Non-contacting radar technology has opened a new world of opportunity for the industrial sector . The process industry is a wide range of industries and applications , including upstream oil and gas , refining , petrochemical and chemical industries .

A far cry from the days of mechanical floats , the more complex nature of chemicals makes noncontacting technology essential . In addition , the same logistical benefits of non-contacting radar technology — originally invented for military uses — for moving product around a fast-moving supply chain exists for other materials just as was deemed vital for oil tankers in the 1970s , when radar technology was adapted from military uses to fit shipping needs .

“ You can have corrosive media in your tank , sticky media , and more nasty products that you don ’ t want to get in contact with ,” says Sara Anderberg , manager , solutions management at Emerson . “ There is a great fit for noncontacting radar . You can also have mixing tanks . Let ’ s say if you have something moving in your tank like agitators , you probably cannot place a probe in there . So , there is a great opportunity for non-contacting radar .”

Developing the technique

Taking the mechanics out of the equation and placing the heavy workload on electronics , often with a two-wire bus , Emerson has continued to refine and develop its technology . In the process industry , it ’ s not only opened opportunities for new industries to take advantage of radar , but also for traditional industries to create more efficient operations .

“ We also saw the need to help our customers within the process industry to be able to better control and optimize their processes , to help them understand what ’ s happening in their tank ,” Anderberg says . As an example of how the technology has developed with the needs of industry , Anderberg points to the chemical industry , which prefers to operate with smaller tanks . “ Now , we are also increasingly developing radars with a higher frequency that are a better fit for smaller tanks with more rapid fluid movement like batch processes ,” she says .

She says , non-contacting radar is ideal for the chemical industry due to the huge variety of tank sizes and applications . “ Our non-contacting radar portfolio offers solutions to meet all our customer needs . Different applications require different solutions and we as the market leader have all of them to help customers with their applications .”

Anderberg says Emerson is on its sixth generation of frequency-modulated continuous wave ( FMCW ) radar , which has strategically advanced through the years .

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