Level Measurement & Control


Allpronix and APM success in the lime silo

March 2015 Level Measurement & Control

Allpronix recently helped one of its customers to resolve a difficult application in the bulk solids industry using the APM 3D volumetric scanner. The customer, Lime Distributers, had for many years been using legacy technology, such as single point radar, both to control the filling cycle and to monitor the inventory on hand, with little to no success.

The site is a limestone crushing and processing plant in the Vaal Triangle and the customer had three specific needs from the desired system installed on the two 4118 ton silos, each 28 m high and 12 m in diameter:

1. Control the filling cycle so that there is never a difference of more than 150 ton between the two silos.

2. Accurately measure inventory for stock management and reporting.

3. Have a 3D image of the product profile inside the silo.

The solution was the APM scanner, because it gives a continuous three dimensional mapping of the surface of the material, even during filling and emptying cycles.

The installation went as follows, one APM-MV scanner in each of the silos, with a 4-20 mA signal fed into the DCS over an existing ASI-bus network. This was used for the control of the filling cycle, while a wireless link from the top of the silo to the office network enables management to monitor the 3D profile image and generate the inventory reports.

In the past, there were maintenance problems because the horn antenna of the radar became blocked by product build-up, which meant the maintenance team had to remove the old radar device weekly for cleaning. Since the installation of the APM scanner, over 6 months ago, the unit has not needed to be cleaned once due to the self cleaning ability of the instrument. The maintenance team also had to climb the silo every day to do physical rope dip tests because they did not entirely trust the old device. This no longer has to be done, hence avoiding the unnecessary health and safety risks and saving staff resources.

For more information contact Veni Reddy, Allpronix, +27 (0)11 795 9500, veni@allpronix.com, www.allpronix.com



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