The UK aerospace industry is the second biggest in the world, with sales in the sector of £31.1billion last year. This sector is widely seen as the instigator of technology change in engineering disciplines. Within the bounds of manufacturing, the aerospace industry is the important testbed for developments in automation, assembly and inspection. The developments in the engineering of aerospace components often have implications for many other engineering sectors.
Coltraco Ultrasonics received a request from an aerospace component manufacturer for an engineering solution for their manufacturing process.
A manufacturer of high-end components for aerospace and other high-end engineering based in Wolverhampton, approached Coltraco for assistance with its monitoring of ammonia. The facilities manager met with Coltraco at a tradeshow in Birmingham, weeks prior. The facility runs 24/7, 265 days a year and is the size of around 2-3 football pitches. The facility is concerned mainly in manufacturing high-end actuators that are installed on a range of civil and defence systems.
Actuators are integral parts of modern engineering and their production is essential. The customer uses ammonia in a nitrating process in which ammonia is applied to heated metal, infusing the metal with the nitrogen. This can have beneficial outcomes such as making the metal infuse with nitrogen to make it harder, tougher and with higher melting temperatures.
Coltraco presented an innovative non-invasive, accurate method that is quicker, much easier for the operator to test and therefore, saves money. After a formal assessment by a Coltraco Engineer, the Portalevel MAX was found effective in accurately and quickly identifying the liquid level within the ammonia cylinders. Portalevel MAX allowed for more efficient operations and reduced waste by ensuring partially empty cylinders were not returned to the gas supplier. Coltraco offer comprehensive customer service and therefore designed an in-house testing and recording process that was compatible with the manufacturers current monitoring processes.
The Portalevel MAX is a handheld ultrasonic liquid level indicator, which can service a cylinder in 30 seconds with accuracy of up to 1.5mm off the true liquid level. The Portalevel MAX builds on Coltraco Ultrasonics’ 30 years’ experience in designing, manufacturing and supporting ultrasonic liquid level indicating equipment in 108 countries and numerous market sectors and environments. The development program was born out of the desire to further improve on Coltraco’s existing eight designs and taking on board feedback and opinions of our customers. Customer tests of the Portalevel MAX have returned comments, such as: “We are 100% satisfied, the three key elements we were looking for were consistency of measurements, precision, and ease of use – we found them all”.
The trial and implementation stimulated interested in developing an Ammonia Portasteele Calculator program to allow accurate conversion of the liquid level to agent mass/weight. The Portasteele is an advanced calculator application, that currently converts the liquid level height of C02, NOVEC 1230 and FM-200 liquefied gaseous extinguishant agent readings taken on an ultrasonic non-destructive liquid level indicator device into the agent weight/mass.
The Portasteele is said to offer unparalleled efficiency, ease of maintenance and simple training. This advanced technology is supplied on a stand-alone rugged hand-held 7” touch screen tablet which makes these advanced calculations in real-time. Data is stored on the Calculator so that the user is able to easily send servicing reports, without having to manually upload the results onto a computer. Furthermore, the Portasteele can convert an expected substance weight back to the required liquid level allowing users to anticipate where the level should be. The adaptability of Coltraco’s technology allows programs to suit the requirements of their customers purpose.
