Yokogawa Electric has developed a range of monitoring systems for use on temperature-controlled container ships used for cold-treated food transportation. Based on Yokogawa's data-acquisition hardware integrated with customised software, these systems have received the all-important USDA certification, which is mandatory for all food imported by ship into the US. The USDA In-Transit Cold Treatment regulation stipulates that a USDA-approved recording system has to be on board every cooling vessel importing goods such as bananas and citrus fruits into the US.Approval for the Yokogawa recording systems and their associated software solutions means Yokogawa can offer a range of USDA-approved recording systems that will suit vessels of all sizes and levels of sophistication. Key products used in the USDA-approved systems include the DXAdvanced Daqstation range of data-acquisition and control stations and the MX100 PC-based data-acquisition system. These products complement earlier Yokogawa devices with USDA approval, including the DR240 hybrid recorder and the UR20000 chart recorder.
The DXAdvanced Daqstation, with its high-visibility TFT screen, is ideal for environments where instant visual feedback and alerts are essential. Measured values are captured on both a high-capacity internal memory (80 to 200Mbyte) and removable flash storage (up to 2Gbyte). Combined with MW100 remote input units, the Daqstation can log more than 240 input signals. When configured with Yokogawa's Advanced Report software tool, USDA-approved reports can be automatically generated at user-specified intervals.
The PC front-end MX100 system offers reliable multi-channel data acquisition for easy connection to a PC running MCPS logging and monitoring software. The live monitoring screens give a clear indication of trend curves and actual measurement values, while the customised report function and automated tasks periodically create USDA reports showing the temperature conditions of all cooling compartments during a journey.
