Combining bone meal blower with real time payload weighing
Ensuring Container Load Optimization, Every Time
Blue Sky Meats
BlueSky Meats is a processor and global supplier of high-quality meat products. In the high season, BlueSky’s rendering division loads up to 3 x 20’ containers per week with powdered bone meal for export to the United States. US highway weight limits mean that BlueSky can load no more than 19,958kg (44,000 lb) of bone meal into each container.
High Costs When Bulk Loading Containers
Using a mechanical blower to fill the container, BlueSky’s rendering team had no way of knowing when they were near or had reached the target payload. The only way to check the weight was to have the container hauled to the nearest weighbridge (truck scale), 30 km (19 miles) away from the plant.
Guessing the weight during loading meant BlueSky faced a lose-lose situation. If the weighbridge showed under or overloading, the container had to be returned to the plant for refilling. This resulted in 60km (38 miles) of extra haulage costs, double the weighbridge fees and delays to the shipment. The process also played havoc with BlueSky’s shipping schedule.
The end result was that an unacceptable number of containers were either being returned, or shipped underloaded, resulting in higher overall shipping costs and sub-optimal financial returns for the rendering operation. Investing in a pneumatic blower or other dry bulk loading systems will not necessarily solve the problem for them.
Monitoring BulkWeights During Chassis Loading
BlueSky needed a solution that would weigh the container while it sat on the chassis. It needed to be safe, simple to use and cause minimum disruption to the loading and haulage process. The solution needed to be compact and portable, given the confined space in the bone meal plant. The solution also had to cope with the dusty atmosphere within the plant.
Above all, the solution had to be accurate, so the rendering team could weigh the container and optimise the bone meal payload during loading. To solve this challenge, BlueSky adopted Bison Container Scales with Stands - certified container scales for weighing containers on chassis.
Now the plant operator attaches the scales to the container when it is partly loaded and uses the wireless Master Display to monitor the payload in real-time. At 19,900 kg (43,900lb), the blower is stopped and the doors are sealed, with confidence that the container is good to go to port. With the Bison VGM App, the container VGM is also captured and emailed from the rendering plant to BlueSky’s logistics team.
No More Third Party Fees & Streamlined Haulage Costs
With Bison Container Scales and Stands, BlueSky Meats can now load bone meal containers with precision, ensuring the net weight remains just under the US threshold. Under loaded and overweight containers are now a thing of the past. Haulage costs are streamlined. And weighbridge costs have been completely eliminated.
The rendering team is no longer forced to spend down-time refilling containers. And the shipping schedule no longer suffers from delays as a result of returns and refilling.
By hitting the target weight with every container, the rendering team are now shipping more bone meal in fewer containers. Over the course of a year, this will bring down shipping costs from this product line by approximately 10%, improve cash flow and improve profitability for the BlueSky Meats business.
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