34 Proceedings of The South African Sugar Technologists' Association-April 1974

CONTINUOUS WEIGHING OF BAGASSE BY NUCLEAR

WEIGHER
By B. D. R A V N ~ )and P. C. SCULLY
Huletts Sugar Limited
and
M . E. PHILLIPS and W. KRAUSE
S.A. Philips (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg

ABSTRACT problems associated with a deeply-troughed belt), to

A nuclear continuous bagasse weigher was unacceptably poor accuracy figures for a conventional
installed at Felixton Sugar Mill towards the end of belt weigher. The problem is very much reduced wit0
the 1973174 crushing season and accuracy checks the non-contact type of weighing principle used with
were performed on the weigher using an assized a nuclear radiation belt weigher.
weighbridge as the reference standard. The average A properly-applied and calibrated nuclear weigher
error was found to be 0,2% of full scale whilst the is capable of giving accuracies of better than 0,5 % of
individual test errors were all well within 2% of full scale value.
full scale.
Physical principle of operation
Introduction
It is found that the absorption of gamma radiation
Nuclear weighers have found applications in the by materials follows the "Beer-Lambert Law". This
South African sugar industry with varying degrees of can be expressed in the following form:
success. Their use in the continuous weighing of bagasse
has not previously achieved high accuracy. The reasons I = I, exp(- apx)
for this are many and include the use of machines not where I = actual radiation intensity
suited to the weighing of low density materials such I, = radiation intensity without material
as bagasse.
a = mass absorption coefficient
An Ohmart nuclear weigher, supplied by S.A. Philips
and containing an Americium radiation source was p = density
installed on a belt conveyor at Felixton sugar mill x = thickness of absorbing material
towards the end of the 1973174 crushing season and
was calibrated and ran for approximately two months. The mass absorption coefficient in the above equa-
A series of 27 accuracy check tests were conducted tion is found to be essentially independent of the
over a period of a month and the results of these nature of the material and therefore the absorption of
tests are reported herein. radiation is related to the mass of material placed in
the radiation path. This means that a mass deter-
Principles of nuclear weighing mination system can be based on measurement of the
absorption.
Continuous weighing of low density materials
To the process engineer the weighing of material in Construction of the Ohmart belt weigher
motion on a conveyor belt has always had great A sketch of the layout of a nuclear weighing system
attraction but this has always been attended by prob- for a conveyor belt is shown in Fig. 1. The source of
lems originating from the mechanical operation of the radiation is enclosed in a sealed capsule mounted on
belt. It is necessary with a conventional belt weigher the upper arm of the C-frame and the lower arm of
to maintain a very high standard of condition of the the C-frame, which is placed underneath the belt,
belt. In particular, the belt idlers involved with the houses a radiation detector tube. The detector pro-
weigher and for a fair distance on either side of the duces an electrical signal which is proportional to the
weighing position require to be aligned in height and total radiation impinging on it. This signal is passed
profile to a high degree of accuracy. In addition, where to an amplifier and then to a computing unit which
a steep troughing angle is employed on the conveyor establishes the amount of material on the conveyor
(more than 20°), the results obtainable with a force belt.
sensing weigher are of severely restricted accuracy It will be apparent from the physical principles
because of the high transverse stiffness of such a belt. involved that the output signal from the radiation
In the case of low-density materials such as bagasse, detector contains no information on the speed at which
the problems with conventional weighing equipment the belt is carrying material past the detecting unit so
are exceptionally severe, since even with the steepest to account for this factor one of two approaches must
obtainable troughing angle on the conveyor belt, the be taken. The first approach is to regard the belt speed
mass per unit run of the conveyor is still low in com- as being constant and this method is highly successful
parison with the mass of the belt. This leads (in con- in the case where the belt speed does not vary appre-
junction with the already mentioned belt stiffness ciably. If the belt speed is liable to variation it becomes
 ,
Proceedings of The South African Sugar Technologists' Association-

