SONO MOISTURE SENSORS FOR INDUSTRIAL DEPLOYMENT

THE RIGHT MOISTURE PROBE FOR EVERY APPLICATION

INCREASED SAFETY AND REDUCED DAMAGE-RELATED COSTS DUE TO NOVEL EVALUATION METHODS
AT THE QUALITY CONTROL
Since its foundation in 1984, IMKO has successfully established itself as a manufacturer of trendsetting high-tech products in the sensor technology. IMKO develops,
produces and distributes innovative measuring technology and sensors for the precise acquisition of various physical parameters in the sector material moisture
measurement for online and offline applications in process industry as well as environmental measuring technology.
With the novel SONO sensors, IMKO is presenting a new generation of moisture sensors. They were especially designed to meet the demands of the bulk, food,
mineral, chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries. The sensors decisive lead is generated by the deployment of state-of-the-art TRIME radar technology.

DIFFERENT INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS REQUIRE DIFFERENT SONO PROBE-GEOMETRIES FOR RELIABLE

AND PRECISE DETERMINATION OF MOISTURE AND OTHER PROCESS PARAMETERS

Cylindrical probes for medium density materials Probe with a large measurement volume of 5 Small probe for a pressure-tight installation
like cereals, pellets, sludge and many others. liter for coarse materials with low density, like in vessels and small conveyor pipes. With a
Especially suitable for use in fluid bed dryer, wood pellets, petfood, pasta products, plastic measurement volumes up 100% water.
pelletizer and on conveyor belts. granulats and many others more.

Single rod probes for pressure-tight installation Two rod probes for applications with very high Probes for silo plants. With a very large
in plants. temperature ranges. E.g. directly in the drying measurement volume up to one cubic
chamber of a grain dryer. meter. For materials like hops, corncob and
other materials.

CONVINCING ADVANTAGES FOR

The bulk industry
The food industry
The glass and ceramics industry
The chemical and pharmaceutical industry
SONO MOISTURE PROBES ARE NOT MICROWAVE PROBES !
WITH FLEXIBILITY TO A VARIETY OF MOISTURE PROBES
With the innovative and patented TRIME measuring method in the SONO sensors, it is possible for IMKO to offer very different probe geometries. Very light materials
require large measurement fields, very dense or very conductive materials also require very small and special measurement fields. Furthermore the materials to be
measured can show widely varying product characteristics, such as for example material densities down to 30kg/m3 for hops, or even up to 2500kg/m3 for fresh
concrete. Concerning the conductivity there are materials with nearly 0dS/m, but also up to 50dS/m in liquids or suspensions. It would be difficult to realize the wide
variety of applications with only one single probe geometry! And precisely this flexibility in probe geometry is what the SONO probes can offer.

THE SONO-PROBE AS A MOISTURE TOMOGRAPH

Green shows the guided radar wave which expands with the speed of light. Similar to a
computer tomograph the material is measured disc-shaped and layer by layer which
offers many advantages in comparison to conventional moisture probes.
Conventional probes show dependencies from: the material height above the probes
surface, the structure of the material, the fines content of the material, and from many
other disturbing factors which can, for example influence an unguided microwave signal.
-12
Since 2009, when having reached an accuracy of 1 Picosecond (10 seconds, this
corresponds to 1 Terahertz) for measuring the radar travel time, IMKO can offer the SONO
moisture probes for applications in the process industry. The travel time of the radar pulse
depends on the dielectric constant which represents the moisture content of a material. The TDR
measurement principle (Time-Domain-Reflectometry, also called guided or cable radar) has been
also well established for level measurement.

UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES OF APPLICATIONS IN THE PROCESS INDUSTRY

SONO MOISTURE PROBES - THE SURE WAY TO BETTER RESULTS!

EXACT MOISTURE VALUE AND MATERIAL COMPOSITION

In addition to the precise measurement of moisture, it is also possible to determine the radar-based conductivity EC-TRIME with SONO sensors.
EC-TRIME gives information to important parameters of the respective material composition, e.g. in respect to the mineral content or the flowability. This
represents a significant improvement of the quality control already directly in the process.
AUTO-COMPENSATION
Even in the event of abrasion at the probe head, the automatic measurement compensation enables significantly longer operating periods without the
necessity of recalibration.
INTEGRATED EVALUATION AND HIGHEST MEASURING ACCURACY
SONO-sensors are equipped with intelligent microprocessors. The signal evaluation is already conducted in the sensor itself and consequently, in most
cases, there is no longer the necessity for external evaluation devices. It is possible to store up to 15 calibration curves in the sensor. Adjustable mean
value accumulation and powerful filter algorithms ensure measurement accuracies of up to +-0.1%.
SPECIAL FUNCTION FOR FLUID BED DRYER
The probe SONO-VARIO LD with its defined and guided measurement field as well as the disc-shaped scanning is ideal for use in fluid bed driers and
pelletizers. In addition to the precise moisture measurement, the SONO probe determines the standard deviation during moisture scanning and outputs
this value at the second analogue output of the probe. This SONO standard function offers an advantageous and innovative optimization for the operation
of fluid bed driers.
SIMPLE CONFIGURATION AND INTERFACE FOR NETWORK OPERATION
Unlike other commonly used moisture probe, the SONO probes dont need various adjustment screws for optimizing the moisture measurement. The
software SONO-CONFIG enables the easy configuration of the sensor parameters such as the measurement range, smooth mean value accumulation,
analogue output 0(4)..20 mA, calibration selection, and some other parameters. The RS485 interface enables network operation of SONO sensors. Upon
request, SONO sensors which can be connected to industrial buses such as Profibus, Ethernet etc. via external modules are also available.
COMPETENT CONSULTANCY RELIABLE SERVICE
Reaching from the selection of the ideally suited sensor, over to the customisation to special applications, right up to the maintenance and service, IMKO
or your IMKO partner will be there to assist you at all times. We are just as individual and flexible as our products.

TRIME-TDR RECIPIENT OF MANY AWARDS

Innovation prizes such as the Eberle-Prize of the Federal State of Baden-Wrttemberg
and the Silver Medal of the DLG (German Agricultural Society) give evidence on how
successfully the high-tech potential of the TRIME-TDR-technology has distinguished
itself in practice. Numerous industrial and scientific projects confirm the advantages of
Innovation Award of the State of Silver Medal Innovation Award of
the TRIME-technology which by now has excellently performed under difficult
Baden-Wrttemberg the DLG (German Agricultural
conditions for 10 years at temperatures of up to 150C and in application scenarios
Society)
where other measuring systems failed to perform. You can find further information
regarding the benefits of the TRIME-TDR, in comparison to moisture measurements
conducted on the basis of conventional capacitive methods or microwave technology,
Certified by the DLG (German
on our homepage www.imko.de under the topic About TRIME-TDR.
Agricultural Society)

IMKO GmbH Im Stck 2 Germany-76275 Ettlingen Phone +49-(0)72 43-59 210 Fax +49-(0)72 43-59 2140 info@imko.de www.imko.de