Important though an MTM system may be, it will be of little value if the sensors are not of a sufficiently high standard. Fortunately, standards of reliability and accuracy are improving all the time. At the Nor-Shipping Exhibition in June, the UK’s PSM Instrumentation will be releasing details of its new digital intelligent sensors to be known as the iCT series.

Four years in the development, the iCT series is claimed to offer superior levels of measuring and monitoring, and to include embedded programmable functions and self-diagnostics. Remotely configured, they can transmit level, pressure and temperature measurements on a single communications bus, and because their power requirement is extremely low, up to 124 sensors can be directly connected into a single USB port of a personal computer.

PSM envisages that shipbuilders and systems suppliers will welcome a sensor that has the ability to be installed early in the construction programme, and then configured for function and measurement range at a later stage. With the availability of over 50 different stainless steel mounting and fixing kits, the installer should have no difficulty in attaching the sensor in an optimum position.  

The iCT series is claimed to be both accurate and flexible, with a 200:1 span turndown ratio and measurement spans from 0-50 mb to over 10 bar and an instantaneous shock-load exceeding 30 bar. 

Used in combination with a data acquisition monitor or PSM’s tank monitoring system, the company is confident that it can offer a high accuracy system at a very low installed price, for all tank monitoring and gauging applications associated with ballast water, fuel oil storage, and liquid cargoes.