q R A D I O ACTIVE
SOURCE
electrical faulting does occur, most of the difficulties
are encountered in the first few da.ys after commis-
sioning and thereafter reliability is usually of a very
high standard.
Choice of the radiation source
The radio-isotope which is used in an installation
of this kind must satisfy a number of conditions. These
are :
(a) A suitable energy of emitted radiation. This is
a means of expressing the penetrating power of
the radiation which must be correlated with the
thickness of the material to be measured and
its density.
(b) An acceptably long half-life. If the half-life of
the isotope is too short, then a re-standardisa-
tion of the weigher 'will be required at exces-
FIGURE 1 The nuclear weigher C-frame layout. sively frequent intervals in order to maintain
the accuracy of measurement.
necessary to measure the exact speed and include this
in the calculation of the flow rate. Belt speed is readily (c) The isotope must be readily obtainable at a
measured to the required degree of accuracy by means reasonable price.
of a DC tacho-generator which is driven by the con-
veyor belt. To avoid problems of belt slippage it is For nuclear belt weighing three isotopes are in
necessary for the tacho-generator to be driven from common use. For thick sections of heavy materials
.an idler pulley on the belt and for this purpose the tail the high penetration obtained with radiation from
pulley is very frequently the most satisfactory point. Cobalt-60 is used. For most applications where mode-
A chain or gear drive is generally used to allow the rate thicknesses of moderately heavy materials are
tacho-generator to be run at the most suitable speed. involved the isotope Caesium-137 is used, whilst for
The output of the tacho-generator is introduced into light material such as bagasse the low-energy radiation
the computing unit at an appropriate point to make from Americium-241 is necessary to obtain satisfactory
the necessary allowance for variations in belt speed. measurement results.
The output of the computing unit is used to actuate For all of these isotopes the half-life is sufficiently
an electrical indicator which can be calibrated in terms long that re-standardisation of the weigher only
of mass flow rate and also feeds a signal into an inte- requires to be done at relatively infrequent intervals.
grating unit which totalises in tons the material which Actual half-life values are :
has passed over the belt. Cobalt-60 . . . . . . .. 5,3 years
The mathematical functions implemented in the Caesium-137 .. .. .. 30 years
computing unit include the following: Americium-241 . . . . .. 458 years
(a) Suppression of the standing signal due to the The isotope is sintered into a ceramic pellet and
radiation level with no material on the belt. further enclosed in a number of layers of inert material
(b) Correction for the implicit non-linearity of the and this structure ensures that the radlioactive material
Beer-Lambert equation. This is an exponential is not allowed to leak out and become a contamination
function and consequently must be corrected hazard. The radiation itself produces no contamina-
by a non-linear curve-shaping technique. tion of the product and this type of gauging is widely
accepted in different parts of the food industry.
(c) Correction for the fact that the geometrical
configuration of source and load cause a non- The radiation detector
linear deviation from the Beer-Lambert Law. A number of radiation detector systems are used in
This correction can in fact be combined with gamma ray gauging systems. Many of these involve
that outlined in section (b) above and in fact an installation with high electrical potentials on'the
only a single "lineariser" unit is employed. The detector and possibly high frequency cabling from the
lineariser uses a series of 6 straight-line seg- detector to the electronic unit. A feature of the Ohmart
ments to represent any arbitrary curve. equipment is the use of a special, patented, low-voltage
ionisation chamber detector which involves the use
( d ) Multiplication of the computed load figure by of only low-frequency and low-voltage cabling. Conse-
the belt speed value to give an output in terms quently the electronic unit can be mounted at a con-
of mass rate of flow. siderable distance from the conveyor belt, thereby
The use of modern solid-state circuitry has increased facilitating maintenance and calibration. A special
the reliability and has facilitated rapid fault-finding multi-core electrical cable must be run from the C-
with the use of plug-in printed circuitry. Experience frame to the instrument cabinet which may be sited
with this type of equipment has shown that when up to 300 metres away.
36 Proceedings of The South Afvican Sugar Technologists' Association-April 1974

Installation positive and negative deviations are due to fluctuations

A schematic diagram of the plant layout at Felixton in belt thickness including the belt joint.
is shown in Fig. 2. The nuclear weigher was placed on
the second belt conveyor, after the transfer point, in Calibration checking
order to smooth some of the fluctuations in the profile For subsequent calibration checking it is simpler to
of the material which were observed on the first belt check the instrument zero and a single standard load
conveyor during normal operations. Considerations at approximately 80% of full scale. This is achieved
of belt width, belt loading and speed were also taken by using a steel or light alloy plate of thickness chosen
into account. to provide this equivalent absorption when placed in
The mechanical installation of the weigher was a standard position between the arms of the C-frame
simple, involving only the mounting of the C-frame with the belt running empty.
on the belt conveyor support structure. The computing
unit and weight totaliser were housed in an adjacent A standard equivalent absorption plate is selected
instrument display room. and the actual reading corresponding to the plate is
found immediately after the initial calibration of the
instrument. This reading is recorded for reference pur-
, I, Bagasse
feed.
poses in subsequent calibration checks. If the plate
reading is subsequently found to be in error, the

