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Leading Edge Wireless Technology for Lpg Gas

By Steve Fitzgerald, Vectec Ltd

Wireless telemetry and lpg are at the very heart of Vectec Ltd, and have been for over 10 years.

We at Vectec pride ourselves on being at the leading edge of wireless technology for lpg. All our products are developed in-house and manufactured in Europe, and this close physical relationship between design and manufacture yields tremendous benefits for all parties. The heart of our system is a GSM GPRS unit, which can be either battery or mains operated. It has an onboard local radio frequency communications link and can interface with a range of different sensors, providing near real-time data to our clients. For lp gas, we use the industry leading Hall Effect dials from Rochester.

When the GPRS unit is battery enabled, the unit has a life expectancy of 10 years, making it almost maintenance free and ideal for remote locations. With over 40,000 telemetry units deployed throughout Europe for clients, such as Butagaz, Primagaz, Shell and Total, we have built up an enviable position within our industry for reliable, cost effective wireless telemetry solutions.

The tank installation takes around a couple of hours. The Hall Effect device, which is hardwired into an ATEX approved radio frequency transmitter, communicates the lp gas tank’s residual volume of lpg to our GPRS unit. We offer a bulk inventory monitoring solution based on telemetry that is certified as ATEX zone 1.

Low cost Hall Effect sensors from Rochester are installed on the lpg gas vessels and connected to a GSM transmitter. Radio frequency is used for both above and belowground tanks to ensure the GSM transmitter is placed outside with a good network connection. The frequency of the measurements and the transmission of the data are determined by our clients.

The captured data is transmitted via GPRS to a central database for M2M processing. Clients are provided with visibility on lpg volume levels and alarms by SMS and email when the emergency level is reached. The use of our technology provides lp gas suppliers with remote monitoring and alarms to reduce their costs and keep their customers happy. No longer do customers have to worry about their lpg vessels running dry as we can also patch the alarms into a preferred lpg gas supplier so that they can also monitor the lp gas levels and advise when a top up is necessary.

Lpg consumption can be monitored on a monthly, weekly or daily level and the data accessed via our unique web interface and imported into an Excel spreadsheet. Customers can then see usage levels plotted over time and compare consumption, which is especially useful when doing any forward budget planning.

Lpg distributors use our technology as a bulk inventory monitoring solution to manage their customers’ stocks, optimise deliveries and significantly reduce logistics costs. Waiting for customers’ requests for deliveries leads to urgent shipments, inefficient tanker routing and inaccurate planning. This increases costs, which are passed onto clients unnecessarily. All in all, we have a highly reliable technical solution for monitoring lpg gas in the field and, with years of experience under our belt, you can now take the worry out of maintaining and monitoring lp gas in your organisation.

Contact Vectec Ltd on 08452 604244 www.vectec.co.uk

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