• Customer needed an automated method to change the chemicals in a manufacturing process used to treat their product.
• We needed a two-tank system that included:
• No cross-contamination of chemicals.
• One of the solutions needed to be kept warm.
• Customer needed a way to store new incoming pallet shipping containers of chemicals for on-demand usage to automatically refill the tanks.

Goal

• Provide a two-tank solution integrated with PLC controls, but separated so either chemical could be used and only pumped into the appropriate tank.
• Design the controls so the tank levels stay constant as demand changes, and keep warm as needed.

Solutions

• Built two stainless tanks, each with its own pump and drain-back system.
• Safety – Designed the controls so that when one chemical was in use, the other tank and pump could not be turned on, so as to avoid cross contamination.
• Designed the system so the amount of chemicals in the treatment trough could be back-flushed into the original tanks, stored, kept warm ready to be pumped out on demand.
• Provided both tanks with same features including heater element location and level controls so that, if needed, a tank could be changed over to a third chemical while maintaining use of one of the two original chemicals, to avoid downtime on chemical product changeovers.

Successes

• We manufactured the new tanks with their custom specs in our facility.
• We tested the process operation in our facility.
• We removed the old tanks and integrated the new tanks in a short timeframe.
• The project was completed on time and on budget.
• The customer is now able to change chemical treatments in less than an hour, when the previous process took an entire shift and many gallons of expensive chemicals.
• Customer is able to use the same treatment trough because the drain-back system keeps both chemicals separated.