Management system for managing bulk material inside a silo using a set of load cells and an accelerometer

1. A management system for managing bulk material inside a silo, characterized in that it comprises:

A set of load cells ( 16 ) screwed onto supports ( 35 ) that are welded to the legs of the silo and the tension of which can be controlled by tightening or loosening a screw ( 31 );

Electronic equipment ( 17 ) which measures the tension in the cells, calculates the weight of the material in the silo and transmits it via radio towards a communication gateway ( 25 ) which links it to the Internet;

A photovoltaic solar panel which supplies the system with solar energy and eliminates the power supply from the equipment to the electric network;

A set of supercaps which store electric energy allowing the system to operate in periods where light is absent and prevents using batteries that may deteriorate over time;

An accelerometer which allows measuring if the silo is moved and its inclination;

a thermistor ( 48 ) with signal adaptation towards an analog input of the microprocessor ( 39 ) so that the electronic equipment can measure the room temperature and perform temperature compensation calculations in the measurement of the load cells;

a real-time clock which allows the microprocessor ( 39 ) to measures lapses of time and record events with date, hour, minutes and seconds;

a serial communication channel with a conversion stage via radio ( 45 ) which allows the system to communicate with other external devices;

an electronic unit ( 44 ) for managing the energy which rations the use of this energy and allows prolonging the duration of the energy stored in the supercaps ( 19 ).

2. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can by itself warn the user at any time of the out-of-stock risk, i.e., that the silo is void of material, according to how it has been configured by the user.

3. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can by itself alert the user of stock variations that are considered significant at any time to the user, according to how they have been configured by the user.

4. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can be installed and calibrated at any time and without needing to wait to empty and/or fill the silo.

5. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can be calibrated and/or operated from any place in the world, provided that it has a connection to the Internet.

6. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it detects if the silo is in a vertical, horizontal, or intermediate position, and if it is being moved, as occurs during transport and/or in that it transmits this information to the user.

7. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it informs the user when the silo is not vertical enough to operate, preventing falls.

8. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it allows releasing the tension of each load cell by simply loosening one of the screws ( 31 ) which fixes it due to the fact that the latter does not have to be installed in an adhered manner and the breakage thereof during transport is thus prevented.

9. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it detects operation malfunctions in one or several of the load cells installed, tracking a measurement correlation interval configurable by the user, and informs the user of the malfunction.

10. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it detects possible degradations over time in the load cells installed in the silo, predicting when in the future they are going to malfunction and transmits it to the user.

11. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can be configured so that it tracks the supplies of the bulk material with which the silo is filled, and can thus detect failures in the supply of said material and inform the user of it.

12. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can be configured to automatically place the order with the supplier of the bulk material to till the silo through the Internet.

13. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it can be configured to track a possible SLA (Service Level Agreement) signed between the operator of the silo and the supplier supplying material to the silo, and automatically inform one of the parties or both of them of the failures in the supply regulated by the mentioned agreement.

14. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it allows installing load cells in the legs of the moveable silos without breaking them during the transport and commissioning of the silo, al it allows performing these operations leaving the load cells free on one of the sides.

15. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it allows adjusting the force tension during the commissioning of the silo to a value in each load cell to achieve measurement repetitiousness in use thereof.

16. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that in addition to measuring the weight of the material in the silo, it estimates the silo fill level by integrating the electric consumption of the motor for extracting material from the silo.

17. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that in addition to measuring the weight of the material in the silo, it detects if the silo is empty by measuring the electric consumption of the motor for extracting material from the silo.

18. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that in addition to measuring the weight of the material in the silo, it detects if the silo is being filled by measuring the surge pressure occurring inside the silo when a truck is filling it.

19. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it detects if the silo is being subjected to an excessive pressure at the time of the supply and reports it through the Internet.

20. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that it follows a cycle configurable by the user wherein the electronic is put in a sleep mode and active mode to save electric energy.

21. The system according to claim 1 , characterized in that the load cells installed are entirely electrically insulated, which allows protecting them from surge voltages that may appear in the environment, such as for example voltages generated due to storms.