BULKWEIGHING SCALE CONTROL

Scale gate control and scale logic shall be performed by a separate, purpose-built, independently powered unit (controller). The bulkweighing controller shall incorporate all of the following features:

• Controller shall be NTEP approved as an Automatic Bulk Weighing System Controller.

• Controller shall have no adjustable metrological components.
• Controller shall have no rotating parts such as fans, hard disks, or floppy disks.

• Controller shall consist of a single board micro-computer, power supply and status panel, all mounted within an industrial housing.
• Controller shall use an industry-standard monitor and keyboard
• Controller shall communicate to digital weight indicator (Condec UMC 600 series or equivalent) mounted in separate enclosure.
• Controller shall include a key switch on the front panel to allow the monitor to display output from an Industrial Computer (remote mode) or directly from the Controller (local mode).
• Controller shall have ability to operate in automatic and manual mode, and still meet official weighing requirements.
• Controller shall be capable of controlling weigh hopper gate position from 0 to 100% in 1% increments.
• Controller shall have the ability of anticipating draft cutoff in real-time. Real-time flow rate monitoring to automatically adjust draft cutoff regardless of flow rate shall be offered as an option.
• Controller shall be capable of, on last draft, instructing upper garner gate to move to a designated trim position to ensure that target weight is achieved.
• Controller shall include configurable "minimum last draft" target size to ensure accurate trim on last draft.
• Control instructions from controller to field shall be sent via solid state, optically isolated relays housed in a separate enclosure.
• Controller shall not require the use of a dedicated telephone line.
• Controller shall have direct and exclusive control access via the solid state relays to the bulkweigher scale gates and limit switches without first going through other control devices such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC).

A local printer shall be connected directly to the controller. The local printer shall record all of the following:

• Draft preset
• Weight of each draft
• Draft count
• Order weight
• Time & date
• Automatic or manual mode
• Error messages
• Alarm conditions
• Changes made to controller configuration or mode status
• When controller is taken in and out of "test" mode.

Where connectivity to data management, accounting interface, or other process control is required, controller shall communicate scale data via serial link to an industrial computer. If such connectivity is not required, or in the event of computer failure, controller shall be able to operate in standalone or local mode. Operator shall use same keyboard and monitor, whether in remote mode or in local mode. Operator must be able to perform any scale operation using only the keyboard and function keys, and not a "mouse," whether operating the scale in local or remote mode.

Scale controller shall be a Compudraft series controller from CompuWeigh Corporation.

SCALE DATA MANAGEMENT

Scale data shall be handled on an industrial computer separate from scale controller and from process control computer / PLC. Scale data shall be managed by a fully relational 32-bit database and shall incorporate all of the following features:

• Scale data management system shall be written in Microsoft Visual FoxPro or other industry standard, 32-bit database that can be served by Structured Query Language (SQL), if required.
• Database code shall be "object based" – able to accept changes to one part of the code without affecting other parts of code.
• Operating system shall be Windows 95 or NT 4.0 or higher.
• Scale data management system shall have flexible reporting system built in, allowing non-programmer to generate reports.
• Scale data management system shall be able to interface to RF Tag readers, Bar Code readers, automatic grading equipment, and other serial-data streams.
• Scale data management system shall be designed that during normal mode operator may use function keys or a computer "mouse." Operator must be able to perform any operation using only the keyboard and function keys, and not the mouse.
• All database information shall be stored in Industry standard dBase format.
• Customer and ticket information shall be able to be accessed directly or may be output to ASCII or spreadsheet format.

• A scale ticket shall be automatically printed at the end of each transaction. Scale tickets shall be customizable and shall include at a minimum, customer information, commodity and weight information. Information shall be made available for the accounting system and local reporting.

Operator shall be able to identify trucks and rail cars either by their I.D. number, bill of lading or automatically using optional bar codes or RF tags. Once entered the transactions shall be processed in any order or may be sequenced so that each transaction is automatically processed as soon as the previous one is complete.

If an HMI package is present, scale data shall be fully and seamlessly integrated into HMI package.

Scale data management shall be performed by Grain Management System® by CompuWeigh Corporation.

