Measuring through thick and thin
15 Jan 2000
At its Londonderry plant in Northern Ireland DuPont (UK) manufactures the well-known synthetic rubber Neoprene. Part of the process involves chlorine and plant operators were experiencing some problems with a mechanical float-type level measurement system on seven Cl2 storage tanks.
The system was quite old and occasionally would stick, but DuPont worked around the problem, relying on a planned maintenance programme to iron out any difficulties. As this was not a very satisfactory solution, the company called in Canongate Technology to run a trial of its VesselCheck system on one of the tanks.
VesselCheck is a non-invasive, ultrasonic technique and Canongate had to reassure DuPont's operators that the system would work through the 37mm thick walls of the tank. This it did over several months, and VesselCheck is now on all seven chlorine tanks.
To read the level in each tank, VesselCheck sends an analogue signal to the plant's control system and the data is printed off. Hugh Duffy, DuPont's control maintenance team leader, says: `We are very pleased with the results, in particular the fact that maintenance is no longer a problem.'
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