Coriolis helps keep ticklish coughs quiet

Halls Mentholyptus cough drops have eased many a sore throat in their 75-year history. And now Coriolis mass flowmeters from Krohne are helping ease the flow of their ingredients at Halls' (now Adams Warner Lambert) Manchester factory.

Operating around the clock for five days a week, the plant also produces Clorets and the company's range of Dentine and Stimorol gums. While FDA standards apply to all aspects of production, none is more important than the accurate batching of the various ingredients through the continuous process.

Mass flow information, rather than volumetric which varies with density, pressure or temperature of the ingredients is the critical factor in batching or blending operations, according to Neil Seddon, Warner Lambert's process technologist. 'When we first looked at mass flow measurement, some five years ago, we trialled Krohne's Coriolis meters for 12 months,' he says. The E-Class meters had an accuracy better than 0.15 per cent which 'met our accuracy requirements.'

The original meters were 1.5E Class, but recent process developments have seen more concentrated ingredients being introduced, and hence considerably lower volumes of product being handled. For these applications Krohne has supplied its new low flow 0.3 E-Class meters with a minimum flowrate of 0.3kg/min.