Storage Tank Management and Truck Offloading
Before a plant can blend, batch or package anything, it has to receive, store and account for its raw materials. CTX Automation automates that front end: multi-bay truck offloading, instrumented storage tanks, and inventory tracking that knows where every pound went.
Tank farm overview: two offload bays active at once, destination tank levels climbing, heater and recirculation status on the same screen.
Receiving, done right
An offload bay is a controlled transfer, not just a hose and a pump. The operator selects the destination tank and the system checks it: a tank already receiving from another bay is refused, and a tank at high-high level is blocked outright. Liquid-detection switches on each hose connection confirm flow before a fill valve stays open. Every delivery is logged with timestamp, tank, weight received and bay.
Tanks that look after themselves
Each storage tank carries the instrumentation its contents demand: continuous level by radar or load cells, an independent high-high switch as the overfill backstop, tank pressure with automatic venting, and temperature. Heated products get automatic heater control on a recirculation loop and heat-traced lines, holding the storage band without operator attention.
Never run a blend dry
When a primary bulk tank runs low, the system switches the blend procedure to the backup source automatically, logs the event with a timestamp, and records the lot number of the material into the batch record. Level alarms from low-low through high-high are scaled and calibrated in the PLC.
Inside an installed tank farm: storage tanks with overhead piping to the blend area.
Transfer pumps and isolation valves at the base of the tanks. Ten 20-HP pumps on soft starters in one recent plant.
Inventory as a live number
Because receiving and consumption both run through the control system, tank inventory is a continuously known quantity instead of a monthly surprise. Current levels, estimated weight remaining, farm-wide totals, daily receipts and usage rates are all available at the HMI and to plant reporting. Transfers that would overdraw a tank are refused before they start.
That running record becomes valuable over time. Months of it show consumption patterns, forecast reorder points, and flag drift that predicts maintenance. That is the subject of our plant historian and data monitoring work, built on exactly this foundation.
Typical scope
- Outdoor operator station with touchscreen HMI at the offload bays
- Floor-mount motor control center with remote I/O and soft starters or VFDs for the transfer pumps
- Radar level transmitters, pressure transmitters, capacitive high-level switches
- Actuated fill and transfer valves with position feedback
- Heated tank and heat-trace control with circulation
- Electrical drawings, panel assembly, programming, installation and training
Is your tank farm a monthly surprise?
Let us make inventory a continuously known quantity: receiving, storage and reporting on one system.
Get in Touch (713) 672-8251