Level Measurement for a difficult application 7

[BizzyCon]

Hello everyone!

I've been racking my brain for a bit trying to figure out the best option for this problem.

I have an application with a very viscous resin and a powder catalyst being mixed in a small vessel (a very small one I will elaborate later). I would like to know the level on this vessel but there are a few problems:

1) The vessel can't be too big (I'm thinking maybe 4-5 inches of fluid maximum) because we want to minimize the residence time of catalyzed resin.

2) It would be best if the sensor is non-contact because catalyzed resin will build up on any type of contacting device

3) The catalyst is a powder and makes things very cloudy inside the vessel.

I have thought of the basics, laser (worry about particulates), ultrasonic (also worry about particulates, however maybe this isn't a big problem?), capacitance (rejected because of contact with fluid), Radar (this on seems the best but where can I find a small one?)

I guess I'm in between ultrasonic and radar but I'm not sure which is best. I'm a little worried about the dust with the ultrasonic but like the price and size (i've seen smallish ones). Is there a good small radar out there that will do better? Is this even the right direction in your opinion? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


- Bizzy

 

[BizzyCon]

Thanks to everyone for you input so far!

@jmw

This is not a batch process. It will have to run continuously for several hours before being taken down for cleaning.

The main purpose is prevent overfill (wasted resin) or underfill (air gets mixed into the resin catalyst mixture).

Since we can't be having a bunch of resin/catalyst mixture sitting around curing we make it continuously during production. We also want this vessel to be fairly small for that reason.

I think it is possible to reduce the dust based on how we feed the catalyst (powder) into the tank. If that is the case then things get a little easier.

I am hoping for an analog measurement of some type, possibly multiple switches.

- Bizzy

 

[1gibson]

Hang a float on a wire, when tension is reduced that means liquid level is high. Sense through conterweight / spring tension mechanism?

Multiple level measurements, multiple floats. Disposable floats, weight gain from resin coating would not affect operation. No problem as long as the floats don't stick together.