Pulsar control unit receives Idea award

Pulsar Process Measurement have been honoured in the latest Idea (Innovation and Design Excellence) awards, held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in Hyde Park, London.

Pulsar's Blackbox CSO control unit went from initial identification of market need through a full design, prototyping and test sequence to launch in only eight months, netting them the Idea award for Design Cycle Time Reduction.

The Idea awards are supported by Cranfield School of Management together with Eureka and New Electronics magazines.

A panel of judges visits each entrant, spending several hours touring the factory, interviewing engineers and other senior staff, looking for evidence of commitment to innovation and to good engineering practice before making their decision.

In the Pulsar review, the judges picked up on the development of the Blackbox CSO controller.

Water companies are required, not unreasonably, to avoid spilling sewage wherever possible.

However, certain overflows are permissible, for example when rainfall is especially heavy and sewage treatment works would be in danger of being overwhelmed and the overflow is managed through a structure called a CSO (Combined Sewage Overflow).

Under recent regulation changes, the water company is required to monitor the CSO and record how many times the CSO releases waste water to the environment.

The CSO structures are usually in remote areas without a mains electricity supply, and an overflow event may not occur for many months.

Pulsar developed a device to automatically hibernate, periodically waking up to quickly take a measurement via an ultrasonic transducer, recording the measurement and then going back to 'sleep'.

If the level of the sewage is rising, the Blackbox CSO wakes more often until it has recorded an overflow event and its duration.

In this way, a battery can last for many months or even years, and measurements are only made when necessary.

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