The specialists of our company reconstructed the mechanical line for the production of ready-mixed concrete (MCU). The old lever weighing system was replaced with strain gauges and an automatic dosing control system (ACS) was introduced, which is designed for:

• dosing of the components included in the concrete mixture in accordance with the recipe selected by the operator;
• ensuring the quality of concrete;
• issuance of reporting information;
• increasing dosing accuracy and reducing the influence of the “human factor” on dosing results.

The system can operate in both automatic and manual mode. For manual control mode, a remote control is made, on the horizontal panel of which all controls and indications are located. On the vertical panel there are weight controllers with digital indicators, according to the readings of which the operator doses the components for the concrete mixture in accordance with the recipe (weight controller of water, inert materials and cement). Light indicators indicate the opening of gates and valves, the operation of feeders and the mixer. Switches and buttons are designed to control the loading of weighing dispensers and the activation of feeders and mixer. The mode of simultaneous loading and unloading of dispensers is blocked, which eliminates the unloading of components through the dispenser without recording the consumption of components and, accordingly, without taking them into account.

ACS software

When performing automation, software will be adapted to control the process of preparing ready-mixed concrete according to given recipes. The dosing control program is clear, intuitive, and therefore easy to use and at the same time extremely reliable. It minimizes operator errors when dispensing components. The program for a personal computer has a graphical interface. The information displayed on the monitor screen reflects the process of dosing the components of the concrete mixture. The program interface is designed in a non-tiring color scheme of the user’s monitor screen, is intuitive and easy to use. The program provides:

• visual display of the dosing process;
• entering and storing technological recipes;
• calculation of the required quantity of all components of the concrete mixture, based on the specified grade and volume of the concrete mixture, in accordance with technological recipes;
• accounting for the consumption of inert materials, cement, water and additives;
• generating a report for a given period;
• keeping records of concrete supplied per order (with detailed information about time, date, quantity and brand of concrete, planned and actual consumption of materials).