Precision Oil Dosing with Low Profile Load Cells
In the hypercompetitive and heavily regulated food processing environment, precision isn’t just required—it’s the keystone to product quality, uniformity, and cost management. Fats and oils influence taste, texture and longevity of foods. Whether in baking, frying or as part of a flavor formulation, these ingredients require accurate dosing so the finished recipe remains consistent and adheres to tight regulation.
This is the point where weighing tank with low profile disk load cells are revolutionizing oil and fat processing. The technology is also specifically designed for high-precision, hygienic operation and seamless integration, giving food manufacturers a scalable, intelligent and very cost-effective way to control one of their most important raw materials.
LCD800 Low Profile Disk Pancake Type Compression Load Cell
What are Low Profile Disk Load Load Cells?
Low profile disk load cells, also referred to as pancake or compression load cells, are low profile, rugged and highly accurate sensors that measure compression forces. The sintering units can be quickly and easily installed under tanks, hoppers or vessels as they are disk like and flat and therefore require no or minimal structural changes. Hygienic load cells are fabricated in stainless steel, and having a smooth, easy to clean surface they are practical in creating so-called ³wet and ³dry areas, which is of utmost importance in the food industry. Low profile with high capacity makes them excellent for weighing where space is limited yet accuracy is a must eg bi-level weighing jobs such as, oils and fats for food grade tanks.
The Difficulty of Dosing Oil in The Food Industry
Managing oils and fats is a notorious headache. They are slippery, have a low melting point, and can be very sensitive to the temperature-induced viscosity changes that are the bane of an extrusion laboratory. Conventional flow-based metering or timed pump discharge techniques introduce a level of variability especially as the characteristics of the oil change with temperature or as the batch conditions change.
LCD801 Mini Button Type Force Sensors Load Cell
Manual methods, which continue to be prevalent in small or mid-grade operations, make possible the occurrence of human error, the variability in returns, and resulting waste. In addition, it is impractical to scale up production operations, log data for traceability and integrate with digital manufacturing systems.
The Weighing Tank Solution
By installing low profile disk load cells underneath oil storage or mixing vessels, you can repurpose just about any container and have yourself a high precision weighing tank. This arrangement facilitates the in-line, weight-based measurement of oil during fill, blend or dispense. The boons are as immediate and widespread as a constellation raked across the sky:
Gravity-based measurement means the need for flow meters, which may be influenced by oil properties, or complex level sensors, which may get clogged, is eliminated.
LCD805 Inline Low Profile Beam Load Cell
Closed-loop system with PLC or SCADA to provide a highly accurate dosing according to actual weight, where every batch follows its formulation accurately.
Small-footprint ensures ease of integration with little impact on existing production lines.
Hygienic design (stainless steel load cells) meets food safety requirements such as HACCP, NSF, or FDA.
How It Works: The Dosing Process
This is one example of a changing procedure in a food-processing plant that produces flavored cooking oils:
Hanging and Supporting Tanks Stainless steel tanks hang from three or four low profile disk loadcells. These are fitted with special mounting kits having overload protection, anti-lift device, and thermal compensation. The load cells are linked to a junction box and digital transmitter.
Dosing When a batch is initiated, the system starts pumping oil to the tank. The beam loads cells are repeatedly tabulating the weight gain. When the pre-determined amount (e.g., 50 kg of canola oil) has been added, the control will automatically shut off the pump.
LCD810 Stainless Steel Static Disk Load Cell Low Profile Force Sensor
Blending or Transfer For any extra oils or fat blends, repeat the process for them; add the weight together with previous weight gained. And at the end, the complete batch can be mixed in the tank, heated and pumped to the next destination — with accurate weight control References
Data logging & traceability Time, batch number, raw material code and exact weight of each dosing cycle is logged. This information may be sent out to connect to a central ERP or MES system for traceability, inventory control and proof of compliance.
Why Low Profile Load Cells?
In oil dosing applications other than disk style compression type load cells have clear advantages against other load cell types such as the single point type or the shear beam type:
Low profile under-tank placement with a small/ space saving footprint.
Ibow: = Large volume while not much deflection: This means, fast reaction (transient), and can dose better.
LCD822 Low profile disk load cells for Testing machine
First class sealing (IP66/IP68) for use in food areas with cleaning systems.
Practically maintenance-free as they are solid-state, with no moving parts.
They are particularly advantageous in central dosing stations where several oil lines supply a common tank, or modular skidded systems for mobile blending.
Future-Proofing with IoT Integration
The load cells of today are far from being analog only devices—they are part of the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Advanced low profile disk load cells are available with digital outputs, where data can be integrated in real time to factory dashboards, predictive maintenance systems, and to the cloud.
Now how about being alerted before a dosing pump goes down, or tapping into oil use trends plant-by-plant in countries around the world? This is the smart future of food production and oil dosed by weight is one of the critical enablers.