Cranswick Country Foods

A Detectronic ultrasonic clamp on flow meter with a projected lifecyle of 10 years has been running for over 20 years at a food processing plant monitoring trade effluent.

When we asked them to be part of a pre-launch field trials for our new ORAKEL System, we weren’t expecting them to order the unit the day after the trial ended.

OBJECTIVES

• To measure and monitor effluent flow and levels at the site
• To provide robust and reliable data to support the potential creation of an on site treatment plant
• To provide regulatory compliance

PLANNING

Cranswick Country Foods process pigs at their site in Watton and this particular plant incorporates a large effluent pit that collects waste from various points located around the factory. Once it is collected, the effluent is then pumped over a filter screen to remove any large particles; the filter screen only lets particles of about 1mm through. The filtered effluent then goes into a holding tank from where it is pumped to lagoons about 4 kilometres away. As the effluent leaves the pumps there is a section of 100mm pipe approximately 2.4m in length. After this point the pipe leaves the pump house and goes into the ground.

Working alongside Phil Childs, engineer at Cranswick Country Foods, it was decided this straight line of pipe was the ideal location for the clamp-on Monitor 8 meter and it is still there 25 years later.

IMPLEMENTATION

Following some issues with the Monitor 8 last year, we installed our recently developed ORAKEL System and remote-reporting datalogger as part of our pre-launch product trials. Offering the very latest water flow measurement and analysis solution and including an ultrasonic ‘time-of-flight’ flow measurement option, the trial was set to run over a four week period. However, Phil Childs was so impressed with ORAKEL’s performance that the day the trial finished, he issued a purchase order for the installed system.

Commenting on the successful trade effluent monitoring being delivered, Phil Childs, said: “The lagoon where the effluent is pumped to end splits into four separate lagoons that belong to a local farmer. He needs to know exactly what we are sending down the line at any given time and the Monitor 8 and now the ORAKEL System enable us to supply that information and data as and when require.” He added:

To further support the future growth of the business, we have discussed the possibility of creating our own effluent treatment plant on the site. In order to successfully implement this we will need robust and reliable data which is exactly what Detectronic’s ORAKEL System is providing us with.

RESULTS

The average lifecycle of a Monitor 8 is ten years, so we are delighted with the performance of this unit. The new ORAKEL System is already proving its value and has recently undergone its one year service calibration. We will continue to work closely with Phil Childs to ensure that Cranswick Country Foods know exactly what is happening with their site’s trade effluent at any given time and deliver total regulatory compliance.