The PiloTREK W-100 non-contact microwave level transmitters provide the most advanced, new generation measurement technique of the industrial process automation field. PiloTREK is an ideal solution of high precision level transmitting of liquids, slurries, dollops, emulsions and other chemicals in a wide range of application area, such as food industry, energy industry, pharmaceutical industry, chemical industry, and even in naval applications with mm accuracy range and high measuring stability.
PiloTREK is able to provide an excellent non-contact measurement solution for those substances which tend to steam, or for liquids with a gas layer. Since there is no need for a defined propagation medium
in the case of microwaves, the PiloTREK is applicable in vacuum.
Operation principle
The reflection of the emitted microwave impulses is considerably depending on the relative dielectric constant of the measured medium. The essential condition of microwave level measurement is that the relative dielectric constant (εr) of the medium should be more than 1.9.
The operation of the non-contact microwave level transmitters is based on the measurement of the time of flight of the reflected signals, so-called Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) method.
The propagation speed of microwave impulses is practically the same in air, gases and in vacuum, independently from the process temperature and pressure, so the measured distance is not affected by the physical parameters of medium to be measured.
PiloTREK level transmitter is a Pulse Burst Radar operating at 24 GHz (K-band) microwave frequency.
The 24 GHz models’ most noticeable advantage over the lower frequency (5-12 GHz) radars are the smaller antenna size, the better focusing, lower dead-band and smaller transmission angle.
The level transmitter induces few nanosecond length microwave impulses in the antenna and a part of the energy of the emitted signals reflects back from the measurement surface depending on the measured media. The time of flight of the reflected signal is measured and processed by the electronics, and then this is converted to distance, level or volume proportional data.