Radar chip tackles sticky and sandy measurement situations in silos

Earlier this year, VEGA unveiled and released its innovative new radar sensor, VEGAPULS 6X. Powered by the company’s custom radar chip, the 6X sensor is designed to provide precise and reliable measurements for a wide range of applications.

The chemical industry uses the latest technology and places high demands on productivity, quality, and profitability.

Now that the new sensor has spent some time in chemical operations around the world, the company says, it can now share a couple success stories it has heard from customers.

Escaping silo sand traps

A specialty chemical company that supplies the construction and industrial markets utilized Guided Wave Radar (GWR) sensors on six sand silos at one of their plants. Due to abrasion from the contacting sand, the probes on these GWR sensors required regular maintenance and cleaning and would sometimes even get damaged.

Seeking an alternative measurement method that would save them from the mounting time and costs being put into maintenance, the company reached out to measurement experts at VEGA.

Making chemical applications easier and safer

In this example, VEGA personnel visited the plant to assess the troublesome application. After a careful examination of the process, company experts recommended the non-contact radar technology of VEGAPULS 6X as the ideal solution for the company’s sandy predicament. Since the sensor is able to make reliable measurements without touching potentially abrasive or damaging process materials like sand, the plant agreed to test out a VEGAPULS 6X unit on one of the sand silos to see if it could truly live up to the challenge.

After spending time monitoring the sensor’s performance, the company was so pleased by the lack of maintenance and cleaning and by the reliability and precision of the measurement that they opted to equip the other five sand silos in the plant with the 6X sensors as well.

Sticky situation calls for powerful non-contact radar

In a second example, a major provider of gypsum used Guided Wave Radar sensors in short vessels filled with foam and sticky process materials. Worried about the potential maintenance and failure risks posed by the buildup of materials on the sensor rods, the company contacted VEGA, who came out to assess the vessels in order to discover an ideal solution.

VEGA instrumentation always has the most suitable sensor for level measurement, point level detection and pressure measurement: reliable, field proven and service friendly.

Upon examining this literally sticky situation, VEGA personnel determined that VEGAPULS 6X would be the right sensor for the job; they equipped one of the vessels with a demo unit to verify the measurements and demonstrate the sensor’s prowess.

The gypsum company was delighted to find that the sensor was capable of making precise measurements without any part of the sensor contacting the process, and an 80 GHz configuration is capable of measuring through complex vessel geometry like stirrers and mixers.

Impressed by the sensor’s performance, the company outfitted each of the vessels with a VEGAPULS 6X, ensuring maintenance-free measurements for a long time to come.

This article is from the VEGA blog, VEGAPULS 6X Successes in the Chemical Industry.