Trade shows in 2008

Scale-Tron will be exhibiting both Scale-Tron and Sicoma products at the following shows:

World of Concrete, Las Vegas NV, Jan. 22 - 25, 2008, Booth N437; More information at http://www.worldofconcrete.com
MCPX - Manufactured Concrete Exhibition,  Denver, Feb. 7 - 9, 2008, Booth 1125.  More information at http://www.mcpx.org
ConExpo - Con/Agg, Las Vegas, Mar 11 - 15, 2008, Booth S8852;  More information at http://www.conexpo.org

We look forward to meeting new faces as well as old friends.  See you there.

Hanson's New Orleans pipe plant needed a refit and Plant Outfitters Inc. were chosen to do the job.  This was a tough assignment because the plant could only be down for a couple of weeks and the complete mixing system, with three distribution conveyors to separate casting machines, had to be replaced.  Plant Outfitters' crew of Navajo steel riggers came through on time, replacing all scale hoppers, mixers, discharge chutes, conveyors, cement screws, water system, dust collectors and controls. Two Sicoma twin shaft mixers were chosen  with their associated high pressure washout systems, along with Scale-Tron's Batchtron III controller, remote demand stations and associated motor controls.  Shown at right is Scale-Tron's Marian Enachescu training the production team on use of the BatchTron III controller.

RoHS compliance

We are working toward compliance with the new European directive to reduce toxic elements from our products.  See our RoHS statement and explanation of what this means:      

December 2006 - SiloWeigh.Net goes live

Scale-Tron's Internet based silo reporting system is now hooked up to a major cement supplier and cement is being ordered fully automatically, based on the remaining contents in the silo, starting at one of our customers in Canada.  Our dealer and Alliance partner, John McCoy, installed this system in 2005;  the hookup between the Siloweigh.net database and the cement supplier's database and order/dispatching system was completed in August 2006 and is now being used on a daily basis for automatically reordering cement.  The next customer will come on line in mid January.  Further customers will be brought on line during 2007.

SiloWeigh.Net is equally applicable to both concrete and cement companies.  Cement companies can save major costs by scheduling their deliveries, while concrete companies that have their own cement trucks can make best use of their resources by planning pickups in a more timely fashion.  SiloWeigh.Net installs on your silo legs to measure weight - not level - and give you a readout on any computer on your local network, while data for the whole company can be viewed and accessed on the SiloWeigh.Net web site.  It's totally secure and reasonably priced.  best of all, it's reliable and accurate.

More information

March 2006 - Digital moisture sensor

Our popular moisture sensor, RadarTron, has been upgraded with the introduction of model 2250D.  The new model has both analog and digital RS232 output of moisture values.  Processing is entirely digital, with presettable parameters and calibration via the RS232 connection.  A PC, laptop or PDA can be used, providing it has Hyperterminal software (normally part of Windows XP and later).  More information

October 2003 - SiloWeigh success in Korea

A leading manufacturer of ready-mix plants in Korea, Taeshin Company, is using SiloWeigh silo weighing system in all their new plants.  Taeshin's vice president, Sam Park, says "We were looking for a system of checking inventory that gives better accuracy than the bolt-on sensors we were using before".  He says that every concrete company in Korea understands that a display of silo contents is necessary.  This contrasts with North America, where most companies are either blissfully unaware that they could run out of cement or use level sensors, which are inaccurate and often unreliable.

SiloWeigh uses weldable strain gauges applied directly to the silo legs, effectively turning the legs into simple load cells.  The system is accurate and low in cost.  It can also be interfaced to our RediLink ready-mix company management software to flag the office when re-ordering is necessary and update inventory figures.

The picture shows a plant commissioned in September 2003 near Korea's west coast.  Note the high quality of work and also the rotary vane feeders preventing blockage or flooding of the screw conveyors - another touch that is rare in North America.  From left to right, the silo sizes are 500, 200 and 300 ton.  Sam Park can be seen in the white shirt.

July 2003 - MixTron microwave sensor gets new new faceplate

The MixTron microwave moisture system for concrete mixers has used the industry standard ceramic, Alumina, successfully for many years.  As the ceramic industry advances, however, better materials become available and we have taken advantage of a newer, super hard material to make the faceplate last even longer.  The faceplate, positioned in the mixer floor or wall, has to withstand the tremendous abrasion of the concrete as it mixes.  A few plants that use high abrasion aggregates and have high production volumes can wear out an Alumina cap in several months.  The new Silicon Nitride cap is by far the hardest in the industry;  in addition, it is tougher and thicker than both our older cap and any other in the industry, ensuring that it will be the longest lasting.  The high cost of this material is offset by its long life and less frequent replacement.

When replacement is necessary, MixTron's cap is easily removed and replaced on-site by unskilled personnel.

May 2000 - BatchTron-III startup at Con Cast Pipe

Con Cast Pipe Inc. of Guelph, Ontario, have used our Genie-II batching controller for the last 10 years. One of the largest pipe plants in North America, production at three Hawkeye machines is fed from two Mixer Systems mixers. Although the Genie-II system was still producing well, it had been modified several times and it was recognized that investment in new control equipment would reap fast rewards. Although it was a tight battle, our proposal for a BatchTron-III system won the day. The system, now installed and running, sports two large touch screens plus two moisture controllers for the dry cast mixers. Batch recording, reports and statistics are handled by BatchLink software running on a nearby PC computer, which will shortly be networked to allow management access to all records.

The original air-conveyed cement charging system has been replaced with screws; these changes have increased the overall production rate by about 20% and eliminated waiting periods for the casting crews, who now finish their days earlier. Operation of the control system is made easier by the graphic touch screen and the many alarm messages help maintenance personnel to find problems quickly. Jamie Hill, Con Cast's production manager, is glad that he made the switch - from Scale-Tron to Scale-Tron.

A similar BatchTron-III controller will be delivered to Lafarge Construction Products, Edmonton Alberta in June. If you are considering a new plant or are converting an older plant, we have many ideas that can help. Call Robin Shepherdson for first class assistance.