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Beamex customer case story

Absolut Company, Sweden

Absolut Company upgrades its’ paperless calibration process with Beamex MC6

Beamex / Case stories / Absolut company, Sweden | Beamex MC6, MC5 and CMX case story

Overview

The Absolut Company has the worldwide responsibility for the production, innovation and strategic marketing of ABSOLUT VODKA, MALIBU, KAHLÚA, Wyborowa, Luksusowa and Frïs. ABSOLUT VODKA is the world’s fourth largest premium spirits brand. Every bottle of ABSOLUT VODKA is produced in Åhus in southern Sweden. Producing its vodka in one location using local raw materials gives The Absolut Company complete control of all stages of production and ensures that every drop meets our high quality standard. The Absolut Company is a company within the Pernod Ricard group, which holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector.

Need for functional and robust calibration equipment

The first Beamex calibrator, MC5, was purchased in 2005 in order to start in-house calibrations. Before that, the calibration process was outsourced to a service company. Absolut Company had no scheduled calibrations and the traceability was limited. There used to be a yearly calibration process of all of the 2000 instruments during the shutdown in summer. No calibrations were performed outside the annual shutdown, only in cases of deviation or failure reports.

Pär Björklund, an engineer in the automation department, is responsible for control systems, instruments and calibration at Absolut Company. Björklund works in close, efficient cooperation with another engineer and a technician who works in the service department. He and his team were eager to improve the calibration process, knowing that inaccuracy would affect the total quality of the product. They saw the need for functional and robust high quality calibration equipment. In 2005, the company purchased the first MC5 and in 2007 CMX Calibration Software was acquired.

We can save a huge amount of costs by performing the calibrations in-house with Beamex calibration equipment. The payback time for the investment is short and after a couple of years of using the equipment, we will have all of the knowledge we need. We can easily show any calibration result if needed.

Pär Björklund, Automation Department Engineer, Absolut Company, Sweden

New quality regulations increased the demand for accurate calibrations

The Absolut Company was quality certified, which increased the requirements for traceability and calibration. Absolut Company is certified according to several different standards; BS EN ISO 22000:2005 (Food Safety Management System), SS 62 77 50 (Energy Management System), ISO9001, ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001 (Health and Safety Management System). These certificates are audited regularly and the calibration team needs to be able to prove that calibration intervals are followed and that all calibration results are documented in a traceable way. “Nowadays calibration is crucial to our production processes. If we don’t calibrate regularly, we might have unplanned line shutdowns creating huge losses. We both need and want to have accurate measurements,” Mr Björklund points out.

Read the full Absolut Company customer case story

The in-house calibration process

Absolut Company calibrates temperature, pressure, flow and level on all possible process equipment, including both analog and digital instruments. The calibration intervals for every single instrument have been agreed upon with the production department. They are evaluated every year and, if needed, also adjusted. All the necessary work can be done with Beamex calibrators. “We can save a huge amount of costs by performing the calibrations in-house with Beamex calibration equipment. The payback time for the investment is short and after a couple of years using the equipment, we will have all of the knowledge we need. We can easily show any calibration result, if needed,” Mr Björklund describes.

Beamex calibrators are very accurate and reliable

According to Mr Björklund, the Absolut Company finds the calibrators accurate and reliable. Thanks to the CMX Software Support and Maintenance Program, the company gets regular software updates and support from the Beamex help desk team if problems arise. “We find the Beamex CMX Calibration Software easy to use and it is essential for our planning and documentation,” he adds. Working with potentially combustible substances, it’s important to be able to use the calibrators in an EX-environment, which is possible with the MC5-IS. The Absolut Company uses several products from the Beamex product range: CMX, MC5 compatible with HART and Profibus PA, POC6, PG series pumps, temperature dry blocks and now also the new MC6. “The quality and accuracy of our measurements have improved after using Beamex calibration equipment, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity in our department as well as in our facility. We are very satisfied with our calibration equipment and looking forward to using the new Beamex MC6,” Mr Björkund concludes.

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