FLOW, LEVEL & CONTROL FEATURE
WHEN
INSTRUMENTS do their level best
The features and benefits offered by VEGA’s non-contact radar level sensors are resulting in their adoption in a range of applications – from taking level measurements in waste processing plants to monitoring the level of rivers
T
oday’s high sensitivity non-contact radar level transmitters are proving
highly effective in applications that were previously found to be extremely challenging – including where there are foaming surfaces, very low reflectivity plastics, narrow measurement apertures and target areas, fast response wave height measurement or conveyor positioning, high combustion temperatures and vacuum, etc. In fact, non-contact level radar offers a number of benefits, including: • Easy to use: fast installation, no empty vessel needed, application based quick set up • Low operational costs: accurate, reliable measurement, drift free, no recalibration • Extreme solution: Cryogenic at -196˚C to combustion systems and >1800˚C
• No ‘probes’: look through valves, excellent hygiene
• Highly flexible: Fewer sensor variants needed.
The benefits offered mean products
such as the VEGAPULS 69 radar level sensor are being used in a variety of applications. One example takes place at E&JW Glendinning, a supplier of quarry and concrete products to both trade and end users in Devon and Cornwall. As part of a programme of modernisation and automation, the company needed
a high-tech sensor solution. The feed hopper above the secondary
crusher is a critical process control point, and this is where the majority of aggregate comes through at some stage. This, however, is a noisy, dusty environment with unpredictable flow patterns and material behaviours. The crusher can process up to 400 tonnes an hour, and the whole plant 4000 tonnes a day. So, accurate information and control is needed to optimise productivity, energy consumption and product quality from the crusher. As with many sites in the sector, the company was using non-contact ultrasonic sensors, however noise, dust and product build-up resulted in unreliable performance. To overcome the problem, engineers at the company decided to trial the VEGAPULS 69 radar level sensor. The application consists of: a feed hopper of approximately 8m high and 5m square, and at the bottom two sides slope down onto a central crusher feed. The hopper can be fed from any one of three conveyors, which can be simultaneous, and the stone size feeding in can range in size from dust up to 250mm. Inside the feed silo it gets a heavy build up of stone on the ‘shoulders’ of the coned section, forming a narrower ‘rat hole’ to the bottom. As this material rarely
moves, the sensor needed to be able to read down past this point. The VEGA instrument was installed
in the existing mounting position of the ultrasonic sensor, very close to the main infeed into the bunker. It was commissioned by the plug-in programmer on the top of the device. As soon as it was installed on the empty silo, the sensor was able to read right down to the bottom of the bin to the outlet conveyor. Then, following a few adjustments, the sensor provided a smooth level output to enable operators to control crusher throughput and the conveyor speeds. Confident in the performance of the
devices, E&JW Glenning has embarked on a schedule of installing the non-contact level radar solution across the plant.
WASTE PROCESSING A VEGAPULS 69 bulk solids level sensor has also been installed at a waste processing facility where it is working in a difficult application over a very short range of just over 2m. The application is in a high temperature ash outlet from a gasification process where, via a screw conveyor, hot waste of around 400˚C and under a vacuum is deposited into a metal barrel container inside a sealed cabinet. The barrel level needs to be monitored for changeover - when this is
INSTRUMENTATION | OCTOBER 2015
VEGAPULS WL61 water radars have been installed as test instruments in an application on the River Weaver
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