Pith
Y instrument must be re-standardised, a simple operation
which occupies less than 15 minutes.
The frequency of calibration checking should be
Cyclone determined experimentally when the weigher has been
Depi ther installed. It will generally be found that a check twice
a year will be sufficient.
Reversed
Application in the sugar industry
-0 Normal
C--

Belt NO. 3 0
I I
OHMART
NUCLEAR WElOHER
In the sugar mill context, calibration and calibration
checking presents no difficulties with regard to the
requirement of an empty belt for the purpose. The
weekend shut-down periods provide the opportunity,
and calibration checks could be timed to be performed
at start-up or shut-down when cane is not being
I -C
processed.
For calibration checking on the run, it is necessary
Weigh bridge to provide a material by-pass around the weigher.
FIGURE 2 Schematic plant layout.
Weighing accuracy
Calibration Test procedure
The accuracy of the nuclear weigher was checked on
Calibration involves setting the instrument zero and a relative basis using an assized weighbridge as the
setting the computing unit to linearise the radiation reference. Figure 2 serves to illustrate the schematic
detector output. layout of the relevant plant at Felixton.
Physically this is done on a static, empty belt. After Bagasse fibre was separated from whole bagasse in
adjusting the zero, a load of actual process material the depither and passed through the system to storage.
is placed on the belt between the arms of the C-frame. During each test period, the full stream of bagasse
The material is placed over a length of belt between fibre was diverted into a trailer where it was collected
0,3 and 0,6 m and profiled in cross-section to match and subsequently weighed on the weighbridge. The
the profile of the material under normal operation. weight of material passing the nuclear weigher during
The amount of material placed on the belt is calculated the same test period was then compared with the
to be equivalent to the weight per unit belt length under weighbridge value.
full load conditions. The computing unit is then
adjusted to give a reading of 100% of full scale and In detail, the test procedure involved stopping the
the procedure is repeated using belt loadings corres- bagasse feed and conveyor belt No. 1 (see Fig. 2), in
ponding to a series of lower belt loadings ranging order to check the nuclear weigher zero with conveyor
between 0 % and 100% of full scale. belt No. 2 running and to establish the tare reading on
the instrument's weight integrator. Conveyor belt No.
A final adjustment to the zero is made under 3 was then reversed in its direction of travel.
dynamic conditions by running the conveyor for several
revolutions of the belt and observing the integrated Conveyor belt No. 1 and the bagasse feed were then
reading for a complete number of revolutions. For this restarted and the test period commenced when the first
purpose the counting unit is capable of integrating material reached the nuclear weigher. When the col-
negative and positive deviations and the zero is lecting trailer was nearly full, the bagasse feed was
adjusted to give a net integrated total of zero. The again stopped and the test period ended when the last
Proceedings of The South African Sugar Technologists' Association-April 1974

material passed the nuclear weigher. The trailer was TABLE I

then driven to the weighbridge and weighed imme- Test data
diately. Spillage of bagasse during the tests was
negligible.
Test
I Test weight I Belt loading
Weighbridge accuracy
The weighbridge used as a reference standard was
an Avery 100-ton rail-weighbridge. The chart range
was 20 tons in 50 kg divisions with printing to the
-
dura-
Test tion
No. S
Test
supervised by
S.A. Philips
Oh-
mart
ions 1 Weigh-
bridge
tons kg/m 1 %
full
scale

