Level Measurement & Control


Diesel level system in Transnet tugboats

August 2016 Level Measurement & Control

The manufacture of tugboats by SA Shipyards for end user Transnet provided Instrotech with an opportunity to develop a technical solution for diesel tank monitoring.

Instrotech’s specific involvement was the monitoring of volume, in litres, of diesel in the port and starboard tanks of the tugboats. Instrotech specified locally manufactured products, as well as high-quality Swiss instrumentation by Keller. Some examples of Keller’s high quality pressure sensors are Ex-rated, low and very high pressures and temperatures, data logging, submersible level, manometers and differential pressure transmitters.

An Ex-rated submersible level transmitter, Keller 36 XWei with an atmospheric pressure vent in the cable, was mounted 50 mm above the bottom (to prevent build up) and located centrally for uniformity of head pressure. Instrotech was able to install and safely monitor the diesel head of pressure with a 4-20 mA output. The 5 m high port and starboard tanks were not uniform in shape, so with sounding charts provided by SA Shipyards and taking the specific gravity (SG) of diesel into consideration, Instrotech was able to calculate the desired pressure at 16 critical points and then determine the volumetric capacity of diesel versus the head of pressure of diesel in the tanks. Instrotech’s locally made programmable digital indicators are customised with a 16 point lineariser option, allowing the operator to see the actual quantity of diesel in the tanks.

Giles Wilcox, Instrotech’s technical sales area manager comments, “This was yet another interesting custom technical project for Instrotech. With the quality and variety of instrumentation available, we were able to bring together various technologies for a successful solution.”



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