Soda Ash Storage
Soda ash generates a great deal of dust during the filling and emptying processes, leading to harsh and dusty conditions in the silo. Coke, essential to soda ash production, tends to adhere to the silo walls and creates buildup. These attributes significantly challenge the operator’s ability to accurately measure inventories. The BinMaster 3DLevelScanner’s unique dust-penetrating technology delivers accurate and reliable real-time measurements of stored coke volume. The scanner also provides a 3D image of how the soda is distributed inside the silo, allowing for the early detection of buildup.

PP/PE Storage Silos
PP and PE pellets have a low dielectric constant which adversely affects the ability of radar-based devices to reliably measure the amount of stored PP and PE in a silo. Dust generated in the filling process also makes accurate measurements difficult. The BinMaster 3DLevelScanner’s unique dust-penetrating technology delivers accurate and reliable measurements of the PP and PE pellets in the silos, even in harsh conditions.

Raw Materials Storage
Raw materials used for the production of glass (sand, dolomite, soda ash, calomite, broken glass, and manganese oxide) are stored in silos. Production requires fixed amounts of these different materials that come from multiple silos. It is essential to have sufficient quantities of each material to avoid unnecessary production stoppages. The 3DLevelScanner provides reliable and accurate real-time measurements of the volume of these raw materials so that operators know how much of each material is available.

Coal Storage/Bunker/Coal Blending Facility
The size and the extremely dusty conditions of coal silos and hoppers make it difficult to accurately measure the level of coal. The BinMaster 3DLevelScanner’s sophisticated surface mapping technology delivers accurate real-time volume measurements taking into account irregular buildup of material inside the storage area. BinMaster technology is the only technology that permits continuous volume level measurement of fly ash inside an ESP hopper. The 3D visualization tool allows the end user to see the actual allocation of material inside the hopper and detect buildup as it occurs, helping to avoid unexpected and costly interruptions and damage to the ESP plates. BinMaster’s unique dust-penetrating technology also provides accurate measurements of fly ash as it makes its way to the storage silo.

Calcium Carbonate and Crushed Limestone Storage
Calcium carbonate is a very fine, powder-like material that creates a great deal of dust that sticks to the walls of the silo. BinMaster’s 3D surface-mapping technology allows accurate volume measurement, taking into account the buildup on the silo walls. Crushed limestone which is stored in silos before entering the production process also generates a great deal of dust during the filling process and tends to cling to the silo walls. The 3DLevelScanner’s surface-mapping technology and dust-penetrating capabilities provides real-time volume measurements and  a 3D display of the silo contents.

This food processor needed highly accurate volume measurements in order to know when to prepare to refll the bin, as the bin is almost always emptied completely before flling again to prevent damage to the material. The customer was seeking both accuracy and stability at batch empty rates of approximately one-half ton per minute, and was primarily interested  in headroom or distance to product from the top of the silo. The material is very dusty and prone to sidewall buildup and bridging with the material surface being characterized by highly uneven topography during the emptying process. The 3DLevelScanner was evaluated against radar systems from several different vendors.

Coal Storage
BinMaster’s 3DLevelScanner’s sophisticated surface mapping technology delivers real-time level and volume measurements of the coal containedin all silos feeding the furnace, enhancing inventory control. As coal is critical to the process, the end user desires to control and monitor the volume of coal in the silo in order to prevent process stoppages. If the coal silo were to be completely empty, the furnace would need to be shut down.

Salt Production - Rock Salt
The primary crushed rock storage silo holds material from the initial stage of salt production, feeding a secondary crusher, and therefore needs to be monitored to enable smooth production downstream. The silo is generally underground and is usually created by controlled explosions. Therefore, the walls of the stock silo are not always smooth and the crushed salt rocks stored in the silo are also of varying shapes, making it difficult to measure the volume of material available for production. Early detection of buildup inside the silo is important, so the end user can reduce the risk of material collapsing on the bottom of the silo, which could cause damage to the silo, the crusher, and other mechanical parts.

Bauxite Ore
Bauxite ore is often stored in large flat storage warehouses where material volume is very difficult to estimate. A BinMaster 3DLevelScanner MVL system – which can employ two to 32 scanners to measure multiple points on the material surface – offers the only solution for estimating the volume of material stored in large flat storage warehouses. The data from multiple scanners is synchronized in the 3DVision software and outputs aggregated level and volume information and provides a visual presentation of the contents of the warehouse.

Seed Storage 
The large silos used to store raw materials can be greater than 50’ in diameter and be over 130’ tall. Monitoring the amount of raw material exiting the storage silos and entering the oil extracting machines is essential for tracking inventory and maintaining production efficiency. Furthermore, material can build up inside the silo and as the temperature rises over time, causing the quality of the beans to diminish. This can ultimately cause spoilage and result in hard clumps of material that cannot be used. The 3DLevelScanner’s visualization tool allows the end user to see the topography of material inside the silos in real time, detect buildup and schedule maintenance and cleaning before damage is caused to the material or unexpected interruptions of the production process occur.
 

Cocoa Bean Storage 
Cocoa bean storage silos tend to be large. Plus, cocoa beans are prone to generating dust, making it difficult for radar or ultrasonic devices to measure the beans reliably and accurately. Cocoa beans also tend to pile unevenly inside the silo, making accurate measurement of the volume of stored beans very difficult. Accurate inventory measurement is necessary to provide an adequate supply of beans for production. BinMaster’s 3DLevelScanner's multiple-point mapping technology overcomes these problems, enabling accurate assessment of the volume of the beans remaining in the silo at any time.

Grain Storage
The very large silos make it problematic for conventional single-point instrumentation to yield accurate measurement of the volume of stored material. Plus, corn storage silos may have multiple fill or discharge points creating uneven topography, which could deem a single measurement point unreliable. It is essential to know the silo contents in order to closely monitor inventory levels, replenish optimally, and ensure an ongoing production process. The BinMaster 3DLevelScanner system for large silos overcomes this problem. Accurately measuring the amount of corn in the silos in real-time is important, giving plant managers an understanding of how much grain was used in the manufacturing of ethanol, allowing them to better calculate the cost of goods sold and the profitability of the plant.
 

Dry Ingredients
It is important to accurately measure the contents of dry ingredient silos to ensure adequate inventory for the production process. BinMaster’s 3DLevelScanner uses multiple-point surface mapping technology to generate accurate level and volume data for each of the silos in real time, enhancing the end user’s ability to better manage inventories and replenish silos in a timely manner.