Container Monitoring Apparatus
AssigneeOneSubsea IP UK Limited
InventorsPatrice Ligneul, Jason Milne, Lenny Sutherland
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus to acoustically monitor a container includes a first acoustic transducer mountable to an exterior of the container to send a first acoustic signal into an interior of the container and a second acoustic transducer mountable to the exterior of the container to send a second acoustic signal into the interior of the container. The apparatus further includes a data processing unit to process a first acoustic response signal related to the first acoustic signal and a second acoustic response signal related to the second acoustic signal to determine contents within the interior of the container at locations of the first acoustic transducer and the second acoustic transducer.
Claims20
An apparatus to acoustically monitor a container, the apparatus comprising:
- a first acoustic transducer mountable to an exterior of the container to send a first acoustic signal into an interior of the container;
- a second acoustic transducer mountable to the exterior of the container to send a second acoustic signal into the interior of the container;
- and
- a data processing unit to process a first acoustic response signal related to the first acoustic signal and a second acoustic response signal related to the second acoustic signal to determine contents within the interior of the container at locations of the first acoustic transducer and the second acoustic transducer.
The apparatus of claim 13, wherein at least one of the first and second acoustic transducers comprises a sensor housing with a piezoelectric cell, a backing material, and the magnet positioned within the sensor housing and an adaptation layer coupled to an exterior of the sensor housing.
A method to acoustically monitor a container, the method comprising:
- sending a first acoustic signal into an interior of the container with a first acoustic transducer;
- sending a second acoustic signal into the interior of the container with a second acoustic transducer;
- and
- receiving a first acoustic response signal related to the first acoustic signal;
- receiving a second acoustic response signal related to the second acoustic signal;
- and
- determining the contents within the interior of the container at the locations of the first acoustic transducer and the second acoustic transducer based upon the first acoustic response signal and the second acoustic response signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.