By: Roads & Bridges
During winter months in St. Cloud, Minn., when the average annual snowfall for the city is 45 in., residents rely upon the Street Division of the St. Cloud Public Works Department to keep their municipal roadways free from dangerous snow and ice.
Just in time for the 2005-2006 winter driving season, the city learned about a new product from Cargill Deicing Technology. The AccuBrine automated brine maker, they found, could accurately produce large volumes of brine per hour, automatically using a state-of-the-art Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The city purchased the system and went online in November 2005.
The city was initially concerned about accuracy due to earlier experiences with its homemade brine-making systems and their inability to produce consistent brine quality.
After testing the salinity of the brine from the AccuBrine automated brine maker on several occasions, the city found that the results were either right at 23.3% or within a fraction of a percent. The PLC even tracks daily and seasonal data including production volume, water, salt and additives usage and operator hours. Self-diagnostics identify problems, notify the operator of failures and provide corrective measures.
“The quality of brine produced by the AccuBrine automated brine maker is superior to anything we’ve used in the past because of the consistent results,” said Imholte.
