Moisture Challenges & Solutions
Are bulk shipping costs for sand, cement and clay impacting your bottom line? Moisture could be the hidden problem. In fact, the moisture content in your materials directly impacts the weight of your bulk solids and minerals.
Yet, high shipping cost isn’t the only thing impacted by moisture in bulk solids and minerals, such as sand, cement, clay and limestone. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the challenges and solutions for moisture control in the bulk solids and minerals industry. But first:
Why is moisture measurement important for the Bulk Solids and Minerals Industry?
Moisture measurement is important in the bulk solids and minerals industry, because it impacts the raw material’s quality, production costs, and shipping costs.
Bulk Solids & Minerals Moisture Challenges
There are various challenges that moisture brings to the bulk solids and minerals industry. We’ll start with some of the more obvious challenges, first:
Shipping Cost
When companies are weighing their raw materials, the weight is impacted by the moisture content. For companies who want to trim their bottom line, it starts with monitoring and adjusting the moisture content on the processing line.
Reprocessing Work
In the bulk solids and minerals industry, the quality of your raw materials is directly impacted by the moisture content. When your moisture rate isn’t meeting standards, then it needs to be reprocessed. This creates double the work and leads to several other problems described below.
Plant Delays
If the moisture content for sand, clay, and minerals (among other bulk solids) is too high or low, it needs to be reprocessed. This reprocessing has a huge impact on total processing time, leading to plant delays.
Manual moisture testing can be one alternative to not testing at all. However, manual moisture control can be time-consuming, from 10 minutes to more than an hour. This further pushes out the processing time.
Material Waste & Reduced Profit
Bulk solids or minerals sometimes need to be disposed of if the moisture content is too low, though the actual moisture rate is different for each bulk solid and mineral. While manual testing may seem like a cost-effective moisture test, it often tests the moisture content too late in the process when you cannot make adjustments to the bulk solids or minerals.
Energy Cost of Drying
The energy used to dry bulk solids and minerals is extremely high and can incur thousands of dollars in energy costs. The potential rework of the drying process is not only inefficient but expensive, costing companies thousands of dollars per day, in some cases.
Solutions for the Bulk Solids & Minerals Industry
Losing time and money to rework can be frustrating. But a near-infrared moisture sensor can detect moisture before it’s too late. Read on to discover solutions to moisture problems that are common in the bulk solids and minerals industry.
What is a Near-Infrared Moisture Sensor?
A Near-Infrared Moisture Sensor uses near-infrared light to sensor moisture. The NIR light interacts with the water molecules in the bulk solids and minerals, absorbing the NIR light at specific wavelengths.
Non-Contact
Near-infrared moisture detection offers non-contact moisture measurement. This sensor is engineered to accurately provide moisture readings without slowing down the processing line, ensuring product quality so that companies can meet their processing deadline.
Instant Measurements
MoistTech’s IR3000 offers real-time moisture measurements, enabling companies to make immediate adjustments to moisture levels on their processing line without interrupting operations. This allows the production line to keep moving at an efficient pace, so that companies can meet their production goals.
No Drift Sensors
Most moisture sensors require calibration and on-going maintenance over time. But when companies invest in MoistTech moisture sensors, they can depend on its accuracy and precision for the long-term. MoistTech’s IR3000 features no drift sensors that no unaffected by heat and humidity.
Discover More About MoistTech’s Moisture Sensors
Learn more about how MoistTech’s mineral moisture sensors can benefit companies in the bulk solids and mineral companies. Find out what makes MoistTech the diamond standard for moisture control.