Chemical Technology

Precise measurement of consumable fuels in

automobile industry

KOBOLD Instrumentation, represented in South Africa by Instrotech, a

Comtest Group company, was asked to look into, and supply a solution

to an on-going ‘headache’ for an established Japanese automotive

company – how to accurately record the exact quantity of fuel received

on-site, daily.

In order to track every single part and consumable needed to get

the 28 000 cars this manufacturer produces monthly, up and run-

ning, it goes without saying that the logistics department’s records

have to be highly accurate and instantly accessible. One of the most

important consumables is fuel, both gasoline and diesel. These fuels

are not only used for car testing, but also for utility purposes like fork-

lifts, emergency electric generator, inter-plant transportation, etc. The

flow and level metering of the fluids, had always been of concern to

management.

The automotive company routinely purchases fuel, which arrives

at the plant site by fuel truck. It is unloaded and stored in several

dedicated storage tanks. The existing gear flow meters had been

running for more than 10 years and the operation was handled by

a single field operator, using simple log book. The level meters were

even more traditional, using only mechanical floats and simple ‘on-

the-tank-side’ scale.

KOBOLD’s aim was to provide the automotive company with more

accurate measurement, while minimising human error and providing

on-line data acquisition, which also generates a separate report for

management use. In order to improve the quality of measurement,

KOBOLD also urged their distributor to provide the customer with ad-

equate air eliminating units, which resulted in the entire flowmetering

piping system being modified.

KOBOLD proposed using their TME coriolis mass flow meters and

NMC capacitance level transmitters, integrated with a PC-based

centralized data acquisition unit, to be located in the Logistics Room,

thus giving the company a completely new flow metering and level

measurement system for the client’s truck unloading and storage

system, which has been running effectively since installation.

For more information

on Kobold’s TME coriolis mass flow meters and

NMC capacitance level transmitters for precise measurement of

consumable fuels in automobile industry, contact Instrotech on

+27 10 595 1831 or

Chemical Technology • November 2015