Measuring Material Level in Dusty Talc Applications for Luzenac
America
PROBLEM:
“Ultrasonic systems from two leading manufacturers don’t
work because of the heavy dust. The older weight and cable style
doesn’t work well because of high maintenance. I need a reliable
solution.”
EXPLANATION:
Luzenac supplies the pulp, paper and board industry with talc for
use as a pitch control agent and a runnability aid, a coating pigment
in both rotogravure and offset, and a functional filler. In certain
specialty papers, e.g. colored papers, labels, Luzenac talc’s
special properties help to improve quality and productivity. Talc
also has application as an additive to ceramic, rubber, plastics
and even roofing materials. Talc is about 50lbs/ft³ and very dusty.
Older electromechanical weight & cable devices couldn’t
live up to the rigors of the application, neither could ultrasonic
systems that were blinded by the heavy dust.
SOLUTION:
The Monitor Technologies SiloPatrol® smart cable-based sensor
system with 4-20mA output was being used successfully on this difficult
application at the Luzenac plant in Sappington, Montana. The Three
Forks plant needed a solution and decided to try the SiloPatrol inventory
monitoring system to reliably keep track of their finished goods
inventory. In this tough application the SiloPatrol proved to be
the best solution. The sensor is unaffected by the dust and internal
bin structures. The SiloPatrol sensor uses a powerful direct drive
motor and 270lb. tensile strength cable along with state-of-the-art
microcontroller based electronics.
Luzenac prefers the SiloPatrol
system to other equipment they have tried. This is evidenced by
their usage at the two plants in Montana
and one plant in Houston, TX. They have dozens of units in place
that continue to work reliably for them.
Give Monitor Technologies a call and let us put
our creative solutions to work for you!
SiloPatrol® SE Measuring coal powder levels when nothing else will work ….
Coal-fired power plants are commonplace around the
world. In order for these power generating stations to create
huge amounts of electricity the turbines need to be feed with steam
and the steam created by boilers that are fired by … yep,
coal. But coal as it comes from the mining operations is not
what is fed to the burners. First it is ground or pulverized
into powder. It is not unusual for the coal powder to be stored
in silos awaiting the demand for it to be fed to the burners. The
inventory of coal powder in these silos needs to be monitored to
allow for efficient operation of the power plant.
So, how do we monitor the inventory of coal powder in a silo? Not
easily. In one typical application the power plant personnel
found that the only technology that would work reliably is the modern
smart weight & cable system from Monitor Technologies LLC, the
SiloPatrol® SE.
Anhui Tongling power plant in Anhui province in China had tried
almost ever technology possible to get a reliable level measurement
in their 5 coal powder silos. Radar, ultrasonic and others
were tried, but none worked reliably. It wasn’t until
Beijing Conasen walked in and proposed that the Tongling plant use
the SiloPatrol SE smart cable-based inventory monitoring system that
the power plant personnel found a reliable solution.
Mr. William Yuan, sales manager for Beijing Conasen indicates that
the power plant tried many major brands of ultrasonic, radar, and
other technologies but that due to good relations with the Tongling
plant personnel he was able to sell three SiloPatrol SE model SMU
sensors and an HMI operator interface to them. The units were
installed by plant personnel. Because of the heavy amount of
coal dust in the silos an air purge using dry compressed air was
used. The SiloPatrol sensor incorporates the patent-pending
use of Hall-effect sensor technology, a split-compartment enclosure,
microcontroller, redundant optics and many other valuable features
and technology to ensure reliable measurement even in challenging
dust applications like coal powder.
The SiloPatrol SE system has been working reliably and the plant
has since purchased two additional sensors and connected them into
the same HMI operator interface. This same sensor technology
is working reliably at other coal-fired power stations in China as
well.
For more information on the SiloPatrol SE click
here or contact Monitor Technologies LLC at 800-766-6486 in
the USA and 630-365-9403 worldwide.
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