nearest 50 kg. The assized tolerance allowance on the S.A. Philips

weighbridge is + 0,625 divisions or approximately
S.A. Philips
Felixton staff
f 31 kg. Felixton staff
Felixton staff
In order to improve the accuracy of the check weigh- Felixton staff
ing, the printing facility was not used but instead, the Felixton staff
weight-indicating pointer was read. directly to the Felixton staff
nearest 10 kg. This eliminated rounding up and down Felixton staff
Felixton staff
errors which would otherwise have been introduced Felixton staff
by the printing device. Felixton staff
The precision of the weighbridge was determined by Felixton staff
S.A. Phili~s
repeated checks of the tare weight of the collecting S.A. philips
trailer. These checks were conducted by physically S.A. Philips
loading and unloading the trailer on to the weigh- S.A. Philips
S.A. Philips
bridge on a number of different occasions. The pre- S.A. Philips
cision obtained was excellent and the accuracy of S.A. Philips
repeat weighings was within the accuracy of reading S.A. Philips
the indicated weight on the weighbridge. S.A. Philips
S.A. Philips
S.A. Philips
Efect of bagasse moisture loss S.A. Philips
The loss of moisture from the bagasse fibre between S.A. Philips
the position of the nuclear weigher and the weigh-
bridge was not investigated thoroughly. However, a
trailer load of moist bagasse was weighed once and be expected to have had an adverse effect on the
then again after an hour and the weight loss amounted Ohmart weigher readings.
to 1 per cent of the load.
A statistical analysis of the errors found in the check
It would not be correct to assume that the losses tests has been performed. Correlation of the errors
during the individual test periods were proportionally with belt loadings was poor and the hypothesis that
lower since the physical circumstances of evaporation the errors were unrelated to belt loading could not be
losses on the conveyor belt and from the trailer are rejected with high confidence. This'would seem to indi-
not comparable. No corrections, therefore, have been cate that the Ohmart weigher was insensitive to low
made for moisture losses during the test periods. belt loadings and the associated problems of changing
material profiles on the belt.
Test results and discussion
The results obtained during a series of 27 tests over Conclusions
a period of a month at the end of the 1973174 season The application of a nuclear weighing device to the
are shown in Tables 1 and 2. The results have also continuous weighing of moist bagasse fibre at Felixton
been expressed graphically in Fig. 3. has given highly satisfactory results. It is apparent
The agreement between the nuclear weigher and the that the Americium radiation source was well suited
weighbridge was very good as can be seen from Fig. 3. to bagasse weighing.
Statistical analysis of the data shows a high degree of
correlation (correlation coefficient = 0,9979 with t In a series of 27 check tests the nuclear weigher was
value of 77,7). Statistically the slope and intercept of found to have a mean error of 0,2 per cent of full
the fitted line are not significantly different from unity scale and the errors of individual tests were well within
and zero respectively. 2,O per cent of full scale. These figures include all errors
arising from the test procedure used for checking the
Maintenance of a consistent profile of material on weigher and no attempt has been made to separate
the conveyor belt is usually a pre-requisite for accuracy the errors due to the two sources.
with nuclear weighers. The selection of a suitable
installation site at Felixton was strongly influenced by The accuracy of the nuclear weigher appeared to
this consideration. However, due to low milling rates be maintained even in situations of low loadings. It
at the end of the crushing season, it was impossible is significant that in the application at Felixton, the
to maintain steady flow conditions throughout each Ohmart weigher accuracy was apparently insensitive
test period. In fact, during some of the tests the belt to fluctuations in the conveyor belt loading and to
loading fell to zero for short periods and this could the profile of the material on the conveyor.
 Proceedings of The South African Sugar Technologists' Association-April 1974

TABLE 2
Derived data

I Equivalrnt rate I I I
1 1 I
Test Ohmart
No. tonslh
Weigh-
bridge
tonslh
Error I*
tonslh
Error 2*
% 1 Error 3*
%

24,12
19,80
1844
32,84
32,22
34,85
33,06
26,44
33,14
30,32
26,27
23,41
24,95 0 10 20 30 40 50
26,34 WEIGHBRIDGE REFERENCE t/h
26,38
25,50 FIGURE 3 Correlation between nuclear weigher result and
22,26
21,83 weighbridge reference standard.
23,68
22,36
13,70
18,55
19,22 Acknowledgements
Mean . The authors gratefully acknowledge the invaluable
assistance given by Mr R. G. Hoekstra in the statis-
* Error 1 = (Ohmart - Weighbridge) tons/h tical analysis of the data.

Ohmart - Weighbridge
Error 2 = x 100 %
Weighbridge

Ohmart -. Weighbridge
Error 3 =
50 ton/h (full scale)