Flexar® Continuous Level Systems Successful on Cement Powder
and Flyash at Batavia Concrete
PROBLEM:
“I have no idea how much material we have left in our cement
and flyash bins. We need a reliable solution to make us more
efficient.”
EXPLANATION:
Batavia Concrete is located in Montgomery, IL and is one of many
concrete batch plants operated by Prairie Materials in northern Illinois. Like
most concrete plants, Batavia uses cement and flyash as ingredients. Ready
mixed concrete batch plants take the basic components needed to form
concrete, i.e. sand, rock, cement powder and flyash and batch them
together for loadout into concrete trucks. Concrete is used
as a versatile construction material and there are literally tens
of thousands of batch plants around North America.
Unfortunately,
Batavia’s facility only used high and low level indicators. Their
operations manager, Fred Thompson, had no idea how much material was
remaining at any given time. This delayed replenishment and sometimes
they couldn’t fit a truckload of cement or flyash into the bin. They
needed to know the level of the material at any given time in order
to become more efficient.
SOLUTION:
Chief application engineer for Monitor Technologies, Andy Bowman,
decided to employ the Flexar technology and product to help Batavia
Concrete. Monitor Technologies introduced the Flexar® guided
wave radar continuous level measurement system to Batavia Concrete
in December 2005. Monitor strategically acquired this level
sensing system during 2005 to add to its significant solution capability
for powder and bulk solids applications. Flexar is proven
technology combined with five decades of bulk solids experience
and unique inventory management software solutions. Monitor
knew it had the right solution for Batavia Concrete.
Flexar is a guided wave radar continuous level sensor. Distance/level
is measured by the time-of-flight of the reflection of a microwave
signal (transmitted down the wave-guide, which is a heavy-duty
0.3” SS cable with 3.9 ton tensile strength) off the material
surface. Cement and flyash both have relatively low dielectric
constants and Flexar’s direct measuring mode was successful
in providing real-time continuous updates of the material level
during filling and draw-down.
Both Flexar units are installed with 34’ cable length. The
4-20mA signal from each Flexar unit is connected to a panel meter
in the control room. Fred Thompson, Regional Operations Manager
of Batavia Concrete, has been satisfied with this solution ever
since it was installed. Observations during filling cycles
were very good right off. Flexar didn’t skip a beat,
even with the heavy dust kicked up during pneumatic filling.
Fred Thompson reports that he desires to install Flexar units
at other plants within his regional area of responsibility. He
prefers the true continuous nature of Flexar guided wave radar
units.
Give Monitor Technologies a call and let us put our creative solutions
to work for you!
Microwave solids flow detectors can
be used in a variety of applications including feed mills & grain processing,
consumer foods (cereal, sugar, cocoa, coffee), chemicals & pesticides
and more. For example, one company uses Monitor’s Model SFD-2
solids flow detector to verify the flow of feed pellets through their
various transport lines which involves a process where a horizontal
screw auger is conveying pellets over to a vertical gravity chute. The
chute then directs the pellets to a process down below. They have
carefully placed the SFD-2 so that it detects the pellets as they
fall directly across the sensor face. (See Below)
The Model SFI and SFD-2 line of solids flow detectors
from Monitor Technologies, LLC provide analog or relay outputs
to indicate the flow / no-flow condition of powder and bulk solids
materials in chutes and pneumatic conveying lines. Using
microwave Doppler radar technology these units are non-invasive
plus extremely reliable and rugged to withstand the rigors of the
installation and your process extremes. From automated systems
with pneumatic lines to gravity chutes, solids flow monitors can
help to improve process performance. They can assist in detecting
flow problems, as well as, enhance the level of automation at a
facility like turning a conveyor on or off.
For more information on Solids
Flow Detectors click here or contact Monitor Technologies LLC
at 800-766-6486 in the USA and 630-365-9403 worldwide.
PROBLEM:
Unfortunately,
Batavia’s facility only used high and low level indicators. Their
operations manager, Fred Thompson, had no idea how much material was
remaining at any given time. This delayed replenishment and sometimes
they couldn’t fit a truckload of cement or flyash into the bin. They
needed to know the level of the material at any given time in order
to become more efficient. 
