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Los Banos, C.A.

August 2014

Roderick Trice

Case Study: Morning Star/Tomato Flow Measurement

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Agenda

Customer and Case1

Application Description2

FLEXIM Solution3

Customer Benefits4

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The Morning Star Company

Liberty Packing is a subsidiary of the Morning Star

Company. The company is a leader in the tomato

processing industry, with three location in California.

The Morning Star Company has its Los Banos plant running

for only 4 months out of the year. The rest of the year is

spent planning for the next tomato season. The facility

processes tomatoes into juice, paste, purees, ketchup and

crushed products.

The Los Banos plant was built in 1990 and, processes 530

tons of tomatoes per hour. Morning Star takes care of all

processing of a tomato from the time it is planted to the time

it is sold to grocery stores. This method cuts down price,

and allows them to make sure the entire tomato processing

is done right.

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Agenda

Customer and Case1

Application Description2

FLEXIM Solution3

Customer Benefits4

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Application - Customer Motivation

What started as a service job to measure water

discharge, became a possible solution for

measuring the flow of tomato. The process

engineers want a measurement of their tomato

products at different consistencies.

They currently have some mag meters that are

measuring various flows throughout the plant.

These meters are costing them $30,000 each.

The selling point on our meter is that the cost

is significantly cheaper, and It is not

contaminating any of the process.

Selling Points

•Cheaper than current flow meter

•Accurate

•Non-Intrusive (Hygienic)

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Application - Measurement Point

Application

We measured numerous 24 inch water lines all over

the site, from the discharge station, to the sorting

area in the process. Some pipes were in difficult

areas, but the customer was not interested in a <1%

accuracy reading on the water lines, he just wanted

to know if the pumps were pumping the correct

amount of water.

The important area of the process was the tomato

paste.

18 inch Stainless steel

Tomato Paste (20%) Brix

200 deg F

> 10D straight run; Vertical Pipe

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Agenda

Customer and Case1

Application Description2

FLEXIM Solution3

Customer Benefits4

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Flexim Service

FLEXIM F601

FSK 0.5Mhz frequency

Max Pipe D 141.7 inches

Min Pipe Diameter 7.9 inches

FSM 1MHz frequency

Max Pipe Diameter 78.7 inches

Min Pipe Diameter 3.9 inches

Total of 3 service trips pipes from 8 inches to 26 inches, including 1 night

service job.

FSK transducers used due to the fact that the pipes were big. Reflect and

direct transducer configuration were used depending on pipe access and

signal strength.

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Solution - Performance

Good Diagnostics

Steady Sound Speed

Consistent Flow

Unit

M ean StdDev

USgpm 1.5E+04 102.32

dB 48.62 1.52

dB 31.19 1.59

dB 71.18 3.46

% 51.58% 2.36%

% 93.50% 3.35%

% 11.73% 9.18%

% 1.54% 0.50%

m/s 1567.0 1.0

fps 9.18 0.06

Sound speed

Flow velocity

SNR

Gain

Amplitude

Quality

Vari.time

Vari.amplitude

Diagnostics

Channel A

Volume flow

SCNR

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Solution - Results

After the final trip to

morning star the engineers

where impressed with the

results, and wanted a quote

for a fully loaded meter.

The customer was happy

that there was a solution

for the measurement of

their tomato product.

FLEXIM has built a stronger

bond with the customer

and they will have repeat

business.

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Agenda

Customer and Case1

Application Description2

FLEXIM Solution3

Customer Benefits4

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Customer Benefits

Meter Benefits

Quick and easy setup

Repeatable flow of tomato products

Customer Satisfaction

Impressed with the versatility of the portable

The service was flexible (night service)

Customer willing to help FLEXIM with test on new products