Chemical Supplier Speeds Up Rail Weighing and Expedites Deliveries using Avery Weigh-Tronix System

For one of the largest suppliers of chemical and pharmaceutical products in Mexico, safe and cost effective transportation of products, along with accurate record keeping, is vital.

Rail weighing for business critical weight data

The company, which uses six rail terminals to transport more than 250 chemical products all over Mexico, needed to weigh each rail car and collect business critical data. The data is considered crucial to their operations, allowing them to accurately invoice clients, use the weight of cars and wagons to determine freight costs and to avoid the issues associated with overloading, which can damage cars, wagons and rail infrastructure and lead to derailments.

Using their incumbent system, it took between 2 and 4 hours to accurately weigh each rail car and obtain a stable weight, with a 0.5 density (liquid) product taking up to 3 hours to stabilize before a weight could be taken. The slow and cumbersome nature of this process slowed the company’s operations significantly.

New weight indicator speeds up weighing process

In 2015, the company approached Avery Weigh-Tronix distributor La Casa de la Bascula to ask for their help to improve their weighing processes. After taking the time to understand the business, Alfredo Martinez recommended that the company install an axle weighing system paired with a ZM405 programmable indicator.

The installation of the new system cut the weighing process down significantly. By adjusting the Harmonizer filter settings – ­ a filter system which can automatically detect and cancel out specific types of interference including those caused when weighing liquids – the ZM405 can take weighment of each bogie in 20 seconds and weigh a complete train tank in less than 3 minutes.

Flexible and programmable weighing system

Alfredo commented, “The customer is very satisfied with the reduction of weighing time from hours to minutes; allowing them to weigh and dispatch more product in a shorter timeframe. The older model simply could not stabilize when weighing rail tanks with liquid product within a workable timeframe. We recommended the ZM405 because it is extremely flexible – offering a high level of programmability, strong filtering capabilities, affordable cost, and flexibility for custom printing.”

The new system weighs each bogie and determines the total rail car weight. Gross, tare, and net weights, along with product information, destination and related data, can be transferred to their back office wirelessly, allowing the company to store and interrogate data via their existing business systems.