AW-Lake’s TRICOR Coriolis Flow Meters are being used to verify that accurate amounts of fiberglass resin are dispensed during the fabrication of panels which are molded for doors and windows of motor homes and RV trailers.
During the manufacturing process, fixed-ratio pumps are used to dispense a specified ratio of resin to catalyst to ensure accurate curing of the molded panels. Without a verification method, production lines were forced to stop when pumps were not on ratio, resulting in downtime and lost yields.
AW-Lake worked with the OEM and the PLC integrator to solve the off-ratio issue. The solution is our TRICOR Coriolis Flow Meter. One Coriolis meter monitors the amount of the four resin colors and another meter is used to monitor the catalyst. Each meter was networked into a multi-drop Modbus network, which was connected to a PLC. The PLC-based monitoring system utilizes the pulse output from the Coriolis Flow Meters to calculate flow for monitoring the resin-to-catalyst ratios in real time.
When identifying an off-ratio event, the line is stopped for quick issue resolution. Depending on the specific fault, manual intervention can often “save” a part that would otherwise be scrapped if action is taken right away.
