Concrete Batch Controller Customized Automated Truck Scale Systems

Emerging Technology for Concrete Batch Controller Equipment in the Central Carolina Scale Electronic Catalog

The new CB-2 automated concrete batching system from Rice Lake provides accuracy that quickly pays for itself in material savings alone. This accuracy is achieved while substantially increasing production speed. The CB-2 is a versatile, efficient concrete batching control system ideal for ready-mix and block system plants and powerful enough for large-scale aggregate operations.

The CB-2 makes it easy and affordable to streamline your plant. From weighing raw material to automatic printing of tickets and reports, your entire operation can now be effectively cost-controlled from this single reliable unit. With the CB-2, ultimate control and accuracy are right at your fingertips.

Plant Control

Comprehensive plant control, including status lights and manual override switches can easily be configured in either momentary or maintain operation. CB-2 also supports both metered and weighed water with both hot and cold feed.

Manual Override Controls Include:

Status Lights Include:

• Aggregate Conveyor Running
• Load Complete
• Cement Gate Closed
• Aggregate Gate Closed

Aggregate Controls Include:

Cement Controls Include:

Water Controls Include:

............................Case Study................................

Rice Lake's New CB-2 with 920i...
A Concrete Solution for a Redi-Mix

User: Redi-Mix Concrete Co.

Application: Redi-Mix Concrete is a ready-mix concrete and aggregate quarry operation based in Wisconsin. Redi-Mix Concrete wanted to replace its existing batch panel on a McNielus 10-yard ready-mix batch plant in central Wisconsin. Using Rice Lake Weighing Systems’ new 920i-based CB-2 batch panel, Redi-Mix Concrete was able to eliminate its existing batch panel.

Benefits: With the 920i-based CB-2, Redi-Mix Concrete has an economical, powerful and intuitive batch control system with easy-to-use graphics. The manual controls allow the staff to run the plant in either automatic or manual mode. Installation of the CB-2 batch panel resulted in doubling the speed of Redi-Mix Concrete’s batching process and at the same time, improved accuracy on cement, aggregates and admixtures.

Redi-Mix Concrete stays open year-round, defying the Midwest’s extreme winters in order to provide their customers with the highest level of service available. In the summer, the plant generally runs 200-400 yards of ready-mix a day. But some days, it can run as much as 800 yards a day. The plant operates in a consistent, fast pace—getting mixer trucks in and out within 3-4 minutes per truck.

Because of the steady flow of business, the plant manager was looking to update his batching control system. “We were at the point where we needed a faster, more automated system that would openly integrate into our truck tracking and ticketing system,” The Rice Lake location updated its operation with a plant and ready-mix building in 1997. That same year, Rice Lake Weighing Systems’ CB-1 was installed.

Since the company began, it has grown from a single plant, three-truck operation, to a three-plant, 18-truck operation -- requiring a faster system.

Introducing the CB-2 Solution

Following on the coattails of the highly successful CB-1, Rice Lake introduced Redi-Mix Concrete to the latest generation in concrete ready-mix batch control—the new Rice Lake CB-2.

The CB-2 can store up to 2,200 mix designs. Mix designs are created as one cubic yard (or one cubic meter) and can be cloned or edited depending on the needs of the plant operator. Cloning a mix design allows the operator to select a recipe that is similar to the desired mix design, edit it and turn it into a new mix design. There are up to 18 ingredients per mix design. The system can batch in primary or secondary units. And a mix design accumulator tracks each formula’s total yards produced.

The CB-2 features editable names for ingredients and mix designs. This feature allows operators to call-up mix designs by number or by practical names that describe the intended use of a particular mix design.

A jog table automatically selects the correct jog time by material, ensuring that the desired target weights are consistently met. Metered ingredients have a “volume-per-pulse” conversion that enables virtually any mix design system to be used with the CB-2.

When loading a truck, the system can be tuned to “ribbon” aggregates, cements, water, and admixtures as well as leaving aggregates and tail water until the end of the batch. There are individual “pre-acts” or coast values for each ingredient.

The discharge rate can be set for each truck by tuning the plant to the highest discharge rate, then assigning a percentage of fill speed to each truck in the fleet. This feature ensures that all trucks are filled as quickly as possible.

The CB-2 also computes batch sizes for “split weighing” so the plant operator doesn’t need to calculate batch sizes when the truck has a greater capacity than the plant.

Dispatchers and operators can't get over how accurate & precise the CB-2 w/ 920i system is. “ The CB-2 is precise. Its accuracy for weighing-out material is second-to-none.”

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