WirelessHART Adapter BULLET Enables more Flexibility for Mobile Mixing Tanks

In state-of-the-art pharmaceutical applications, portable mixing tanks are a routine part of drug production and handle all relevant processing steps—from mixing to heating and cooling of the products. Due to their integrated agitator, these mixing tanks also serve as preparation containers, material buffers, or as stores for dosed products.

Since the mixing tanks are frequently used in safeguarded procedures that must meet the highest standards, numerous measurements are taken: the tanks are equipped with industrial sensors that control the agitator drive speed and detect the temperature, pressure, pH value, and fill level of the tank. Data generated by the sensors is submitted to the process control while at the same time flexibility and mobility of the mixing tanks is ensured.

As these sensors are 4 mA … 20 mA HART-compatible, the field device data can be transmitted wirelessly to the process control system by using WirelessHART technology: the mixing tank gets equipped with two “BULLET” WirelessHART adapters. The BULLETs communicate the field device data to a WirelessHART gateway which then passes it on to the process control.

Both BULLET adapters and field devices can be powered directly from the existing energy source which drives the agitator. While one BULLET adapter transmits the 4 mA … 20 mA signal from the agitator, the HART signals indicating the temperature, pressure, pH value, and fill level are transmitted to the control side by a second BULLET operating in multidrop mode.

Since no conventional wiring is necessary to communicate the process data to the control system, mobile mixing tanks save money. Additionally, no batteries are needed which frees users from monitoring battery status and prevents costly downtimes. The tanks are ready to be moved quickly when a process changes, or they are needed at a different location. At the same time, the existing power supply of the agitator is used to optimum effect. The WirelessHART adapter BULLET makes it possible to achieve a high level of performance, cost-efficiency, and flexibility in pharmaceutical applications.

• Enables cost-efficient and highly-flexible portable mixing tanks for pharmaceutical applications
• Signal transmission via WirelessHART frees tanks from conventional wiring
• Multiple measurement values are submitted by just two BULLET WirelessHART adapters
• Field devices and loop-powered BULLET adapters draw energy directly from the agitator