SOLUTIONS

REVIEW MY APPLICATION
PLASTIC PROCESSING
FOOD PROCESSING
FEED PROCESSING
GRAIN PROCESSING
AGREGATES
GENERAL / MISC. / OTHER • • >

 

 


( click here )

 
Charcoal Manufacturer Improves Inventory Accuracy & Reliability

PROBLEM:
“We used a cable running up the side of the silo through the top and down inside with a weight attached to the end inside the silo. The end on the outside was attached to a hand winch.  We would release the winch, lower the cable until it appeared it had hit the material surface.  Then we would take a reading from a marker on the cable on the outside.” There were a total of eight silos of various heights.

This type of measurement was made on silos containing wood chip and wood flour.  These are ingredients in the charcoal manufacturing process. There were a total of eight silos of various heights.  Wood chip and wood flour are processed into briquettes and fired.  This is a simplification of the process and may not be a completely accurate description, but the actual process is proprietary to each manufacturer.

EXPLANATION:
The problem that was created was measurement error and inconsistency due to the manual method employed and human error in making this manual measurement.  It was very frequent that they were way off in readings and the measurement of the cable outside the silo was always an “eyeball guess”.

SOLUTION:SiloPatrol SE
The charcoal manufacturer wanted to eliminate the human element in making these measurements and improve accuracy of measurement and reliability of data.  The solution was the SiloPatrol® inventory monitoring system from Monitor Technologies.  The SiloPatrol inventory monitoring system is a smart weight & cable based sensor system.  This state-of-the-art weight & cable system is a proven problem solver.  Wood chips have a bulk density of about 20-30 lbs/ft3 and wood flour is even lighter at about 15-20 lbs/ft3.  In addition, the dielectric constant was very low, running around 1.7 or lower.  The local Monitor representative arranged a demonstration and to date eight silos have been equipped with the system, including an HMIHMI that operators and users read data from.  The lightweight nature of the material was no problem and the low dielectric constant has no effect on the performance of this smart cable-based sensor system.  The SiloPatrol system eliminated the manual measurement process, the time taken to make the manual measurements, improved accuracy of measurement and overall reliability.  The charcoal manufacturer realized savings in time and material.  The system has been in use successfully for the past four years.

Give Monitor Technologies a call and let us put our creative solutions to work for you!

 

Related Product Solutions
 

>>

Sharing High Level Detection Amongst Many Bins

 

>>

Eliminating Calibration Drift and Re-Calibration of RF Capacitance Probes

 

>>

RF Capacitance Cable Extension Unit More Rugged

 

 
Flexar® GWR  
Global Flour Processor Uses Flexar® Guided Wave Radar

A large global flour processor and food products company recently began using the Flexar® guided wave radar in a total of eighteen (18) silos and bins to manage their finished product inventory.  Readings from these continuous level sensors is reported as being reliable and accurate, even during pneumatic filling, contrary to their previous measuring system.  A previous non-performing ultrasonic system was replaced by the Flexar level sensors.  Flexar guided wave radar level sensors were chosen as the best for pneumatically filled dust laden flour silos.

Eight (8) Flexar level sensors are installed in load-out silos that fill bulk trucks with processed and finished flour.  These silos are 12ft in diameter and 35ft tall.  The finished flour is pneumatically conveyed into these silos.  During filling the internal environment of the silos is very dusty and turbulent.  The finished flour in these silos is used for loading bulk transport trucks for distribution.  In addition, ten (10) Flexar level sensors are installed in 40ft high bins that contain bran.  This material is also sent by bulk transport to end users.

All of the Flexar level sensors are equipped with an RS485 digital communications output that is connected to a PC with a graphical user interface for inventory management purposes.  Monitor’s SiloTrack™ inventory management software is used by the facility to monitor and manage material inventories of both the finished flour and the bran.  SiloTrack allows for multiple user viewing and data access via LAN and this is how the facility will be using the software that provides a flexible, graphical user interface, alarms, report generation and history analysis functions.

Guided wave radar is especially well suited to level measurement applications of dusty powder materials even when measuring during pneumatic filling.  Flexar guided wave radar utilizes TDR (time domain reflectometry) technology.  Radar pulses are continuously transmitted down the sensor’s probe and guided to the material surface where they are reflected back to the electronics along the wave guide.  The time-of-flight of the pulses is measured and directly related to the distance to the material surface and its level.

 

>>Click here for more information about Flexar guided wave radar continuous level measurement sensors.
>>Download Product Bulletin 353A
>>Click here to visit our Flexar Website


 

Join Monitor's E-Mailing List!
Enter your Email Address Here:


 
 


CLICK HERE TO SEND PAGE TO A FRIEND

HOME | PRODUCTS | ASK US | REP LOCATOR | INDUSTRY LINKS | SHOWCASE | ABOUT US
SITE MAP | PRIVACY STATEMENT

© 2005 MONITOR TECHNOLOGIES, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

800.601.6302

Free TranslationsFree web translationsWorldlingo.com Translate this page