Laboratory Samples

IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING THE INSTALLATION OF A SUGARCANE JUICE LABORATORY ANALYSIS COMPUTER SYSTEM IN YOUR SUGAR MILL, CONTACT US TO SEE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU.

 This system is installed in 2 of the 6 Sugar Mills in Florida.

THE PROGRAM IS AVAILABLE IN SPANISH.

Lab Samples is a program designed for Sugar Mills. It can operate independently (just perform its main function which is getting the cane juice brix, sucrose, and purity) or it can run as part of a broader system that incorporates the Scale House, Dumpers, Conveyors, and the Agriculture program.

 What we offer is a “Generic Lab Samples Program” with functionality already built in but that can be modified to incorporate your Company or Mill special needs (such as reports, nomenclature, different analysis methods or equations, and anything that will mimic the way you have your actual system organized).

Its main function is to sample the cane juice collected at the laboratory for Brix, Sucrose, and Purity, both Crusher Analyses and Normal Juice Analyses.

It offers two Analysis Methods:

1. Spindle (Traditional Lead Subacetate method).
 2. Near Infrared Technology (NIR).

We can also offer Spindle Aluminum Chloride/Calcium Hydroxide) and Membrex Analysis Methods for an additional charge, after checking the equations with those you use.

 The program supports from the simple Manual Input instrument readings to a complex system that interacts with the Scale House, the Conveyors, and the NIR System.
The system grows as new subsystems are installed.

Let’s start with the simplest, the Spindle Analysis Method in Manual Input:

The first two entries: Load Number and Ticket Number will be used to identify the Cane Field where the truckload came from. Actually only one of these two entries is necessary, even the Trailer Number could as well be used to identify the Cane Field or any other number that could link the sample with the cane field it came from. This is a matter of administration preference or policy.

 If the administration has the policy of hiding any information that can identify the cane field from the laboratory, a different number could be generated provided that it can be matched with the Cane Field the sample came from.

 The computer operator in the Lab enters the Brix read from the spindle, the Pol reading, and the Observed Temperature and the program computes the Crusher and Normal Brix, the Crusher and Normal Sucrose, and the Crusher and Normal Purity, and saves that information in a database, together with the Sample Number, original entries, date, Sucrose Factor, etc.

You can change the Brix Factor in the System File. The Sucrose Factor is entered in a daily basis in the Sucrose File to facilitate different computations of the Sucrose Factor used in a crop day (previous day, arithmetic average to-date, weighted average to-date, etc).

No matter what Analysis Method you use or how many subsystems are installed in the system, you can obtain a log for each and every sample and a Daily Cane Analysis Report printed (if you have a printer installed), and the Report on Current Averages, which can be printed or viewed on the screen.

Interaction with the Scale Subsystem:

The Lab Samples Program can interact with the Cane Scale Program and, therefore, with its database.

If you have the Cane Scale Program, connecting this program with it is as simple as giving the path to the Cane Scale Program database in the System File.

This interaction can be devided into two functionalities:

 1. Read the truckloads as they pass the scale and display the information in the Lab Computer (see figure 1 above).
2. Update the Scale Database with the dumpers information (Time and Date dumped, Dumper ID).

To read the truckloads information as they pass the scale you only need to have access from the Lab Computer to where the Scale Database resides and enter the full path in the System File.

 Updating the Scale Database is a more complex system. In order to accomplish this it is necessary to identify the trailers dumping at each dumping site. The program presently has functionality to handle two dumpers.

 To implement the Trailer Identification function you need access to the Cane Scale Database (network drive) and install the RF Identification Subsystem: :

1. Install one Radio Frequency Readers in each dumper or in any one of them.
2. Have installed the Radio Frequency Tags in the Trailers.
3. Communication lines.
4. RS232C Serial cards at both ends of the lines from the RF Readers to the Lab Computer.

If you install this subsystem, the only steps you need to perform to incorporate this functionality in the Lab Samples Program is to go to the System File, check the Interaction with the Cane Scale check box, and enter the Com Port Numbers where you are going to receive the information from the Dumper RF Readers.

The Com port that receives the signal identifies the dumper that transmitted it. If you want to install only one Dumper, set the Comm Port to 0 in the Dumper you want to exclude.

If you do not install this system, uncheck that option in the System File.

Interaction with the Conveyors subsystem: The conveyors program function is to identify the trailers that dump in the tandem and follow the path of the cane bulk from the tandem through the different conveyors until it reaches the crusher.

This program requires the installation of the RF Trailers Identification Subsystem (Radio Frequency System (Reader and tags attached to the trailers) in the Tandem as described above).

 If you already have installed a serial cable (or fiber optics) from the Tandem RF Reader to the Lab Computer, install that cable to one RS232 Serial Card in the computer that runs the conveyors program and install a cable from the other RS232 Serial Card (requires 2) to the Lab Computer.

The RF Reader receives the tag id from the tag attached to the trailer and transmits it to the Conveyors Program through Serial Signals (RS232C). The conveyor program looks for the Tag Id in the database and retrieves the Trailer Number.

 An icon for the trailer position, together with its number, shows on the screen. The program then the information on the trailer transmits to the Lab Sampling Program.

 To follow the path of the cane bulk in the conveyor, you need to install sensors to measure each sprocket revolution or half revolution and means to carry that signal to a control card in the Laboratory. This installation should be done by the Mill and we could provide engineering support.

In the lab side, the Conveyors Program reads those signals and advances the trailer icon in the Conveyor Diagram on the screen until it reaches the crusher, where the juice is transferred to the lab. The program then, after an adjustable delay, opens the juice valve to collect the sample.

Once the Sampling Program receives the information from the conveyor, it can print, optionally, a Sampling Ticket with the pertinent information (for this you need to install a Ticket Printer) and displays that information in the Lab Dumps Grid shown below.

 If you do not have the Conveyors Program installed, nor the Scale Interaction described above, nor the NIR subsystem, the “Sampling Tab” will be disabled.

 If you have the Conveyors Program, in order to make the Sampling Program to interact with it go to the System File Module and select the RS232C communication port where the Sampling Program will receive the information from the Conveyors Program.

The Near Infrared (NIR) Subsystem.

In Florida we are using Foss Technology in two different ways:

1. Sample by sample (Osceola Farms, Atlantic Sugar Association …)

2. And constant flow (Okeelanta Corporation) where the instruments are installed in the crushers where the juice is sampled in continuous mode).

FOSS is a privately-owned company that has manufacturing and research and development facilities in Denmark, Sweden and USA.

 The Sampling Program interacts with the Foss ISIscan™ software (WinISI™ III) reading the file containing the samples result and, if both programs are installed in the same computer, sending information to it via “send keys”.

To interact with the NIR System, go to the System File, check the “Interact with NIR System” and fill the NIR Parameters that will become enabled.

If you are using the NIR subsystem to sample, but you do not interact with it simply uncheck the “Interact with NIR System” and select NIR as the default Analysis Method.

 The Manual Input Samples will then process your input and use the NIR sampling equations.