Eliminate manual water catches
Case Study
Continuous conductivity monitoring to automate water catches
Water pushes are an important part of moving wine from one tank to another. Without instrumentation, many wineries have an employee watch the liquid to see when the changeover happens. You can redirect scarce labor resources to more valuable tasks by implementing conductivity sensors that continuously monitor your lines. These smart sensors from ifm measure the change in wine, water, and mixed media in your pump lines.
Visualize values
Reliable, real-time data
Increase efficiency
Results
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Increased wine quality due to reduced dilution
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Reduction in excess water consumption to reach sustainability goals
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Redirected labor costs to more valuable work
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Better record-keeping of wine storage and movement data
The challenge
Many wineries are required to manage or reduce their water consumption, so it is important to monitor and reduce wasted water use where possible. When wineries are smaller, manual processes seem cost-effective and easiest to implement. As a winery grows, it may run into challenges where operational inefficiencies are not mangeable as it scales wine production. Manual water catches can be an easy way to monitor the changeover in the line from wine to water. But, it is inefficient and results in a significant waste of resources. With no consistent measurement, it is hard to even quantify the inefficiencies, including:
- Excess water consumption without benefit to the final product
- Employee time spent watching the lines
- Inaccurate judgements that dilute wine in the tank
These inefficiencies are easy to begin benchmarking with conductivity sensors so you can confirm a reduction in resource consumption. This allows you to easily calculate the ROI of installing additional points of measurement.
The solution - why ifm?
ifm provides automation solutions that scale with the growth of wine production, offering instrumentation that is high in accuracy and reliability at affordable costs. Smart conductivity sensors allow you to easily monitor phase shifts between wine and water, based on known conductivity levels of these liquids. Intuitive desgin makes installation easy to get started collecting this data.
Technology for winery operations
- IO-Link sensors: You can get started with just a sensor, IO-Link block, power supply, and some cables. Smart conductivity sensors rely on embedded IO-Link technology that can easily connect to additional technology to scale with your operations. When a winery reaches a point where operations require additional continuous monitoring, it is easy to find additional components that are plug-and-play.
- Monitoring software: Once you are connected with IO-Link, you can send your conductivity data to higher level software systems for further trending analysis. For example, ifm moneo|software can receive conductivity data and display the phase shifts from wine to a mixture to water. You can always connect your sensors to traditional manufacturing infrastructure for machine controls, as well.
- Touchscreen display: When you're ready to increase visibility to your data, you can connect a touchscreen display for process visualization or even machine controls. The compact 4.3" touchscreen display offers an affordable option for visualization and operator controls.
- ifm has end-to-end solutions waiting for you when you're ready to scale!
Gain a competitive edge
Wineries of any size can benefit from automating the monitoring of wine pushes with smart conductivity sensors. It helps improve confidence in wine quality within tanks, and reduces environmental impact. Reduce water consumption with more effective monitoring to control costs and meet environmental regulations.
