In the southeastern United States, a corporation manufactures and provides beverage containers for many bottling facilities. The company manufactures a wide range of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles in various sizes for both carbonated soft drinks and water. PET bottles are manufactured in two steps using injection molding and blow-molding equipment.
The Level Application Challenge
The customer requires monitoring crystalline PET plastic pellets used to produce plastic soft drink bottles in storage tanks. The density of the crystalline pellets ranges from 30 pounds per cubic foot to 56 pounds per cubic foot, and the tanks can be up to 60 feet tall.
Level measurement for inventory control and maintaining material availability during production periods is critical. If the inventory is running low, production needs to know if they will need to swap tanks.
The customer had previously used a plumb-bob for level measurements and had tested ultrasonic level measurement tools from a different vendor. The plumb bob cord had become a mechanical annoyance, and the customer had encountered frequent echo loss using the ultrasonic level devices due to high dust levels.
The Level Transmitter Solution
The customer installed a trial unit of the Siemens SITRANS LR560 radar level transmitter, as the local Siemens salesperson suggested. The LR560 transmitter offers a continuous, consistent, and low-maintenance solution for level measuring. The SITRANS LR560 unit's plug-and-play functionality is suited for most solids level monitoring applications, including those involving severe dust and high temperatures.
Its one-of-a-kind design enables safe and straightforward programming with the intrinsically safe handheld programmer without opening the instrument's lid.
The Results
After a year-long trial, the customer ordered an additional nine instruments for their storage silos.
Benefits of the SITRANS LR560
- Time savings
- No maintenance is required. Because the SITRANS LR560 radar transmitter is a non-contacting instrument, eliminating the risk of product contamination as well as extended delays when plumb-bob cables get caught or broken.
- Improved process reliability
- Continuous level measurement is an accurate time indicator of how much is in the silo. A plumb-bob cable getting stuck at a certain distance can lead to misinterpretation of the actual level. After the line gets attached, there is no level history before the last request on-demand from the instrument.
- Easier to use
- The SITRANS LR560 transmitter uses a quick start wizard, and no further tuning or maintenance is required.
SITRANS LR560 Unique Product Features:
The local user interface allows for ease of configuration and setup. Since the customer only uses the removable, local display during setup, the customer can save money by moving the indicating component from unit to unit as needed. The narrow, 4-degree beam angle enables reliable depth penetration into the silo and ignores potential silo wall interference.
The SITRANS LR560 2-wire, 78 GHz FMCW radar level transmitter monitors solids in silos to a range of 100 meters or 328 feet. Its plug-and-play performance is ideal for most solids applications, including those with extreme dust and high temperatures to +392ºF. Its unique design provides safe and simple programming using the intrinsically safe handheld programmer without opening the instrument's lid.
The SITRANS LR560 transmitter includes an optional graphical local display interface (LDI) that improves setup and operation using an intuitive Quick Start Wizard and echo profile display for diagnostic support. The startup is easy using the QuickStart wizard with a few parameters required for essential operation. The SITRANS LR560 instrument measures virtually any solids material level up to a range of 328 feet.
To discuss this, or any process instrument application, contact Ives Equipment by calling (877) 768-1600 or visit https://www.ivesequipment.com.
