Flexar® Guided Wave Radar Instrumental at New Ethanol Facility
The latest generation of an Ethanol producing plant is just about to go on-line in Wisconsin. The news story and video can be found at the link here. In addition, Monitor’s Flexar® guided wave radar level sensors are instrumental at this facility and used to measure changing levels of corn in various conditions. A total of seventeen Flexar sensors are installed. The benefit of guided wave radar is its continuous measurement capability, moderate cost, ease of installation and start-up. Guided wave radar technology is used in a wide variety of applications in many different industries. Its universal appeal is another reason for the fact that it is growing in popularity and use by some 21% per year (according to a recent market study).
Guided wave radar continuous level measurement sensors operate using TDR technology. TDR, or time domain reflectometry, has been in use measuring process levels since the early 1990's and is well proven in all types of liquid and bulk solids applications. The sensor electronics initiates microwave (radar) energy pulses continuously and these are focused and sent down a wave-guide (probe). The wave-guide is used to guide the energy to the material surface. This is advantageous and superior to open-air devices as you can imagine. The energy pulses reflect off the material surface and the time-of-flight is measured and related directly to the distance from the sensor to the material surface. Flexar level sensors are proven very reliable and accurate.
Flexar guided wave radar units work in a wide range of applications like corn in multiple Ethanol plant applications, plastic pellets, PVC resin and compound, calcium carbonate, clays, sand, cement, flyash and even seed. Monitor Technologies has been providing innovation level monitoring and measurement solutions for bulk solids and liquids for five decades. If you’d like more information about Flexar guided wave radar sensors or any of our other level measurement and monitoring solutions, please contact us at 1-800-766-6486 or visit our website at www.monitortech.com or www.flexar.info and our blog at www.monitortech.typepad.com
The TrueCap® Model MK-2
RF Capacitance point level probe is designed to provide a superior
and stable sensitivity threshold making it suitable for a variety
of powder / bulk solids and some liquid or slurry applications.
Advanced features of the Model MK-2 include: > Automatic immunity to material build-up on
the probe by its driven shield design > Push-button calibration > Enhanced temperature compensation > Maximized reliability via smart sensing algorithms
like “self-validating” fail-safe protection > Visible status LED on ordinary location units > Versatility through a variety of configuration
options including: hazardous location version, split architecture
design, quick-connect process connection, stub probe, cable extensions,
solid extensions, Nylon® probes, Ryton® - equiv. probes,
etc.
A practical application for the TrueCap would be to use this level sensor where
a residual material build-up on a different sensor would cause a false material
level indication.
Principle of Operation for the TrueCap RF Capacitance Level
Probe:
The vessel wall and the active probe element establish an impedance reference
between each other when exposed to air which has a dielectric constant of 1.
When materials with a dielectric constant greater than 1 are in close proximity
to the probe, the impedance of the sensing field between the sensor and the vessel
wall will change. Once the amount of change exceeds a threshold that was electronically
determined during the calibration process, an output relay will either be energized
or de-energized depending upon the position of the fail-safe selector on the
probe’s electronic circuit board. A change of as little as .5 pico-farad
is all that is necessary for the probe to sense the presence of material.