Monitoring 80 silo contents with HART transmitters

The Smart EchoTREK solution for level measurement of grain, ground grain derivatives, chemicals and animal food pellets in narrow silos with ultrasonic transmitters uses a HART multidrop system

The monitoring of 80 silos in a Japanese animal food plant is a success story for the Nivelco EchoTREK Smart solution as well as for its partners in Japan.

It seems the time has apparently arrived to give reasonable answers in each case to the question: ultrasonic or microwave for level measurement.

Nivelco has always been one of the few manufacturers who have successfully coped with challenging solid level measurement tasks.

At the same time it has been ready to adopt the new radar technology and now also offers microwave devices in its product range.

The requirement in Japan reared its head in a project involving extremely slim silos of 14,5 m height and 2,3 m diameter, in one of the plants belonging to Minami Nihon Kumiai Feed Co.

The application was to measure the level of grains, ground grain derivatives and chemicals as well as 2 to 5 mm pellets of cattle food.

The main site issue was the transmission of measured data via a digital communication system.

Bitter experiences years back resulting from the fact that some distributors had not been ready to devote themselves to the adjustment procedure needed with peculiar solid applications made Nivelco recommend the MicroTREK A model TDR (Time Domain Radar) level transmitter for use by its Japanese distributor.

Surprisingly the Japanese distributor Towa Seiden Industry 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 hundreds of 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 unsatisfactory ultrasonic units provided by another well known manufacturer.

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 MultiCONT, along with the 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 then installed in 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 the customer satisfaction, Nivelco was pleasantly surprised to hear the short answer from 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 very good software for the customer interface, so everything went well.

This relatively small animal food producer still has about 200 silos equipped with older unsatisfactorily functioning ultrasonic units and furthermore, there are a good number of animal food producers in Japan to be targeted for sales of further EchoTREK units made by Nivelco.

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