Schmitt Industries, Inc.

Schmitt Measurement Systems, Inc.

Kelvin Woltring

Wayne A Case

Christian N Staats

Kenneth M Wegrzyn

Terry Gene Sherbeck

Peter J Lagergren

Andreas Wilhelm

Randy Willard Perry

A portable control unit may be quickly coupled and decoupled from docking stations on a plurality of process system components, such as cylindrical grinding machines. The portable control unit may be used to control the process system component and receive and output data produced by the process system component. The ability to quickly couple and decouple the portable control unit may allow a single portable control unit to be used to control numerous process system components, thereby saving cost and space. Various communications interfaces and attachment mechanisms may be used to communicatively and mechanically couple the portable control unit to a docking station.

Portable controller for interfacing with process system components

According to various embodiments disclosed herein, battery power may be conserved by reducing the number of transmissions made by a liquid level monitoring system. The efficiency of a liquid level monitoring system may also be improved by reducing or avoiding fuel outages and unnecessary replenishment. Certain embodiments may be configured according to a schedule for making measurements. The measurement may then be compared against one or more thresholds to determine whether to transmit the measurements. A variety of thresholds may be specified and utilized to determine when it is appropriate to transmit the measurements. Further, various embodiments may be configured to detect a change in a monitored condition. Upon the detection of a change in the monitored condition, a measurement may be made and compared to an established threshold for a tank.

Event monitoring and detection in liquid level monitoring system

An ultrasonic liquid level monitoring system includes an ultrasonic transducer unit that is externally mountable to a tank. An ultrasonic emitter may generate an ultrasonic beam and receive an echo of the ultrasonic beam off a liquid surface inside a tank. An acoustic lens is coupled to the ultrasonic emitter to shape the ultrasonic beam to compensate for lensing effects of the tank wall. An acoustic coupler may be disposed between the acoustic lens and the tank wall to improve the acoustic coupling between the ultrasonic emitter and the tank wall. The system determines a time-of-flight between generating the ultrasonic beam and receiving the echo. Using the time-of-flight and geometry of a tank, the system may calculate the liquid volume inside the tank. The time-of-flight may be transmitted via a satellite data link or a local data link. The local data link may further be used to configure and maintain the system.

Ultrasonic liquid level monitoring system

Growing community of inventors

Gresham, OR, United States of America

Kelvin Woltring