Applications
SmartWave delivers very accurate, noiseless,
and self-adjusting pulse radar at an economical
price for the chemical, water/wastewater, food/beverage,
and pharmaceutical process industries.
SmartWave uses improved microwave pulse technology
to track any wanted target from the tip of
the rod antenna to the bottom of the tank.
It features “Echo Marker” signal-processing
technology to give you one of the most technologically
advanced pulse radar system on the market.
It will provide reliable continuous level measurement
in liquids or slurries, regardless of tank
shape or the environmental conditions. In most
cases it is unaffected by:
- Temperature
- Pressure
- Vapors
- Steam
- Wind
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- Foam
- Vacuums
- Methane
- CO2
- Condensation
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The rod antenna comes in Polypropylene or
high resistance PTFE (Teflon®) that are
resistant to material build-up.
Simple mounting and push button calibration
make for a very easy installation. The sensor
can be threaded directly into a 2” NPT
metal or plastic flange.
Challenging Applications
In addition to understanding the fundamentals
from a technical perspective, understanding
the impact of physical conditions is critical
to providing a successful installation. These
physical conditions include:
Vapors and Dust – In general Pulse
Radar practically eliminates the effects
of vapors and fumes. However, some specific
vapors do have a damaging effect on the performance
of Pulse Radar. One in particular is ammonia.
Dust is altogether more unpredictable. Dust
particles diffuse radar energy through absorption,
reflection, and scattering. This leaves less
energy to strike the target, so the return
echo is smaller. The overall effect is a
reduction in usable range. Usable range varies
widely depending on internal tank conditions
and the product.
Dielectric Constant – The higher the
dielectric constant, the greater the signal
will be reflected back toward the receiver
in the SmartWave Transmitter. Materials with
very low dielectric constant will allow the
signal to pass all the way through them or
may result in a reflection below the surface
of the material. However, the SmartWave Transmitter
features a low dielectric mode. In this mode
SmartWave will ignore echoes from tank bottoms
with material present and it will increase
it’s transmit energy and sensitivity
of the receiver until it will detect echoes
from surfaces of the low dielectric materials.
SmartWave in this mode will work for dielectrics
around 2 and higher.
Internal Structures – False echoes can
be caused if a tank is outfitted with mixers
and agitators. The SmartWave software is programmed
to ignore unwanted echoes, but these echoes
in certain applications are unpreventable. |