MODULAR DESIGN

Optional software "modules" shall be available to build in future capability without discarding existing computer or controller equipment. The following options shall be available:

• GRADING option shall allow operator to enter any sample’s grade factors, regardless of the order the the bulkweigher or platform scale is processing. Once the factors are entered the computer must automatically calculate the correct grade. Grade must be changeable by operator at his discretion. Additional factors must be able to be added to the grading template to handle customers who are concerned with other items (e.g. protein, moisture).

Using "drag and drop" technology, the supervisor shall be able, without special programming training, to quickly design or modify grading templates, selecting exactly what factors to include, in what order they appear on the screen and the description attached to each.

• INVENTORY viewing and reporting capability shall be available as an option. Inventory system shall replace the manual bin board with a "bird’s eye" view of the bins. Display shall show a "pie-chart" showing how full each bin is; with information on the average grade and factors of each bin. The system must be able to be integrated with temperature monitoring and bin level equipment to provide both hazardous temperature alarms and integration of calculated and physical inventory. System must be able to adjust for differences between calculated inventory and that taken by physical means. System must be capable of displaying bin levels in real-time through interfacing to level devices.
• GRAIN BLENDING capability shall be offered as an option. Blending system shall calculate the proper blend of product to ensure shipment meets the customer’s requirements but does not exceed them.

Software modules shall be by CompuWeigh Corporation.

MULTIPLE SCALE CONTROL WORKSTATION

If an operator is required to operate more than one scale, a Multiple Scale Control workstation shall be provided. Multiple scale control computer shall accept instructions from networked workstations and shall pass instructions to communications server. Multiple scale control computer shall include customized Wonderware® InTouch interface. Multiple scale control workstation shall include seamless integration between HMI (process control) and scale data.

Multiple Scale Control Workstation to be provided by CompuWeigh Corporation.

HUMAN-MACHINE INTERFACE (HMI)

HMI shall communicate to multiple scale control computer at optimized speeds using Wonderware’s enhanced Net-DDE. HMI must be able to handle up to eight scales simultaneously, per workstation. Scales may be any combination of bulkweighing hopper systems or platform scale. Graphical interface shall show exact status of each scale, including gate positions and amount of grain in each weigh hopper. Operator shall be able to control any scale from one HMI screen or from multiple screens on a network.

Alarms shall be immediately displayed with a record kept of when alarm occurred, who acknowledged the problem and the time alarm was corrected. Operator shall have ability to start and stop scales at any time with no restriction on how many of the scales are in operation.

Scale data and PLC I/O shall both be seamlessly integrated into HMI package. All scale data must be stored in the same dBase format files described above.

HMI software to be Wonderware InTouch.

COMMUNICATIONS SERVER

If more than one scale is to be controlled across a network, a separate data communications server computer shall be provided. The communications server shall act as a "bridge" between the scale controllers and the Ethernet network. Communications server shall use industry-standard Net DDE to broadcast scale information across the network. Communications server computer shall be capable of handling all information received from the individual scale controllers as well as sending and receiving scale information on up to 8 scales (bulkweighing scales or platform scales) in real time across the Ethernet network. Communication to controllers shall be a rate greater than or equal to twice per second.

Communications server shall be Compu.Server by CompuWeigh Corporation.

DATA SERVER

In the case of multiple scale controllers, scale data shall be stored on separate data server. Data server shall save key scale information to hard disk on a timely basis and in the same format used by the scale data management system described above.

Data server shall be supplied by CompuWeigh Corporation

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER HARDWARE

All computers shall be industrial-grade, suitable for use in a dusty, vibration-prone environment. Industrial computers shall include: Heavy duty UL listed steel case; air filter to minimize dust infiltration; shock mounted hard drive, floppy disk and CD-ROM; positive hold-down clamp for cards; lockable front door to prevent unauthorized access; industrial fan with positive air pressure system; high quality power supply. Processor shall be Intel Pentium II 233 MHz or higher with 64 megabytes or more of RAM. Display shall be 17" energy efficient Super VGA monitor. 103 keyboard and a Microsoft mouse shall be provided. System shall be pre-loaded with Windows 95 or NT 4.0.