Bin Level Sensors
Greetings from my corner of the "Frozen Eastern Wilderness" @1140 feet above mean sea level.
Mr. Russel would not the tried and true methods of bin measurement using (bindicator/tilt mercury switches)tbe the simplest and easiest to maintain in your case?
The mining firm I used to work for uses them for rock salt and they are very reliable.
They are very adaptable to every use and can be used in multiple arrays to monitor product level
and maintain it. They last for thousands of hours
and seldom go bad. They are much less expensive as well. ■
Returned Greetings From About 22 Feet Above Sea Level.
Izaharis:
For the actual process bunkers, we generally use tuning fork style vibration limit switches for discreet level measurement – with good success.
On our 75 ft tall exterior pellet storage silos we have been using non-contact ultrasonic’s for continuous measurement. This type of sensor fall prey to the whims of the environment. Temperature, humidity, and wind (from conveying) affect the output. We’d like to progress to something more reliable, hence our interest in radar.
We’d also like to find a way to continuously measure the levels in our fluff bunkers. Fluff is thin BOPP film shredded through a ” screen, and is only 1-3 lbs/ft3.
It’s a bear to convey, dispense, and measure.
Regards,
Bob ■
Bin Problems
Thanks for replying to me,
I honestly think that the bindicator/mercury tilt switches will work for you with your application.
what we did in our bins is hang the mercury switches off of the headframe of the conveyor feeding the bin on a piece of white pvc pipe near the apex of the cone of run of mine salt and this helped to protect the switches for the high and low limits of the bin and worked very well.
The cables for both switches were strapped to the two pieces of PVC with electrical tape.
I take it you make black poly pipe. ■
Re: Radar Level Sensors For Polypro Pellets?
Laser is preferred non-contact technology for measuring level Polypropylene/polystyrene pellets, the measurements are unaffected by low dielectric constant of material, temperature variations or background noise. Measurements are not affected by the angle of repose & they have very short set up time and simple calibration.
V Grover
Optech
Product Specialist
100 Wildcat Road
Toronto ON M3J2Z9
Tel: 416-661-5904
Email:vikasg@optech.ca
http://www.optech.ca/i3d-lvlmonitors.htm
Application note: http://www.optech.ca/pdf/Appnotes/18...nplastics.pdf ■
Radar Level Sensors for Polypro pellets?
I’ve been told that radar level sensors were not a good fit for polypro pellet level measurement. Just recently, we have two different vendors coming in to proclaim that their new radar technology will make them a fit for my application.
My concern is the visibility of the product. A quick look at the dielectric constants for polypro indicates:
Air 1
Polypropylene 1.5
Polypropylene Powder 1.25
Polypropylene, Pellet 1.5-1.8
As it turns out, 1.6 to 1.9 is the minimum for these new Pulse and Guided Wave radar technologies.
So, I guess the question is. Has the technology changed, or is it the marketing?
Currently we use ultrasonic sensors on our silos (with poor reliability) and Yo-Yo's on our indoor surge hoppers.
I’m tempted to test load cells but they also are temperature sensitive and you have to-uncouple the catwalks and stair to prevent adjacent silos from affecting the reading.
Thanks for any and all responses.
Bob R. ■