Product category:
Level and tank contents instrumentation
News Release from: Nivelco Process Control | Subject: EchoTrek on long silos
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 December 2005
Silo measurement at Japanese animal food
plant
Smart solution on 80 tank task: grains, ground grain derivatives, chemicals and animal food pellets monitored in extremely slim silos with ultrasonic transmitters, using a HART multidrop system
The Nivelco EchoTrek provided a smart solution of a challenging solid level measurement task for grains, ground grain derivatives, chemicals and animal food pellets in extremely slim silos with ultrasonic transmitters, using a HART multidrop system This is a success story for Nivelco's EchoTrek as well as for its partners in Japan
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 24 Dec 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The two-wire version of the popular EchoTREK liquid level measurement system from Nivelco is now available with three different operating ranges, working up to 8 metres.
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Being past the peak of the radar boom the time has apparently arrived to give reasonable answers in each case to the following question: ultrasonic or microwave.
Nivelco has always been one of the few manufacturers successfully coping with challenging solid level measurement tasks.
At the same time it has been ready to adopt new radar technology and has added microwave devices to its production range.
Further reading
Level transmitters offered in compact package
Echotrek ultrasonic pulse-echo level measurement systems are available in a range of sensor materials and styles, for use on tanks from 4 to 50 metres high.
Economical FMCW radar level transmitters
PiloTREK is the name for the new FMCW radar range launched by Nivelco, catering for the needs of the cost conscious as well as the demanding customer
MicroTREK: a dependable level meter proved on site
Trials of ultrasonic and radar level transmitters by Wopfinger, the Austro-German company producing ready-made plasters for the Construction Industry, showed the MicroTREK GWR to perform the best
The problem above reared its head in an animal food preparation plant project in Japan involving the extremely slim silos of 14,5 m height and 2,3 m diameter: the plant was one of several owned by Minami Nihon Kumiai Feed Co.
The application was to measure the level of grains, ground grain derivatives and chemicals as well as 2-5 mm pellets (cattle food).
The issue was the transmission of measured data via a digital communication system.
Bitter experience over many years had showed that some distributors had not been ready to devote themselves to the adjustment procedure needed with difficult solid applications, so Nivelco recommend the MicroTrek A model TDR (Time Domain Radar) level transmitter for its Japanese distributor.
But the Japanese distributor Towa Seiden Industry Co was reluctant to accept the higher priced contact radar and pointed Nivelco towards the cheaper non-contact ultrasonic solution.
The EchoTrek STD compact ultrasound level transmitters for solids (with its outstanding narrow beam angle especially suited for slim vessels) have proven their worth in several hundred applications similar to this one.
Consequently, Nivelco did not think twice before offering these units, knowing quite well that these devices were going to replace the previous ultrasonic units of a well known manufacturer which had been unsatisfactory.
Within a matter of days an order was received for 80 EchoTreks plus 10 Multicont controllers that were to gather measured data via HART and transfer the data to the Central Process Control System of the plant through an RS485 link.
Within a few weeks, one unit of the newly developed MultiConts along with communication protocol was shipped as a sample.
The communication software was created by a Japanese System Integrator without a single question asked.
The total set of 80 EchoTreks and 10 Multiconts was shipped out in late 2004 to be installed early 2005.
The final commissioning had been foreseen for April 2005.
Although the project was regarded as a medium sized one in Japan, at Nivelco it was large enough to deserve our special attention.
Upon checking for customer satisfaction around the end of April, Nivelco was pleasantly surprised to hear the short answer of its Japanese distributor "The installation and commissioning went relatively easily".
For Towa Seiden all was normal.
"Nivelco shipped excellent products, they did a fine job in installing and commissioning, the system integrator designed a very good software, so everything went well".
This relatively small animal food producer still has about 200 silos equipped with unsatisfactorily functioning older ultrasonic units and furthermore, there are a good number of animal food producers in Japan to be targeted.
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