Panel Bulk Product Settings for Liquid Systems

Reachable in the Product Setup tool or by going to "Panels > Panel Bulk Product Settings", these settings tell the system how and where Bulk Products are available in the system to dispense product for orders.

•  Panel functions -- The location where a Bulk Product is available. While this will rarely change for large bulk storage tanks, facilities with pump racks linking several mini-bulk totes to the system may have products change location. In these circumstances these panel functions will need to be updated as changes are made to prevent any dispensing of the wrong product.
  •  There is one special Panel function: "Hand Add". Using this function tells the system that a Bulk Product is not directly available to it to dispense; instead the operator must add that Bulk Product to the order; for liquid systems, the operator typically adds these products to a weigh tank.
•  Start parameter (flood time, start bumps) -- For liquid systems this is the flood time for pumps, in seconds. The valve will open, the system will wait for this number of seconds, and then the pump will start. This is done to prevent flow and cavitation issues. If having flow issues add a few seconds. If it feels like the system is sitting idle for too long, subtract a few seconds.
•  Finishing Parameter (purge) -- Configures how long the purge function will run in seconds. If this is for a carrier line, it should be set for the first/closest bay. Then Discharge Locations will allow per bay/discharge location multipliers to be applied based on additional plumbing lengths on these additional locations.
•  Always use purge time -- If this option is turned on the system will purge out after this product is dispensed, even if it is not the last product in the order.
•  Anticipation -- Defined in units of material, however most often it is left in units of "Pounds". Anticipation is simply an estimate of material that will be delivered after a valve is closed or a pump is shut off. See Understanding Anticipation for more information on the topic.
•  Anticipation Update Factor (0 to 1) -- A means for facilities, generally liquid ones, to allow for the system to automatically dial in the Anticipation. A setting of "0" disables this function, and in most cases a value of "0.5" is recommended.

So if an order for 1000 pounds actually had 1050 pounds delivered the error on the order would be +50 pounds. The recommended anticipation update factor is 0.5 so the anticipation correction factor is the Error multiplied by the update factor so (+50 pounds X 0.5) = +25 pounds. That +25 pounds is then added to the current anticipation with the expectation that the next time the product is dispensed it will be more accurate by that amount.

•  Conversion Factor -- Only used for systems that use pulse meters. If your facility has these meters, refer to their documentation for what value to enter here. Otherwise, ignore this field.
•  Update density using meter -- Only recommended if a setup has meters dedicated to one, and only one, product. If that is the case, enabling this will automatically update the recorded density for a product every time it is used. Enabling this in any other circumstance will cause fluctuating accuracy in the system as densities are improperly updated.
• Use average density for ticket Only recommended if a setup has meters dedicated to one, and only one, product. If that is the case, enabling this will automatically record the average density to be used on the ticket when it is printed. Enabling this in any other circumstance will cause fluctuating accuracy on tickets.
•  Dump time (sec) -- Only used on dry facilities and can be ignored.
•  Disabled -- This checkbox will tell the system a bulk product is unavailable. Checking this box will prevent the system from using this particular bulk product to fulfil any order. This may be done when a bulk product runs out or when a product has been removed from a pump rack system.

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