‘Bolt-on’ force sensors for reliable retrofit weighing
01 April 2010
Fitting a weighing system to an existing silo, hopper or tank using a conventional load cell system can be expensive, disruptive and sometimes even impossible. Applied Measurements offers a solution to these problems in the form of a simple bolt-on load transducer.
This weighing approach is cost effective and quick to install, causes a minimum of production down time and is ideal as a retrofitted system. The BOSS bolt-on sensor is a well-proven robust product consisting of a strain-gauged element encased in a protective housing. It is simply bolted to a structural member of the silo and deflects under the changing weight conditions, to give a varying electrical output relative to the load.
Bolt-on systems are more than adequate for the majority of vessel weighing or level monitoring systems, where accuracy in the order of 1% - 2% is acceptable. The benefit of this system to any company with a need to weigh grain or other loose material is that unlike radar and ultrasonic systems (both of which present a cross-contamination risk as holes must be drilled for mounting of equipment), the bolt-on product doesn’t come into contact with the product at any stage.
Additionally, accuracy of the other systems mentioned will depend on the material profile within the vessel. For example it may tend to clump, build up on one side or heap in the middle.
This can cause rat-holes to be created where the top surface remains intact, but material drains away beneath until the top surface collapses into it. This can cause false readings as there is an impression of there being more material than there is, potentially resulting in inventory errors.
In practice, the standard transducers are bolted to a suitable supporting member such as a leg, girder, channel or pipe. However in some applications custom profiled mounting blocks may be required to suit the profile of the supporting steelwork.
For a system to be viable the load to be measured should be between 3000psi and 10,000psi. The accuracy achieved depends on a number of factors, but most significantly the amount of available strain to be measured.
Each BOSS sensor has an average sensitivity of 1.7mV/V for 10,000psi
As a general rule, sensors mounted internally will give the best results. With external systems there will often be a margin of error due to zero shift, which is a result of differential expansion due to solar radiation but even this can be nullified to an extent. The accuracy achieved will be very dependent on the positioning of the sensor on the steelwork.
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