Making Shingle Manufacturing a whole lot safer with 80 GHz radar
Making roofing shingles is no easy task, and it can be messy, starting with the very first step in the process. Manufacturers begin with large rolls of fiberglass matte that are fed into a presaturation chamber. Inside, the fiberglass is coated with a hot asphalt mixture heated up to roughly 200˚C. Maintaining an accurate level in the coater pan holding the asphalt is essential to keeping the process running safely, avoiding running dry, and wasting uncoated fiberglass, or worse, overflowing and causing a work hazard in addition to wasting coating material.
Imagine you’re operating this presaturation chamber at a major roofing manufacturer. Your work area is no bigger than a standard cubicle, and your back is turned to the machine while you face the control panel. Getting a reliable level measurement from the coater pan in this presaturation chamber is difficult to say the least. Because of this, you’d experience occasional overflows of the dangerously hot, sticky asphalt just feet away from where you’re working. To add to it, entire sheets of fiberglass would go to waste when the asphalt tray ran dry.
Overflows make for an unsafe workplace
80 GHz radar makes the job site safer
You can’t put a price on safety, but this sensor pays for itself
This plant has been running more safely and more efficiently since the installation of the VEGAPULS 64. Operators can now trust their level measurement and no longer have to worry about hot asphalt pouring out of the presaturator. The safer work environment provides some additional peace of mind for the company and for its employees.
Plus, the plant hasn’t experienced any major losses from wasted material and shutdowns. Before the VEGAPULS 64 was installed, losses from wasted and shutdown time averaged $5,676 every year for the past five years. This is just one of many plants for this customer, and they’re now considering applying the same solution to all of their other plants to provide their employees a safer work environment.
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Contact your VEGA salesperson for a process instrumentation audit:
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