Oriel Systems

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Oriel systems has recently completed a remote tank monitoring system for a thin film, foils and foil laminate manufacturer in based in South Wales whose products are widely used throughout the world in the graphics, packaging and labelling industries.

The customer has a tank farm containing Hexane, Xylene, Acetone, Toluene and other hazardous chemicals some 1Km distant at the rear of the manufacturing plant and there was no other way to obtain the levels of the tank contents other than to manually dip the tanks.  In many cases once the dipstick was withdrawn, the level would no longer be visible due to volatility of the chemical, this added to the fact that the chemicals stored on site are highly flammable made the operation a hazardous one.

The customer wanted a safe and reliable method of obtaining current stock levels of the chemicals used in their manufacturing process, without the need to physically dip the tanks and cause a potential hazard to their staff.  As the manufacturing operates 24hours a day they also wanted to monitor use-age of each chemical and predict potential stock-out situations before they occur.

Oriel proposed using guided microwave sensors as they are virtually unaffected by changes to product or process like temperature, pressure, density, conductivity, vapours or dust.  They are also extremely reliable with no moving parts, no re-calibration no floats to stick.   Accurate to 2mm and ATEX approved.  The sensors work by transmitting microwave radar pulses, which are ‘guided’ along a cable suspended from top to bottom of a vessel. These pulses travel along the length of the cable and are reflected back when they reach the surface of the liquid.  The sensors were fitted into the removable man-way cover at the top of the tank and then cabled back to a galvanic separator and then into one of Oriels’ Intelligent Telemetry Outstations or ITO’s.

The outstation collects current values from each sensor every 15seconds and stores the data in it’s internal memory.  Oriels’ ITO has an inbuilt Ethernet connection and all current tank level information is then passed along the ITW internal communications network for viewing on any PC.  Alternatively we could host the information on our Web Server and make it available on a password protected web page for viewing from any internet connected PC, tablet or smartphone.

However big or small your project, our technical team would be pleased to discuss your application.  Please call us on  01249 705070 or e-mail us for further information