Microwave Switches are traditionally used as Blocked Chute switches. Current Microwave switches available in the market tell you that the chute is blocked. Some switches can give a false alarm and trip because of build-up on the chute walls. This causes downtime to the mine site costing valuable time and money.

Microwave technology has been in existence for many years. With 25 years of experience and knowledge gained in the Australian and world block chute applications, HAWK has designed a new and highly sensitive Microwave switch.

HAWK’s Gladiator Microwave Switch has 50 times more sensitivity than the older existing units. The new system is built with the latest advances in Microwave technical knowledge and it uses a high power digital micro controller technology to achieve the highest sensitivity and reliable output under adverse conditions.

HAWK’s Microwave Switch that can be used to PREDICT blockage / build-up saving considerable downtime. This variable is available over Modbus and HAWK can provide a Smart Amplifier with inbuilt Modbus to TCP / IP, Profibus or any site required protocol card.

In many industries there are situations where it is necessary to settle a solid material out of a slurry or mixed liquid.  A sensor used in this situation has to be able to locate a level in the tank where there is a change in density - the difference between the dense, settled material at the bottom and the lighter liquid above it.

HAWK has developed a unique range of Slurry Level Technologies to solve the most difficult level applications for which competitors struggle to provide solutions. HAWK’s technological advances in Sonar design provide much higher power on signal propagation through difficult air or liquid media. A blend of exceptional transducer design and advanced signal processing with automatic control allows HAWK to work on almost every level measurement application.

HAWK’s ORCA Sonar transducers are designed to improve the sensing of levels in thickeners, settling tanks, and CCD’s. The latest ORCA Sonar sensors offer big improvements in overall power, penetration, and calibration density range. The ORCA Sonar can be used in all applications from water clarifiers to mining thickeners.

The HAWK ORCA transducer design produces a very narrow sonar beam and can operate at frequencies down to 150 kHz. This gives the ORCA transducer better penetration, higher sensitivity, and better overall performance. Since the HAWK ORCA Transmitter offers an accurate real time output, it can be used for process control, not just monitoring. This can result in significant savings in power usage and processing materials.

Primarily, tailings dam pipelines are the major point of concern for leak detection in mines due to the environmental ramifications and potential downtime due to pipeline unavailability. These pipelines carry slurries with a high percentage of solids made up of processing plant waste materials to disposal points known as tailings dams.

Although there are a number of fibre optic sensors on the market, most systems require separate interrogators to be able to measure each of the variables of vibration, temperature and strain.

Uniquely within the market, the Praetorian Leak Detection System by HAWK uses a field programmable gate array (FPGA) which allows for rapid parallel data processing of all three variables within a single interrogator. This gives Praetorian the advantage of being able to measure not only the noise of fluid escaping from a leakage point, but also measure the artificial and localized drop in temperature caused by the drop on pressure of the fluid as it escapes the pipeline through the joule-Thompson effect. Because of this multi-variable sensing technique, Praetorian is able to measure not only the sound of the leak but the loss in temperature due to the pressure drop in the fluid. This allows the interrogator to look for both variables occurring at the same location before indicating an alarm.

As both a localized temperature drop and a perpetual leak sound are not present in nature, false positives (normally the bane of fibre optic sensors) are effectively eliminated.