Description
Contactless inline moisture measurement with infrared technology – 117 moisture measurements per second
Wherever precise product moisture is required, the inline moisture analysers provide the users with the necessary information. The continual availability of product properties allows for easy adjustment of the production process to ensure a high product quality standard. For the production of building materials as wood based panels, the moisture content of the material used is of utmost importance. The raw material must be neither too wet nor too dry. If it is too wet, reductions in panel quality and slower production speeds will inevitably occur. If it is too dry, energy is wasted in the drying process. The same applies to bulk material as for example pellets, animal food, recycling material and other biomass.
Benefits at a glance
- Avoid faults produced with wrong moisture
- Non-contact measuring system, measurement within a hopper/a screw through a glass pane
- Best quality of measured values due to 7000 measurements per minute
- Measured values without drift errors due to the use of the dual detector technology
- The measuring system is pre-calibrated
- Automatic control of the stability of the measuring unit by an internal reference standard
- Monitoring of the entire surface with respect to the degree of contamination of the measuring window
- Easy integration into the existing network thanks to a multitude of interfaces
- The measuring unit can also be used optionally in the ATEX zone 22
Measuring Method
The non-contact inline measuring system GreCon MOISTURECONTROL IR works with an optical measurement transducer. Light in the NIR region is used, which is absorbed by the material moisture. This means: The more moisture in the material being measured, the less light is reflected. A light beam, which is emitted by a halogen lamp (1), is divided into several measuring beams (4) and reference beams (5) by means of a mirror-lens combination (2).The rays are led through a filter wheel (3) to filter out the excessive spectral regions of the light. The remaining rays of the NIR region are projected onto the material to be measured. The reflected light, the intensity of which depends on the moisture content, is compared with the reference beams in the measuring head and used to calculate the material moisture. Due to the division into several measuring and reference beams and the dual-detector principle (6), high system reliability and measuring accuracy – independent of external influences – is ensured.
Calibration
MOISTURECONTROL IR is supplied pre-calibrated and equipped with software integrated in the measuring head for calibration and parameterisation of the moisture analyser.
Applications
- Dryer
- Screw Conveyor
- Conveyor Belt
- Drop Chute
- Blender
- Forming Line
Design of the System
The moisture analyser MOISTURECONTROL IR consists of a non-contact measuring head and a connection box which ensures the voltage supply and the interfaces. The software for the visualisation of the measured values and the calibration of the moisture analyser is integrated in the measuring head and can be operated via a web browser. By using a glass pane, it is possible to measure the moisture of material flows in enclosed conveying systems. The measured values can be transferred to a higher-ranking process control system via a network connection to display the values in the control station. Analogue outputs and programmable digital contacts are available for additional control tasks. The housings of measuring head and connection box are dust and water proof. For applications in extreme ambient temperatures, appropriate accessories are available. Up to 80 different system adjustments can be stored in the product memory, which makes an adaptation to different recipes possible. Optionally, the analyser can be equipped with an operating display which is installed near the measuring head.