The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has a fleet of over 1,000 winter operations trucks and spends up to $60M annually on snow removal and de-icing as part of their winter operation maintenance activities. Materials for treating, contribute a significant part of that budget and the efficient application of these materials with automated solutions for managing driver workload can significantly cut down operating costs and staff turnover. This demonstration shows how INDOT and Purdue University developed an innovative calibration box and smart brine tanker to improve winter operation procedures, reduce costs and make roads safer in the winter. A critical aspect of an effective and efficient application of salt is a properly calibrated spreader system. Preliminary investigation found that trucks were offloading excess salt (around 50% more) before calibration. In the past, spreaders were often calibrated using scales to measure the weight of material off-loaded during a measured time interval. Although this method is accurate, it can be quite time consuming if scales are not on site or if material is collected on a tarp and weighed. INDOT and Purdue University developed a volumetric based calibration procedure. A bottomless calibration box was constructed out of aluminum sign backing that holds a known volume (and weight). The time-consuming aspect of calibration is the offload calibration due to determining the weight of the truck before and after offload and inputting the offloaded amount into the controller. This process can take upwards of 2 hours, but the calibration box eliminates the need for weighing the truck, allowing agencies to calibrate a truck 10 minutes or less. A set of calibration tables can also be used to allow for variance in salt moisture content and densities. Results from repeated tests showed that calibrating improved the offloading inaccuracies by 30%, which could yield a significant reduction in costs and usage.

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