Interchangeable RADAR and ultrasonic transducers and new microwave velocity sensor

Just like Pulsar’s ultrasonic systems, their smart RADAR transducer family performs initial signal processing within the transducer rather than its associated controller. The controller, which can be any of Pulsar’s well-known range, provides the water-industry specific functionality that has built Pulsar’s reputation and now operates just as well with RADAR measurement as with ultrasonic. RADAR and ultrasonic are now completely interchangeable and retrofittable, so users can switch easily between RADAR and ultrasonic simply by replacing a transducer.

Pulsar’s systems operate world-wide and the latest systems have been built specifically around the sophisticated control, security and communications requirements of the water/wastewater industries. Asset Management, predictive maintenance, TOTEX, EDM, WITS and more have influenced and informed developments in the technology, so that a modern Pulsar controller is much more a pumping station management system than a level measurement device.

Hundreds of thousands of Pulsar ultrasonic measurement and control devices provide vital enabling technology to control pumping stations in critical control applications. For maybe 95% of water/wastewater treatment applications, ultrasonic systems remain the best choice. Within water/wastewater, however, RADAR scores where there is a pressurised atmosphere or where there is an atmosphere other than air - for example in the methane-rich environment of a digester, and RADAR is often more stable on a foamy application. Users now have the seamless and straightforward choice of technologies, ultrasonic or RADAR, with the option to switch later if process conditions change.

For EDM schemes, CSO-specific instruments such as Pulsar’s dBi non-contacting ultrasonic level transducers combine accuracy and reliability with ultra-low power consumption. Pulsar’s recent development Microflow-i is a low power non-contacting microwave velocity measurement device that allows flow volumes to be calculated. Low unit cost means that measurement can be more widely deployed to give clarity of network flow profiles, supporting sophisticated management techniques such as Catchment Planning and Water Infrastructure Response.