The tropical island paradise of Zanzibar is most well known for its beaches, sea life and spice trade. Since the times of the spice trade, the port has been an integral part of the island and the ships are still bringing in containers of cargo to the varied industries on the island.

1. Digital Re-print -
March | April 2014
Flour miller values weighbridge technology
on the island of Zanzibar
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2. March - April 2014 | 29GRAIN&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY
www.gencdegirmen.com.tr
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3. T
hetropicalislandparadiseofZanzibar
is most well known for its beaches,
sea life and spice trade. Since the
times of the spice trade, the port has been
an integral part of the island and the ships
are still bringing in containers of cargo to
the varied industries on the island.
One of the largest Tanzanian companies,
Bahkresa, is home on the island.
Bahkresa started his flourmill many dec-
ades ago and now is a major player of
milling not only on Zanzibar but also on
the Tanzanian mainland, in Mozambique,
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi and Kenya.
Now the Bahkresa Group also produces
ice cream, fizzy drinks, frozen food and many
other foodstuffs.
In the East African region, wheat flour
production and distribution is an important
addition to the crop-base rather than just
maize flour and allows for more stable prices
throughout the year.
Reliance on a single crop has long been
recognised as a key factor in famines.
Moving to a wider crop base alleviates food
level fluctuations that can lead to poor diet,
disease and high consumer prices, especially
in areas where incomes are low.
It was recognised early in the 1980s that
the mill would benefit from the accurate
weighing of incoming grain and outgoing
flour and by products. The company they
went to for advise and assistance was
Griffith-Elder.
Now, decades on, I have been sent back
to complete an upgrade to the current
system.
I arrive on site at the Zanzibar Milling
Corporation where the mill is tripling its
capacity by fitting new silos.
Discussions with Mr Yussuf, the man-
ager, immediately followed and covered the
upgrading of the existing weighbridge, over a
cup of chai. He was very happy to see me,
the shipment of grain is due next week and
he needs his digital recording system installed
by then.
Tripling capacity means tripling
weighing
Tripling the capacity will mean tripling
of the number of vehicles to be weighed.
That in turn means a requirement to digitize
weighing records for speed of ticketing
and control of stocktaking. Every second
costs when there is a container of wheat to
offload from the port.
Together we go to inspect the weigh-
bridge.
I find one of our 15m weighbridges with
analogue S-Type load cells. It has been nearly
25 years since the initial installation and the
platform has no signs of rust or damage despite
having had sea air blow over it for all this time.
The weighbridge has S-Type load cells
giving it excellent stability. The weighbridge
doesn’t wobble when the trucks enter the
weighbridge, like canister load cells, giving
quick steady weights.
This is exactly what is needed in high
volume traffic situations.
There is no requirement for the precise
leveling and grouting as with canister load
cells making installation and maintenance
simple and easy: A great advantage for a
site is off the beaten track. Site staff can be
easily trained meaning no expensive service
contracts are needed.
Predating the ubiquitous PC
Inside the office there is the sturdy 80s
indicator with a built in tally roll printer and
a small LCD display.
Speaking with Mohammed, the weigh-
bridge team leader, I find out that they have
been very happy with the indicator and say
that it is very reliable and strong. However,
for this indicator, its years of reliable service
are now over.
Now out-of-date, as it predates the ubiq-
uitous PC and electronic reporting which is
now preferable to keeping paper records.
I add a Weightel™ in between the ana-
logue load cells and the new indicator, this
digitizes the analogue load cell signals. The
new indicator processes the digital load cell
signal and stores the weight along with the
date, time and a record number.
Flour miller values
weighbridge technology on
the island of Zanzibar
by Tim Harford-Cross
Overseas Project Engineer, Griffith Elder
Tontel Software has fully customisable
ticketing and reporting functionality
26 | March - April 2014 GRAIN&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGYF

4. March - April 2014 | 27GRAIN&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY
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5. The indicator can be linked to large LED
external displays, traffic lights and printer
to stand alone from a PC. A button fob
system allows the whole system to be driver
operated with preloaded tare weights stored
on each fob. The whole system can be run
off-grid using 12V solar panels or a battery:
Excellent for use in countries where black-
outs are common place or where 24-hour
service is required. The units can be set
to imperial - such as pounds and tons - or
metric units, such as kilograms or tonnes.
The important functionality at ZMC is the
communication with a computer. The new
PC is installed with Tontel™ Grain Storage
Software and communicates directly with
the indicator. The software allows for stock
control giving quantities of stock in each
store as well creating tickets for each truck
and a powerful reporting utility.
Ticketing
The ticket includes gross weight, tare
weight and nett weight.
Tare weights can be set to enter auto-
matically from a database relating to a given
licence plate number.
Alternatively, the trucks can be weighed
twice when empty and full, during filling/
dropping off the ticket is held in the system
until the operator recalls the ticket for the
second weighing allowing more trucks to be
weighed in the meantime.
Adjustments can be made for the mois-
ture content of the grain allowing the wet
weight (current weight) and the weight after
drying to be calculated.
The user friendly interface allows the
operator to define what information is
included on the ticket. Usual items include
goods, transporter, customer name, etc but
also could be site specific info such as labora-
tory or test sample results.
Reporting systems
The software has an in-built reporting
utility that allows a reports for each store,
truck or over any date range and for any
item on the ticket.
For instance it is possible to generate
a report for trucks coming from “Silo A”
between “1 March and 1 April” but also to
then further specialise the report by select-
ing only records where customer is ‘The Big
Flour Distributor Co’ for example. You can
also choose which data is then displayed in
the report.
The report data is output to a CSV file
that is accessible in spreadsheet software
directly and is able to imported to many
other software programs.
Sharing the weighbridge
The weighbridge at the Zanzibar Milling
Corporation is used by many other com-
panies from the island as this is the only
place they can find accurate weights for their
trucks.
More advanced software is available
where full costing options can be calculated
for storage, weighing and grain handling.
Laboratory, screening and admixture data
and test data can be input on the tickets
such as mycotoxins: Ideal for large sites with
laboratory capabilities.
I go through all the software options and
functionality with Mohammed and tomor-
row I will return to oversee the operation of
the weighbridge by the staff.
At Griffith Elder we find it is essential
to spend enough time as is necessary with
operators on the ground to ensure that they
fully understand the process and can utilise
the software to the maximum.
After my upgrade to the system,
Mohammed takes me on a tour the mill and
meet the team building the silos.
The Zanzibar Milling Corporation under-
stands the essential requirement to weigh
the product at each stage of production.
Not only for optimisation of the produc-
tion procedure but also to calculate profit
margins accurately.
Theft is not a problem on site as
every kilo of grain and flour is accounted
for at each stage. The most important
of these stages is when interacting with
other companies and this is done over the
weighbridge.
Leaving site, the operators are very happy
to be able to print tickets rather than write
them out manually and the manager is very
happy with having all their reports stored in
spreadsheets that he can integrate with his
mill and financial auditing software.
Now I have a chance to find some turtles!
Full portability is
available with PC,
Printer and Indicator
housed in a Winchester
carry case and no floor
bolts for our load cells
The original sturdy 1980s indicator with a small
LCD display is still working and remains reliable
Mohammed points to the new system that brings him
significant advantages in ticketing and reporting
GRAIN&FEED MILLING TECHNOLOGY28 | March - April 2014
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7. www.gfmt.co.uk
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INCORPORATING PORTS, DISTRIBUTION AND FORMULATION
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March-April2014
• Bread is the
foundation of
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• Conserving
grains:
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• Flour miller
values
weighbridge
technology on
the island of
Zanzibar
first published in 1891
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