs them through a LAN network to an SQL database, for long-term archiving.
Now everyone is happy - factory workers take less time for the same job, more milk can get to the consumers, and cows feel more productive.
EuroGenyx decided to share this project with us after seeing the story about the Biomass pellet burner controller, also including MikroE products. If you have your own success story to share, don't hesitate to get in touch, write to marketing at mikroe dot com.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika